In 1990s South Africa, there were violent clashes between Xhosa and Zulu people. And the main way they understood how to define the other group–language. But Jochen Arndt says that 300 years earlier, Xhosa and Zulu didn’t even exist as distinct languages. And: Sudan experienced decades of violent conflict in the ‘90s and ‘00s, including the genocide in Darfur. When we tell the history of those conflicts, it’s usually numbers and dates. Daniel Rothbart and Karina Korostelina recorded oral histories with Sudanese people about what it was like to actually live through those years and what justice after the violence would look like.

Later in the show: For centuries, Jewish and Muslim people co-existed in Algeria and other parts of Northern Africa. When French colonial rule took power there, things soured and many Jewish North Africans left for France. But they brought Muslim Arab musical cultures with them. Jonathan Glasser says we can learn a lot about the relationships between Algerian Jews and Muslims by looking at their musical collaborations and connections.

Many environmental movements pop up in small communities. Records aren’t always kept. What remains are the t-shirts, petitions and water bottles created along the way. Jinny Turman and her students are helping to preserve what’s in plain sight. And: Sea level is rising. People along the Chesapeake Bay are feeling it, and researchers are swarming. Nicole Hutton Shannon says that heavily surveyed communities should have access to the research they contribute to.

Later in the show: There’s a lot of water insecurity in the Navajo Nation. Adam Crepelle says this affects every aspect of life. Plus: For years, researchers wondered how saltwater marshes would survive sea level rise along the Chesapeake. They have their answer. Matt Kirwan says that the marshes are migrating inland, often expanding into ghost forests.

In 1865, the Freedman’s Bank was written into law by President Lincoln to help newly freed enslaved people save money and buy land. But the bank collapsed less than 10 years after it was established - throwing many Black Americans into financial ruin. Justene Hill Edwards says the racial wealth gap can be traced back to the rise and fall of the Freedman’s Bank. And: During Jim Crow, literacy tests at the voting booth disenfranchised many African Americans. Mark Boonshoft says lawmakers passed these literacy tests at the same time that they denied African Americans the right to education.

Later in the show: During the Great Migration, millions of African Americans fled the Jim Crow South to more urban cities in the North and West. Black immigrants from the Caribbean also took part in the Great Migration. Janira Teague says the influx of African Americans and Caribbean immigrants to New York City created a vibrant fusion of Black ethnic diversity. Plus: Charles Chavis is the Vice Chair of Maryland’s Lynching Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The Commission started back in 2019 and is the first of its kind. It’s purpose is to uncover forgotten narratives and biographies of Maryland’s lynching victims.

In 1908, the U.S.S. Albatross set off on a research expedition to the newly acquired U.S. colony of the Philippines. Today, Kent Carpenter is studying the more than 80,000 fish samples collected by the Albatross to uncover how overfishing is actually changing fish genetics. Carpenter has been named an Outstanding Faculty member by The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia. And: The Chukar Partridge is a common ground-bird found in parts of Asia and the western United States. Brandon Jackson believes this species is the key to understanding the evolutionary link between dinosaurs and birds.

Later in the show: When a neighboring wind farm was endangering an entire population of bats at the Rose Guano Cave in Spring Valley, Nevada, Rick Sherwin helped come up with an ingenious system to protect them. Also: “Toad Day” is the one night that all toads in a single region mate, and biologist Jason Gibson celebrates it each year. Gibson also started HerpBlitz, an annual citizen scientist event to collect information on reptiles and amphibians.

19th and 20th century poet, Alice Meynell–a.k.a. “the penciling mama”--described motherhood as “life without boundaries.” Cristina Richieri Griffin discusses the Victorian mother of eight’s complicated feelings on mothering. And: The 2003 Haitian novel, The Infamous Rosalie, tells the stories of generations of women who are enslaved on a plantation. Ima Hicks explores how for these women, mothering was a particularly complicated act.

Later in the show: Camilla Morrison believes that a costume design can explore existential ideas like what it means to be a woman and how women grapple with motherhood. Plus: In recent years, experiences of postpartum depression that used to be whispered about are now shouted on tik tok and instagram. Marion Young has studied maternal depression and shares one way it changes how mothers parent.

Kiera Allison says that we experience pain as narrative -- there’s a beginning, middle and hopefully end. And the story we tell ourselves about that pain, and whether or not anyone hears our story, has a lot to do with how we experience it. And: Studies have shown that doctors have biases towards their patients. This impacts the treatment that people receive. Miranda Cashio and Renee Stanley created a simulation to determine if their students shared those biases, and if those biases affected the care that they gave their patients

Later in the show: COVID-19 forced us all to be infectious disease experts in our own worlds. Now, through a Virginia Department of Health grant, Michelle Doll is developing curricula on what we can do to prevent the spread of disease, from the everyday person to the hospital’s CEO. Plus: Alessandra Luchini says that AI can process information, but not learn. The ability to learn is distinctly human and cannot be taken away from us.

Mt. Trashmore has the distinction of being the first landfill converted into a park. And for many years, it was a popular spot for locals to hangout in Virginia Beach. Until it exploded on April 1st 1992… Well, not exactly. It was an April Fools prank that went wrong. VERY wrong. Producer, Matt Darroch has the story. And: In grade school, many of us learn that America was founded as an exceptional society - a land of religious freedom and boundless opportunity. But Nancy Isenberg says Britain saw colonial America as a wasteland where they could get rid of their underclass of poor whites, otherwise known as “waste people.” Also: Some of the most iconic athletes, like Muhammad Ali, used trash-talk to get into the head of their opponents and gain the upper hand. But does trash talk hit the same if it’s coming from a robot? Aaron Roth set up an experiment to see how humans were influenced by a trash talking robot.

Later in the show: From reality shows to b-list rom coms, we’ve all found ourselves vegging out on the couch watching trashy or bad TV. And it’s not like we’re unaware that shows like Love Island are bad. We KNOW they’re bad. So why do we watch? Roscoe Scarborough says there are four categories of people who watch “trashy” TV. Plus: Corin Hewitt gives new meaning to the phrase one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. He’s been making art from trash for decades. Now he’s shifting his work to Adventure Playgrounds. He says these playgrounds are filled with junk and other discarded material so kids can build their own little worlds under minimal supervision.

We’re drawn to people who are kind to others. But once that kind person becomes our partner, we want special treatment. Lalin Anik says we get a boost from feeling our "uniqueness" affirmed. She shares just how critical that special treatment is to a fulfilling relationship. And: Can one person really satisfy all of our needs? Julian Glover says no. They share how non-monogamy can be a freedom practice.

Later in the show: Studies show that the more we look at screens, the less we feel our body. Scary, right? In our virtual world, we are becoming increasingly out of touch. Two days after Sushma Subramanian got engaged, she moved to Virginia to teach, leaving her fiance behind. She tells us about the app that got them talking -- and touching-- across the distance. Plus: Kristina Feeser shares her bittersweet realities of love.

Lauren K. Alleyne lived the first part of her life in Trinidad and then moved to America at 18 and has been there since. Her poems explore what it’s like to have one foot in Trinidad and one in America. Home, she says, is her poetry. And: Alexia Arthurs award-winning short story collection is called How To Love A Jamaican. She says she wrote the collection while she was in the Midwest as a way to feel closer to her cultural home.

Later in the show: The themes of a coming-of-age story are universal: independence, disillusionment, purpose, power. But it’s the particulars, whether Dickens’ England or Baldwin’s Harlem that make a story stick with us. Maggie Marangione’s novel Across the Blue Ridge Mountains roots coming-of-age in the Appalachian communities of Shenandoah. Plus: Solomon Isekeije says his art is all about mixing, just like his identity. He grew up in Lagos, Nigeria with a mix of languages and backgrounds all around him. Now Isekeiji makes art that grapples with the different parts of who he is.

Gay men’s choruses have a rich history that stretches back to San Francisco in the 1970’s. Kevin Schattenkirk-Harbaugh is a longtime member of a gay men’s chorus and he says it was one of the first spaces where he truly felt like he belonged. And: David Trouille embedded himself in a community of Latino immigrants who regularly played park soccer in West Los Angeles. The soccer field was a place where these men could bond, share work opportunities, and blow off steam. But then the surrounding white neighborhood started to take notice…

Later in the show: Many African American intellectual and civil rights leaders like W.E.B Du Bois, Thurgood Marshall, and Medgar Evers were Freemasons. But little has been written about the role of Black freemasonry during the Civil Rights Movement. Derrick Lanois says African American fraternal organizations offered a safe space where Black men could plan the resistance against racial oppression. Plus: Boys learn what it means to be a man from various sources in society. And one of the biggest sources today is video games. Marc Ouellette says video games take the player through what he calls “a life course of masculinity.”