With Good Reason

Contrary to popular belief, regional accents are still very much a part of the American cultural landscape. Allison Quantz has the story of a Virginia linguist who is “collecting” accents.

all it affordable, sustainable transportation. Call it public health. Ralph Buehler (Virginia Tech) has looked at who is riding bikes and why, and the infrastructure cities need to make cycling safer and more convenient. Buehler’s book City Cycling emphasizes that bicycling shouldn’t be limited to those who are highly trained, extremely fit, and daring enough to battle traffic on busy roads. Also featured: In an effort to curb pollution and congestion, cities across the U.S. have adopted bike share programs, and now colleges and universities are following suit. Eddie Hill and Bridget Nemeth started a bike share program on the campus of Old Dominion University, which offers free bikes to students. And: The electric bicycle, or e-bike, is growing in popularity and creating jobs. Jerry Franklin (Danville Community College) takes us on a spin through the world of e-bikes. Plus: Many runners today are taking off their shoes in favor of barefoot running. Silvia Blemker (University of Virginia) is mapping the muscles to learn how running barefoot compares to running with shoes.

Later in the show: Psychologist Andrew Velkey (CNU) describes the foraging behavior of men and women drivers searching for parking spaces. There are the “perchers” and then there are the “soarers.” Plus: The song “John Henry” is one of the most popular in American history, but for years nobody knew whether the legendary railroad tunneler was a real person or simply a tall tale. Scott Reynolds Nelson (College of William and Mary) discovered a historic record of a railroad worker named John Henry, who was buried secretly by the Richmond Penitentiary.

Earlier this year, New York City rolled out the largest bike share program in the nation. But American cities still lag behind Europe when it comes to bike infrastructure. Allison Quantz reports.

We have a way of talking about STEM fields as the opposite of the humanities–but it’s hard to have one without the other. Debbie Sterling of Goldieblox believes that combining reading and engineering is the best way to get young girls interested in the subject. And if you’ve ever tried to put Ikea furniture together, you know how important it is that working engineers learn to communicate. Mohamed Gad-el-Hak (Virginia Commonwealth University) has designed a writing course specifically for engineering students. According to Daniel Becker, (University of Virginia) a focus on reading and writing makes better doctors, too. He’s a doctor and a writer, as well as mentor to Nitin Ahuja (University of Virginia) and Laura Kolbe (University of Virginia). Plus: It’s almost impossible to imagine modern life without the zipper. Yet for thirty years after its invention, it was so mechanically awkward that it had no real advantage over hooks and buttons. Robert Friedel, author of Zipper: An Exploration in Novelty, examines how new things become part of and actually shape our daily lives. Friedel and Professor of Business Administration Alexander Horniman–both with the Batten Institute at the University of Virginia’s Darden Graduate School of Business–show how the zipper illustrates the limitations and expectations of technology. The zipper, they say, is a wonderful example of technology looking for meaning: “Our technologies do not themselves contain their meaning. We impose meaning on our technology.” -

A new program the the University of Virginia encourages medical students to marry their passions for medicine and the humanities. Allison Quantz has the story of a second year who pulls poetry from treating patients.

Written in another time and in another country, the Russian classics—Tolstoy, Lermontov, and all the rest—are still relevant today. Andrew Kaufman (University of Virginia) and his students are proving that by teaching masterpieces of Russian literature to incarcerated youth. The readings prompt discussions: What makes for a “successful” life? How I can be true to myself? What is my responsibility to others? Given that I will die, how should I live? Also featured: Most incarcerated women are single mothers—and sole financial providers of one or more youngsters. Virginia Mackintosh (University of Mary Washington) says no kids are more at risk. She taught a parenting course for the mothers behind bars and leads some of her college students in a one-week summer camp for the children left behind. And: Southside Virginia Community College has started a pioneering program that enables inmates to obtain college credits, by creating a campus ‘pod’ within prison walls. It’s called “Campus Within Walls” and is made possible by funding from The Sunshine Lady Foundation. Chad Patton administers the program and says it is the product of an enormous amount of cooperation between the Department of Corrections, the Department of Correctional Education, and the Governor’s office.

Later in the show: Why do people get so much pleasure from movies that frighten them out of their wits? Stephen Prince (Virginia Tech) says horror films allow us to explore the anxieties of our times along with questions about human nature, all from the safety of a darkened movie theatre. Also: Science fiction writer John Rosenman (Norfolk State University) says the genre has come a long way since the early days of Buck Rogers.

The power of logos and branding wasn’t lost on the ancients. Bruce MacDonald (Virginia Military Institute) says after William the Conqueror defeated Harold, the Saxon king, William wisely combined the crests of the two forces into a new British logo—two winged lions on a yellow field—which helped him unify and govern his new land. Also featured: Sequoyah, or as he signed his name, (ᏍᏏᏉᏯ Ssiquoya, is the great Cherokee Indian who invented the Cherokee alphabet that made reading and writing in Cherokee possible. Ken Smith (Radford University) is having the students in his typography and design class create new typeface designs for the Cherokee language. And: As summer comes to a close and incoming college freshmen gear up for their first fall semesters, we visit the College of William and Mary, where new students are welcomed with a unique and celebratory tradition. Later in the show: Brian Ulrich’s (Virginia Commonwealth University) new book Is This Place Great or What is a decade long photographic study of consumerism in America, post 9-11. His pictures portray shoppers and employees in “Big Box” stores and small thrift stores. He also documents abandoned shopping malls on the brink of demolition, holding a mirror up to our society’s love of the retail economy. Also featured: The story of America is a story of dreamers and defaulters and of dramatic financial panics that defined the nation and created its political parties. Scott Nelson (College of William and Mary) is the author of A Nation of Deadbeats, a fresh, irreverent look at our addiction to debt and how it has made us what we are today.

There is, believe it or not, only one recorded instance of a person from an illiterate people creating an effective written language. A Virginia scholar is combining that story with the challenge of graphic design. Allison Quantz reports.

The personal and professional lives of musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, and John Coltrane can’t be divorced from the struggle for racial equality. Music scholar Antonio Garcia (Virginia Commonwealth University) says they all contributed in significant ways to interracial understanding and social progress. Also featured: The composers of the Civil Rights anthem “Lift Every Voice and Sing” also created musical theater at the turn of the century, transforming the public image of African American characters and performers. Paula Marie Seniors (Virginia Tech) looks at the lives of the composers Bob Cole, J. Rosamond Johnson, and James Weldon Johnson, whose work helped break down stereotypical portrayals of black Americans. Also: The skilled oratory of civil rights leader James Farmer was shaped in part as a member of the legendary 1935 all African American debate team portrayed in the film, The Great Debaters. Timothy O’Donnell (University of Mary Washington) is leading an effort to help historically black colleges and universities field high-quality debate teams on crucial public policy issues. And: During segregation, African American funeral directors were historically among the few black individuals who were economically independent. In her book, To Serve the Living, Suzanne Smith (George Mason University) shows how their financial freedom gave them the ability to support the struggle for civil rights as well as bury the dead.

For every ten students who go to community college for an associate’s degree, only one graduates in three years. Stan Jones, president of Complete Colleges America says it’s time to overhaul the community college system. Math professor Randy Cone (Virginia Military Institute) says that his students are less math-literate today than they were fifteen years ago. He’s looking at new ways to bring students up to speed for college level math. Plus: Have you ever wondered just how big your feet would need to be to allow you to walk on water, or how about the amount of time lost in a person’s life for every cigarette smoked? Physicist Lawrence Weinstein (Old Dominion University) answers these brain teasers and many others by using a process called “guesstimation.” Also: David Wright (Tidewater Community College) uses some of the gravity-defying rides at Busch Gardens amusement park to teach the principles of physics. He says an understanding of basic physics helps make sense of the world around us.