The personal and professional lives of musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, and John Coltrane cannot be divorced from the struggle for racial equality. Antonio Garcia says they contributed in significant ways to interracial understanding and social progress. Also: The composers of the Civil Rights anthem “Lift Every Voice and Sing” also created musical theater at the turn of the century that transformed the image of African American characters and performers. Paula Marie Seniors 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.

Later in the show: Newbery Medal-winning children’s author Meg Medina talks about the power of writing in Spanglish and relates her own childhood to her book Merci Suárez Changes Gears. Plus: Nishaun Battle talks about the historic “adultification” of young black girls. Her book is Black Girlhood, Punishment and Resistance: Reimagining Justice for Black Girls in Virginia.

After liberation, concentration camp survivors were left a shell of themselves - malnourished, diseased, and traumatized. Children who lost their parents and extended family had nowhere to go. Maggie Fraser Kirsh studies the caregivers who swooped in from around the world to help begin the healing process.

Later in the show: Death by hanging was the harshest punishment assigned to Nazi-era war criminals. But Jessica Trisko Darden says not all who were sent to the gallows were men. She’s the author of the new book, The Accused: How Women Faced Justice for Nazi-Era Crimes. And: A few years ago, Melissa Kravetz came across a memoir written on onion paper from 1970 that had been stored in a closet for decades. And it told the life of a remarkable German woman who witnessed - and resisted - the Nazi rise to power. Melissa is the editor of The Memoir of Ilse Seger: Wife, Mother, Hostage, Nazi Resister.

What did Jefferson mean by “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”? Adam Potkay explains the moral and philosophical world behind the phrase and the important passages that were edited out of the Declaration of Independence. Plus: On the evening of July 4, 1776, the Founding Fathers raced to print 200 copies of the Declaration of Independence for rapid dispersal throughout the colonies. Holly Robertson and George Riser dive into the frantic, midnight race to spread the news of independence.

Later in the show: Martha Jefferson is usually portrayed as Thomas Jefferson’s beloved wife who died young in childbirth. But Patti Miller and Nicole Brown say that a new biography shows she was actually a highly educated, politically astute woman and a wartime political confidante of Jefferson.

Little babies and potted plants: the stationary, the helpless... the hardest working beings in the room. Peter Vishton found that babies and plants process information in similar ways. And plants can count! Kind of. And: It’s not just in your head. Getting out in nature can improve your mood and health. Benjamin Katz shares some of his favorite hiking and camping spots.

Later in the show: Birding is a gateway drug. It starts with a cardinal, and then you’re noticing different frog calls, trees and owls. And more than that, you now care about what’s happening in your local environment. Melanie Del Pozo and Donte Jackson are bringing everyday people into birding one bird walk at a time through the Black Avian Enthusiasts group.

What if a well-manicured lawn isn’t the end all be all? What if it’s actually harming the local habitat? Doug Tallamy is the co-founder of Home Grown National Park. It’s a non-profit that urges property owners to reduce their lawns and plant native plants. He shares all the little things we can do to help restore functioning ecosystems and mitigate the biodiversity crisis. And: Quarry Gardens is the first and only native plant botanical garden in Virginia. It started off as a soapstone quarry. Now it's an environmental gem with a beautiful quarter mile loop boasting over 500 species of native plants. Devin Floyd takes us on a tour of the gardens - showing off the quarry pits and the ancient ecosystems he calls lost worlds.

Later in the show: The Virginia Wildlife Conflict Helpline is a toll-free number people can call to report things like run-ins with bears or complain about raccoon intruders. Jim Parkhurst studies the data from the hundreds of calls to the helpline. He breaks down the ways we humans can better co-exist with wildlife.

A new one-woman show tells the story of Virginia’s history through the eyes of ten audacious women. From the Civil War to the Harlem Renaissance to the Civil Rights movement, Morgan Avery McCoy Harris is using her Rosel Schewel Fellowship to embody the voices and memories of trailblazers.

Later in the show: Jennifer Putzi is working with diaries that give us insight into the daily lives–and major upheavals–of Black women throughout history. Plus: Elizabeth Lewis tells the story of a group of women in 18th century Spain who used charity work to effect economic change.

From Marian Anderson’s 1939 concert at the Lincoln Memorial to Marvin Gaye singing the National Anthem at the NBA Finals, the theme of patriotism can be heard throughout African American music. Benjamin Ross offers selections from this rich musical heritage. Also: Ann Petry’s The Street, published in 1946, was the first million-selling novel by an African American author. Keith Clark says Petry deserves to be in the pantheon of other great American writers like James Baldwin or Toni Morrison.

Later in the show: Poet Walt Whitman in 1862 went searching for his brother George, who had been wounded in a Civil War battle. Mara Scanlon and Brady Earnhart say Whitman was so moved by the carnage he found that he worked as a nurse for the rest of the war. Also: While Edgar Allan Poe is the master of the macabre, Jerome McGann says Poe was more charming and humorous than his famous dark fiction suggests.

In 1976, the Bikecentennial became the first organized bike tour across the U.S. Around 4,000 bicyclists pedaled to celebrate the Bicentennial, or America’s 200th anniversary. Tom Ewing breaks down the spirit of the Bikecentennial, its grassroots nature, and lessons to be learned for America’s upcoming 250th celebration.

Later in the show: At the beginning of the Revolutionary War, 87 enslaved people on the Willoughby Plantation in Norfolk, VA escaped under the cover of night. Ervin Jordan traces their remarkable journey from Norfolk to New York to Nova Scotia and then to Sierra Leone in Africa. Plus: The Revolutionary War is often framed as a righteous fight for liberty and representative government. But Mark Boonshoft says those same ideals didn’t always make their way into our state constitutions. His forthcoming book is, The Violent Origins of Constitutional Democracy in Revolutionary New York.

For nearly a century the National Park Service would tell you all about the civil war battles and tactics, but meticulously avoided the most explosive word in the American lexicon: Slavery. Former National Park Service Chief Historian Dwight Picaithley says that all changed in 1998, triggering thousands of protest letters and political threats.

Later in the show: At the start of the Civil War, Frederick Douglass wrote and spoke harshly about Abraham Lincoln for not moving more quickly on emancipation. But in his new book Jonathan White reveals how Douglass came to become one of Lincoln’s greatest admirers. Plus: In A Wonderful Career in Crime, Frank Garmon tells the story of the only criminal to have been pardoned by two of the most prominent political foes of the day, President Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate states.

A cold, dark summer in 1816 brought an extraordinary group of young writers together on the shores of Lake Geneva—including an eighteen-year-old Mary Shelley. Andrew Stauffer tells the story of that summer and the conversations, dreams, and climate catastrophe that created Frankenstein’s magic.

Later in the show: Goliath might be the most famous giant from the Bible, but he’s not the only one. Paul Thomas takes us on a deep dive into the monsters of biblical stories. And: Greek and Roman mythology is filled with sea monsters. Georgia Irby explains how ancient relationships with the ocean brought these monsters to life.