Episodes

  • Dry Janurary

    Dry Janurary
    Jan 9 2025
    For the last decade or so, more and more Americans have taken part in a new New Year’s tradition: dry January. You probably know somebody doing it right now–maybe it’s you! Neeral Shah walks us through the benefits of taking a month off of alcohol. Later in the show: If you’ve got a meditation goal for 2025, you might get unexpected benefits. Daniel Berry says mindfulness training isn’t just personal, it also helps the people around us. And: It’s no surprise that exercise helps us sleep. But how much do we need to be doing to make a difference? And does the kind of movement matter? Trent Hargens shares his tips.
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    52 mins
  • REPLAY: Music For Life

    REPLAY: Music For Life
    Jan 2 2025
    Growing up in Southwest Virginia, Tyler Hughes has been steeped in the traditions of mountain music and dance from a young age. For him, music is about community. And: Life skills classes for people with exceptional needs often teach things like cooking, money skills, and street safety. Karen Feathers and Jackie Secoy believe that appreciating, listening to, discussing, and even playing music are important life skills, too. Later in the show: Imagine you’re looking at a piece of art like a painting or a sculpture. You can probably describe it in some basic ways using math–it’s 30 inches long, it’s twice as tall as it is deep, that sort of thing. Robert Wells says we can do the same thing with music. Plus: 60 years later, The Beatles still capture our attention–and new audiences, too! Thomas Payne is helping a new generation fall in love with John, Paul, George, and Ringo.
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    52 mins
  • REPLAY: Piping Up For Community

    REPLAY: Piping Up For Community
    Dec 25 2024
    Brian Donaldson is one of the most accomplished pipers in the world - winning many of the major awards and even performing in front of the queen of England. Now he’s the pipe band director at Virginia Military institute. He says Queen Elizabeth was a huge fan of bagpipe music. And: Zines and 90’s punk culture are intimately linked. Iconic punk bands like Bikini Kill relied on zines to gain a following and spread the word. Christopher Kardamibikis says Washington DC was the spot for zines and the underground punk scene. Later in the show: Being a mom is hard. But it can also be one of the most joyous experiences of life. Jessica Gardner’s ceramic artwork explores the good, the bad, and the ugly of motherhood in the modern era. Plus: There’s a second arts and crafts movement underway and it’s flourishing on social media apps like Instagram and Tiktok. Mary Wright says just like the first one, the second arts and crafts movement is a response against consumerist culture and mass production.
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    52 mins
  • Christmas Stories

    Christmas Stories
    Dec 19 2024
    Christmas is really all about the stories we tell. From early classics like A Christmas Carol, The Nutcracker, and The Gift of the Magi to new traditions like How the Grinch Stole Christmas, holiday stories shape our experiences. This year we’re joined by Diane Griffiths, Sarah Hillenbrand Varela and Erik Varela, Siân White, Eric Lorentzen, and Laura Kimball as we peek under the surface of some of the most enduring Christmas tales.
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    52 mins
  • More Than My Mistakes

    More Than My Mistakes
    Dec 12 2024
    The Inthrive Film Festival is a one-of-a-kind event that features films directed by formerly incarcerated people. Kenneth Hunter performed spoken word poetry at the festival on opening night. He sits down with producer, Matt Darroch, to share his experience in the prison system and his thoughts on what the Inthrive movies mean to him. And: We lose so much of what makes us human in prison. Privacy, personal possessions - and most importantly, freedom - all get stripped away. But Zoe Spencer says there's still humanity behind bars. Plus: Gary Cuddeback and Courtney Holmes co-direct Project Belong. Collaborating with the Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice, Project Belong helps young people who’ve been recently released from juvenile corrections facilities reintegrate back into society. Later in the show: In 1994, Kemba Smith Pradia was sentenced to 24 and a half years in prison for drug crimes committed by her ex-boyfriend. She’s a survivor of mandatory minimum sentencing, an extension of the war on drugs and mass incarceration. She spoke with my Virginia Humanities colleague, Yahusef Medina, about Kemba - her recently released movie based on her inspiring life, now streaming on BET+.
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    52 mins
  • Ragged Island

    Ragged Island
    Dec 6 2024
    The biggest migration happens every night in the ocean. Plankton come up from the twilight zone to eat, safe from daytime predators. And then they go back to the deep ocean before dawn. Debbie Steinberg says that these plankton are helping us to manage our carbon output by taking it back to the deep ocean. And: The rustic boardwalk that winds through the marsh carrying visitors down to the water’s jagged edge at Ragged Island is getting shorter. Due to erosion, two feet of the boardwalk has been cut back each year for the past twenty years. Rob Atkinson and Gary Whiting say it won’t be a generation before homes are threatened and the biodiversity and carbon storage would be lost. They’re working with students to try to divert that unfortunate outcome. Later in the show: As sea levels rise, groundwater in coastal areas is getting saltier. This has been a real issue for farmers because many things don’t grow well in salty water. But some do -- and that could mean a new specialty crop. Josh Dusci is testing the hypothesis that tomatoes grow sweeter in saltier water. Plus: For years, the United Kingdom and Germany had used Icelandic waters for fishing. But when Iceland became an independent nation, its leaders realized they’d need the economic benefits of their own waterways to sustain themselves. So they claimed exclusive rights of fishing in their waters. Ingo Heidbrink walks us through the three big conflicts of the so-called Cod Wars.
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    52 mins
  • REPLAY: Dinner Theater

    REPLAY: Dinner Theater
    Nov 28 2024
    Michael Carter Jr left America looking for home in Ghana. Now, on his fifth generation farm, he’s growing farmers through what he calls Africulture. And: How Virginia’s maritime climate enhances its fruit, according to celebrated sommelier Lee Campell. Later in the show: In Richmond, Virginia, you can walk up to one of 13 community refrigerators and get what you need. No questions asked. It all started because Taylor Scott had some extra tomatoes to spare. Plus: Leni Sorenson uses colonial era cookbooks to bring to life the stories and stick-to-it-iveness of the enslaved women and men who really threw down in the kitchen.
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    52 mins
  • A South You Never Ate

    A South You Never Ate
    Nov 22 2024
    The distinctive foodways of the Eastern Shore of Virginia bring together influences from Indigenous peoples, European migrants, enslaved and free West Africans, and more recent newcomers. We dine at folklorist Bernard Herman’s table to learn about the flavors of local ingredients and the stories of cooks who have prepared them. And: Along with the craft beer renaissance has been a resurgence of hard cider. Greg Hansard says cider has been in a fixture on Virginia tables and farms for more than four hundred years. Plus: Some food safety tips from Melissa Wright for the big feast. Later in the show: Sure, stuffing and sweet potato casserole are delicious–but how much do you think about the science behind those dishes? Kenneth Pestka and Doug Young unpacks the physics and chemistry of turkey, celery, carrots, marshmallows, and more.
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    52 mins