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  • Baby Brains and Little Beats

    Baby Brains and Little Beats
    2026/10/15
    Jennifer McDonel-Rivers and David Rivers have made children’s music together for years. And it’s led to one happy marriage and multiple albums of educational songs that kids love and parents don’t hate. Plus: Preterm babies are at a higher risk for autism and other developmental delays. Meghan Puglia studies how certain stimuli like touching, reaching, and talking can help improve outcomes for little ones in the NICU. Later in the show: After more than two decades as a social worker, Christa Moore was overloaded with burnout and compassion fatigue. Now she’s leading a nationwide study on the child welfare system. She says much of the issues still plaguing the system feel very familiar.
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    52 分
  • The Pursuit of Happiness

    The Pursuit of Happiness
    2026/07/30
    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.
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    52 分
  • Counting Plants

    Counting Plants
    2026/07/24
    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.
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    52 分
  • Mow Lawn, Mo Problems

    Mow Lawn, Mo Problems
    2026/07/16
    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.
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    52 分
  • Audacious Women

    Audacious Women
    2026/07/10
    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.
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    52 分
  • Black Studies Under Threat

    Black Studies Under Threat
    2026/10/09
    Black Studies Departments on college campuses nationwide are facing mounting pressures. Shawn Utsey says they need to engage even more closely with the Black communities they often serve. Plus: Historically Black Colleges and Universities are owed billions from states that have underfunded them over the years. Virginia State University President Makola Abdullah highlights both the incredible strengths and chronic challenges impacting these universities. Later in the show: Roi Boyd III is the author of Bless His Soul, The Agony, the Ecstasy, and the Destiny of Michael Jackson. He reflects on the years Jackson struggled to step away from the shadow of the Jackson Five to forge his own path to stardom.
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    52 分
  • The Rumpelstiltskin Effect

    The Rumpelstiltskin Effect
    2026/10/01
    Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said that America is the “sickest country in the world,” citing that 76.4% of Americans suffer from a chronic disease. And maybe so. But Alan Levinovitz says that getting a diagnosis relieves symptoms. It’s a medical and psychological phenomenon called the Rumpelstiltskin Effect. Levinovitz says that an official diagnosis gives people a name for what they’re experiencing and takes them off of the book for their suffering and shortcomings. Even self-diagnosis brings relief. Plus: We have a Greek comic to thank for our favorite sitcoms. Mitchell Brown says that the Greek comic Menander was the first to write plays focused on daily life. Later in the show: Thousands of enslaved men, women and children began working in railroads, coal mills and ironworks when Richond, Virginia transformed into a major manufacturing hub in the mid-19th century. Businesses started to sell life insurance policies on enslaved people working industrial environments. Michelle Oliver explains how these enslaved life insurance policies reduced commodified enslaved people, dead or alive.
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    52 分
  • Unheard

    Unheard
    2026/09/24
    Sitting in a doctor’s office trying to understand “medicalese” is really frustrating. Suzanne Makarem found forty women who switched to nontraditional medical professionals after years of feeling unheard by their doctors. Many of them now only see their traditional doctors for blood tests, vaccines and annual check ups. Plus: The United States and New Zealand are the only countries that allow pharmaceutical companies to advertise directly to consumers. So ever since the late 90s, American cable stations are littered with direct-to-consumer drug ads that urge people to ask their doctor today if a certain drug is right for them. Staci Defibaugh says that these ads are not just promoting drugs to patients. They’re showing people how to be an “activated patient.” Later in the show: It’s baffling to think that by and large, African-American men have a shorter life expectancy than most other groups of people in America. There are many factors involved in that. But Alton Coleman says that being perceived as a threat in public spaces plays a huge role. And: There are many barriers to accessing good healthcare in Appalachia. Troy Makal was shocked to find that the greatest barrier wasn’t transportation, money or insurance, but a fundamental distrust in medical providers.
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    52 分