With Good Reason

Chef Joy Crump of Foode brings "familiar with a twist" flavor to the holiday table. She shares her deep roots of cooking as an act of love. Also: Discover how native crops and industrial convenience turned our Thanksgiving plate into a mirror of American history with author Anna Zeide. Later in the show: Marcel Rotter recalls growing up in East Germany and contrasts those holidays feasts with the wonder he felt experiencing American Thanksgiving for the first time.

Harsh U.S. policies forbade Virginian Indian tribes from speaking their own languages for generations. But when a friend asked then-Army linguist Ian Custalow "What about your language?", things shifted. Today, Custalow and the Powhatan Algonquian Intertribal Roundtable are bringing the Powhatan Algonquian language back to life. From kids to elders, tribal citizens are learning ancient words and crafting new ones to revive a living heritage. And: For many Virginia students, Indigenous history begins and ends at Jamestown. Kerry Canaday and Raven Adams-Ford are working to expand the K-12 curriculum, ensuring students learn the full, ongoing story of the Commonwealth's 11 federally recognized tribes. Later in the show: Over the past five years, the American media landscape has been completely upended. Legacy journalism is losing ground to podcasts and Substacks, paywalls are everywhere, and massive layoffs continue to gut print, radio, and film.At the annual RESONATE festival, Chioke I’Anson brought together hundreds of journalists and audio pros to confront the industry's grim reality. It wasn’t pretty. He explains why hope isn’t a goal for journalists.

LARP stands for Live Action Role Play. Think of it like Lord of the Rings comes to life, where you get to create your own character and wield foam swords on a mock-battlefield. But for many players, LARP is more than just fun and games - it's a lifeline to belonging. And: Climate change, pollution, and development projects are threatening surf breaks all over the world. H. Gelfand says many surfers have taken up the mantle of environmental activism, becoming outspoken protectors of our oceans. Later in the show: Bird watching isn’t a sport in the traditional sense. There aren’t any touchdowns or raucous crowds. But birders are no strangers to competition. Matthew Anthony charts the rise of birding as a sport. Plus: Jerry Beasely is a 9th degree blackbelt and member of the Black Belt Magazine Hall of Fame. From the 1970’s until 2021, he developed and taught one of the only college-level Asian martial arts programs in the country.

Ghost stories aren’t just for campouts and slumber parties. Ingrid Johnson shares some of the great writers–from Shakespeare to Oscar Wilde–who have turned to ghosts for inspiration. And: Shaun Baker says adults have been trying to ban scary stories from school libraries for years, but the kids just can’t seem to get enough. Later in the show: Step into the shadowy realm of vampires and the undead with Stanley Stepanic and Mark Sherriff as they trace the evolution of these iconic creatures—from their chilling origins in Slavic folklore to their modern incarnations in video games like Castlevania, Evil West, and Vampire Survivors.

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.