With Good Reason

During the Vietnam War, many young Vietnamese women moved from country villages to bigger cities to become bargirls. Some later came to the United States as refugees. Mai Lan Gustafsson (Christopher Newport University) has been talking to these women for over ten years. They proudly consider themselves to be “tricksters:” smart and cynical manipulators who [...]

Wilbur and Orville Wright won a place in history for unraveling the secrets of aviation, but their charismatic sister, Katharine Wright, deserves a lot of credit. Cindy Wilkey (University of Virginia College at Wise) says the brothers, who never married, were shy and reserved and Katharine devoted her life to running their home and business.  [...]

Marc Lee Raphael (College of William and Mary) says our identities are formed by a narrative that we construct about ourselves that is part fiction and part fact.  In Raphael’s most recent book, Diary of a Los Angeles Jew, 1947-1972: Autobiography as Autofiction, the facts are his diary entries. The fiction is how Marc interprets [...]

A special episode of “With Good Reason,” recorded live at the Virginia Festival of the Book in Charlottesville. NPR book critic Alan Cheuse (George Mason University) discusses his recent novel, To Catch the Lightning, about Edward Curtis and his documentary photographs of Native Americans in the early twentieth century.  Also: Mary Doria Russell discusses her [...]