With Good Reason

There’s no doubt that the number of obese Americans has increased dramatically over the last 25 years – putting them at risk of high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, and osteoarthritis. But Cathy Roy (Longwood University) says it’s not necessarily the fat making people sick.  Her research suggests a lack of physical activity might be [...]

When 62 year old Bill Wood turned to his wife at the funeral of a family member and asked, “Who are all these people?” she knew something was terribly wrong.  Alzheimer’s Disease had struck the witty and dapper former newspaper editor early.  His wife Carol Wood (University of Virginia) describes her daily challenges as she [...]

Inter-country adoptions gone awry have a way of capturing headlines. Karen Rotabi (Virginia Commonwealth University) says overseas adoptions, while a source of hope and love for many families, can have a dark side. Also featured: Baseball leagues for kids with disabilities have sprouted up all over the United States. Matt Lucas (Longwood University) put together [...]

It’s time for New Year’s resolutions.  One of the most popular goals: a new diet.  There’s no doubt that the number of obese Americans has increased dramatically over the last 25 years – putting them at risk of high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, and osteoarthritis. But Cathy Roy (Longwood University) says it’s not necessarily [...]

With Good Reason invites you to a traditional Thanksgiving meal, but nearly everything on the table is grown, made, or brewed, within 100 miles of Charlottesville, Virginia.  The dinner host, Tim Beatley (University of Virginia),  introduced the 100-mile Thanksgiving idea to his students after reading The 100-mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating.  About 95 [...]

They are everywhere you look — in the soil, in the ocean, in your backyard.  Bacteriophages.  They’re viruses that infect bacteria, and they could one day be used to fight off drug-resistant strains of bacteria like tuberculosis.   Mark Forsyth, Margaret Saha, and Kurt Williamson (College of William and Mary) lead a group of students into the field [...]

Inter-country adoptions gone awry have a way of capturing headlines.  A missionary group lands in jail after trying to remove children from Haiti.  An American woman puts her seven year-old adopted son on a one-way flight back to Moscow.  Karen Rotabi (Virginia Commonwealth University) has studied this issue in Guatemala and beyond for decades and [...]

Access to health care is still a major challenge for many Americans, even with the recent government overhaul.  In Appalachia, access can be even more limited.  With the nearest  health specialists sometimes hundreds of miles away, many people rely on free clinics for their medical, dental, and vision needs.  Thousands travel to Wise, Virginia each year for a weekend of teeth [...]

After teaching courses on marriage and family relations to community college students for 40 years, it’s clear to Russ Crescimanno (Piedmont Virginia Community College) that most couples don’t have a clue on how to compromise.  There is, he says, a science to love and intimacy, and many rocky marriages could thrive if couples would just [...]

For years, lawyers have advised parties in high stakes cases to avoid apologizing, because doing so could be construed as an admission of guilt.  However, Rick Warne (George Mason University) shows that apologizing may not only sometimes be the right thing to do, it can also save people from paying higher damages.  Also: The recent [...]