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Airing This Month

The Buzz About Bees (February 5-11)

Virginia’s honeybees are making a remarkable comeback after their 20-year battle with a pair of parasitic mites that nearly wiped out the population in the Commonwealth. Entomologist Rick Fell (VT) talks about the victory of those mighty honeybees and assesses their current health status. He also offers some tips for choosing the best-tasting honey for your particular palate. Also featured: Botanist Kevin Jones (UVA-Wise) will identify Ten Plants That Changed the World including the lowly potato, the opium poppy, and the tea camellia.

Dial 1-800-Bangalore (February 12-18)
When you dial for computer tech support or request your credit card balance, chances are good that the person at the other end of the line is working at a call center in India. Graduate business professor Sankran Venkataraman (UVA) says the information technology industry has fueled India’s steady economic growth, creating a solid middle class, but a good part of India remains mired in Third World poverty.

Also featured: a conversation with Jeanne Liedtka , the new Director of the Batten Institute (UVA) who believes design may be the secret weapon for business competition in the 21st century.

 

 

Hang Up and Drive (February 19-25)
Forty million cars on the road today are being monitored by a “black box,” more correctly known as an event data recorder, and most drivers don’t even know the device is in their car. Privacy advocates are concerned about all this surveillance, but the Director of the VCU Transportation Safety Training Center, Robert Breitenbach (VCU) says it’s a small price to pay if it leads to safer cars and roads.

 

Also featured: Tom Dingus (VT) and the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute have just completed a study of automobile crashes, and near-crashes and he calls the results surprising and amazing.

 

 

"You Don't Have to Ride Jim Crow" (February 26-March 4)

Eleven years before Rosa Parks made headlines by refusing to move to the back of the bus, a young Virginia woman challenged the “Jim Crow” segregation laws and took her course all the way to the Supreme Court. Archivist Tommy Bogger (NSU) says Irene Morgan won her case, with the help of two determined attorneys, but he laments she was years ahead of her time.

Wesley Hogan

Also featured: Wesley Hogan (VSU) discusses the history of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), a grassroots organization that was instrumental in the struggle for racial equality.