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This maverick did not write "pretty" music.

During the summer of 1805, a young man yearned for freedom. For today's episode of Mountaintop History, we focus on the story of James Hubbard and how he resisted slavery at Monticello.

The United States saw over 44,300 deaths from guns in 2022. And as the last year has made painfully clear, Virginia is not immune. Our state has been rocked by the horrific shootings in Charlottesville, Chesapeake, and Newport News. But even so, almost no meaningful gun safety legislation passed the General Assembly in the 2023 session. House Bill 2387 established tax credits for people who purchase gun safety devices, but that was about it. That’s a departure from 2020 and 2021, when Democrats in the House and Senate passed a bevy of legislation aimed at reducing gun violence. Yet while those were important changes, there’s still a long way to go. So, what do Virginia’s gun laws look like now? And what can be done to end gun violence in the state? To help answer those questions, we talk to Andrew Goddard, Legislative Director for the Virginia Center for Public Safety, and Brian Moran, who served as Virginia Secretary of Public Safety from 2014 to 2022.

Tim Longo has been UVA's Chief of Police and Associate Vice President for Safety and Security since 2019, and he served as Charlottesville's police chief for fifteen years before that. In this episode, he and President Ryan discuss his long history in law enforcement, his duty to UVA students and parents, and what he thinks police need to do to rebuild trust in local communities. They also discuss the process for sending Community Alerts, including the rationale for sharing and withholding certain information. This episode was recorded in two parts: the first in November 2022, a few days before the tragic shooting that resulted in the deaths of UVA students Devin Chandler, D'Sean Perry, and Lavel Davis Jr. The second part was recorded in May 2023, and includes a discussion of the shooting, the community aftermath, and the law enforcement response in subsequent months.

Madison Morey is the libero and team captain for UVA Women's Volleyball. In this episode, she discusses her rise to the role of captain, the importance of discipline and communication in the student-athlete life, and her growth-focused mindset for dealing with failure and overcoming adversity.

Big data is everywhere! This week’s featured guests, Phil Bourne, founding Dean of the UVA School of Data Science, and Cathy O’Neil, world-famous author, mathematician and UVA Visiting Scholar, talk about the opportunities and concerns in our world of big data.

Eventually, most of us will find ourselves caring for a loved one as they reach the end of their life. This is an experience nurse Jonathan Bartels has spent his career helping patients and families navigate. Building on his experience in palliative care, in the ICU, the ER, and studying comparative religion and mysticism, he worked to implement a practice known as "The Pause" at UVA Hospital. The Pause is essentially a moment of silent reflection for the care team and the family after a patient passes away. The goal of The Pause is to help all those involved process the patient's death and appreciate their life with the goal of promoting resiliency and healing. In this episode, Nurse Bartels discusses his long career in nursing, compassionate care, and his new hot sauce company.

Law enforcement is among the most undemocratic institutions in America, says New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie. And the effect this has on communities of color is especially stark. Bouie visits Will and Siva’s class for another live recording with their students, to discuss police brutality, the country’s culture of violence, and the shifting ground of racial oppression in U.S. history. How citizens experience government, he says, depends a lot on what they look like and what levers of power they hold.

Whether coming for school, work, or to escape bad situations at home, immigrants are a vital part of Virginia’s culture and economy. Today, we dig into the opportunities and the obstacles facing immigrants and refugees in the state. First, we talk with Freddy Mejia, Deputy Director of Policy at the Commonwealth Institute. His work covers state-level policies that affect marginalized groups in Virginia. He walks us through who’s immigrating to Virginia, and how they fit into the larger tapestry of the state. Then, we talk with Harriet Kuhr, Executive Director of the International Rescue Committee in Virginia, about what refugee resettlement looks like on the ground.

Eclipses come and go, but these marvels of nature always draw attention from astronomers — both professional and amateur — across the globe. In this episode, Monticello guide Kyle Chattleton explores the stories of two eclipses that occurred during Thomas Jefferson's lifetime, and how both point to his pursuit of scientific knowledge.

In one of the most cheerful of all musical forms.

It's finals week, and we are celebrating our grads! We'll hear from chemist Paul Bean, chemical engineer and swimmer Lexi Cuomo, and artificial intelligence researchers Louisa Edwards and Zach Baugher. Join us as we celebrate their pursuits in and out of the classroom — as shining examples of our amazing Class of 2023!

Americans today celebrate July 4th as the birthday of the country, but how about in 1776? In this episode, Monticello Guide Kyle Chattleton presents a belated holiday episode to reflect on how slowly news of independence spread in July of 1776, and how John Adams thought our parades and fireworks would fall on July 2nd.

For hundreds of years, large fossilized bones have been unearthed in Kentucky, just south of the Ohio River. Some of these bones eventually made it Monticello. Listen to learn how.

After Elon Musk bought Twitter and fired most of its staff, the platform seems to be floundering, if not imploding. Traffic is flagging, major news outlets have abandoned their handles, hate speech is on the rise. And yet, Twitter remains one of the easiest ways to speak out in public. Media scholar Meredith Clark doesn’t know if Twitter will survive, but she does know it’s a repository for a remarkable history of antiracist activism. Hear how she is working to preserve that archive, and why.

A conversation with Brown College Faculty Fellow Tess Farmer about her new (and first) book "Well Connected: Everyday Water Practices in Cairo". We discuss the importance of an anthropological approach to infrastructure development. Tess Farmer is an Assistant Professor in Department of Anthropology and the Program in Global Studies at the University of Virginia, and also serves as the Track Director for the Global Studies-Middle East South Asia undergraduate major. You can find her new book at the UVa Bookstore: https://uvabookstores.com/shop_product_detail.asp?catalog_group_id=MTU1&catalog_group_name=R2VuZXJhbCBCb29rcw&catalog_id=3105&catalog_name=VG9wIFNoZWxmOiBWIFAgRm9yIFJlc2VhcmNo&pf_id=50791&product_name=RmFybWVyLCBUZXNzIC8gV2VsbCBDb25uZWN0ZWQgOiBFdmVyeWRheSBXYXRlciBQcmFjdGljZXMgSW4gQ2Fpcm8&type=3&target=shop_product_list.asp This podcast is part of the Community Media Initiative at Brown Residential College at the University of Virginia, as well as the Virginia Audio Collective at WTJU 91.1 FM. Produced by Sage Tanguay with assistance from Sophia Moore Featuring music from Blue Dot Sessions

As the Bold Dominion team works on an upcoming episode, here's one from the vaults -- a Bold Dominion classic covering the perennially important, yet frequently misunderstood, Dillon Rule. This episode originally aired in February 2021. Virginia politicians like to talk about freedom and local control. So why are local governments sometimes prohibited from addressing local challenges? The reason is called the Dillon Rule. If you’re a political news junkie, you’ve probably come across this, but most Virginians stare at me blankly when I mention it. Basically, the Dillon Rule says that local governments only have powers that are explicitly granted by the General Assembly. (As opposed to “home rule,” where local governments are free to make any policy that isn’t prohibited by state law.) How does this affect our local governments and our state as a whole? To answer that question, we talk to Richard Schragger, the Parre Bowen Professor of Law at the University of Virginia School of Law and the author of City Power: Urban Governance in a Global Age. We also talk to Andreas Addison, a member of the Richmond City Council and a lecturer at the Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia, who has dealt with the Dillon Rule as part of his legislative experience.

The story of David Isaacs, Nancy West, and their family is one that brings together aspects of Virginia’s Jewish history, Black history, and the history of Monticello. Learn more about the challenges of interracial relationships and how this family navigated the color line and the laws that restricted them.

I'm joined today by Ava MacBlane, a third year student here at the University of Virginia, and editor in chief of the Cavalier daily, an independent student run news organization. Ava previously served as managing editor for the Cavalier Daily’s one hundred and thirty-third team, as well as the news editor and News Senior Associate Editor. She's also a member of the University Guide Service, a dedicated thespian, who is part of the first year players, and is a server at Fig Bistro on the corner. Ava is a double major in Spanish and English with a concentration in creative writing. Born in Florida, raised in Chicago, and currently hailing from Richmond, Ava has called many places home, including now UVA. Ava, it's a pleasure to have you. Thanks for being here.

Where there's a will, there's a way.