Food is just more expensive than it was a few years ago. The rate of inflation for food has leveled off in 2024, but we’re still adjusting to the price increases we saw in 2022 and 2023. So in this episode, we look into food assistance programs like SNAP, WIC and food banks: how they work, how they’re funded, and how they’re coping with rising food prices. Our guests are Monica Kelly, Public Benefits Outreach Manager and Les Sinclair, Communications and PR Manager from the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank.     Access Food Assistance:   https://www.brafb.org/find-help/   https://www.dss.virginia.gov/benefit/food.cgi     Learn More and Sign up for Virginia Sun Bucks:   https://virginiasunbucks.com/     Check out the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank’s Blog: https://www.brafb.org/blog-chew-on-this/

Whether coming for school, work, or to escape bad situations at home, immigrants are a vital part of Virginia’s culture and economy. So today we’re digging 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.

Learn more about how immigration status can affect access to health coverage in Virginia

Find out how you can volunteer with the International Rescue Committee, or learn more about their Charlottesville or Richmond offices.

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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.

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Maine does it. Alaska does it. And since 2021, Virginia can do it too, in certain city and county elections. It’s ranked choice voting, which works exactly how it sounds: voters rank their favorite candidates in order. If no candidate wins over 50% of the vote, it triggers an instant run off election. The last place candidate’s votes are transferred to the voters’ second preference. And so on, until someone wins the majority.

Proponents see it as a way to diversify candidate fields, even reduce polarization. It means that the ultimate winner will have a broader base of support, or at least more than 50% of the vote. And it also gives 3rd party candidates more of a fighting chance.

For the past few years, ranked choice voting has been used in Republican party caucuses in Virginia. And this June, Arlington County will be the first Virginia locality to use it, in their county board primaries. If all goes well, Arlington may stand as an example for other cities and counties across the state.

Sitting down with us today is Elizabeth Melson, president of FairVote Virginia, and Sally Hudson, who represents Charlottesville and Albemarle County in the House of Delegates.

The 2023 General Assembly session drew to a close last Saturday. And with divided majorities in the General Assembly, it was a little underwhelming. Despite a year of big, hot topic issues, little was accomplished on abortion rights, gun control, or even setting up a market for cannabis. So after six weeks, we find ourselves more or less back where we started. To understand the perspective from inside the GA, we talk with Senator Barbara Favola, who represents parts of northern Virginia. 

Things aren’t entirely over yet… lawmakers are still considering amendments to the state's two-year budget. The House and Senate have very different ideas of what to do with Virginia’s significant budget surplus. House Republicans want to give that surplus back to taxpayers through a billion dollars in tax cuts. On the other hand, Senate Democrats want to use the money to boost social programs that have been under-funded for many years. Particularly public schools. Here to walk us through this is Laura Goren, Director of Research and Education Policy at The Commonwealth Institute.

Check out more information on Virginia’s budget process and how the two proposals compare on The Commonwealth Institute’s website

In Virginia, incarceration is expensive. In prison and jails across the state, inmates have to pay to communicate with family members. They also have to pay for extra food, clothing, and sanitary products in the prison commissary. And with the highest prison wages only 45¢ per hour, the burden of paying these fees often falls on inmates’ families.

Last year, Virginia’s General Assembly organized a work group to study fees inside state prisons. They delivered a 50 page report, called “Reduction or Elimination of Costs and Fees Charged to Inmates in State Correctional Facilities.” Among other things, the report called for the elimination of fees for emails, video chats, and phone calls. It also called for the elimination of up-charges at prison commissaries and an increase in how much the state spends on prisoner meals.

In this year’s Assembly session, lawmakers introduced some bills to implement these changes, in both state prisons and local jails. However, both bills failed in the Republican-majority House of Delegates.

To help us dig deeper, we talk with Irene Shin, who represents the 86th District in the House of Delegates, and Fran Bolin, the Executive Director of Assisting Families of Inmates.

As we approached the new year, we found ourselves feeling a little reflective. So we made a special episode for you. In “Best of 2022”, Nathan and Alana sit down to discuss some of our favorite episodes from this year on the podcast. Join us as we look back on the big issues of the year, from the overturning of Roe v. Wade, to Dominion Energy’s outsized influence, to how citizens can craft legislation. 

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For decades, Virginia was one of only three states in the country that banned public sector collective bargaining. That meant teachers, healthcare workers, and first-responders couldn’t have a say in how their contracts were written, leading to lower pay and poorer working conditions compared to unionized workers.

But things have changed. In 2020, the General Assembly repealed that prohibition, a historic moment for workers’ rights in Virginia. 

But it’s not without its quirks. Collective bargaining isn’t required across the state — it’s up to localities to pass collective bargaining ordinances. Plus the law itself is pretty vague, leaving it up to localities to hammer out the rules and framework. Which means depending on where you live, what you can and can’t bargain over can look pretty different.

So today on the show, we’re looking at the state of public sector unions in Virginia. Helping us out is Mel Borja, Worker Power Policy Analyst at the Commonwealth Institute. We’re also joined by David Broder, president of SEIU Virginia 512, and Vernon Liechti, president of the Albemarle Education Association. 

Explore The Commonwealth Institute's interactive map of labor history in Virginia.

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This year, the average price of a single family home in Virginia crossed the $400 thousand dollar mark. Virginia’s urban populations are expanding without the housing supply to keep up. Staring down skyrocketing prices, many people are forced to accept that homeownership won’t be in their future.

Confronting this goes beyond building more housing... that’s only one arrow in a quiver full of policies that could make housing more affordable. And we need to consider all of those policy arrows in the quiver. 

One such arrow is Community Land Trusts, or CLTs. CLTs trace their origins back to the Civil Rights era and are grounded in a philosophy of racial justice. We talk with Erica Sims, CEO of the Maggie Walker CLT in Richmond, about CLTs’ radical vision of "permanently affordable housing."

But first, we talk with Wyatt Gordon, a reporter covering housing, transportation, and land use at Virginia Mercury. He breaks down the "missing middle” housing debate going on in Arlington, and how "missing middle" housing reframes visions of homeownership.  

Click here to learn more about Charles Sherrod, co-founder of the first Community Land Trust "New Communities."

From the school board meetings in Loudoun County to pushes to ban "racially divisive" books in schools, conservatives have been relying on one concept in particular: “parents' rights.” Glenn Youngkin latched onto parents’ rights during his campaign and rode it to victory over Terry McAuliffe. Other Republican candidates across the country have taken note. During the midterms, many GOP candidates have declared themselves strong supporters of moms and dads.

But this catch-all phrase "parents rights" is being used much more broadly than its legal precedent. Youngkin typically cites a 2013 Virginia law that stemmed from a court ruling regarding sperm donors and custody issues. So how did we get from a case about in vitro fertilization to parents rights being the basis for all sorts of stuff? And what does Youngkin's rhetoric portend for the political future?  

To help us figure this out, we speak with Bekah Saxon, a UniServe director at the Virginia Education Association, and Graham Moomaw, a state-house reporter for Virginia Mercury. 

Find Graham Moomaw’s article covering the history of parents’ rights here.

Here at Bold Dominion, we typically focus on the machinations of power, money, and lawmaking in Richmond. But Virginia also sends 11 lawmakers to the U.S. House of Representatives. And all of them are on the ballot on Tuesday, November 8th.

That means Election Day is less than two weeks away. If you're a Bold Dominion fan, you probably already know that. Maybe you even voted early. But if not, make sure you vote. You can even do same-day registration at the polls, thanks to recent changes to Virginia voting rules.

Today, we're joined by fellow politics podcasters Michael Pope from Pod Virginia and Chaz Nuttycombe from CNalysis. They help explain how the midterm races are going and what they mean for our country.

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Here at Bold Dominion, we pubish a new episode every two weeks. We have seventy something episodes under our belt, and still so much more to talk about. Keeping up with politics is a year-round job.

But for Virginia legislators, it’s not actually year-round. In odd numbered years, lawmakers are in Richmond for 60 days, and in even years, just a month. That’s often extended by a few more weeks. But in most years, Virginia legislators start in mid-January and are packed up and ready to head home by March.

Why so short? And what does that mean for Virginia politics?

To unpack this, we'll be talking with Randolph-Macon politics professor Richard Meagher, as well as Richmond Times Dispatch reporter Charlotte Rene Wood (we'll discuss reporting she did with Charlottesville Tomorrow). We'll also get to hear from Virginia Delegate Kelly Fowler, representing the Virginia Beach area in District 21.

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You're listening to this show thanks to high speed internet. And as awesome as this podcast may be, there's a whole lot more that makes high speed internet indispensable for modern life. During the pandemic, school, work, health, and social life all moved online. Access to the internet was, and still is, a must. That made life awfully challenging for families where high-speed internet was not available.

Some good news on this podcast, for once! The 2021 Infrastructure, Investment and Jobs Act allotted $65 billion dollars to expand internet access across the country. That's through a program called Broadband Equity Access and Deployment, or BEAD.

In this nationwide push, Virginia has emerged as a leader. Our commonwealth was prioritizing broadband access way before BEAD. As governor, Ralph Northam set a goal to get all Virginia communities online by 2024, and that has been continued by Glenn Youngkin. As other states receive BEAD funding, experts are advising to follow Virginia's footsteps.

To help us understand what Virginia's doing right, we talk with Christopher Ali, Professor of Telecommunications at Penn State University, and Dr. Tamarah Holmes, Director of Broadband at the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development.

Find out more on our prior episode on broadband expansion.

This time of year, climate change is particularly hard to ignore. We’ve just made it through another scorching summer. Virginia’s coastal regions are grappling with sea water rise. And on some days, that haze covering the Blue Ridge is smoke from California wildfires.

Despite this, the U.S. government’s response to climate change has long been… tepid. Years of kicking the can down the road, or in some circles, denying the problem altogether.

But this year, that changed.

Last month, U.S. Congress passed the biggest climate law in US history … under the unassuming name, Inflation Reduction Act. The IRA is the smaller version of last year’s Build Back Better bill, with a number of compromises made to West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin. So now, the IRA will provide strong incentives for people to choose clean energy through their consumer choices.

To help us understand the ins and outs of the IRA and what it means for Virginia, we’re talking with writer and lawyer Ivy Main and environmental economist Bill Shobe.

For further reading, check out Ivy Main's article on the IRA here. Also check out the 2021 report on carbon neutrality in Virginia, co-written by Bill Shobe: Decarbonizing Virginia's Economy: Pathways to 2050

Virginia is home to four of the ten richest counties in America -- all in Northern Virginia. Virginia is also home to some of the most economically distressed counties in America -- all in Southwest Virginia. 

And of all fifty states, Virginia has the largest gap between the minimum wage and the bare minimum needed to support a family of four.

That's according to the Commission Examining Racial Inequity in Virginia Law, set up during Ralph Northam's administration back in 2019. The commission released three reports covering the consequences of structural racism in Virginia. Later in the show, we sit down with the Vice-Chair of the commission, Andrew Block. He'll share what they found and what progress has been made since.

But first we talk with sociologist Lawrence Eppard. He co-authored the 2021 study, “Social and Economic Costs of Inequality in the State of Virginia.” Turns out there are big disparities in social mobility across Virginia. Which is to say... in some counties, it’s a lot harder for people born in low-income families to escape poverty. Eppard breaks down what inequality of place looks like... and its consequences.

Eppard also hosts the podcast Utterly Moderate, the official podcast of the Connors Forum for a Healthy Democracy. Listen here!

The Commission Examining Racial Inequity in Virginia Law released three reports from 2019-2022. Check them out below:

From Virginia's Law Books

Identifying and Addressing the Vestiges of Inequity and Inequality in Virginia's Laws

Identifying Virginia's Racially Discriminatory Laws and Inequitable Economic Policies

What does a government "of the people, by the people, and for the people" actually look like in practice?

If you listen to Bold Dominion, you probably vote every November, call your lawmaker about issues you care about, maybe have attended a protest or two. But sometimes it's hard to see how those actions affect the legislation coming out of Richmond. If the GA feels a bit like a black box or a magic show, we don't blame you. Why do some bills make it all the way into law, and others die in committee? Who brings bill ideas to the table in the first place, and how can citizens have a hand in that process?

Today we crack open that black box and figure out how citizens can help craft legislation. We talk with Sally Hudson, who represents the 56th District in the Virginia General Assembly, and Dan Holmes, Legislative Policy Director at the environmental nonprofit Clean Virginia.

This week, we revisit the terrible anniversary of August 11th and 12th, 2017. Five years after the Unite the Right Rally,  "Charlottesville" is still a shorthand for Nazis and fascists invading a community. As we look at Virginia politics and American politics today, where are we now?

To answer that question, we talk to Larycia Hawkins, a professor in both the department of Politics and department of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia. Later in the show, we hear from data scientist Emily Gorcenski, UVA professor Jalane Schmidt, and Virginia Delegate Sally Hudson.

Longtime Richmond Times-Dispatch journalist Jeff Schapiro has a sort of shorthand on Twitter that I appreciate. When he tweets about the consulting firm McGuireWoods, he refers to it as The Shadow Government. Such is the influence that McGuire Woods holds over policymaking in Virginia.

Virginia may have a new governor this year, but the Shadow Government remains the same.

(Interviews for this episode were originally recorded in April 2021.)

The U.S. Supreme Court has overturned Roe v Wade. You’ve probably seen maps about what this means on a state-by-state basis. We know that abortion will be legal in places like New England and the West Coast. We know that women in the Deep South will need to travel long distances to receive adequate reproductive health care. And we also know that forced birth advocates in places like Texas are trying to criminalize that kind of travel.

But what about Virginia?

Today on Bold Dominion, we're updating an episode we recorded this spring with Charlotte Woods, reporter at Charlottesville Tomorrow, and Tannis Fuller, Executive Director of the Blue Ridge Abortion Fund.

Business news media company CNBC does annual rankings of the best state for business. And Virginia has come out on top as the Best State for Business two years in a row. ``` On this episode of Bold Dominion, we explore what this title means, and how ask how it affects working Virginians.

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Today on Bold Dominion, we’re talking with two experts who have been on the ground working to find ways to expand access to healthcare services. Almost half a million Virginians are covered by Medicaid. But the number of uninsured Virginians is expected to increase.

We have many more steps to go to ensure that all Virginians have access to the resources they need to lead flourishing, meaningful lives.

Today on Bold Dominion, we’re talking with several women about how things could unfold in Virginia after Roe v Wade is overturned. Earlier this month, an anonymous source leaked a draft opinion written by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito. It showed that a majority of Justices intend to strike down the landmark 1973 decision that protects the legality of abortion.

Here in Virginia, state law protects the legality of abortion… for now. But laws can change. And Governor Glenn Youngkin and the Republican-majority House of Delegates are showing interest in exactly that. This shift in legal precedent presents new challenges for Virginians. Notes go here

Virginia is a bona fide trash capital. For decades, Virginia has been the second biggest importer of trash from other states. We even accept trash from other countries. About a quarter of all the trash dumped in Virginia originates from outside the state -- nearly 6 million tons of trash per year.

One state’s trash must be our state’s treasure... at least for the owners. Waste management is a surprisingly profitable enterprise, and Virginia charges no fees for out-of-state trash imports. You can thank the state’s pro-business ideology and some well-placed corporate campaign donations.

So where does that trash land in Virginia? And who does it get dumped on?

Products made from prison labor are all around us, and you might not even realize it. In fact, state law requires state agencies and public colleges to purchase products made by Virginia Correctional Enterprises. Inmates do get paid, but only 27 - 80 cents per hour.

Defenders of prison labor argue that it provides inmates with vocational skills. Critics of the prison labor system in Virginia and around the country say it’s more akin to modern day slavery.

In this week's episode, a pair of journalists explain how we got today's prison labor system, and some ideas for what should be done about it.

Back in 2020, Democrats swept into majorities in Virginia's House and Senate. And they passed laws to make voting easier in Virginia. To increase democracy, if you will. But around the country, voting rights are under attack again. Mostly by right-wing groups falsely claiming election fraud and using that as a pretext to limit who can vote.

With Republicans now controlling the Virginia governorship and House of Delegates, what's the state of voting rights in the Commonwealth these days?

So the General Assembly ended its regular session without agreeing on a state budget. The state has a big surplus, and both Democrats and Republicans want to pass some tax cuts.

You'd think this would be a good thing, an easy thing to resolve. But you would be wrong. There's a gap -- a $2.8 billion gap -- between the Democratic Senate proposal and the Republican House proposal. The General Assembly reconvenes next week to try to hash all this out.

So this week, Bold Dominion is stepping back and doing one of our explainer episodes. How does the sausage get made in Virginia? Who actually crafts state budgets and how do they do it? And what can we expect Virginia's state budget to look like for the next couple years?

This week marked the end of the 2022 Virginia General Assembly session. Unlike the last two, this session had split party control of state government. So did Virginia lawmakers set partisan politics aside? Did they craft wise legislation to move the Commonwealth forward? Not really. But there was some action, and in this week's episode, the Bold Dominion crew sat down with the guys from Pod Virginia in a special crossover episode. We present this year's General Assembly recap in the form of a game show.

Virginia's campaign finance laws (or lack thereof) are akin to the Wild West. Lawmakers talk about the so-called Virginia Way, but plenty of them feed from the trough of big donors. Despite decades of reform efforts, campaign finance bills keep dying on the Assembly floor. This year, a proposal would have prohibited lawmakers from using campaign funds for personal expenses. Even that measure failed. Why do we continue to see such little progress in campaign contribution reform?

There are so many wonderful teachers out there. Teachers who don’t just view it as a job, but as a calling. Which is why it’s so disheartening to see education policy bandied about in state capitals by so many lawmakers who’ve never taught a class or asked a teacher what they need. Today, we’re looking at the state of public education teaching in Virginia… The serious shortages in teachers and substitute teachers across the state. The bogeyman of critical race theory. And the need to attract new teachers – and what’s getting in the way of that.

"Legalize weed" is an easy slogan, but the devil is in the details if we want to do that fairly. Can we set up the market to benefit Virginians and small businesses, not just a few corporate owners? Can we repair and do right after decades of unfairly enforced drug laws? In 2022, those conversations are as pressing as ever... especially since a newly elected Republican majority seems set on rolling back equity measures.

For decades, Virginia lawmakers have been more likely to show deference to Dominion Energy than to challenge their power. These days, Dominion isn't just the state's biggest public utility... it's also the state's biggest corporate political donor.

Not that everybody is okay with that. For years, some progressive Democrats have called out Dominion. This year, some Republicans have found common ground with those Democrats. Republicans in the House of Delegates and Democrats in the state Senate have introduced bills that would prohibit campaign donations from public utilities. Campaign donations that have a direct through-line to Dominion's outsized influence on state policy.

In this week's episode, we speak with journalist Peter Galuszka and Clean Virginia executive director Brennan Gilmore.

The General Assembly is starting its 2022 session this week. Legislation is the meat and potatoes of Virginia politics, so grab a fork and knife. MIght want to put on a bib, too. It can get messy. In this episode, Delegate Sally Hudson explains what to look for amidst our new divided government. Plus: Virginia's List founder Amy Laufer wants to help you follow bills, make an impact, and be a part of restoring our democracy.

This week on Bold Dominion, we're looking back at 2021. In state politics, I'm not sure how to sum things up. I don't have a pithy phrase or simple hot take. We started the year with Trumpists attempting a coup against the United States. Over the course of the year, many Virginia statues of confederate traitors to the United States came down. And near the end of the year, Republicans swept statewide elections... in no small part campaigning on racial dog whistles.

But that's not the whole story of 2021. This week's Bold Dominion revisits some of the most telling moments from the podcast this year.

It’s almost Christmas. But for millions of Virginians, worries about housing costs temper the celebrations. Nearly 3 in 10 Virginia households cost burdened, paying more than 30% of their income for shelter. This week, we look at how cities across Virginia - and America - have zoned their way out of 'missing middle' housing over the last 80 years. And what some cities in Virginia are doing to address the problem today.

Last month, we had what felt like a national election only in Virginia. These were state elections, but the focus was on national concerns. When Bold Dominion launched in 2019, we were struck by how many people closely follow national politics but know very little about how our own state government works. Or the power of state government to impact people's lives.

David Toscano has written a book about exactly this: Fighting Political Gridlock: How States Shape Our Nation and Our Lives. He's the former Democratic leader in the Virginia House of Delegates, representing the 57th District from Charlottesville.

This week on Bold Dominion, we talk about the power of state legislatures, how citizens can engage with them, and how states can shape national priorities.

Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin campaigned on a raft of culture war issues. But it still takes the General Assembly to pass new laws, and Virginia's State Senate still has a Democratic majority. So what powers does the Virginia governor really have? What can a governor do even without new legislation?

This week, Bold Dominion sits down with a pair of UVA politics professors for a deeper look at these civics questions that are suddenly relevant to Virginia.

Virginia's 2021 Election Day has come and gone. And Republican Glenn Youngkin will be the next governor of Virginia. Not only that, but it looks like Democrats have lost their majority in the Virginia House of Delegates. So what happened?

To answer that question, our crew from Bold Dominion joined up with the crew from the podcast Transition Virginia for a special crossover episode.

There's an underlying principle to Virginia politics that often goes unmentioned--it's called the Dillon Rule, and it effectively says that local governments only have powers that are explicitly granted by the state. How does this affect our local legislators and our state as a whole?

This is a reprise of an episode that originally aired in February 2021.

Early voting in state elections has already begin in Virginia, and they'll all be counted on November 2. This week on Bold Dominion: What are the stakes in this year's Virginia gubernatorial election? Why does it matter? What’ll actually change if McAuliffe wins? Or if Youngkin wins?

But it's also bigger than just Virginia. Our state elections are being driven at least partly by the national political picture. And how the outcome will send signals to national political leaders.

Here in Virginia, many of us have been shielded from the worst effects of climate change. So far. But we know - or we should know - that the planet is burning. And that without major policy changes, it’s going to get much worse. And so much human suffering could follow.

So what’s a state to do? What policies can Virginia enact? After all, this is a global issue, and the operations of one mid-sized state can feel rather small in the grand scheme of things.

For many years, Virginia’s answer was ‘not much.’ The state wasn’t doing a whole lot to address the root issues around climate change. But with Democratic majorities in the General Assembly for the last two years, that has started to shift. Lawmakers and activists are championing the fight to keep our planet fit for human habitation. So how exactly does meaningful environmental change happen?

For Episode 43 ("Where did Virginia's state constitution come from?"), producer Katherine Hansen talked at length with UVA Law professor A.E. Dick Howard, who wrote the current Virginia constitution. For the full civics experience, we're offering that full interview here as a bonus episode this week.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Virginia’s current state constitution - one of seven that has governed the Old Dominion. This golden anniversary arrives during a critical juncture in both Virginia and our nation.

In this episode, we talk at length with esteemed UVA law professor AE Dick Howard, who wrote Virginia's current state constitution. Prof. Howard discusses our state's rich constitutional history and where that history brings us today.

“The Virginia Way” is an old-fashioned ideal here in the Commonwealth--the notion that our public servants have so much integrity that we don’t need laws to regulate money that goes into the political process. As a result, we have almost no campaign finance regulation--a fact that's been exploited by aristocrats and corporations for decades, if not centuries.

In this episode, we sit down with state Delegate Sally Hudson and author Jeff Thomas ("The Virginia Way: Democracy and Power after 2016") to discuss the history of the Virginia Way and how the culture of Richmond might be changing in a new era.

This is a reprise of an episode that originally aired in July 2020.

Four years later, the deadly "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville is still a moment we mark time by. It has shaped us as people. And it has shaped the social and political landscape of Charlottesville and Virginia.

Today on Bold Dominion, we're looking at how the Unite the Right rally changed Virginia politics -- from the removal of Confederate statues to the future of our democracy. Featuring data scientist Emily Gorcenski, UVA professor Jalane Schmidt, and Virginia Delegate Sally Hudson.

During the 2020 elections, Virginia voters passed a Redistricting Commission Amendment. The short version: it changes how Virginia draws its political district lines.

In the past, whatever party held majorities in the Virginia General Assembly approved pretty much whatever district maps it wanted to. Parties have used district maps as a political weapon to maintain their power. It’s a tool called gerrymandering. But now the map-drawing process is changing.

Will Virginia's new redistricting commission help our flawed democracy? Does it go far enough?

This week, we talk with Brian Cannon, former Exective Director of One Virginia 2021, the nonprofit that spear-headed the amendment. We also talk with Virginia Delegate Mark Levine, who has concerns about how this is unfolding and whether the amendment goes far enough.

Virginia is a bona fide trash capital. For decades, Virginia has been the second biggest importer of trash from other states. We even accept trash from other countries. About a quarter of all the trash dumped in Virginia originates from outside the state -- nearly 6 million tons of trash per year.

One state’s trash must be our state’s treasure... at least for the owners. Waste management is a surprisingly profitable enterprise, and Virginia charges no fees for out-of-state trash imports. You can thank the state’s pro-business ideology and some well-placed corporate campaign donations.

So where does that trash land in Virginia? And who does it get dumped on?

Teachers across America are brainwashing our youth with “critical race theory” so that they all become woke gay communists! Or so it would seem if you consume right-wing media lately.

“Critical Race Theory” has become a pejorative in today’s American conservative movement -- including here in Virginia. In several Virginia counties, school systems have been trying to educate children about the history of systemic racism in the United States, and “Critical Race Theory” has been leveled as an accusation against these efforts.

So what is “critical race theory”? And how has it come to be the newest right-wing bogeyman?

In this episode, we talk with Ian Mullins, professor of sociology at UVA, Peter Galuszka, Richmond-based journalist, and Amanda Moxham, member of the Hate-Free Schools Coalition of Albemarle County.

To answer that question, we spoke with Richmond-based journalist Peter Galuszka, as well as Brennan Gilmore, Executive Director of Clean Virginia, an organization dedicated to fighting corruption in Virginia's government.

Content Warning: in this episode, we discuss eugenics and forced sterilization, and a brief mention of rape in the back half. Eugenics is a term we associate with fascist regimes--a pseudo-scientific approach to control the qualities of humanity by choosing who gets to reproduce and who does not. And Virginia was one of its earliest adopters--the Virginia Eugenics Sterilization Act passed in 1924, and the nation's first state-sanctioned compulsory sterilization was performed on Virginia citizen Carrie Buck in 1927.

In this episode, we talk with author and historian Elizabeth Catte, author of Pure America: Eugenics and the Making of Modern Virginia. In this book, she examines Virginia's history of eugenics through the land we use today: considering the experiences of Virginia's disabled, Black, Native, and other marginalized communities in the 20th century--and the reasons why this period of our history has largely gone unspoken.

In a year of pandemic-induced upheaval, much of daily life has shifted to a series of online interactions. From public school to telehealth and even many white-collar professions--broadband internet access has gone from “important” to “mission-critical infrastructure” in the blink of an eye. But nearly a quarter-million homes and businesses in Virginia are unserved by broadband internet access, either because the infrastructure doesn't exist or it's too expensive. The repercussions in an increasingly online world are dangerous. So what can Virginia do about it?

To answer that question, we turn to the experts: Dr. Christopher Ali, an Associate Professor in the Department of Media Studies at the University of Virginia. He specializes in Broadband Policy, Planning, and Deployment, and is the author of Farm Fresh Broadband: The Politics of Rural Connectivity. We also talk with Evan Feinman, the Chief Broadband Advisor for Governor Ralph Northam, to discuss Virginia's progress and its path to greater broadband access going forward.

Lobbyists hold so much influence in Virginia that there's even a term for it in Richmond: a “shadow government” that dominates Virginia policy-making without a single elected official. How does this shadow government work--and why is Virginia so uniquely susceptible to their influence? How important is that influence overall?

This week, we talk to Jeff Schapiro, a political columnist for the Richmond Times-DIspatch, who has covered Virginia's politics and government for over forty years. We also talk with Robert Zullo, founder and editor of the Virginia Mercury, an independent news organization based in Richmond, to learn exactly how lobbyists operate in Virginia--and what their influence means for our state laws.

Virginia's gubernatorial race is just around the corner, taking place in November 2021. And with 13 candidates in the running--7 Republicans, 5 Democrats, and an independent--it's a crowded field. This week, we finish our two-part series diving into the five Democratic candidates for governor: who are they, and what do they stand for?

Jennifer McClellan is a State Senator who represents Virginia's 9th District; Justin Fairfax is the current Lieutenant Governor of Virginia; Terry McAuliffe is the former governor of Virginia. We asked all three candidates plainly about their campaign strategies and their policies to help working Virginians, including:

• What makes you the right person for the job?
• What are your top priorities to help working-class Virginians -- to get them a living wage and affordable healthcare?
• How do you plan to win the election and then get things done once in office?

The Virginia Democratic primary takes place on Tuesday, June 8th, and early in-person and absentee voting start on April 24th.

Jennifer Carroll Foy is a former state delegate who represented Virginia's 2nd District; Lee Carter is a delegate representing Virginia's 50th District. We asked both candidates plainly about their campaign strategies and their policies to help working Virginians, including:

• What makes you the right person for the job?
• What are your top priorities to help working-class Virginians -- to get them a living wage and affordable healthcare?
• How do you plan to win the election and then get things done once in office?

The Virginia Democratic primary takes place on Tuesday, June 8th, and early in-person and absentee voting start on April 24th.

Another session of the Virginia General Assembly has come to a close. This marks the second year that the House of Delegates, the State Senate, and the Governorship were all in Democratic control. That’s the first time in decades--a change so remarkable that it inspired us to start this very podcast in 2020.

So what did the General Assembly manage to pass this year? And what has the blue legislature managed to achieve more broadly with two sessions in power? To answer those questions, we talk with state Delegate Sally Hudson, as well as journalist Peter Galuszka.

There's an underlying principle to Virginia politics that often goes unmentioned--it's called the Dillon Rule, and it effectively says that local governments only have powers that are explicitly granted by the state. How does this affect our local legislators 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.

With the 2021 legislative session in full swing, hundreds of bills have been introduced into the General Assembly. Some have passed and some haven't -- and some are yet to be debated. A lot of these bills are written and promoted by big-money industries and lobbying groups who have the time and money to spare.

But this week on Bold Dominion, we dig into two examples of citizen activists who are making a difference in the legislature. In the first half of the episode, Brennan Gilmore of Clean Virginia explains how his organization fights corruption in Virginia's government, especially as it deals with energy policy and Dominion. In the second half, we chat with Ashton Willcox, Matthew Savage, and Adrian Klaits, a group of bipartisan teenage political leaders who successfully introduced a bill that would Virginia students one excused absence every year to participate in civic engagement.

More and more, it seems like all political conversation is happening at the national level--Presidential elections, Congressional ratios, party divides and infighting. So much so that we forget just how much of our lives can be affected by our local politics right at home. Your mayor, your sheriff, your county Board of Supervisors--these are the people who decide where to build your neighborhoods and roads, how to fund public education, and what police officers focus on. That's a lot of important stuff.

In this episode, we sit down with Rich Meagher, Associate Professor of Political Science at Randolph-Macon College and author of Local Politics Matters: A Citizen's Guide to Making a Difference, to discuss how local government works and the ways that we citizens can have a hand in shaping our communities for the better.

With absurd and dangerous events going on in D.C. and the Capitol this week, it's easy to forget about the state and local legislators are soon to be meeting in Richmond, our own state capital here in Virginia. With the General Assembly meeting for its regular session in 2021, a host of important economic issues are slated for discussion as Virginia struggles to survive the pandemic and beyond.

This week, we bring an interview with Delegate Sally Hudson, who represents Virginia's 57th district in the Virginia House of Delegates, discussing the legislative process this year and the way lawmakers plan to deal with unemployment across the state, among other key issues.

2020 has been one of the longest, most painful years in most of our lifetimes. While it's impossible to do justice to every story that struck Virginia this year, we're covering a few of the biggest changes across the state over the last twelve months.

To help, we're joined by Michael Pope and Thomas Bowman of Transition Virginia, a state politics podcast covering many of the same topics. In this roundtable retrospective, we discuss the coronavirus pandemic, the state legislature's response to calls for racial justice, and the economic fallout yet to come.

Happy holidays, folks. We'll see you in the new year!

Virginia has been transforming in many ways over the last few decades, and that's most clear when it comes to government and tech. From defense contractors to Amazon's new headquarters to thousands of data centers, Virginia has slowly but surely shifted toward an economy based in technology and defense. What does that mean for workers in Virginia? For our energy needs, our demographic trends, and our political systems?

In this episode, we talk to Richmond-based journalist Peter Galuszka about how Virginia's economy ties in with energy and technology--and how these trends will change the state going forward.

Suddenly, and seemingly out of the blue, legal weed in Virginia seems like it could be a real thing in the not-too-distant future.

But legalization won’t be as easy as flipping a light switch. Should past weed convictions be expunged? Should business owners with past marijuana convictions get a leg up?

Virginia (and the nation) have a long history of racially disparate enforcement of marijuana laws... So now we have historical inequities and loads of other questions to deal with as we consider new legislation.

In this episode, Virginia Mercury reporter Ned Oliver and video journalist Alana Yzola take us through ways that Virginia could legalize cannabis in order to benefit Virginians the most.

This week, Nathan Moore sits down with producer Aaryan Balu and Mary Garner McGehee, host and producer of Charlottesville Soundboard, for a roundtable discussion on this year's election and what it means for Virginia going forward.

This week, we're joined by state Delegate Sally Hudson; she walks us through some victories on police reform and the state's strategy for economic recovery--and the ways we need to improve our approach to both, going forward.

That isn't helped by the actions of President Trump, who, in the last few weeks, has suggested that he wouldn't accept the results of the upcoming election if he lost, encouraged supporters to watch polling places, and refused to denounce white supremacists on live television.

Combine that with a recent FBI report that called far-right militias an "immediate extremist threat,” and you've got a powder keg set to blow this November. This week, we spoke to anti-racist activist Emily Gorcenski and journalist Peter Galuszka about the threats we might face both on the ground and in Washington.

The Amendent proposes a bipartisan commission to end the process of gerrymandering--politicians drawing districts to suit their own interests--in Virginia. That's important, because next year, Virginia will be holding its state elections based on those districts.

But does the amendment go far enough? How did Virginia get here in the first place? This week we talk to journalist Peter Galuszka and historian Brent Tarter, author of Gerrymanders: How Redistricting Has Protected Slavery, White Supremacy, and Partisan Minorities in Virginia.

The proposed Amendment to the State Constitution can be found here.

But COVID-19 has only exacerbated trends that have plagued Virginia for forty years, if not the state's entire history. This week, we spoke with journalist Peter Galuszka about the growing divide in Virginia's economy, and UVA Professor James Harrigan about the economic trends that have heightened income inequality nationwide for the last forty years.

This week, in a special crossover episode the Transition Virginia podcast, we talk to hosts Michael Pope and Thomas Bowman about the first week of the special session. You can find the full discussion in their latest episode, or visit them at www.transitionvirginia.com.

This week, we spoke with Ned Oliver, a reporter at the Virginia Mercury, and Christie Marra, an advocate at the Virginia Poverty Law Center (804-782-9430), about the recent eviction moratorium and the history of Virginia's unequal tenant laws.

This week, we sat down with state Delegate Sally Hudson and author Jeff Thomas ("The Virginia Way: Democracy and Power after 2016") to discuss the history of the Virginia Way and how the culture of Richmond might be changing in a new era.

This episode looks at Virginia’s 5th Congressional District, a huge, gerrymandered region that stretches from the North Carolina border to the Washington, DC exurbs.

Freshman lawmaker Denver Riggleman is the Republican incumbent. But he’s facing a challenge from far right candidate Bob Good. And all this is happening amidst a global pandemic.

But work hasn’t stopped for people working in essential industries – health care, of course. But also grocery stores, fire and police services, construction, buses, meat packing, and more.

That doesn’t mean the work is always safe. Around the country, there have been more than 150 labor actions like walk-outs or strikes. Protesting conditions that the workers feel are unsafe. That includes several labor actions here in Virginia – from workers in Naval Yards in Hampton Roads to poultry plants in the Shenandoah Valley.

The task at hand: figure out Virginia’s state budget during this pandemic related economic seizure. Also: sort out the bills that Governor Ralph Northam sent back for revisions.

What now for Virginia's budget and minimum wage hikes?

We’re still in a public health crisis that has yet to peak. And while we’re all practicing social distancing as best we can, this pandemic has created an immediate economic crisis no matter how you slice it.

We talk with Virginia journalist Peter Galuszka and UVA Professor David Leblang about how this pandemic will pan out in Virginia’s economy.

We talk with journalist Peter Galuszka about how the pandeminc is going to hit Virginia's economy. Peter has covered Virginia business, politics, and news for four decades.

In the second half of the show, we talk with Brenda Castaneda from the Legal Aid Justice Center about what Virginia should be doing for working people during this crisis.

This episode is hosted by Nathan Moore and produced by Aaryan Balu and Sabrina Moore.

With new Democratic majorities in both the House and Senate – plus a democratic governor – a raft of new legislation made its way through passage this year.

In this episode: Virginia Mercury reporter Graham Moomaw gives us a recap of the Assembly session. And lawmaker Sally Hudson explains how these decisions really get made – including some of what you don’t see in the news stories or TV coverage.

What can we expect in Virginia as we head toward the Super Tuesday vote?

In this episode, former Charlottesville city councilor Kristin Szakos shares the mood of Virginia Democrats as she does canvassing.

Then an in-depth conversation with Paul Freedman, professor of Politics at the University of Virginia.

Host: Nathan Moore. Producer: Aaryan Balu.

Proponents want the ERA because of continuing sex inequality in our society. Lower pay, sexual harassment, violence against women. These are serious social problems that have been around for a long time.

But the ERA may not be the tool to solve them. So says our guest this week, UVA Law professor Kim Forde-Mazrui. He shares the overall goals of real equality for women, but he’s concerned that federal judges would hand down decisions that would actually harm the cause of equality for women.

Bold Dominion is online at BoldDominion.org. It's a member of the Virginia Audio Collective, VirginiaAudio.org.

Guests include Graham Moomaw, politics reporter at The Virginia Mercury; Peter Galuszka, Virginia journalist; and Sally Hudson, delegate representing Virginia House District 57.

Hosted by Nathan Moore. Info & subscribe at BoldDominion.org. Bold Dominion is a member of the Virginia Audio Collective.