Check out Virginia Outdoor Adventures! https://virginiaoutdooradventures.com/ US Senator Tim Kaine has covered 1,222 miles of Virginia’s trails, rivers and scenic roadways as part of what he calls “The Virginia Triathlon.” The Virginia Triathlon is a challenge to hike the Appalachian trail from the northern border of Virginia to the southern border…

This week we’re talking about roads. How they’re built, how new projects are proposed and funded, and how they’re maintained. Michael Barnes, Director of Planning for Albemarle County breaks down these questions and helps us better understand the considerations of transportation planning.

Solar has been getting a lot of attention in the past couple years and counties across Virginia have been passing stringent regulations on new solar developments. This week we spoke with Dr. Lee Daniels, Professor Emeritus of Land Rehabilitation and Dr. Ryan D. Stewart, Professor of Soil Physics & Hydrology, both at Virginia Tech about the effects …

In 2020, Virginia started on a path to incrementally increase the minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2026. But this year the governor vetoed the annual increase. In this episode, we talk with Levi Goren, Director of Research & Education Policy at the Commonwealth Institute, about what the minimum wage is, how it is related to inflation, and who is imp…

A lot of Virginians take the time every day to sort and clean their recyclable materials. Maybe you even think about whether a material is recyclable before you buy it. But what happens after you put your bottles, cans, and boxes out by the curb? This episode, Phil McKalips, Director of Solid Waste for the Rivanna Solid Waste Authority, and Lauren …

This week we’re talking about school boards. While many folks will associate their school board with local decisions about infrastructure or teacher salaries, many Virginia school boards have been forums for highly politicized debates and decisions about issues like book bans or transgender rights. Today we are joined by Breanna Diaz from the ACLU …

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…

December, 13, 2023A conversation with Tallis Scholars Baritone-Bass Tim Scott Whiteley. We talk about his musical upbringing, the Tallis Scholars sound and its evolution over the years, his group Cinquecento, touring with the Tallis Scholars, and the state of professional ensemble in the UK.Tim Scott Whiteleyhttps://www.facebook.com/timscottwhitele…

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This episode I recap the Monday Night Matchup, what this loss means for the Raiders moving forward.--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/SBPodcastSports/support

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Episode Notes In the face of ever-worsening climate change, it takes more than paper straws and recycling to make a dent in our carbon emissions--it takes policy on a national, state, and local scale. So what does local climate action look like? How do cities and counties set policy in the realm of housing, transportation, and energy to reduce carb…

Episode Notes We’ve all heard of machine politics. Tammany Hall. Boss Tweed. Right in the heart of New York City, the Gilded Age, an era synonymous with corruption in America’s history. But Virginia has its own slice of machine-politics history: under the control of Harry Byrd, Sr., the Byrd Machine controlled the state government for the better pa…

June 27, 2023 A conversation with Marianne LaCrosse, founder of Suòno Artist Management, about all things related to artist representation, how to succeed as a musician, the state of classical music post COVID, live Q&A and more.More about Suòno Artist Management at:https://www.suonoartistmanagement.com/…

February 3, 2023A conversation about intonation in the choral setting with Orrin Doyle, tenor and co-founder of the Byrd Ensemble. We will discuss the difficulties addressing intonation, some misconceptions around the causes of intonation problems, and offer some tips on how to properly diagnose and correct it. All are welcome to join us for this l…

Episode Notes The 2023 primary results are in...and they're pretty interesting. Many incumbents held onto their seats, but some challengers won key victories--Democratic Senators Joe Morrissey and Chap Petersen were defeated by Lashrecse Aird and newcomer Saddam Salim, while Republican Senator Amanda Chase lost to Glen Sturtevant. If you're looking…

Episode Notes 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 sessio…

Episode Notes 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 …

Episode Notes 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 som…

Episode Notes This week, we tackle criminal justice and incarceration in Virginia from two angles: for one, what injustices are criminal justice reform advocates trying to fix? For two, how can we help incarcerated people stay out of prisons and live better lives? To answer the first question, we spoke with Rob Poggenklass, interim executive direct…

Episode Notes Here on the podcast, we like to keep tabs on Dominion Energy. As the largest of only 2 publicly regulated utilities in the state, Dominion is a monopoly. The caveat is that it’s a state regulated monopoly, meaning its rates and profits are monitored by a regulatory agency called the State Corporation Commission. But the SCC’s power ha…

Episode Notes 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 …

Episode Notes 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 l…

Episode Notes 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 inmat…

Episode Notes After two years of Democratic control, Virginia's elected government is now divided once again. The result? A lot fewer laws likely to pass this year. This podcast started partly as a response to the media cycle that covered the General Assembly--every year around this time, there was a parade of stories about bills being introduced… …

Episode Notes In 2021, Glenn Youngkin rode the idea of “parents' rights” to victory in his gubernatorial race. And now, Virginia conservatives have latched on to the idea as a tactic for banning books, attacking public education and starving publicly funded institutions. The fight for public education is playing out right now in the General Assembl…

Episode Notes The General Assembly starts its 2023 session next Wednesday--with Republicans in control of the House of Delegates for the first time since this show started in 2020. In this episode, journalist Michael Pope explains what we should be looking out for as lawmakers meet next week--especially what we can glean from the governor's state b…

Episode Notes 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 Dominio…

Episode Notes 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 chan…

Episode Notes 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 …

Episode Notes 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 cou…

Episode Notes 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 probabl…

Episode Notes 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 yea…

Episode Notes 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…

Episode Notes 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 …

Episode Notes 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 …

Episode Notes 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…

Episode Notes 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…

Episode Notes 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 t…

Episode Notes 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 als…

Episode Notes 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. ```…

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 reso…

Episode Notes 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 pro…

Episode Notes 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…

Episode Notes 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 vocatio…

Episode Notes 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…

Episode Notes 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…

Episode Notes 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 episod…

Episode Notes 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 usi…

Episode Notes 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…