Folk hero

Just as in these previous series, we will be discussing historical highlights and folklore and folktales in each colony during our Monday episodes between now and February, including traditional foods and recipes as part of our state dinner section, replacing what was once our county dish.

chatting through candidates for each state's folk hero, identifying any famous monsters and cryptids we've been able to discover through our research, and also hearing a little bit from our local legends interview subject for each state.

This week we'll be hearing from Virginia's state folklorist, for over 20 years, John Lohman, who now runs the Centre for Cultural Vibrancy, a non-profit organisation that supports and celebrates traditional artists, musicians, crafts people, dancers and more to promote cultural exchange and education worldwide.

And for perspective, Virginia occupies an area that is around 85% of the size of England.

This is very true.

And believe us when we say we have a lot of very exciting folky stuff coming your way, including chats about Mothman, who of course just happens to be a Virginia native if we're talking about the old colonial borders.

We have our state dinner coming up at the end of the episode, and we also have to decide on Virginia's ultimate folk hero – But first, to give us the inside track on what Virginia is actually like, let's turn to our local legends guest for this week, Charlottesville resident and Virginia's state folklorist for over two decades, John Lohman.

Virginia's a huge state.