Scott Slade's Georgia

This week, Scott's speaking with Mike Mies, the executive director of St Vincent de Paul of Georgia. How volunteers make sure donations to Clark Howard's Christmas Kids campaign make it to thousands of Georgia foster children in time for Christmas. Hear how they make it a year-round mission to ease homelessness, hunger and healthcare deficits (with Georgia's only statewide charitable pharmacy.) An...

This week, Scott's speaking with Hall County School District Superintendent Will Schofield about the Agriculture Business Program there. Students in the work-based learning program not only get hands on training in everything from meat cutting to ag IT, but they also get high school credits and get paid for their work. They even supply protein to the Hall County school lunch program. The fifty-one...

This week, Scott's speaking with long-time Atlanta Journal-Constitution delivery carrier David Neely about the AJC phasing out its print edition after December 31st. After thirty-six years delivering the paper in East Cobb, he figures he's thrown more than two million papers onto yards and driveways, some as heavy as seven pounds. He says he'll miss the printed paper, but he realizes it makes econ...

Scott Slade remembers some Thanksgivings from his youth and looks at how much and how little has changed for his favorite holiday.

This week, Scott's speaking with Kyle Bryner, this year's winner of Food Network's Barbecue Brawl. Every day, his Blue Hound Barbecue in Dillard, Georgia, serves up the same cuisine that wowed judges like Bobby Flay. Kyle is on a mission to infuse Appalachia flavors into everything he serves. While we have him: the one thing backyard BBQ chefs can do to vastly improve their 'Cue. Be sure and try t...

This week, Scott's speaking with director Amanda Watkins about the 36th year the Alliance Theater will produce an adaptation of "A Christmas Carol." The forty-one-performance run beginning November 15 is shaping up to be more popular than ever with its mix of music, drama, special effects and a timeless message of redemption from the Dickens classic. Plus, actor Andrew Benator waxes on what It tak...

As we head to Veterans Day, Scott speaks with Gerry Lewis, who was among the veterans who laid out the vision for the John's Creek Veterans Memorial at Newtown Park. The Memorial Walk there pays tribute to those who served in conflicts ranging from World War I through Afghanistan. And the park is now the permanent home for the Traveling Vietnam Memorial Wall inscribed with the names of over fifty-...

This week, Scott is speaking with Atlanta Community Food Bank President and CEO Kyle Waide. The Food bank works with more than 700 community-based nonprofit food distribution partners in metro Atlanta and North Georgia, including food pantries, community kitchens, childcare centers and more. They have seen their demand rise 70% is just the past three-and-a-half years. If the government shutdown co...

This week, Scott's speaking with Alex Willson, CEO and President of Sunnyland Farms in Albany, and Donna Ennis, the Associate VP of the Enterprise Institute at Georgia Tech and Co-Director of their Artificial Intelligence in Manufacturing Program. Sunnyland Farms grows pecans, but they also manufacture cakes, candies, nut samplers and such for a business that relies heavily on cost-effective shipp...

This week, Scott updates one of his favorite stories. Everett's Music Barn is a treasure. Hear how Tommy Everett and Rena Everett McDaniel keep the tradition going. Their fall festival and fundraiser is Saturday, October 25, with a band every hour beginning at noon. Everettsmusicbarn.net

Georgia's Apple Crop is a small percentage of the state's number one industry --agriculture--but it punches well above its weight with a positive impact on north Georgia, especially this time of the year. The Georgia Apple Festival in Ellijay is coming the weekends of October 11th and 18th. Agricultural and Natural Resources Agent for Gilmer and Fanin Counties Anna Bass says there will be plenty o...

This week, Scott's speaking with owner and founder Ben Armstrong about the 29th season of his Netherworld attraction in Stone Mountain, Georgia. This year, the film and TV industry veteran has designed two of the most massive haunts in Netherworld history, together spanning the walking distance of nearly ten football fields. After guests experience "Monsters Attack" and "Return of the Mangler," th...

The C130J Hercules wins the Georgia Chamber's first "Coolest Thing Made in Georgia" competition. Lockheed-Martin executives talk about what makes this tactical airlifter so relevant, resilient and even amazing, even after celebrating its 71st anniversary.

This week, Scott's speaking to author Ron Martz, a former AJC staffer and US Marine. He talks about his investigation into the mystery of Lance Cpl. James "Jimmy" Jackson of Atlanta that has been ongoing for over forty years. Lance Cpl. Jackson disappeared in Vietnam in 1969. We update the story in time for the September 19 National POW/MIA Recognition Day. Jackson's mother passed away in 2008 wit...

This week, Scott's profiling legendary "Souper Jenny" Levison. Where she got the inspiration for her popular chain of soup kitchens going strong for 26 years, what keeps her going, and her passion for feeding the hungry on many levels. Her yearly fundraiser, The Souper Walk on September 20, benefits the Zadie Project, her nonprofit that serves a thousand quarts of soup each week to food-insecure m...

A year after the deadliest mass school shooting in Georgia history, Scott's speaking with Children's Healthcare of Atlanta Psychotherapist Jody Baumstein about how students and staff at Apalachee High School are hurting and healing. She offers advice on how to deal with the pain and anxiety that accompanies a tragic event like this and how it can extend far beyond the campus in Barrow County. She...

Going back to the mid 1960's, Duke and Emory University have the longest-running physician assistant programs in the nation. As of this week, Berry College in Rome, GA., has the newest. Answering a need for a critical shortage of medical professionals in Georgia, Berry College has launched its own Physician Associate program. Classes began on Aug. 25 for the 28 initial graduate students in the two...

The 70th Anniversary of Waffle House is coming up on Labor Day. Waffle House Archivist and Museum Curator Julia Buschman dishes to Scott about the origin of the company, the amazing amount of food they serve every year, and the training cooks and servers must go through to be able to do what they do. 97% of their two-thousand stores are company owned, and even top executives are expected to pull s...

This week, Scott's speaking to Georgia State Senator Blake Tillery of Vidalia. He chairs a Special Senate Committee looking at how the state could eliminate the income tax. Lawmakers have been whittling away at the income tax rate; Senator Tillery says it's time to do away with it completely and he says his committee will focus on how other states have done it-nine have up until now-and how quickl...

This week, Scott's speaking with the Kaiser Family Foundation's Robin Rudowitz and Georgia Healthcare Association President and CEO Chris Downing. The impact on Georgia Medicaid could be in the billions. But nursing homes and other long term care facilities get a break, thanks to an extended timeline rolling out the act's provisions, and thanks to a deal on the final version of the bill, Medicaid...

This week, Scott's speaking with filmmaker Luke Pilgrim about his docuseries "Unknown Ellijay," where locals speak about their encounters with the paranormal in the North Georgia mountains. The docuseries was commissioned by the Gilmer County Chamber of Commerce's "Pick Ellijay" campaign to encourage visitors to come see the sites of these encounters themselves and perhaps form their own experienc...

Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center Director Dr. Doug Graham talks to Scott Slade about what excites him about the coming year. Your donations have made a huge difference advancing treatments and cures for these great children and their brilliant caregivers. Thank you! wsbradio.com/careathon

This week, Scott's speaking with Neighborhood Meals and Wheels coordinator Jenny Allen and her husband Chuck on how they are working to fill a deep gap in services for Georgia seniors, who either through preference or economic necessity, prefer to age at home. neighorboodmealsonwheels.org and www.mealsonwheelsamerica.org

This week, Scott's speaking with Dr. Lewis Bartlett, University of Georgia Assistant Professor in the Department of Entomology and program leadership for the UGA Bee Program. Following up on the colony of so-called "killer bees" found in Barbour County Alabama, just across the Georgia border about 85 miles west of Albany. Dr. Bartlett talks about where and how these bees originated, what makes the...

What stands out to Scott Slade among the dozens of new state laws taking effect on July 1. From a lower income tax rate and a new budget that includes major investments in prisons, healthcare and education, to designating an official state stew and legalizing what can be called "terramation."