The Atlanta Story

The Atlanta Story podcast features meaningful stories of Atlanta's builders, creators, and entrepreneurs. In this episode Jon Birdsong sits down with Sally Bethea , the Founding Director and Riverkeeper of Chattahoochee Riverkeeper and author. Born and raised in Atlanta, Sally spent 30 years setting up and leading the non-profit that protects and preserves the 430 miles of our vital Chattahoochee...

The Atlanta Story podcast features meaningful stories of Atlanta's builders, creators, and entrepreneurs. In this episode  Jon Birdsong sits down with Brian McGowen, President of Centennial Yards. Born in the Bronx, raised in New Jersey, and educated in California, Brian McGowen has been bi-coastal for the majority of his life. His career has spanned between public and private sectors dating back...

The Atlanta Story podcast features meaningful stories of Atlanta's builders, creators, and entrepreneurs. In this episode Jon Birdsong sits down with Victoria Lemos, Founder of Archive Atlanta. Born and raised in New York, Victoria moved to Atlanta 18 years ago and since then has become a prolific podcaster through Archive Atlanta. Two hundred and thirty episodes later, Victoria has covered everyt...

The Atlanta Story podcast features meaningful stories of Atlanta's builders, creators, and entrepreneurs. In this episode Jon Birdsong sits down with Kelvin Collins, Vice President of Economic Development of Atlanta BeltLine. Born and raised in Grenada, Kelvin moved to the United States for college and since, has spent the majority of his career in the public sector — mainly in New York City. Befo...

The Atlanta Story podcast features meaningful stories of Atlanta's builders, creators, and entrepreneurs. In this episode Jon Birdsong sits down with Nate Hybl , Founder of Gusto !. Born and raised in Hazelhurst, Georgia, Nate has spent the majority of his career experimenting, crafting, and serving life-giving food through his fast-casual food company, Gusto! What first started out as vast and ob...

The Atlanta Story podcast features meaningful stories of Atlanta's builders, creators, and entrepreneurs. In this episode Jon Birdsong sits down with Nedra Deadwyler, Founder for Civil Bikes. Nedra started Civil Bikes nearly 10 years ago as a way to preserve history while also experiencing Atlanta outside of the normal lens of a car. Her tours are experienced by visitors all over the country who w...

The Atlanta Story podcast features meaningful stories of Atlanta's builders, creators, and entrepreneurs. In this episode Jon Birdsong sits down with Conor Sen, Columnist for Bloomberg. Conor moved to Atlanta from California in 2010 and has documented several trends and market shifts through his popular Twitter account @conorsen. Conor parlayed his popularity into a weekly Column for Bloomberg whe...

The Atlanta Story podcast features meaningful stories of Atlanta's builders, creators, and entrepreneurs. In this episode Jon Birdsong sits down with Yanni Hufnagel, Founder of Lemon Perfect. Yanni started his career in basketball. From team manager at Cornell to Assistant Coaching positions at Oklahoma, Harvard, Vanderbilt, and Nevada, Yanni is a student of building great teams, recruiting the be...

The Atlanta Story podcast features meaningful stories of Atlanta's builders, creators, and entrepreneurs. In this episode Jon Birdsong sits down with Zac Harrison , Founder of Fresh Harvest . Over ten years ago, a cross country bike trip sparked the desire to deliver locally grown food to the doorsteps of consumers. Today, Fresh Harvest supplies Georgia grown food and produce to over 3300 househol...

The Atlanta Story podcast features meaningful stories of Atlanta's builders, creators, and entrepreneurs. In this episode Jon Birdsong sits down with Cherie Kloss, Founder of SnapNurse. After spending 10 years as an anesthetist, Cherie transitioned careers to be a tv producer and then a technology founder. Through the personal pain she experienced finding, scheduling, and getting paid as a healthc...

The Atlanta Story podcast features meaningful stories of Atlanta's builders, creators, and entrepreneurs. In this episode Jon Birdsong sits down with Shannon Heath Longino , Senior Vice President at Truist Bank where she works on affordable housing initiatives. Shannon was raised by her grandmother, Eva Davis, in the storied East Lake Meadows neighborhood. Through community organization, Shannon w...

The Atlanta Story podcast features meaningful stories of Atlanta's builders, creators, and entrepreneurs. In this episode  Jon Birdsong  sits down with  Andrew McConnell  Co-Founder and CEO of  Rented.com  and published author of  Get Out of My Head : Creating Modern Clarity with Stoic Wisdom. Andrew received two degrees from Harvard and then worked at McKinsey & Company before starting  Rented.co...

The Atlanta Story podcast features meaningful stories of Atlanta's builders, creators, and entrepreneurs. In this episode Jon Birdsong sits down with Frank Fernandez, CEO of Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta.  Going into its 70th year serving our city, the Community Foundation of Greater Atlanta is powered by over 1000 donors to champion equity and secure prosperity for Atlantans. After Har...

The Atlanta Story podcast features meaningful stories of Atlanta's builders, creators, and entrepreneurs. In this episode Jon Birdsong sits down with Adam Wexler , Founder and CEO of PrizePicks . With over 50,000 daily active users, PrizePicks is a leading player in the Daily Fantasy Sports Industry. In today's interview, Adam shares insights from his entrepreneurial journey, the in's and out's of...

The Atlanta Story podcast features meaningful stories of Atlanta's builders, creators, and entrepreneurs. In this episode Jon Birdsong sits down with Greg Bluestein, AJC's premiere political reporter and newly minted author of Flipped. Greg spent the first part of his career at the Associated Press before transitioning to the AJC. Greg and his colleagues cover the daily political pulse of Georgia...

The Atlanta Story podcast features meaningful stories of Atlanta's builders, creators, and entrepreneurs. In this episode Jon Birdsong sits down with Indra Sofian , Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer at Sora. Indra and his co-founders started Sora while still under graduates at Georgia Tech. Today, they've raised over $23 million dollars from the likes of Union Square Ventures and General Catalys...

The Atlanta Story podcast features meaningful stories of Atlanta's builders, creators, and entrepreneurs. In this episode Jon Birdsong sits down with Dr. Meria Carstarphen, Former Superintendent of Atlanta Public Schools.   Born in Selma, educated at Tulane, Auburn, and Harvard, Meria took the helm of APS starting in 2014 to 2020. During her tenure, she saw graduation rates improve to 80%, transfo...

The Atlanta Story podcast features meaningful stories of Atlanta's builders, creators, and entrepreneurs. In this episode Jon Birdsong sits down with Jesslyn Rollins , CEO of Biolyte . Biolyte is one of the fastest, homegrown consumer brands in the city and state. What started out as a remedy for a family member's illness has turned into a beverage consumed and purchased from QuickTrips to Krogers...

The Atlanta Story podcast features meaningful stories of Atlanta's builders, creators, and entrepreneurs. In this episode Jon Birdsong sits down with Ryan Anderson, Founder of Georgia Votes.  In today's episode, Jon sits down with Ryan Anderson, Founder of GeorgiaVotes.com. What started out as a fun rabbit hole analyzing voter data, has turned into a premiere source of analysis for any and all Geo...

The Atlanta Story podcast features meaningful stories of Atlanta's builders, creators, and entrepreneurs. In this episode Jon Birdsong sits down with Kieran McGill, Owner of Fadó Irish Pub.    Kieran moved to Atlanta with plans to stay for 24 months. Today he's transitioning into his 24th year as the owner of 8 total pubs worldwide with 300 employees. In today's episode we talk about what makes Fa...

The Atlanta Story podcast features meaningful stories of Atlanta's builders, creators, and entrepreneurs. In this episode Jon Birdsong sits down with Jon sits down with Professional Golfer, Podcaster, and burgeoning businessman Roberto Castro. Roberto was a 4 time All-American at Georgia Tech who studied Industrial Engineering before turning pro. In today's episode we talk about his experiences an...

The Atlanta Story podcast features meaningful stories of Atlanta's builders, creators, and entrepreneurs. In this episode Jon Birdsong sits down Founder and CEO of The Illuminarium, Alan Greenberg.    Alan is a serial entrepreneur who has started companies in media, healthcare, education, travel, and technology. The Illuminarium is all about democratizing human experiences and just opened the firs...

The Atlanta Story podcast features meaningful stories of Atlanta's builders, creators, and entrepreneurs. In this episode Jon Birdsong sits down with Kyle and Brent Pease of the Kyle Pease Foundation .    Born and raised in Atlanta, Kyle Pease never let being diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy get in the way of living a normal life. Baseball, wrestling, and swimming were some of the many activities Kyl...

The Atlanta Story podcast features meaningful stories of Atlanta's builders, creators, and entrepreneurs. In this episode Jon Birdsong sits down with Kyle and Brent Pease of the Kyle Pease Foundation .    Born and raised in Atlanta, Kyle Pease never let being diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy get in the way of living a normal life. Baseball, wrestling, and swimming were some of the many activities Kyl...

The Atlanta Story podcast features meaningful stories of Atlanta's builders, creators, and entrepreneurs. In this episode Jon Birdsong sits down with Maurice Cherry , Principal of Lunch — an award winning creative studio.    Maurice moved to Atlanta, Georgia to go to school at Morehouse College. In addition to running his creative studio, Maurice has performed over 400 interviews for the widely po...