Georgia Today

Residents near the site of the proposed Rivian Automotive electric vehicle factory want answers about the facility’s potential impacts on their rural community.

An investigation finds one apartment complex in Clayton County has filed more evictions against tenants than any other landlord across metro Atlanta — including during the federal government's pandemic eviction ban that was designed to keep people in their homes and stem the spread of COVID-19.

Athens, Ga., is preparing for a parade this weekend to honor the University of Georgia Bulldogs. The team’s big win Jan. 10 against Alabama’s Crimson Tide handed the Bulldogs their first national title since 1981. Hear how the Bulldogs made Georgia football history.

Liberty County outside Savannah is one place where the number of people quitting their jobs has been extraordinary, even amid the national so-called Great Resignation that's seen record numbers of people quit. Why Liberty County is so hard hit and how the employee exodus is changing the fabric of the community, is the subject of this week's Georgia Today.

On this special year-end edition of the podcast, we look back at some of our most memorable episodes from 2021.

This is the story of a grassroots fight in Middle Georgia for clean drinking water. GPB reporter Grant Blankenship and photojournalist Evey Wilson, an assistant professor at the Mercer University's Center for Collaborative Journalism, followed the effort for the recent documentary Saving Juliette.

A Northwest Atlanta brick factory that helped rebuild the city after the Civil War — using the free labor of mostly Black prison convicts — will be reborn as a park and memorial, supporters hope. This episode of Georgia Today examines the history of the Chattahoochee Brick Co. 

Former U.S. Sen. David Perdue’s announcement that he's challenging Gov. Brian Kemp in next year’s gubernatorial primary is deepening the divide in an already fractured GOP. Former President Donald Trump has endorsed Perdue. How will Perdue’s unprecedented challenge to a sitting governor play out in next year’s primary elections and what could it all mean for the future of the Georgia GOP?

On this week's Georgia Today podcast, we explore the emotional toll surrounding the Brunswick trial of the three men convicted of killing Ahmaud Arbery. During the trial, says Larry Hobbs from the Brunswick News, "Marcus Arbery and Wanda Cooper-Jones were the faces of courage — to see these images of their son over and over again, to hear what the defense said about their son — this was a grueling...

When residents in one of Georgia’s smallest and poorest counties learned about plans for a 500-acre quarry near the Ogeechee River, they rallied together with their neighbors to fight back.

Georgia’s Southern Judicial District has been called the worst place in America to be poor and charged with a federal crime. The district lacks a full-time federal public defender's office, which advocates say leads to inadequate representation for indigent criminal defenders.

This week, Georgians around the state are remembering Max Cleland. He died of congestive heart failure at his home in Atlanta on Tuesday. He was 79. Cleland was a Democrat and lifelong public servant in a variety of roles, including U.S. senator and head of the Veterans Administration under President Jimmy Carter. Jim Galloway, a now-retired Atlanta Journal-Constitution journalist, says Cleland’s...

The Atlanta mayor’s race is headed to a runoff. Whoever wins will face a sharp increase in crime that's accelerated during the pandemic. On the latest Georgia Today podcast, hear about the impact of crime on communities in Atlanta and what's driving it, with a Georgia criminologist who himself became a shooting victim.

Longtime Braves fans know Bobby Cox as one of the winningest managers in baseball history. But they may not know what happened in the decade since he retired that's kept Cox mostly away from games at Truist Park. In 2019 Bobby Cox had a stroke. But the legendary baseball figure remains influential with the team and close to Brian Snitker, the Braves’ current manager. In this week's Georgia Today,...

Jury selection is underway in the Brunswick trial for three white men accused in the 2020 killing of Ahmaud Arbery, who was Black. It’s also a reminder for some residents of a long-broken trust with a police department and other county law enforcement agencies that took almost three months to open an investigation into the 25-year-old's death. This week's Georgia Today podcast delves into the trou...

Drug company Merck is awaiting word on its emergency use-authorization application for its recently announced drug molnupiravir. If approved, the anti-viral drug developed at a lab at Emory University could become the first-ever pill to treat COVID-19. The latest Georgia Today podcast examines the journey that led to this potential breakthrough and its connection to Emory.

Most of Georgia’s landmass is rural. But less than a quarter of the population lives in rural areas. And, according to the latest figures from the United States Census, that percentage is dropping as the state grows more diverse and more urbanized. With redistricting getting underway, some small-town Georgia officials worry their shrinking populations could also cost them political influence at th...

With just 44% of its population fully vaccinated, Georgia is running far behind the rest of the nation. And for the state's Latino community, a population that has been disproportionately affected by COVID-19, vaccination rates are even lower. The Rev. Irma Guerra, a Mexican immigrant and minister at Christ Church Episcopal in Norcross, has used her platform to be a vaccine evangelizer and to disp...

A jail used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain migrants is nearly empty in the wake of complaints filed against the facility. Among the complaints is a whistleblower allegation from a nurse claiming some female detainees at Irwin County Detention Center were forced to undergo hysterectomies. The jail has also been criticized for failing to protect immigrants and jail staff from COVID...

The Federal Aviation Administration is expected to decide this month whether or not to allow the proposed Spaceport Camden to go forward in Camden County, Ga. The spaceport, supporters say, would mean tourism and big business for the county. But the proposed launch facility would send rockets over the federally protected Cumberland and Little Cumberland islands. This has alarmed residents and envi...

Georgia faces its worst crisis of the pandemic, with more patients than ever before hospitalized for COVID-19. The state's also breaking records for the number of children in the hospital with the virus. As the delta variant tightens its grip on the state, the Georgia Today podcast gets a firsthand account of the situation inside Georgia's pediatric hospitals from Dr. Matthew Linam, an infectious...

Mercedes-Benz Stadium: home to the Atlanta Falcons, Atlanta United and, for a few weeks this summer, hip-hop icon Kanye West? The megastar staged a listening party for his upcoming album at the stadium. And then he moved in for a couple of weeks. And that’s not all. Steve Fennessy chats with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Greg Bluestein about what Bluestein's investigation into the logistics o...

Georgians with certain medical conditions have been permitted to take cannabis oil to ease their symptoms for six years, but it was illegal to purchase in Georgia. The state has finally approved six licenses for companies to produce and distribute medical marijuana oil in  Georgia. However, many companies whose applications were not accepted are calling foul play, protesting the licensing process ...

Georgia students are beginning their second year of school during the pandemic as coronavirus cases skyrocket, driven by the highly contagious delta variant. With children under 12 not yet eligible for the vaccine, some school districts are already seeing battles over how best to keep kids safe for in-person learning. Gov. Brian Kemp says he has no plans to impose mask or vaccination mandates. Ste...

Hundreds of thousands of Georgians who lost income in the pandemic, falling behind on their rent payments and putting them at increased risk for eviction, just got another reprieve. After a previous CDC eviction ban expired earlier this week the Biden administration has again frozen evictions, this time until early October. The new moratorium aims to cover renters in counties with “substantial” sp...