Narrative Edge

Dive into Charles Sumner’s life and legacy, from his abolitionist roots in Boston to the “Crime Against Kansas” speech and the caning by Preston Brooks that galvanized the North. You hear how Sumner’s constitutional arguments shaped Republican thought, echoed in phrases like “freedom national, slavery sectional,” and how his ideas later surfaced in the Brown v. Board fight.

On this episode, Peter Biello and Orlando Montoya unpack Hot Desk by Atlanta author Laura Dickerman, a witty romantic comedy set inside rival New York publishing houses. You hear how a contested literary estate, a notorious twentieth-century “lion,” and a secret family connection collide with texting, Zoom, and office politics to test what it means to separate art from the artist. Stay for how the...

Peter and Orlando talk with Georgia writer and longtime teacher Alan Caldwell to discuss his first poetry collection, The Only Verse. You hear Caldwell read “Running for No Reason” and we explore how his work faces depression, grief, marriage, and memory with clarity and care. We also trace his path from fiction to the Carrollton Just Poetry group and discuss how story and image power his poems.

This episode explores Masquerade by O.O. Sangoyomi, a sweeping historical novel that reframes the Persephone myth in a reimagined fifteenth-century West Africa. You’ll hear why Ododo, a young blacksmith from Timbuktu, is one of the podcast's most compelling protagonists and how palace intrigue, shifting loyalties, and questions of agency drive this story. Peter and Orlando talk setting, character,...

If we knew that Coca-Cola was one of the deadliest products in the American diet, would we keep drinking it? In this episode, journalist Murray Carpenter joins Peter and Orlando to uncover the story behind his book Sweet and Deadly . You learn how soda corporations spent decades funding research, building shadow networks, and spreading disinformation to obscure the links between sugary drinks and...

On this episode of Narrative Edge , Peter and Orlando dive into Colleen Oakley’s witty and fast-paced novel Jane and Dan at the End of the World . What begins as a tense dinner where Jane plans to ask for a divorce quickly turns into a chaotic hostage situation that feels ripped straight from the pages of her own failed book. With humor, heart, and unexpected twists, Oakley explores love, second c...

Orlando Montoya and Peter Biello explore Spitfires by Becky Aikman, the story of American women who ferried aircraft for Britain’s Royal Air Force during World War II, including Georgia pilot Hazel Jane Raines, whose daring flights and survival stories reveal the courage and skill of the “Atta Girls.”

Michael Hardwick had no idea that when a police officer stood at his bedroom door on August 3, 1982, he would become a face of the gay rights movement. Arrested for sodomy, Hardwick sued for his right to privacy to the Supreme Court, even as the HIV/AIDS epidemic began to take its toll. When he lost, his era-defining case inspired a half-million people to protest, and the ruling became one of the...

The Fantasies of Future Things is set in the rapidly changing landscape of Atlanta on the eve of the 1996 Olympics. On this episode of Narrative Edge , Peter and Orlando delve into this powerful debut novel, which tells the story of two Black men working for a real estate development firm that is responsible for uprooting the very communities they call home.

In this episode, Peter Biello and Orlando Montoya dive into Seven Islands of the Ocmulgee: River Stories by Gordon Johnston, a haunting collection of short stories set along Georgia’s Ocmulgee River. With themes of mystery, class, and transformation, the river becomes both setting and character in tales that linger long after they end.

LISTEN: In this episode of Narrative Edge , Peter and Orlando explore the Georgia story at the heart of Brad Snyder’s book You Can’t Kill a Man Because of the Books He Reads . The book follows Angelo Herndon, a Black labor activist arrested in Atlanta during the 1930s for possessing political literature. His case, rooted in Georgia law and courtroom drama, helped shape the national understanding o...

In this episode, Peter Biello and Orlando Montoya dive into In the Rhododendrons: A Memoir with Appearances by Virginia Woolf by Heather Christle. The memoir blends personal trauma, family history, and literary obsession, as Christle explores her past through the lens of Virginia Woolf’s life and work. The hosts discuss Christle’s emotional journey, from revisiting the site of a childhood assault...

Peter Biello and Orlando Montoya explore The Way You Want to Be Loved by Aruni Kashyap, a short story collection that tackles identity, displacement, and resilience. Through conversations about folklore, campus life, and queer love, the episode highlights how Kashyap’s writing confronts cultural blind spots with depth and sensitivity.  

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David Levering Lewis turns his lens inward in The Stained Glass Window , tracing his family's journey from slavery to the Great Migration and beyond. Hosts Peter Biello and Orlando Montoya explore how personal history and public record intertwine to reveal the deeper currents of the American story.

In this episode, Peter Biello and Orlando Montoya explore Love Sick Century , a poetry collection by Atlanta writer Elly Bookman that finds meaning in life’s everyday contrasts. Through poems that blend the personal and political, the hosts reflect on how Bookman’s work captures both the beauty and complexity of being human.

Inspired by a real-life scandal that was shocking even for the tumultuous Roaring Twenties, this captivating novel tells the story of a pioneering Black journalist, a secret interracial marriage among the New York elite, and the sensational divorce case that ignited an explosive battle over race and class. Join Peter and Orlando as they dive into this riveting tale from Savannah resident Denny Bry...

Inspired by painting, poetry, and jazz, poet Tony Whedon says he "can't wait to get to that computer every morning to see what's going to happen." Join Peter and Orlando as they explore  Blue Ray , a collection of poems by Tony Whedon of Darien, Ga. 

Aspiring musician Ruby Tucker has had enough of her small rural town and dysfunctional family. But a falling out with her best friend and bandmate has killed her dreams of escaping and making it big in the Atlanta punk scene.  Evil in Me  is bestselling author Brom's novel of possession, damnation, and rock-n-roll where one woman must get the world singing in order to save her soul. &nbs...

When Annie Brown dies suddenly, her husband, her children, and her closest friend are left to find a way forward without the woman who has been the lynchpin of all their lives. Recorded live at the Savannah Book Festival, this special bonus episode of Narrative Edge features Peter Biello's full conversation with author Anna Quindlen. 

A groundbreaking account of Sherman’s march to the Sea — the critical Civil War campaign that destroyed the Confederacy — told for the first time from the perspective of the tens of thousands of enslaved people who fled to the Union lines and transformed Sherman’s march into the biggest liberation event in American history.

Peter and Orlando explore this rich, intimate biography, from critically acclaimed author Peter Ames Carlin. This book looks beyond the sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll to open a window into the fascinating lives of four college friends — Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, Mike Mills, and Bill Berry — who stuck together at any cost, until the end.

Killer Mike, a Black man from Atlanta, Ga., and El-P, a white man from Brooklyn, N.Y., have transformed what should have been the twilight of their careers as rappers into their biggest spotlight yet. Known as the hip-hop duo Run The Jewels, they have headlined festivals worldwide, become action figures and Marvel comic book characters, spearheaded a worldwide countercultural movement, and played...

At nine years old, on her first visit to a museum, Emily fell in love with  Breakfast , a painting by Henri Matisse. Now a single mother, she lives in the world of art and can barely find time for her two daughters, much less for Mark, the man she loves. Her days are a jumble—she’s lost the thread of her life—but a contest at the museum where she’s the registrar gives her hope. The Art of Her...

Peter and Orlando discuss this powerful memoir from Neesha Powell-Ingabire. In it, she chips away at coastal Georgia’s facade of beaches and golden marshes to recover under-told Black history alongside personal and family stories.

Unstuck is the inspiring firsthand account of Stephanie Stuckey’s rise to CEO upon suddenly acquiring her family’s beloved yet struggling brand, which had become a fading memory for most Americans. Peter and Orlando discuss this captivating and inspiring memoir of the beloved, Georgia-based roadside icon.