Archive Atlanta

In April 1949, Metropolitan Opera singer John Garris came to Atlanta to perform at the Fox Theatre—but by the next morning, he was dead in an alley off Marietta Street. His murder launched a bizarre investigation that...

Atlanta's Neighborhood Planning Units—or NPUs—have been shaping how residents engage with City Hall for nearly 50 years, but what exactly are they, and why do they exist? This week, inspired by my own quest to explore...

This week, we're talking about the 1933 kidnapping of prominent Atlanta banker James King Ottley Sr. during the height of the Great Depression, when ransom kidnappings were rising across the country. After being...

This week’s episode explores the history of Agnes Scott College, from its origins as a small, church-founded seminary in 1889 to its rise as a nationally respected women’s college. Rooted in the 19th-century female...

From railroad stop to global corridor, Chamblee has lived a lot of lives in just over a century. This week, we trace its evolution from land once inhabited by the Muscogee people, to a tiny rail junction, to a booming...

Still recovering from my appendectomy last week and so I am re-releasing my episode about the Dick Lane Velodrome in East Point. We're talking about what a velodrome is, Atlanta’s first velodrome, Dick Lane and the...

This week, we’re stepping into the pages of the Negro Motorist Green Book. I am sharing my conversation with my good friend, Cynthia Jennings , who has been uncovering the stories behind the places that offered safety...

This week, we explore the long and winding history behind the creation of a Botanical Garden in Atlanta - a dream that took more than 50 years to become reality. The story begins with Eugene Schofield Heath, who first...

This week, we trace tennis from its 12th-century French origins to its rise in Atlanta, where elite clubs, segregated courts, and growing public facilities shaped the sport’s local identity. From the founding of ALTA by...

When people think of sit-ins, they think Greensboro. But the movement didn’t start, or stop, there. This episode looks at how the 1960 Greensboro sit-ins inspired Atlanta’s Black college students to challenge...

Atlanta gets nearly an extra hour of evening sunlight compared to cities east of us—and it turns out that’s no accident. In this episode, we unravel how railroads invented time zones, why Georgia was once split between...

In this episode, we follow the land from rural farmland to an independent city with its own mayor, streetcars, schools, and sharp racial divides. You’ll hear how Bush Mountain became a vital Black community, how...

Before airplanes and AI, Atlanta once stopped in its tracks to watch a hot air balloon rise into the sky. In this episode, I cover the story of the city’s first balloon flight in 1869. Balloon pioneer Samuel Archer King...

From ancient superstitions to nuclear submarines, the name Atlanta carries a remarkable legacy across the seas. In this episode, we trace the centuries-old traditions of ship naming, before diving into the history of...

Tami Roche was named Miss Burlesque in 1966 and her career took off, performing across the country and on Broadway, before moving to Atlanta in 1969 to headline at the Body Shoppe for a few weeks. Weeks turned into...