This is a preview episode of the Inside the Box interview with Georgia Republican candidate for Governor, Brian Kemp. The full interview will be released on Tuesday, August 14th.

Joining Hans on the show this week is the Democratic candidate for governor of Georgia, and the former Minority Leader of the Georgia House of Representatives, Stacey Abrams. They cover a wide range of topics, including Medicaid expansion, Georgia’s growing diversity, and November’s general election. Should Abrams win, she would be the first black Governor of Georgia and the nation’s first black female Governor.

This is a preview episode of the Inside the Box interview with Georgia Democratic candidate for Governor, Stacey Abrams. The full interview will be released on Thursday, July 26th.

Michael Van Osch of Georgia Ensemble Theatre joins Hans on the show to talk about why theater and the arts are so important to a local community. Over the course of the last 25 years, the Georgia Ensemble Theatre has welcomed hundreds of thousands of people through its doors to experience a show and be with their friends and family. But, as Michael points out, if you look beyond the show, theater is about a lot more than entertainment.

To buy tickets to an upcoming Georgia Ensemble Theatre performance or to become a patron, visit www.get.org.

Joining Hans on the show this week is New York Knicks starting center Enes Kanter, a Turkish citizen who has had a lot to say about Turkey’s President Recep Erdogan. Recently, the Turkish government issued an arrest warrant for Kanter and revoked his passport after Kanter made parallels of Erdogan’s regime to Hitler. Kanter talks about how he has used his platform in the NBA to shed light on the degradation of democracy in his home country and explain to Americans why they should care.

On June 28, 2018 a gunman entered the Capital Gazette newsroom and opened fire, killing 5 people. Here at Appen Media Group on the Inside the Box podcast, we honored them the best way we know how. Support local journalism.

Hafsa Girdap was on a summer vacation with her son in Florida when a coup to overthrow the Erdogan regime began in Turkey. Afraid to go back home, she witnessed from afar as hundreds of journalists, judges and prosecutors were jailed. Turkey, a Middle Eastern country and American ally, has seen a continued assault on its nation’s institutions. Hafsa shares her story and thoughts on what hope Turkey has left for saving its democracy.

From June 30 to July 6, Set Them Free will host a photo exhibition “What if You Were in My Shoes” at the Milton library through partnership with the Atlantic Institute. The exhibition, whose art director is Emin Demiral, aims to raise awareness on the tragic forced-migration stories from Turkey. More than 50 photos, of which the background stories are written by formerly detained women, are displayed along with an introductory video.

Hosts Hans Appen, Kathleen Sturgeon and Julia Grochowski trekked down to Jekyll Island for the annual conference for the Georgia Press Association. As any good podcasters do, of course they brought all of their podcasting equipment with them! When they ran into friend of the pod Kyle Wingfield they pulled him aside and had a great conversation centered around politics, journalism and predictions for November's Georgia elections.

In the second installment of the Black Box series Marijuana’s Hazy Boundaries, reporter Joe Parker spoke to Johns Creek City Councilman Chris Coughlin about his initiative to decriminalize marijuana within Johns Creek city limits. We had him on the podcast to tell us more about why this is important to him and how close it really is to becoming a reality.

The election cycle kicked off in Georgia after the May 22nd primaries and maybe no one was busier than Eamon Keegan, political consultant and Principal of New Prospect Strategies. After managing the successful campaigns of Alpharetta Mayor Jim Gilvin, Councilwoman Karen Richard, Councilman John Hipes, and Board of Education member Katie Reeves, Keegan sat down for an interview on the Inside the Box pod to talk about what it takes to run a successful campaign, predictions for the November midterms, and to give some advice to anyone who might be thinking about working in the political arena.