On Second Thought

As technology increasingly comes into contact with humans, a group of scientists are working to make sure those interactions remain safe. Mark Riedl is an Associate Professor in the Georgia Tech School of Interactive Computing and director of the Entertainment Intelligence Lab. His lab uses storytelling to teach robots right from wrong. We speak with Riedl about his research and what the future holds for artificial intelligence.

The National Park Service celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. The government agency oversees more than 400 hundred parks, monuments and historic sites across the country, including the Ocmulgee National Park in Macon, Georgia. The Native American site contains remnants from 17,000 years of Southeastern Native American heritage. The park is most known for the mounds along the fall line of the Ocmulgee River. We learn more about the mounds and what they were used for from Jace Weaver,

Bees play an invaluable role in our ecosystem, but they are slowly dying out as a species. In order to further integrate bees into a city environment, the Urban Honey Bee Project at Georgia Tech hopes to create new homes for these vital insects while educating students on ecological responsibility. We talk to Georgia Tech’s Jennifer Leavey, who is director of the project, about the initiative and what results she hopes to achieve over the length of the project. Take a quick peek at the Georgia

Two years ago, Georgia Tech became the first university in the country to accept Bitcoin. But they stopped this year due to a lack of interest. We break down what Bitcoin really is. Then we speak with Nathaniel Popper, New York Times Wall Street reporter and author of “Digital Gold: Bitcoin and the Inside Story of the Misfits and Millionaires Trying to Reinvent Money,” about the future of Bitcoin and who is leading the charge towards a worldwide currency.

A survey by U.S. News and World Report found as many as one in three first-year students did not return to college for a second year between fall 2010 through fall 2013. Kennesaw State University is one of 44 institutions which launched a new initiative to address freshmen retention rates. We speak with KSU academic advisor Chris Hutt about the program and how it aims to help students stay on track for graduation. Then, the DeKalb County Police Department is the latest law enforcement agency to

The DeKalb County Police Department is the latest law enforcement agency to equip officers with body cameras. The department is buying 600 BodyWorn cameras made by Utility Inc. for each of its patrol officers. The police say it's an effort to enhance transparency and officer safety, but there are concerns about how that footage would be shared with the public. We talk about the debate over police body cameras with DeKalb County Public Safety Director Cedric Alexander, Utility Inc. CEO Robert

A survey by U.S. News and World Report found as many as one in three first-year students did not return to college for a second year between fall 2010 through fall 2013. Kennesaw State University is one of 44 institutions which launched a new initiative to address freshmen retention rates. We speak with Chris Hutt, who is the Assistant Vice President and Executive Director of Academic Advising at Kennesaw State, about the program and how it aims to help students stay on track for graduation. We

The Breakroom gang returns to talk about Satanic Temple members planning to start an after-school program at a Cobb County elementary school, a televangelist who bought Tyler Perry’s $17.5 million Buckhead mansion, and Donald Trump’s latest war of words, this time with the Muslim parents of a U.S. Army captain killed in Iraq. Joining us for The Breakroom: Soumaya Khalifa, Executive Director of the Islamic Speakers Bureau of Atlanta Sam Burnham, Curator of the blog “All the Biscuits in Georgia”

The small city of Sparta, Georgia made headlines this week. A lawsuit claims Hancock County and its Board of Elections systematically questioned the registrations of nearly 200 Sparta voters - most of whom are black. A quarter of the voters were removed from voter rolls. This electoral move would have required the pre-clearance from the federal government three years ago. But the Supreme Court struck down that provision, saying the mandate was outdated and unconstitutional. We speak with legal

The small city of Sparta, Georgia made headlines this week. A lawsuit claims Hancock County and its Board of Elections systematically questioned the registrations of nearly two hundred Sparta voters - most of whom are black. A quarter of the voters were removed from voter rolls. This electoral move would have required the pre-clearance from the federal government three years ago. But the Supreme Court struck down that provision, saying the mandate was outdated and unconstitutional. We speak with