On Second Thought

The Breakroom returns to discuss the art of gift giving and the recent special election in Alabama. We also talk about the biggest lies of the year, going to the moon, and bad grammar. Joining us this week are Steve Brown, Ed Sohn, Soumaya Khalifa, and Eric Segall.

The list of nicknames and titles for filmmaker John Waters is long and legend. Waters is more than a filmmaker. He’s an actor, writer, fashion icon, stand-up comedian and art collector. He performs in Atlanta on Friday with his one-man show, “A John Waters Christmas.” We get his take on the holiday season. Macon is justifiably proud of its music history: Little Richard, Otis Redding, the Allman Brothers Band… Dig a little further back, and there’s another Macon musician who might be just as

The list of nicknames and titles for filmmaker John Waters is long and legend. Waters is more than a filmmaker. He’s an actor, writer, fashion icon, stand-up comedian and art collector.

Electronic cigarettes have been around for more than a decade. They allow users to inhale a puff of vaporized nicotine and flavoring, instead of smoking. There’s no doubt these products are safer than cigarettes, if you already smoke. But safe? Not really. And what a person believes about the risks of vaping versus smoking depends on their worldview of authority. We discuss with Michael Eriksen, Dean of the School of Public Health at Georgia State. Kristin Higgins from Emory’s Winship Cancer

Thomas Hicks was once a local hero in the small mining community of McCaysville, Georgia. He was the town doctor who made middle-of-the-night house calls. But Hicks had a terrible secret, one still reverberating today. From 1950 to 1965, he sold more than two hundred babies on the black market. Some parents knew, others were told their children had died. These children are now fully grown adults, still known as the “Hicks Babies.” We talk to Melinda Dawson and Kriste Hughes about their search

Georgia’s legislative session begins January 8, 2018. But a bill addressing the debate over Confederate monuments has already been filed by Decatur’s State Representative, Mary Margaret Oliver. The bill would allow local governments to decide whether or not to keep or remove monuments. Georgia has about 175 Confederate markers and they are mostly protected by state law. Supporters often say those monuments are about history. But a recent study from Georgia State University study found many

Thomas Hicks was once a local hero in the small mining community of McCaysville, Georgia. He was the town doctor who made middle-of-the-night house calls. But Hicks had a terrible secret, one still reverberating today. From 1950 to 1965, he sold more than two hundred babies on the black market. Some parents knew, others were told their children had died. These children are now fully grown adults, still known as the “Hicks Babies.” We talk to Melinda Dawson and Kriste Hughes about their search

Getting the flu is, at best, unpleasant. It can kill you. According to the Centers for Disease Control, Georgia is one of seven states reporting widespread flu activity this year. In metro Atlanta, 47 people have been hospitalized for influenza-associated conditions. That’s about double the number hospitalized at this time last year. The CDC recommends nearly everyone above the age of six months get an influenza vaccination. But people still seem to have questions about what these shots are, how

All this year, we’ve paid homage to Southern food. Now, it’s time for cocktails. Every drink has its own story, and they’re told in a new book called “ The Southern Foodways Alliance Guide to Cocktails .” We talked with co-authors Sara Camp Milam and Jerry Slater , who speak at the Atlanta History Center on Wednesday night . Georgia offers some amazing cocktails. But there was -- legally anyhow -- a long dry spell. Prohibition was the law of the land from 1920 to 1933. Georgia had its own rules

Photographer Alison Wright has seen a lot of places. She’s trekked through Africa, to South America, to Asia, with many stops along the way: 150 countries in all. She has one goal: Documenting the human condition, one photograph at a time. Her new book, "Human Tribe," is a selection from those thousands of photographs, all showing our shared humanity.