On Second Thought

How do children’s books represent people of color? Authors and educators have organized a festival to raise awareness and celebrate books where children of color are heroes and heroines. “Hey, Let’s Read” is happening in Atlanta on May 20. We spoke with author Patrice McLaurin and KaCey Venning, executive director of the “ Hey Let’s Read " event.

Blue Ridge is a popular getaway town in the North Georgia Mountains. It's also home to a concentration of gay couples . That’s led to a rise in the number of LGBT-owned businesses.

A new study from Georgia Tech takes a deep look into the consequences of the National Football League draft. Over the last decade, the NFL draft has become a spectacle for viewers and fans. But as the pool increases, the average player’s career length is decreasing. The draft has also become a point of strategy, one that can set a team up for a season of success, or failure. We talk with Georgia Tech professor John Stasko, and GPB Sports Correspondent Jon Nelson.

For the first time, a federal court has ruled workers can’t be fired for their sexual orientation. A court in Chicago recently extended workplace protections in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to the LGBT community. A similar case in Georgia is up for appeal. We talk with a lawyer for both cases, Greg Nevins , and with Andrea Young, director of the ACLU of Georgia .

The State Board of Pardons and Paroles has declined to commute the death sentence of J.W. Ledford. His execution is scheduled to be carried out Tuesday, May 16. It will be the first one this year . Georgia has long played a central role in the death penalty debate. How Georgia cases have shaped the rules around capital punishment is the subject of a conversation we had with Sarah Turberville of The Constitution Project and Michael Mears of Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School.

The Breakroom returns to discuss the news of the week. Our panel includes Atlanta-based author Nicki Salcedo ; Christian Zsilavetz , Executive Director of Pride School Atlanta; Natalie Pawelski of Cater Communications ; and veteran Jon Jackson , who runs a farm in Milledgeville. This week, they talk about the hate behind bananas at American University, a new genderless award in Hollywood, campus carry law concerns, criminal records minus criminal charges, “bromance,” Stephen Colbert’s POTUS joke

In Georgia, county courts have contracted with private probation companies to collect fines from offenders. People are sometimes jailed for not being able to pay, even though the Supreme Court outlawed debtors’ prisons some 35 years ago . In the last couple of years, Georgia law changes made it harder for private probation companies to operate. What happens now to people who don’t pay the fines? We asked Marshall Project reporter Beth Schwartzapfel and Atlanta attorney Akiva Freidlin of the

All this month, we learn about historic theaters across the state as part of National Historic Preservation Month . We continue the series with stories from a man whose own family history is bound up in his hometown theater. Tommy Lam’s grandfather started the DeSoto Theatre in Rome, Georgia, way back in the silent film era. He looked back on a century of screenings, segregation and more. The DeSoto Theatre was a recipient of a grant for historic preservation. To apply for the latest round of

Empathy is a crucial human ability. It’s the basis of the golden rule: do unto others as you’d have them do unto you. And yet, empathy is not all that well understood. Many people confuse empathy with sympathy, and they are not the same. Since this is a term that’s often used, but generally misunderstood, we break it down for you. Then, we look at new research from Georgia Tech which finds empathy can help prevent the spread of disease during an outbreak. Ceyhun Eksin is a researcher in Georgia

When we think of Southern Gothic, a lot of names come to mind: Flannery O’Connor, William Faulkner, Cormac McCarthy. Critics include North Carolina-based author David Joy in that category. His new novel, " The Weight of this World ," takes us into a gritty, seamy world in rural Appalachia. Characters are tormented by their own demons, roused by painful memories of a small town and memories of war. We talked with David Joy ahead of his book talk in Atlanta on Monday night. David Joy is speaking