Daren Wang has made a career out of his love for literature. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Decatur Book Festival was his idea , and after 12 years as its executive director, he resigned this fall . Before that, he worked on public radio shows that celebrated literary luminaries. This August, Wang stepped into a new role: author. He's previously written for the AJC and Paste Magazine among others, but " The Hidden Light of Northern Fires " is his first novel. On this edition of "Two Way Street

Emory University’s Center for Ethics is spending the next year continuing a conversation that Mary Shelley started nearly two centuries ago. Her debut novel, “ Frankenstein ,” will turn 200 on January 1, 2018. Emory is commemorating that milestone with an initiative it’s calling FACE: Frankenstein Anniversary Celebration and Emory. Emory began its celebration last week when it unveiled a new portrait of Frankenstein’s creation by Ross Rossin . He is a native Bulgarian known for his portraits,

Today on “Two Way Street,” Emily Saliers tells us about her first solo album, “ Murmuration Nation .”

Today on “Two Way Street,” we revisit our conversation with author George Saunders . He spoke with us in March about his first full-length novel “ Lincoln in the Bardo ,” which takes place during the first 24-hours after Willie Lincoln, President Abraham Lincoln’s 11-year old son, dies. Willie is interred in a Georgetown cemetery, Oak Hill, where he becomes trapped in the bardo—the Tibetan Buddhist concept of a transitional state in between death and rebirth. Saunders was inspired by the bardo

America is at a tense moment in history. We're living at a time of stark disagreement. Some say the president doesn't tell the truth; others say he tells it like it is. This tension came to head in Charlottesville, Virginia, where confrontations between white nationalists and counter-protesters erupted in violence. Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns says these rifts aren't without precedent: the Vietnam War also sparked divisions in American society. In today's "Two Way Street," Burns takes us back

Today on “Two Way Street,” we talk to writer Steve Oney about his new book, “ A Man’s World .” Oney has been writing for more than four decades for publications such as Esquire , Time, GQ, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Over the course of his career, he estimates that he’s written somewhere between 150 and 200 profiles, 20 of which are included in this new collection of essays.

Today on "Two Way Street," we talk with new " A Prairie Home Companion " host Chris Thile . Last October, Thile took over the APHC stage from Garrison Keillor , who hosted the show for over four decades. What is his relationship with Keillor like now? Thile tells us what kind of mentor Keillor has been.

John T. Edge is the director of the Southern Foodways Alliance . Based out of the University of Mississippi, the SFA studies and documents Southern food cultures. A respected authority, Edge writes about Southern food and culture for publications such as Garden & Gun Magazine and The Oxford American . He joined us to talk about his new book, “ The Potlikker Papers: A Food History of the Modern South ,” which explores the South by way of its food. We begin with a simple but tough question

Robots are coming and sooner than you think. That’s according our guest this week on Two Way Street: Georgia Tech robotics expert, Ayanna Howard . Ayanna discusses what the future might look like with robots in the picture. They explore the best and worst case scenarios when it comes to artificial intelligence. Ayanna explains what’s just science fiction and what we really should be concerned about. Like the economy—will robots take our jobs? Probably, she says, but it’s not something we should

Today on “Political Rewind,“ what comes next for the Plant Vogtle expansion? The $25 billion project has been in the works for years, but the builders – Westinghouse, a subsidiary of Toshiba – went bankrupt and future completion is questionable. Georgia Power customers have already paid additional fees for construction of the plant; what happens next? Public Service Commissioner Tim Echols joins us to discuss where we are and what it will take to move forward.