Georgia’s largest industry faces a mental health crisis
Agriculture is the state’s largest industry, contributing more than 350,000 jobs and more than $74 billion to Georgia’s economy. With high risks and, often, thin profit margins for family-owned farms, social isolation, the vagaries of weather, and the burden of a multigenerational family legacy, the work can wreak havoc on mental health.
The real behind the wall: A look inside the infamous, deadly Fulton County Jail
Lashawn Thompson was the seventh person to die in custody of Fulton County last year, but his was the death that finally caught the world’s attention. It took a scene so squalid that the deputy who discovered it fled to retch: Thompson was found in a filthy cell on the medical wing of the Rice Street jail, covered in lice and his own waste, his head in a toilet. Just days before, the same deputy had voiced concerns over Thompson’s living conditions.
Mariah Parker’s next move
The 31-year-old is already a successful rapper, an activist, a PhD, and a former county commissioner in Athens. Now they’ve become an organizer for an ambitious new labor union—and become an Atlantan.
The scent of water: Searching for hidden springs in downtown Atlanta
Proctor, Tanyard, Clear, and Intrenchment creeks all begin downtown and flow out from the city like spokes—west, north, east, and south. The creeks predate the railroads and highways that have nearly buried them, but their exact sources remain a mystery.
Hell and high water: A harrowing journey from Myanmar to Clarkston, Georgia
A member of Myanmar’s persecuted Rohingya community, Abu Talib endured a harrowing journey at sea to start a new life in Clarkston. But conditions continue to deteriorate for the family he left behind.
“The birds stopped singing”: Inside the battle for Atlanta’s South River Forest
Over the centuries, the South River Forest has been many things: Indigenous land, a prison farm, a dumping ground—and the keystone of an ambitious proposal to incorporate nature into Atlanta’s growth. But in 2021, people living nearby were surprised to learn that the city had different plans for it: a massive new police training facility.
Death and granite in Elberton, Georgia
Granite is one of the hardest rocks on Earth. Much of what is mined around the world is crushed for gravel or cut into countertops, sidewalk curbs, and building stones. But in Elberton, Georgia—where, 325 million years ago, a great mass of magma rose through the earth’s crust, cooled, and solidified—90 percent of the granite coming out of the area’s numerous quarries is crafted into cemetery memorials. One could say death keeps Elberton itself alive.
Climate change is on the ballot this November—and every elected official in Georgia has a role to play in fighting it
Despite another year of extreme heat, storms, floods, and wildfires, the climate crisis is still a neglected topic in electoral politics. But state leaders, from the governor on down, should be taking action.
The Corpsewood Murders: 40 years later
What has changed in the 40 years since a pair of "gay devil worshipers" built a life together in the North Georgia mountains? A look back at the Corpsewood Manor murders, which occurred in 1982 outside Trion, Georgia.
Serving as a juror for a DeKalb murder case, I learned to appreciate the cost of justice
"Already, this tragedy felt like none of my business, like I had a front-row seat to someone else’s trauma. These were real people with real lives and real pain, all physically in the same room as us. All but the victim." An Atlanta writer describes what it's like to be a juror in a murder trial and what she learned about the legal system.
