Great Reads

The stranger arrived at the movie set late in the evening. Crew members preparing for a long night’s shoot were told the short and stocky, heavily bearded man had come to watch over one of the film’s stars, a fourteen-year-old boy whose mother was leaving in a few hours for a flight to California.

Every third Saturday of May during the 1970s, Atlanta hosted a raft race on the Chattahoochee River. Sounds simple, and it sort of was, until the race took on dimensions that even its founder, Larry Patrick, never imagined.

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.

After multiple rare cancers have been diagnosed in Waycross, Georgia, the city grapples with a profound question: What if the industries that gave us life are killing us?

The Georgia Department of Public Health saw its reputation scorched as a result of the state’s ridiculed Covid-19 dashboard. But as it turns out, the health department had little control over the troubled site.

Until it becomes clear what this new normal will entail, the future of Georgia’s film industry—and the livelihoods of thousands of crew members who serve as the backbone of your favorite blockbuster film or TV show—remains in limbo.

In a move that combines burlesque with recycling, Blondie Strange crushes Budweiser empties flatter than platters between her breasts without flinching, dismounts the stage, and pulls a Sharpie from behind the bar to autograph them for the hooting frat boys, intown scenesters, and gamy night crawlers who are waving dollar bills.

Lance Cooper was looking for answers behind a single car crash. What the attorney found led to a recall of 30 million vehicles. Inside General Motors’ deadly ignition switch scandal—and the price one Kennesaw family paid.

When customers of Xytex uncovered the truth about one of its sperm donors, Chris Aggeles, the disclosure set off more than a dozen lawsuits—exposing an industry that can shatter lives while helping to create them.

The opening of Mercedes-Benz Stadium will mark a rite of passage not just for the Falcons or Blank, but for Atlanta itself. NFL stadiums—new NFL stadiums, that is, with gleaming features and staggering budgets—have become the sine qua non for the cities that claim a franchise. Want to host a Super Bowl? Build a new stadium. Want to ensure your home team doesn’t decamp to another city? Build a new stadium.