On Second Thought For Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Georgia is a hub of television and film production, with many major projects taking place on soundstages and in city streets across the state. Every now and then, you may pass a production crew around town and wonder, ”what exactly are they filming?” We sit down with Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Jennifer Brett to learn all about what’s coming up in entertainment in the Peach State.

Then, Nydia Tisdale is a citizen journalist who covers local political affairs across the state of Georgia. She’s logged hundreds of hours of video during her time as a reporter and has provided an inside look for civic-minded citizens. However, Tisdale’s activity hasn’t always been received with open arms. She’s currently embroiled in a lawsuit with Dawson County after she was forcefully ejected from a GOP rally when she refused to stop recording the event. We hear from Tisdale about why she thinks citizen journalism plays a vital role in our media landscape. Plus, nearly six million children around the world die each year from preventable diseases. A new initiative by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Emory Global Health Institute will study why kids are dying and how to treat them. It’s called the Children Health and Mortality Prevention Surveillance Network, or CHAMPS. We speak with CHAMPS Deputy Director of Science Pratima Raghunathan and Tim Morris, the initiative’s Chief Information Officer, about child morality, the project’s goals, and barriers to data-gathering. We sit down with Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Jennifer Brett to learn all about what's coming up in entertainment in the Peach State. Then, Nydia Tisdale tells us why she thinks citizen journalism plays a vital role in our media landscape. We also speak with CHAMPS Deputy Director of Science Pratima Raghunathan and Tim Morris, the initiative's Chief Information Officer, about child mortality, the project's goals, and barriers to data-gathering. Plus, we speak with screenwriter Karen Hall about the story that wouldn't let her go.

Plus, if some of history's greatest artists could go back in time and redo their work, would they? Screenwriter Karen Hall has spent the last 20 years agonizing over her masterpiece novel, “Dark Debts,” first published in 1996. It’s the story of the devil tormenting a Georgia family and it was an instant success when it came out.  But instead of releasing another novel, she returned to the story with some major plot changes, including a new ending. We talk with Hall about the story that wouldn’t let her go.