On Second Thought For Wednesday, January 4, 2017

The City of Atlanta announced last month it is the test pilot for a new, software-based trash pick-up system. Atlanta is the first partner of waste management company Rubicon Global. That company says the program will cut costs for the city and help combat climate change. We talked to Atlanta sustainability director Stephanie Stuckey-Benfield and Michael Allegretti, who is the head of public policy for Rubicon Global.

We then turned things over to our acting senior producer Don Smith for a rant about annoying sticky price tags. Plus, we continued our series Pulitzer Peaches with a conversation with former University of Georgia professor Edward Larson. He won his Pulitzer for History in 1998 for the book “Summer of the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America’s Continuing Debate over Science and Religion.”

We talked with Georgia Tech researcher Nick Hud, who is leading the effort to discover the root of life on Earth. He and his colleagues may be close to answering the oldest, most basic question in human history: where do we come from? 

Finally, we were joined by Atlanta teenager Nzinga Braswell and her father, Kenneth, about their documentary, “A Queen’s Discovery," which was recently honored by a PBS film festival. The film compares Nzinga's experience as a Black American with what she saw in Africa.