On Second Thought for Wednesday, March 21, 2018

Frankenstein has been a popular novel turned movie since it was first published in 1818. At Emory University, three Atlanta playwrights took a new look at Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein with modern scientific research. They each contributed to a single show that’s being performed at the Atlanta Science Festival. We were joined by Neely Gossett and Edith Freni, two of the three playwrights from the show "Frankenstein Goes Back to the Lab."

 On Second Thought's show for Wednesday, March 21, 2018.

African-American churchgoers have increasingly disappeared from church pews in recent years.When it comes to predominantly white evangelical churches, the absence of black congregants looms even larger. In 2014, the Pew Research Center found only 14 percent of African Americans in Georgia identified as an Evangelical Protestant. The national average is even lower. What's behind this shift in church? We sat down with Chanequa Walker-Barnes, an associate professor of pastoral care at Mercer University, and Leigh Campbell-Tyler, senior pastor at Oakhurst Presbyterian Church. Robert P. Jones of the Public Religion Reasearch Institute and author of "The End of White Christian America" also joined. 

The Fulton County Southwest Arts Center will be showing two one-act plays that are separated by 30 years. Pearl Cleage has returned to one of her earliest works in 1983’s "Hospice", the story of a woman named Jenny who had to face her mother’s rapidly approaching death. In a follow up more than 30 years later, Jenny returns in the play, “Pointing at the Moon.” Both plays share a glimpse into Cleage's heartfelt dialogue with her younger self.

And finally, we revisit a conversation with Screenwriter Karen Hall and special correspondant Celeste Headlee. Hall has spent the last 20 years agonizing over her masterpiece novel, “Dark Debts,” which was 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.  Instead of releasing another novel, she returned to the story in 2016 with some major plot changes, including a new ending.