For years, Atlanta has worked to fix failing public schools. Charter schools have begun to appear as an alternative to many of those troubled schools. In author David Osborne’s latest book, Reinventing America’s Schools, he suggests charter school-like guidelines that all schools should follow, including Atlanta’s. We talked with him and Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Maureen Downey.

 

 

Ever wanted your own country? Maybe a micronation is what you need. Twenty-seven self proclaimed nations, many from Georgia, gathered in Dunwoody last year for MicroCon. The four-day event was hosted by Queen Anastasia von Elphberg of the micronation, Ruritania. That's located near Stone Mountain, Georgia. We talked about this epic gathering with filmmaker Oliver Noble of Vice Media. We also discussed the legitimacy of micronations with Ryan Lenz, Senior Investigative Reporter for the Southern Poverty Law Center’s “Intelligence Project.”

We move on from micronations to virtual ones. For Chris Rickwood of Atlanta, the music is the most important part of any video game. He writes music for video games, and worked on songs for more than a hundred games. His compositions have been as short as two minutes and as long as an hour. We asked him to describe a couple of his favorite video game songs that have a connection to the Peach State.

 

The culinary world is divided. Women spend on average more time in the kitchen than men, but most celebrity chefs are men. One food writer is calling for more gender diversity in her field because she says that matters to food trends and journalism. In a commentary, Kathleen Purvis, the food editor of the Charlotte Observer, explained why women need to have a seat at that table. And what about racial diversity in food writing? We talked about the importance of that with Nicole Taylor, author of “The Up South Cookbook: Chasing Dixie in a Brooklyn Kitchen.” We also spoke with food and beer writer Dennis Byron and Natalie Keng of the Atlanta-based business, Chinese Southern Belle.

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