Stan’s guest this week is DeKalb County CEO Michael Thurmond, who talks about his new book, James Oglethorpe, Father of Georgia: A Founder’s Journey From Slave Trader to Abolitionist, published by the University of Georgia Press. Michael argues that Oglethorpe has never gotten credit for his pathbreaking efforts to keep slavery out of the Georgia colony and his subsequent impact on the emerging abolitionist movement in England. https://www.deatonpath.georgiahistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/5-1-24.mp3 ..read more

Stan’s guest this week is Jerry Grillo, author of Big Cat: The Life of Baseball Hall of Famer Johnny Mize. Mize was born in Demorest, Georgia, and played 15 seasons in Major League Baseball and won 5 World Series. https://www.deatonpath.georgiahistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/4-18-24.mp3 ..read more

Why do the days of the week have their own particular feeling, and how did that happen? This week Stan’s guest is historian and author David Henkin from the University of California, Berkeley, discussing his book, The Week: A History of the Unnatural Rhythms that Made Us Who We Are. We take the seven-day week for granted, rarely asking what anchors it or what it does to us, yet weeks are not dictated by the natural order. They are, in fact, an artificial construction of the modern world. https://www.deatonpath.georgiahistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/4-12-24.mp3 ..read more

This week Stan discusses a new book on an old legend—Bigfoot—and the hope that springs eternal with the return of the Beloved Braves and Major League Baseball. https://www.deatonpath.georgiahistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/3-28-24.mp3 ..read more

Stan talks about This Week in History (including King George III, AIDS, RFK, Mount Everest, & Charles Dickens), remembers a record-breaking baseball player, highlights new additions to the Off the Deaton Path bookshelf, and spotlights an incredible and historic collection of golden-age comic books about to hit the auction block–and the influence of comics in his own life ..read more

Stan talks about This Week in History (the Stamp Act, James Jackson, Spike Lee, the first Black graduate of West Point, the Masters, Tomochichi, & Houdini), says goodbye to a pathbreaking historian and actor, spotlights new additions to the Off the Deaton Path bookshelf, and welcomes the opening of Major League Baseball ..read more

Stan looks at the history of this quadrennial event that goes back 232 years, from the Bible Washington used to the only inauguration held on an airplane, the only president sworn in by a woman, two inaugurals almost cancelled by cold weather, and why there have been 9 “non-scheduled extraordinary” inaugurations.  President John F. Kennedy takes the Oath of Office, January 20, 1961 ..read more

This week’s guest is Keith Mason, a Gwinnett County native who served as Governor Zell Miller’s Chief of Staff and in President Bill Clinton’s administration. He was instrumental in the passage of the Georgia Lottery and the Hope Scholarship. Keith discusses political figures past and future, including Zell Miller, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, James Carville, Paul Begala, Roy Barnes, Stacey Abrams, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, and more.  ..read more

For Halloween, Stan tells four of his favorite stories of people who simply vanished into thin air: The story of one of our Founding Fathers who vanished while mailing a letter; the most famous maritime missing persons mystery ever; the story of a man who literally was there one minute and gone the next; and finally perhaps the most notorious missing person case of the 20th century. Plus This Week in History: Duane Allman, King Tut, Jimmy Carter, Juliette Gordon Low, and more ..read more

This week Stan interviews Pulitzer Prize-winner Rick Atkinson about the first volume of his new Revolution trilogy, The British Are Coming: The War for America, Volume 1: Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777.  Rick discusses researching at Windsor Castle, George III’s handwriting, walking the battlefields, Washington’s leadership, and plays “Overated/Underated.” All this plus another edition of the ever-popular This Week in History ..read more