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On the Friday January 9th edition of Georgia Today: MARTA officials say the transit system is getting ready to kick off the 2026 FIFA World Cup; A look at some Georgia events happening this weekend for Martin Luther King Day; And Jeannette Rankin, the first woman elected to Congress, talks about why she’s a dedicated pacifist.
Orlando Montoya: Hello and welcome to the Georgia Today podcast. Here we bring you the latest reports from the GPB newsroom. On today’s episode, MARTA officials say the transit system is getting ready to kick off for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. We’ll have a look at some Georgia events happening this weekend for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. And we’ll talk about Jeannette Rankin. She was from Montana and the first woman elected to Congress, also a dedicated pacifist.
Jeannette Rankin: Governments make war, and the only way we can stop war is to have something to say about our government.
Orlando Montoya: Did you know she spent about half her life in Georgia? We’ll explain that connection and more on today’s Georgia Today. It’s Friday, Jan. 9. I’m Orlando Montoya.
Orlando Montoya: Officials with Metro Atlanta’s public transit agency MARTA say the system is preparing for the 2026 FIFA World Cup even as riders might see short-term disruptions along the way. At an oversight hearing, officials outlined plans for new rail cars, expanded service, and a tap-to-pay fare system. Interim CEO Jonathan Hunt acknowledged the upgrades won’t be seamless.
Jonathan Hunt: But we’re not satisfied with a good transit system here in the state, so we’re going to go from good to great. And doing that, it’s going to require a little short-term discomfort for some extremely long-term gain.
Orlando Montoya: MARTA officials also pointed to public safety efforts saying overall crime is down 28% this year on the system.
Orlando Montoya: Education experts are setting their priorities for the 2026 General Assembly, which begins on Monday. GPB’s Sarah Kallis reports.
Sarah Kallis: Matt Smith, the director for policy and research at the Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education, unveiled the top 10 issues that education experts are watching this year under the Gold Dome. He says the list was crafted based on evidence.
Matt Smith: What are the high impact strategies that would affect whether or not folks have educational attainment and personal wellbeing and economic stability?
Sarah Kallis: Issues include everything from incentivizing more teachers to work in Georgia, to improving literacy, to maximizing the benefits of college. Education is the No. 1 expense in the state’s overall budget each year. Leaders in the legislature have indicated that literacy rates and early childhood education will be their priorities in 2026. For GPB News, I’m Sarah Kallis.
Orlando Montoya: A major new biography of the first woman elected to Congress is highlighting her commitment to nonviolence, women’s rights and democracy. Congresswoman Jeanette Rankin was elected twice to the U.S. House from the state of Montana, but she lived for nearly half of her life near Athens, Georgia, where the Jeanette Rankin Foundation works to continue her legacy today. Joining me now is Lorissa Reinhart, author of Winning the Earthquake: How Jeannette Rankin Defied All Odds to Become The First Woman in Congress. Thank you for coming to GPB.
Lorissa Rinehart: Thank you so much for having me.
Orlando Montoya: Jeannette Rankin grew up in the pioneering, ranching, homesteading American West. What did her rural Montana upbringing teach her about the progressive issues that she would come to champion?
Lorissa Rinehart: Yeah, so Jeannette grew up in a time when everyone really had to pitch in to even survive. So men had to help take care of the kids, and women had to bring in the harvest. So there was a great deal of gender equality there that you didn’t get on the East Coast at the time. And in addition, you had a sense of grassroots democracy, right? Everybody had to work together to make it work. And those were values and ideas that she took throughout her life and her political career.
Orlando Montoya: After college, she became involved in the women’s suffrage movement and quickly discovered that she had a gift for organizing and for oratory. This helped her to attract and command diverse crowds. What was it that drew people to her?
Lorissa Rinehart: First of all, I think she was just charismatic. People loved to hear her talk, and she was also exceptionally funny, which is something that not a lot of people know about her. But she also had this really unique capacity to convince people to listen to her, at least, if not sway them to her side. And she spoke to people’s interests, and she was often able to convince them that their interests aligned, even if it didn’t seem so from the outset. So for instance, she sort of famously was able to talk to men about women’s suffrage by saying, “Look, what you want is what women want. You want workers’ rights. You want the right to organize. You want government oversight and fair wages and health care. These are things that are important to women, too. So by enfranchising us, you’re actually enfranchising yourself as well.” And that was a really convincing argument to a lot of people for suffrage.
Orlando Montoya: How did people react to her historic election in 1916?
Lorissa Rinehart: There was mixed reactions, I would say, but overall it was positive. You know, I think there was a dedication and commitment to democracy. And the people of Montana wanted women to have the right to vote, and they wanted Jeanette to be their representative. And regardless of differing opinions, when she arrived in Congress, she received a standing ovation from every single member.
Orlando Montoya: And she came to Congress as America was preparing for the first world war. You noted in your book that anti-war sentiment peaked in the U.S. around this moment. So why did her vote against the war estrange her from her allies and foes alike?
Lorissa Rinehart: Yeah, so really, at the time, the suffrage movement was tacking its sails to war, hoping that by showing women support for war, that it would convince men that they deserved the right to vote, through sort of this logic of patriotism. But Jeannette felt like the war would wipe out the other progressive agenda items that they were working for, including expanded voting rights, health care for women, reproductive rights. And she was right that, you know, as soon as the war was declared, all these other progressive agenda items were really swept off the table. And so while women did get the right to vote, y’know, that was sort of the high watermark and the progressive movement petered out after that very quickly.
Orlando Montoya: Rankin decided not to run in the next election, but turned her skills toward lobbying Congress and the public for peace and international cooperation. Of course, given history, we know how that turned out. Why did she believe a second world war was inevitable?
Lorissa Rinehart: So she saw really the birth of the military industrial complex, in America’s entrance to World War I as, you know, the world began to arm. And right after the war there was this beginning of the arms race. And she would often say “If you prepare for war, you get war. If you prepare for peace, you get peace.” And so she really wanted to blaze a path, y’know, that could lead to world peace rather than world war. And as the Allied and Axis powers both continued the arms race, she became increasingly convinced that another world war was inevitable, as you say.
Orlando Montoya: Between the first and second world wars, she bought a house in Georgia, first in Bogart, west of Athens, then later she lived in Watkinsville. What drew her to Georgia, and what impact did she make in the Peach State?
Lorissa Rinehart: So she really loved Georgia. She adored Athens in particular. It reminded her very much of her home city of Missoula. Like Athens, Missoula was built around a college. But she also loved to live that rural life that she was able to in Bogart and Watkinsville, as you say. Now she also established the Georgia Peace Society, which was prominent in those interwar years and after. And she did a lot of lobbying for democratic reforms like multi-member congressional districts and ranked-choice voting that continue to be part of our political discourse today.
Orlando Montoya: Of course, we know she wasn’t quite finished with politics. She won a second term representing Montana in the U.S. House in 1940, again with anti-war sentiment on her side. But Pearl Harbor changed everything and everyone in Congress, except her. Can you describe her “most lonely vote?”
Lorissa Rinehart: Her most lonely vote was the vote against the declaration of war with Japan. She had really more or less predicted that America would be drawn into the war brewing in Europe. And she had worked for the better part of 20 years to prevent that war. And she voted “no,” not thinking it would really change history or change anyone’s minds, but just to hang a lantern on a path that could have been had we chosen the path of peace in 1919 rather than a path towards war.
Orlando Montoya: She believed that people never would vote for war. And so a lot of her thinking about war was about democracy. Here’s what she told TV host Dick Cavett in 1972:
Jeannette Rankin: And today we’re facing an election. And my slogan now is “Governments make war. And the only way we can stop war is to have something to say about our government.”
Orlando Montoya: Would some of her ideas about democracy like that be relevant today?
Lorissa Rinehart: Oh, I think they’re more relevant than ever, you know. We are at a point where our democracy is in crisis. Left, right or center, I think we can all agree on that. And Jeannette knew as early as 1914 that major electoral reforms were required in order for people’s voices to be heard in the halls of power. And, as I said before, she advocated for ranked-choice voting, multiple-member congressional districts, and abolishing the electoral college. And all of these things continue to be discussed and debated today. But they were things Jeannette advocated for the better part of 50 years.
Orlando Montoya: Well, it’s a great book. I enjoyed learning about Jeannette Rankin. The book is called Winning the Earthquake, How Jeannette Rankin Defied All Odds to Become the First Woman in Congress. Its author is with me, Larissa Reinhart. Thank you for being on GPB.
Lorissa Rinehart: Thank you so much for having me.
Orlando Montoya: You can watch or listen to me and GPB’s Peter Biello talking about that book on GPB’s Narrative Edge. That’s our podcast and video series about Georgia writers and Georgia stories. Find Narrative Edge on YouTube or on your favorite podcast app.
Orlando Montoya: Another Macy’s store in Georgia is closing its doors. The Macy’s at Northlake Mall in Tucker is closing. Employees were notified yesterday the closing was coming along with 12 other stores across the country, but no date has been set. Tucker location joins two stores in Duluth that already have closed as part of a strategy Macy’s CEO calls a “bold new chapter.” Eighteen other furniture and traditional Macy’s locations in the state will remain open.
Orlando Montoya: In Georgia sports, thousands of college football fans will descend on downtown Atlanta tonight for the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. No.5 Oregon will take on No. 1 Indiana, tonight at 7:30. The winner already knows it will face a true road game for the national championship: Waiting in the Jan. 19 national title game in Miami will be number 10 seed Miami, which advanced with a 31 to 27 win over Mississippi last night in the Fiesta Bowl.
Orlando Montoya: Celebrations honoring the life and birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. are happening across the state this month. In Atlanta, that includes the King Celebration Concert and multiple events at the King Center and National Center for Civil and Human Rights. GPB’s Kristi York-Wooten brings us a preview.
Kristi York Wooten: William Grant Still Jr. Was considered the Dean of African-American composers in the mid-20th century. His work, along with that of Uzi Brown, Jasmine Barnes, and Adolphus Hailstork, takes center stage at this year’s King Celebration Concert at Ebenezer Baptist Church. The collaboration between the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the church was resurrected last year after a break and has quickly returned to be in a premier showcase for Black composers. Dr. Patrice Turner is director of worship and the arts at Ebnezer.
Dr. Patrice Turner: If people come in thinking that the concert this Saturday is going to be like the one we did in 2025, they’re going to be pleasantly surprised. It’s a little different, but it’s going to take you on a wonderful journey nonetheless of the African-American experience. And then you’ll see this multicultural choir and orchestra sitting in front of you making all of this amazing music.
Kristi York Wooten: The King’s Celebration concert will be live-streamed on GPB.org tomorrow, Jan. 10, and features conductors Jonathan Taylor Rush and Norman McKenzie, as well as Turner and remarks from Rev. Raphael Warnock. Turner says the music dovetails with King’s enduring messages of peace and nonviolence.
Dr. Patrice Turner: If we want to move the needle forward, if we want to embrace the theology and the framework that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. laid out for us, influenced by Gandhi and Howard Thurman and Elijah Mays and other thinkers, then we have to center ourselves on the love that is within us.
Kristi York Wooten: The King Center in Atlanta is offering multiple programs to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, including its Beloved Community Awards, honoring advocacy achievements this year by organizations, as well as celebrities, including Billie Eilish and Viola Davis, plus the 2026 Beloved Communities Summit at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, and the annual Commemorative MLK Day Church Service at Ebenezer. Bernice King, who is the CEO of the King Center and the daughter of Martin Luther Jr. and Coretta Scott King says the Center is continuing its Mission Possible theme this year. She kicked off 10 days of celebration events at an emotional press conference yesterday.
Bernice King: As our nation enters another year marked by social strain, economic uncertainty, global conflict, and moral confusion, the 2026 King Holiday observance is more critical than ever because we are living in a time when violence, displacement and dehumanization are being normalized.
Kristi York Wooten: King says she is undeterred by political criticism and that the family is already working on celebrations to honor what would have been her mother and father’s 100th birthdays in 2027 and 2029. She remembers them as she prepares remarks for this busy month honoring her father.
Bernice King: I started probably a month or two in advance by just kind of looking at what’s happening in the world first and foremost, remembering that what the work that we’re doing, regardless of what’s happening in the word, is essential and necessary; it will not change because this particular incident happened or this particular incident happens. You know, my focus is to elevate the message of nonviolence and love and dignity and humanity.
Kristi York Wooten: The Center for Civil and Human Rights has free admission on Jan. 17, and although national parks will no longer have free entry on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which falls on Jan. 19 this year, the King Historic Park in Atlanta has free-admission year-round, with only certain special events requiring a ticket price. For GPB News, I’m Kristi York Wooten in Atlanta.
Orlando Montoya: And that’s it for today’s edition of Georgia Today. If you’d like to learn more about the stories that you hear on Georgia Today, go to gpb.org/news. There you’ll find many of the stories that you’ll hear on this podcast in greater detail. If you have feedback for us, send that our way. We love comments and suggestions at GeorgiaToday@GPB.org. And if you haven’t yet hit “Subscribe” on this podcast, take a moment to do that now So, you keep current with us in your feed. I’m Orlando Montoya. I hope you have a great weekend, and join us again next week for Georgia Today.
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For more on these stories and more, go to GPB.org/news
Orlando Montoya is newscaster producer for Georgia Public Broadcasting.
Jake Cook is an audio engineer, musician and podcast producer from Atlanta.
He edits and produces Salvation South and other podcasts for GPB.
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