Labor Day protests organized; Election Board fines paused; Peach Bowl CEO steps down

Summary

Georgia Today Podcast — August 29, 2025

Overview

This episode of Georgia Today covers a range of significant news impacting Georgia: Labor Day protests targeting worker rights and policies of President Trump’s administration; the legal standstill over fines for the Fulton County Elections Board; the announcement of longtime Peach Bowl CEO Gary Stoken’s retirement, including an insightful interview on Atlanta’s sports legacy and the future of college football; as well as updates on insurance rates, jobs, local sports, and innovation in recycling.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Fulton County Election Board Fines Paused

[01:01]

• A judge has paused daily $10,000 fines against Fulton County for not appointing two Republican nominees to the elections board. This comes after the county commissioners were found in contempt for not complying with a previous court order.
• The county is appealing, leading Judge David Emerson to put the fines on hold during this process.

2. Georgia's Soaring Insurance Rates

[01:51]

• Lawmakers are seeking solutions to skyrocketing car and homeowner insurance costs.
• A special legislative study committee, chaired by Representative Matt Reeves, is exploring state-based answers to this national problem:

  "Insurance is a major cost of living issue. It is a national problem right now... And like Georgia has done in so many areas, we are trying to take a national problem and offer Georgia solutions."
  — Matt Reeves [02:01]

• Testimony included Insurance Commissioner John King, academic experts, and impacted residents. The review follows passage of a contentious tort reform law aimed at lowering rates.

3. Labor Day Protests: "Workers Over Billionaires"

[02:40]

• Labor rights and anti-Trump groups are organizing statewide Labor Day protests under the banner "Workers Over Billionaires."
• Laura Judge of Indivisible North Metro emphasizes long-term organizing goals for worker protections, healthcare, and education:

  "We want to see a country where public dollars go to public good, not to billionaire profits."
  — Laura Judge [03:08]

• Protests are planned in Marietta, Gainesville, Dalton, Albany, and nationwide.

4. Innovation in Plastic Recycling

[03:41]

• Only about 10% of the 350 million tons of plastic used annually gets effectively recycled.
• Georgia Tech professor Christos Athanasiu is developing construction materials inspired by the molecular structure of seashells:

  "We have bricks and then we have mortar and we put them together and we can have a robust structure."
  — Christos Athanasiu [03:56]

• The goal is to repurpose single-use plastics like pallet wrap for durable building materials, but large-scale solutions remain a challenge.

5. Spotlight Interview: Gary Stoken, Retiring Peach Bowl CEO

Atlanta's Rise as a Sports Hub

[05:05]

• Stoken reflects on Atlanta’s transformation post-1996 Olympics:

  "Bob Costas had termed the phrase Atlanta is becoming the sports capital of the world... We brought in the NBA, Major League Baseball and NHL All Star Games... the NCAA men's and women's Final Fours, Wrestlemania, the Super Bowl... We now had not only the facilities, but... volunteer corporate support and... the strategy."
  — Gary Stoken [05:20]

Peach Bowl’s National Prominence

[06:21]

• The Bowl’s ascendance included consistent sellouts, the creation of high-profile kickoff games, and bringing the College Football Hall of Fame to Atlanta:

  "I think the commissioners and the presidents saw all the things we were doing to give back to college football and decided that we deserved an opportunity to join the CFP playoff system."
  — Gary Stoken [06:43]

College Football Playoff Expansion

[07:45]

• Atlanta's future role appears secure amid playoff expansion:

  "Our goal is for the future to continue to be a part of the playoff system no matter what size it is... Just over the last six years, we've hosted sellout games, we've hosted two semifinals, and we're second in viewership and attendance... only second to the Rose Bowl."
  — Gary Stoken [07:45]

Charitable Mission and Scholarships

[08:25]

• The Peach Bowl, founded to benefit charities, has given more than $65 million to good causes, including the John Lewis Legacy of Courage Scholarships:

  "We've maintained that as our mission. We've given $65 million back to charity... Many of these kids are the first kids to get a college education in their families... We're humbly proud to have these scholarships to honor John Lewis."
  — Gary Stoken [09:12]

• Testimonial from Stella Lakeborough, scholarship recipient:

  "It's taken such a big financial burden off of me... But it's also truly pushed me pretty hard to work as hard as possible."
  — Stella Lakeborough [08:48]

Upcoming Games and Community Impact

[10:12]

• Big economic impact from high-profile kickoff games this weekend:

  "These two games, plus our Chick Fil A Peach bowl will bring over $100 million in economic impact to the city. And that translates to about $6 million in tax revenues..."
  — Gary Stoken [10:26]

• September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. Peachbowl Inc. will donate $100,000 (matched by Aflac), plus all 50/50 raffle proceeds from both games, to support pediatric cancer research.

6. Georgia’s Slowing Job Growth and Economic Trends

[11:50]

• The state added just 11,700 jobs in the first half of 2025, with white-collar sectors especially impacted by AI advances, global economic uncertainty, and a TV/film slowdown.
• Economist Rajiv Dhawan notes:

  "If I take these three sectors, corporate information, IT and wholesale, which is 25% of the employment base since January 2023, we have lost almost 37,000 jobs, no growth. This is what I call the white collar middle management job malaise."
  — Rajiv Dhawan [11:50]

• However, growth is expected in the construction trades due to new data centers, and aerospace because of increased defense spending.

7. Savannah Bananas Stadium Expansion

[12:57]

• The team will add a $4 million, 10,000-square-foot clubhouse at Grayson Stadium, enhancing facilities for players without altering the fan experience.

8. Flag Football’s Rise for Georgia Girls

[13:57]

• 200 high school athletes attended a showcase at Mercedes-Benz Stadium to earn college offers in flag football.
• Emmanuel University coach Terry Allen shared:

  "We do have scholarships and that's one reason why I'm here, because there's still some girls out there this year that haven't committed yet. So I'm looking for... girls that really want to, you know, continue their education, continue their flag career."
  — Terry Allen [14:10]

• Player Kiara Blackman (Druid Hills High School):

  "I'm looking to get... a lot of coaches to look at me and to realize how good I am in flag football."
  — Kiara Blackman [14:24]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Gary Stoken on the Peach Bowl’s mission:

  "We were the first bowl game founded to give back to charity... We've maintained that as our mission."
  [09:12]

• Laura Judge on Labor Day activism:

  "We want to see a country where public dollars go to public good, not to billionaire profits."
  [03:08]

• Rajiv Dhawan on Georgia’s changing economy:

  "This is what I call the white collar middle management job malaise."
  [11:50]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Fulton County Election Board news: 01:01
• Insurance rates and legislative response: 01:51 – 02:40
• Labor Day protests and organizer perspective: 02:40 – 03:08
• Innovative plastic recycling at Georgia Tech: 03:41 – 04:22
• Gary Stoken interview - Atlanta’s rise as sports destination: 05:05 – 11:45
• Job growth slowdown and economic outlook: 11:50 – 13:57
• Savannah Bananas expansion: 12:57
• Girls’ flag football showcase and scholarships: 13:57 – 14:43

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Summary

The August 29, 2025 episode of Georgia Today delivers rich reporting on labor activism, economic challenges, insurance reform, and the evolving landscape of Georgia sports and innovation. Through interviews, legislative updates, and on-the-ground reporting, the podcast captures the breadth of issues shaping Georgians’ lives as Labor Day weekend approaches.

Transcript

[A]

These days there's so much news it can be hard to keep up with what it all means for you, your family and your community. The Consider this Podcast from NPR features our award winning journalism. Six days a week we bring you a deep dive on a news story and provide the context and analysis that helps you make sense of the news. We get behind the headlines. We get to the truth. Listen to the Consider this podcast from npr.

[B]

Welcome to the Georgia Today Podcast. Here we bring you the latest reports from the GPB newsroom on today's episode. Groups organize Labor Day protests against President Donald Trump's administration. A judge holds back on requiring the Fulton County Election Board to face daily fines and longtime president and CEO of the Peach Bowl, Gary Stoken, is stepping down. We'll talk with him about what College Football Playoff expansion means for Georgia.

[C]

Our goal is for the future to continue to be a part of the playoff system no matter what size it is, whether it is 12 or they move to 14 or 16 or even more.

[B]

Today is Friday, August 29th. I'm Sophie Gradas and this is Georgia Today. A judge has paused his order for Fulton county to pay $10,000 a day until it appoints two Republican nominees to its election board. Superior Court Judge David Emerson found county commissioners in contempt for not complying with his earlier order. The county plans to appeal the order, and Emerson wrote late Thursday that the appeal requires him to pause the fines, which were to begin Friday. Insurance rates are skyrocketing and state lawmakers are looking at ways to curb those costs. GPB's Sarah Kallis reports on yesterday's first meeting of a legislative committee examining the state's insurance industry.

[D]

A House study committee is looking at ways to mitigate rising car and homeowners insurance rates. And in Georgia, Representative Matt Reeves is the chairman of the committee.

[C]

Insurance is a major cost of living issue. It is a national problem right now to have insurance rates that are noticeably high and increasing. And like Georgia has done in so many areas, we are trying to take a national problem and offer Georgia solutions.

[D]

The committee heard from several people, including Insurance Commissioner John King, a professor who studies insurance, and Georgians impacted by the increases. The committee was formed after the controversial tort reform law was passed last session, which supporters said would reduce insurance rates. For GPB News, I'm Sarah Kalis.

[B]

Labor rights groups and anti Trump groups are organizing protests for Labor Day dubbed quote Workers over Billionaires, Indivisible North Metro organizer Laura Judge says the coalitions behind the protests are calling for more investment in worker protections, health care and public education. This is a long term organizing action. You know, it's not just one day of protest.

[E]

We want to see a country where.

[B]

Public dollars go to public good, not to billionaire profits. The protest is part of a wave of demonstrations taking place on Labor Day throughout the country and Georgia, including in Marietta, Gainesville, Dalton and Albany. Did you know that very little of the plastic that consumers recycle actually ends up back in circulation? A researcher at Georgia Tech is hoping a new method of construction will give recycled plastic a second life. GPB's Chase McGee has more.

[F]

Around 10% of the 350 million tons of plastic we annually use is effectively recycled. That prompted aerospace engineering professor Christos Athanasiu to look at the molecular structure of a seashell for inspiration. We have bricks and then we have.

[C]

Mortar and we put them together and.

[F]

We can have a robust structure. That strong structure will allow future manufacturers to reuse single use plastics like the cling wrap used to secure pallets to create durable construction materials like flooring. But Athanasu says that's a ways off and it'll take time to figure out how to make the material at scale. For GPB News, I'm Chase McGee.

[B]

The longtime president and CEO of the Chick Fil A Peach bowl is stepping down. The Atlanta based Peach bowl said last week that its leader, Gary Stoken, plans to retire at the end of the 2025, 2026 college football season. Stoken has led the peach bowl since 1998, transforming the new Year's game into one of the nation's top sporting events and helping to brand Atlanta as a global leader in sports entertainment. It also drives millions of dollars in charitable contributions and spending. In GE, GPB's Orlando Montoya spoke with Gary Stoken.

[E]

Gary, thanks for being with me today.

[C]

Thanks for having us, Orlando. Appreciate your interest in us and great time of the season as college football gets ready to kick off.

[E]

Gary, you've been part of Atlanta's evolution into a world capital of sports starting right after the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympic Games. What were some of the major turning points in that evolution?

[C]

Well, we were coming out of the Olympics in 96 when I took the job in 1998 and Bob Costas had termed the phrase Atlanta is becoming the sports capital of the world because we had just won the bid for the Super Bowl. My board and my staff, we endeavored to bring in all kind of events. We brought in the NBA, Major League Baseball and NHL All Star Games. We brought in the NCAA men's and the NCAA Women's Final Fours, we brought in Wrestlemania, we had the Super Bowl. All the big sporting events that are in the United States we wanted to bring into Atlanta because we now had not only the facilities, but we had the volunteer corporate support and really the strategy to go after all these sporting events. You know, we've been very blessed to do it in a city that has all the ingredients to make itself the sports capital of the world and also the football capital of the world.

[E]

The Peach bowl was not always as big as it is now in terms of attendance, viewership and national prestige. A major change happened in 2014 when it became part of the College Football Playoff along with the Rose Bowl, Sugar bowl and others. What do you think were some of the major turning points in the evolution of the Peach Bowl?

[C]

Well, we had sold out all of our bowl games up into that point from 1998 to 2013. We also created the Aflac Kickoff Games, which were the Chick Fil A Kickoff Games at the time in 2008, which changed the face of scheduling in the front side of the season because it was a huge game to kick off the season. And then we also endeavored to bring the College Football hall of Fame from South Bend and relocated to Atlanta. I think the commissioners and the presidents saw all the things we were doing to give back to college football and decided that we deserved an opportunity to join the CFP playoff system.

[E]

The Southeastern Conference is moving to a nine game conference schedule beginning in 2026, ending years of debate and possibly easing a path toward another expansion of the College Football Playoff. How do you anticipate Atlanta being a player within an expanded playoff structure?

[C]

Well, that's a great question. Our goal is for the future to continue to be a part of the playoff system no matter what size it is, whether it is 12 or they move to 14 or 16 or even more. Just over the last six years, we've hosted sellout games, we've hosted two semifinals, and we're second in viewership and second in attendance. Out of all the CFP playoff bowl games, only second to the Rose Bowl. And so we've proven that we can host these games in a first class manner, do a great job, and that's the goal. Into the future.

[E]

Since 1998, the Peach bowl has helped to drive more than $65 million in charitable and scholarship contributions. One of those scholarship recipients is graduate of Druid Hills High School and current junior at the University of Tennessee, majoring in psychology, A recipient of the John Lewis Legacy of Courage Scholarship endowed by the Chick Fil a Peach Bowl Stella.

[G]

Lakeborough it's really given me such an amazing opportunity just in college at ut. I feel like it's taken such a big financial burden off of me. I don't walk around worrying about just going out of state and things like that since I'm from Atlanta. But it's also truly pushed me pretty hard to work as hard as possible.

[C]

We were the first bowl game founded to give back to charity. Back in 1968, the Lions lighthouse created the Peach bowl, and we've maintained that as our mission. We've given $65 million back to charity, our John Lewis Legacy of Courage scholarships and education, where we have 37 universities around the country with $10 million endowed in scholarships. And many of these kids are the first kids to get an education, college education and their families. So we're trying to create a new perspective in a lot of these families by giving opportunities to get their education paid for by peachbowl Inc. And so we're humbly proud to have these scholarships to honor John Lewis and to make sure that kids in Atlanta and Georgia get the opportunities they deserve to get an education.

[E]

This weekend we'll have the AFLAC kickoff game featuring Syracuse versus Tennessee and Virginia Tech versus South Carolina. What are some of the important storylines going into this weekend's games?

[C]

On Saturday, August 30th at noon on ABC, we'll play Tennessee versus Syracuse. Both South Carolina and Tennessee are ranked and want to play in Atlanta three times this year. So this game is going to have a huge impact on college football and the selection committee for the playoffs. And then 27 hours later on Sunday at 3:00 clock on ESPN, South Carolina will play Virginia Tech. These two games, plus our Chick Fil A Peach bowl will bring over $100 million in economic impact to the city. And that translates to about $6 million in tax revenues that goes into the city coffers. September is Childhood Cancer awareness month, and Peachbowl Inc. We've donated over $23 million to create trials and cures to find a way to give a kid another month, another year, maybe another lifetime. And so we're going to donate $100,000 to that cause and Aflac is going to match that. And then we're going to donate all of our 5050 raffle for both games to that cause as well.

[E]

Gary Stoken is retiring as president and CEO of the Peach bowl after the upcoming college football season. Gary, thanks for speaking to me.

[C]

Thanks so much. Orlando.

[B]

Georgia added only 11,700 jobs in the first half of 2025. A Georgia state University economist says job growth is down sharply from recent years because of a host of factors. He said white collar middle management, service sector jobs are feeling a squeeze from artificial intelligence, that there's a, quote, iffy world economic growth and that film and television production is seeing a slowdown. Rajiv Dhawan of the university's Economic Forecasting center presented his twice yearly economic forecast on Thursday. If I take these three sectors, corporate information, IT and wholesale, which is 25% of the employment base since January 2023, we have lost almost 37,000 jobs, no growth. This is what I call the white collar middle management job malaise. On the positive side, Dawon expects construction trades to benefit from a boom in data centers coming to Georgia. And he expects the aerospace industry, including Lockheed Martin and Gulfstream Aerospace, to benefit from a pledge by NATO nations to increase defense spending. The Savannah Bananas are planning a $4 million expansion of their headquarters at Savannah's historic Grayson Stadium. A spokesperson for the baseball team that's lauded for its entertaining take on the game says the Bananas signed a lease agreement with the city of Savannah to add a new 10,000 square foot clubhouse to the stadium. The clubhouse will include a gym, lockers, showers and and an athletic training space to improve conditions for team members. The addition is not expected to change parking or the game day experience for fans. The sport of girls high school flag football continues to grow at all levels, including college. Mercedes Benz Stadium and the Atlanta Falcons hosted its fifth annual showcase this week to help girls reach new heights in the sport. GPB's Ambria Burton has the details.

[G]

200 high school athletes from across Georgia showed off their skills in front of college coaches, hoping to secure offers to play at the next level. Terry Allen is a former NFL player and Emmanuel University head flag football coach.

[C]

We do have scholarships. We do have scholarships and that's one reason why I'm here, because there's still some girls out there this year that haven't committed yet. So I'm looking for for girls that really want to, you know, continue their education, continue their flag career.

[G]

Kiara Blackman, a student at Druid Hills High School in Atlanta, put it all on the field at the combine. I'm looking to get like a lot of coaches to look at me and to realize how good I am in flag football. In the past few years, more than 100 flag football scholarships have been given to Georgia students. For GPB News, I'm Ambria Burton.

[B]

Labor Day weekend is here and we at the GPB newsroom hope you have great plans and know that a lot of folks are traveling. Hartsfield, Jackson Atlanta International Airport officials expect more than 2 million passengers to pass through ATL during the seven day Labor Day travel period. And the Georgia Department of Transportation says it expects the busiest travel days on roads and highways to be today Friday and tomorrow Saturday. Wherever you're going, even if it's just nearby, please be safe and enjoy the holiday. That's it for today's edition of Georgia Today. Thank you for listening. If you would like to learn more about these stories, visit gpb.org news if you haven't yet hit subscribe on this podcast. Take a moment right now and keep us current in your podcast feed. If you have feedback, we would love to hear it. Please email us@georgia todaypb.org I'm Sophie Gradis and we will see you next week. Sam.