MARTA prepares for the FIFA World Cup; MLK Weekend events; Jeannette Rankin

Summary

Georgia Today Podcast Summary – January 9, 2026
Main Topics: MARTA’s World Cup Upgrades, Martin Luther King Jr. Weekend Events, The Lasting Legacy of Jeannette Rankin
Host: Orlando Montoya (Georgia Public Broadcasting)
Special Guests: Larissa Reinhart (biographer), Patrice Turner (Ebenezer Baptist Church), Bernice King (The King Center)

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Episode Overview

This episode of Georgia Today explores Atlanta’s transit preparations for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, highlights major events commemorating Martin Luther King Jr. Weekend across Georgia, and delves into the remarkable life and Georgia connection of Jeannette Rankin—the first woman elected to Congress and a lifelong peace activist. The episode features in-depth interviews, historical insights, and previews of key community celebrations.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. MARTA Prepares for the 2026 FIFA World Cup

[00:02–01:35]

• System Upgrades and Disruptions:
  MARTA officials are fast-tracking improvements in anticipation of the FIFA World Cup, including new rail cars, expanded service, and a "tap to pay" fare system. Riders may experience short-term disruptions but are promised long-term improvement.
  • Notable Quote:
    “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.”
    — Jonathan Hunt, MARTA Interim CEO [01:25]
• Safety Improvements:
  MARTA reports a 28% decrease in overall crime for the year so far.

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2. Education Policy Priorities for Georgia Legislature

[01:35–02:45]

• Top Focus Areas:
  The upcoming legislative session aims to address teacher incentives, literacy, and maximizing the benefits of college education—which is the state’s largest budget expense.
  • Notable Insight:
    “Leaders in the Legislature have indicated that literacy rates and early childhood education will be their priorities in 2026.”

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3. Jeannette Rankin: Trailblazer and Georgian by Choice

[02:45–10:45]
Interview with Larissa Reinhart, author of “Winning the How: Jeannette Rankin Defied All Odds to Become the First Woman in Congress”

Her Early Life and Values

• Grew up in rural Montana, where gender equality and grassroots democracy were necessities of frontier life.
  • Quote:
    “Everyone really had to pitch in to even survive. Men had to help take care of the kids, and women had to help 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.”
    — Larissa Reinhart [03:33]

Suffrage and Charisma

• Rankin’s organizing skills and humor drew diverse crowds; she reframed suffrage in terms of universal rights, appealing to men by linking women’s rights to broader labor and democratic reforms.
  • Quote:
    “She also had this really unique capacity to convince people to listen to her... she was often able to convince them that their interests aligned, even if it didn't seem so from the outset.”
    — Larissa Reinhart [04:19]

Historic Election and Pacifism

• Her 1916 election drew mixed but largely positive reactions—receiving a standing ovation in Congress. Confronted by World War I, her anti-war stance separated her from many allies, as the broader suffrage movement supported the war to prove women’s patriotism.
  • Notable Moment:
    “When she arrived in Congress, she received a standing ovation from every single member.” [05:18]

Life in Georgia and Continued Activism

• Rankin moved near Athens, GA, finding both a familiar college town atmosphere and rural living. She founded the Georgia Peace Society and championed reforms like ranked-choice voting and multi-member Congressional districts.
  • Quote:
    “She established the Georgia Peace Society... and 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.”
    — Larissa Reinhart [07:58]

Her Most Notorious Congressional Vote

• In 1941, following Pearl Harbor, Rankin cast the only vote against declaring war—standing by her pacifism even in profound isolation.
  • Notable Quote:
    “Her most lonely vote was the vote against the declaration of war with Japan... 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.”
    — Larissa Reinhart [08:58]

Enduring Relevance of Rankin’s Ideas

• Rankin’s belief that democracy is the means to prevent war remains timely.
  • Rankin’s Voice (1972):
    “Governments make war and the only way we can stop war is to have something to say about our government.” [09:30]
  • Commentary:
    “I think they're more relevant than ever... Jeanette 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.”
    — Larissa Reinhart [10:03]

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4. Macy’s Northlake Mall Closure and Peach Bowl Preview

[10:45–12:43]

• Macy’s at Northlake Mall in Tucker will close, joining a regional trend of retail restructuring.
• Tonight’s Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl at Mercedes-Benz Stadium will feature #5 Oregon vs. #1 Indiana, with the winner advancing to the national championship against Miami.

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5. Martin Luther King Jr. Weekend Events

[12:43–15:59] Report by Kristi York Wooten

King Celebration Concert

• This year’s concert at Ebenezer Baptist Church features the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, celebrates black composers, and will be live-streamed.
  • Quote (Patrice Turner, Director of Worship):
    “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 going to take you on a wonderful journey nonetheless of the African American experience.” [13:17]

King Center Events

• The King Center in Atlanta will host various programs: Beloved Community Awards (this year honoring Billie Eilish and Viola Davis among others), the Beloved Community Summit, and the annual church service at Ebenezer Baptist Church.

• Bernice King, CEO and daughter of MLK Jr. and Coretta Scott King, underscored the importance of nonviolence and love amid today’s social challenges.

  • Quote (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.” [14:54]
  • Preparation for Celebrations:
    “I start probably a month or two in advance by just kind of looking at what's happening in the world, first and foremost remembering that... my focus is to elevate the message of nonviolence and love and dignity and humanity.” [15:30]

• The National Center for Civil and Human Rights will offer free admission January 17; The King Historic Park in Atlanta remains free year-round except for special events.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “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.”
  — Jonathan Hunt, MARTA Interim CEO [01:25]

• “She was also exceptionally funny, which is something that not a lot of people know about her.”
  — Larissa Reinhart on Jeannette Rankin [04:19]

• “Governments make war and the only way we can stop war is to have something to say about our government.”
  — Jeannette Rankin (to Dick Cavett) [09:30]

• “If we want to embrace the theology and the framework that the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. laid out for us... then we have to center ourselves on on the love that is within us.”
  — Dr. Patrice Turner [13:54]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• MARTA World Cup upgrades & safety: [00:02–01:35]
• Education policy watch: [01:35–02:45]
• Jeannette Rankin feature: [02:45–10:45]
• Macy’s closure & Peach Bowl: [10:45–12:43]
• King Weekend Concert preview: [12:43–13:54]
• King Center tributes & Bernice King remarks: [14:14–15:59]

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Tone & Context

The episode blends concise news delivery with thoughtful historical analysis and community celebration. The tone is informative, respectful, and engaged—reflective of Georgia’s dynamic present and storied past. The voices of activists, artists, and public historians powerfully illuminate the local and national significance of current events and enduring legacies.

Transcript

[A]

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 Jeanette Rankin. And she was from Montana and the first woman elected to Congress, also a dedicated pacifist. Governments make war and the only way we can stop war is to have something to say about our government. 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, January 9th. I'm 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, but we're not satisfied.

[B]

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.

[A]

Marta officials also pointed to public safety efforts, saying overall crime is down 28% this year on the system. Education experts are setting their priorities for the 2026 General assembly, which begins on Monday. GPP's Sarah Kallas reports.

[B]

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.

[A]

What are the high impact strategies that would affect whether or not folks have educational attainment and personal well being and economic stability?

[B]

Issues include everything from incentivizing more teachers to work in Georgia to improving literacy to maximizing the benefits of college education is the number one 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 Kalis.

[A]

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 US House from the state of Montana, but she lived for nearly half of her life near Athens, Georgia, where the Jeannette Rankin foundation works to continue her legacy. Today Joining me now is Larissa Reinhart, author of Winning the How Jeannette Rankin Defied All Odds to Become the First Woman in Congress. Thank you for coming to gpb.

[C]

Thank you so much for having me.

[A]

Now, Jeanette 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?

[C]

Yeah, so Jeanette grew up in a time when everyone really had to pitch in to even surv. Men had to help take care of the kids, and women had to help 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.

[A]

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?

[C]

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. That was a really convincing argument to a lot of people for suffrage.

[A]

How did people react to her historic election in 1916?

[C]

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 Jeannette to be the representative. And regardless of, you know, differing opinions, when she arrived in Congress, she received a standing ovation from every single member.

[A]

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 US around this moment. So why did her vote against the war estranged her from her allies and foes alike.

[C]

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 Jeanette felt like the war would wipe out the other progressive agenda items that they are working for, including, you know, 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, you know, that was sort of the high water mark. And the progressive movement petered out after that very quickly.

[A]

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?

[C]

Yeah, 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 that could lead to world peace rather than world war. And as the Allied and access powers both continued the arms race, she became increasingly convinced that another world war was inevitable.

[A]

As you say, 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?

[C]

Yeah, so she really loved Georgia. She, you know, adored Athens in particular. It reminded her very much of her home city of Missoula. Like Athens, Missoula is, 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.

[A]

Of course, we know she wasn't quite finished with politics. She won a second term representing Montana in the US 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?

[C]

Yeah, her most lonely vote was the vote against the declaration of war with Japan. You know, she had really in 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.

[A]

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 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 some something to say about our government. Would some of her ideas about democracy like that be relevant today?

[C]

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 Jeanette 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 Jeanette advocated for for the better part of 50 years.

[A]

Well, it's a great book. I enjoyed learning about Jeanette Rankin. The book is called Winning the 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. 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. 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. The Tucker location joins two stores in Duluth that already have closed as part of a strategy Macy's CEO calls a bold new Chapter 18. Other furniture and traditional Macy's locations in the state will remain open. 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. Number five, Oregon will take on number one, Indiana tonight at 7:30. The winner already knows it will face a true road game for the national championship. Waiting in the January 19th national title game in Miami will be number 10 seed. Miami will which advanced with a 3127 win over Mississippi last night in the Fiesta Bowl. 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 Christie York Wooten brings us a preview.

[D]

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 Hailstorch, take 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 being a premier showcase for black composers. Dr. Patrice Turner is director of worship and the arts at Ebenezer.

[E]

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.

[D]

The King Celebration Concert will be live streamed on gpb.org tomorrow, January 10, and features conductors Jonathan Taylor Rush and Nor McKenzie, as well as Turner and remarks from Reverend Raphael Warnock. Turner says the music dovetails with King's enduring messages of peace and nonviolence.

[E]

If we want to move the needle forward, if we want to embrace the theology and the framework that the Reverend 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 on the love that is within us.

[D]

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 Community 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 King, Jun 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.

[F]

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.

[D]

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.

[F]

I start 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 are doing, regardless of what's happening in the world, is essential and necessary. It will not change because this particular incident happened or this particular incident happened. You know, my focus is to elevate the message of nonviolence and love and dignity and humanity.

[D]

The center for Civil and Human Rights has free admission on January 17. And although national parks will no longer have free entry on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which falls on January 19 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 KristiJork Wooten in Atlanta.

[A]

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 hear on this podcast in greater detail. If you have feedback for us, send that our way. We love comments and suggestions@georgia todaypb.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 feet. I'm Orlando Montoya. I hope you have a great weekend and join us again next week for GEORGIA Today.