What makes a plantation more than just a historic mansion? In this episode, Peter and Orlando explore In the Shadow of the Great House: A History of the Plantation in America with University of Georgia historian Daniel Rood. From sugar plantations on São Tomé to cotton fields in Georgia, this episode examines how systems of labor, land use, and profit shaped American history and continue to influence the world around us.

This episode of Narrative Edge explores Leave Your Mess at Home, the debut novel from Atlanta-based author Tolani Akinola. Peter Biello and Orlando Montoya unpack the book’s layered story of a Nigerian American family in Chicago as they navigate estrangement, identity, immigration, romance, sexuality, and generational pressures. From a tense Thanksgiving reunion to questions about what families owe one another, this conversation explores why the novel resonates with readers seeking emotionally charged contemporary fiction.

Poet Sean Hill joins Narrative Edge to discuss his collection The Negroes Send Their Love: Poems, Perspectives, and Possible Futures. In this conversation, Hill reflects on race, memory, fatherhood, and Afrofuturism while exploring how poetry, prose, and speculative storytelling can work together in a single collection. From Georgia history to imagined futures, this episode examines how literature creates space for feeling, reflection, and hope.