Perspectives with Condace Pressley Condace Pressley

My guest is David Manuel. He's a father, arts advocate and community activist. 10 years ago, he received a life saving liver transplant. He's founded the "I Am A Father 5K Run/Walk, an event uniting male-focused organizations and directing donations to youth programs like the Piedmont Hospital Foundation and others with a priority on strengthening families from the fatherhood perspective. This year's 5K walk/run is Saturday, June 8th starting at Privi at The Mall at Stonecrest in Parking Lot C. Festivities begin at 8am with an energizing warm-up session led by Stepp Steward. The event will feature appearances by Q Parker from the R&B group 112 as well as a special message from Atlanta's own Ludacris. To learn more or to get involved, visit www.iamafather5K.org.

My guest is Ken Block, author of DISPROVEN: My Unbiased Search for Voter Fraud for the Trump Campaign, the Data that Shows Why He Lost, and How We Can Improve Our Elections. Looking back on the day he signed the contract with Donald Trump’s second presidential campaign, Ken Block says, “I had no idea then how finding so little would lead to so much.” The day after the 2020 presidential election, a lawyer for former U.S. President Donald Trump’s campaign called Block, a registered Republican and former gubernatorial candidate in Rhode Island, and asked if his firm, Simpatico Software Systems, would look for voter fraud. Block knew somebody was going to do it—and he knew he could do it honestly, thoroughly, and impartially. So, he took the job. In DISPROVEN: My Unbiased Search for Voter Fraud for the Trump Campaign, the Data that Shows Why He Lost, and How We Can Improve Our Elections Block describes what happened next—including another unexpected phone call early in the morning of February 23, 2023. “There is never a good time to receive a call from the FBI,” Block says. The phone call was followed by three subpoenas. We discuss the work Block did for the Trump campaign, what he did and didn’t find, and the Trump supporters who kept claiming fraud. DISPROVEN offers suggestions of how new federal laws might fix things. “I am an optimist,” he writes, but he is also a realist and remains dedicated to this work. “My involvement in these matters will continue until these cases end.”

Selected as winner of the inaugural 96-Hour Opera Project Showcase in 2022, Forsyth County is Flooding (with the Joy of Lake Lanier) is the first new opera launched from the annual competition. Joining us on Perspectives are the creative genius' behind the story and the music - writer / director Adamma Ebo and her fiancé' Marcus Norris. Their one-act dark comedy explores some of Georgia’s terrifying, uncomfortable, and uncanny happenings at Lake Lanier in Forsyth County, Georgia. In what might just be a modern-day ghost story: a private detective and a witch, who claims to be connected to spirits are hired to uncover a weird supernatural mystery happening—puddles. Everywhere … It premieres on June 15, 2024 at 8 PM. The performance will be at the Martin Luther King Performing Arts Center on the Morehouse College campus. The opera also reflects an environmental and spiritual retribution by unknown forces for the lake's creation. The opera is sung in English and includes explicit language.

The issue of reproductive rights for women is on the ballot in the Georgia Primary race for Supreme Court Justice as well as for other candidates offering themselves for office in the aftermath of the Dobbs decision in June 2022. The nonprofit chromatic black along with other organizations and a group of concerned citizens are staging a series of public meetings to educate the community. The series is branded as "2024 & Beyond: Creating Our Shared Future” Town Hall – Reproductive Rights. The conversations center on shaping a more equitable future for all and seek to unpack "Project 2025" The Heritage Foundation's Vision for America, widely referred to as the MAGA Plan. The host of panelists will dive deep into Project 2025’s efforts to dismantle Roe vs. Wade and decades of women’s reproductive rights progress. “Project 2025 is a continuation of a calculated assault on our bodily autonomy, spearheaded by well-funded groups with deep ties to influential policymakers and Supreme Court justices,” says Abeni Bloodworth, chief executive officer and founder, chromatic black™. Bloodworth is my guest today on Perspectives.

The decisions we make now will define our economy and the health of our planet. My guest on the show today is Bob Keefe, author of the new book, "Clean Economy NOW: Stories from the Front Lines of an American Business Revolution,” in which Keefe offers a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the corridors of power in Congress, where pivotal climate policies are being crafted. From bustling assembly lines to dusty mines, Keefe takes readers on a journey through the very spaces where the foundation of a cleaner economy is being laid. However, he also sounds a point of caution, highlighting the potential consequences if we allow our elected officials to backtrack on these vital policies. The book includes detailed data from E2 about the more than 200 major clean energy projects announced in just the first year of the landmark Inflation Reduction Act, and insights from E2’s research into the economic impacts of these projects, including hundreds of thousands of jobs and more than $150 billion added to the U.S. GDP.

As another school year winds down, we are reminded of the teachers who've made a difference in our lives. Teacher Appreciation Week comes at the end of may and ABC News journalist Deborah Roberts has curated a collection of essays and musings from celebrity friends and colleagues who share how teachers changed them, imparted life lessons, and helped them to get where they are today. Contributors include dancer Misty Copeland, chef Rachel Ray, actors Brook Shields and Octavia Spencer as well as colleagues Robin Roberts, Jenna Bush-Hager and Oprah Winfrey.