Virginia Prescott, former host of “On Second Thought,” is leaving Georgia Public Broadcasting for a new job in the podcast world.
She made the announcement Sunday on her Facebook page.
“I’m going to launch a podcast unit for a boutique TV and film production house in Atlanta!” she wrote. She will be working with School of Humans, which created “The Liberator” for Netflix last year and has released several podcasts, too.
Prescott came to GPB in 2018 after decades of public radio experience in New Hampshire to take over the daily morning radio show “On Second Thought” on 88.5/WRAS-FM, which was started by Celeste Headlee, the best-selling author and TED speaker who is now working in D.C.
But in early 2020, GPB scaled “On Second Thought” back to once a week and after the pandemic began, placed the show on permanent ice. It has yet to return.
Prescott continued to contribute stories for GPB, mostly about arts and culture. She hosted the Atlanta History Center’s Virtual Author talks and did online events for GPB. She helped with 2020 election coverage and developed some podcast ideas that couldn’t get funded. She ended up hosting a weekly podcast called “Georgia Today” with Steve Fennessy and guest-hosted Bill Nigut’s “Political Rewind.”
“I’ve done karaoke on-air. I’ve eaten grilled beaver meat, I’ve sometimes snort-laughed, and — less obviously — wept on live radio,” Prescott wrote. “I’ve interviewed some of my idols, a few arrogant and some surprisingly down-to-earth celebrities, countless fascinating authors, two Supreme Court justices and at least one robot.”
She added: “Still, some of the most memorable interviews were with the unrehearsed and un-slick who brought their voice and stories. Like the mother who painted portraits of people like her teenaged daughter who died of opioid overdoses, or lifelong friends of Ahmaud Arbery pained and shocked by his violent death.”
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