On Second Thought For Tuesday, July 19, 2016

It's been 20 years since Atlanta became an Olympic city. The city transformed after that moment. We spend the hour on how the 1996 Olympics changed Atlanta and hear stories from listeners about their Olympic memories. We speak with former NPR correspondent Kathy Lohr, who covered the games for the network, and Maurice Hobson, an assistant professor of African American Studies at Georgia State University and the author of the forthcoming book, "The Legend of the Black Mecca: Myth, Maxim, and the Making of an Olympic City." We talk about how Atlanta prepared for the games, race relations and the Olympic legacy as the city gets ready to host another large sporting event: the 2019 Super Bowl.

Plus, we speak with the creator of Izzy, the mascot for the ’96 games, and how the character continues to haunt him 20 years later. Then, Dena Brummer was only a teenager when she was assigned to report on the Centennial Olympic Park Bombing. We hear from her and her journalism mentor as they look back on covering one of the biggest stories of the year.