On Second Thought For Thursday, July 27, 2017

Senior health, immigrant detention facilities, Vanessa Briscoe Hay, and Manchester Orchestra

First, a recent report puts Georgia 41st in the nation for its quality of senior health. According to America’s Health Rankings Senior Report, that’s two slots lower than last year. We talk about senior health in the state with Kathy Floyd of the Georgia Council on Aging and Glenn Osster of the Institute of Gerontology at the University of Georgia.

Next, a debate is going on over the operation of immigration detention centers. Georgia’s Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin is one of the largest in the country. It is run by a private company. There are many like it. Critics say those private facilities are problematic. Last year, a Homeland Security Advisory Council said they should be phased out. However, a separate subcommittee wants to continue using private immigrant detention facilities,  but that committee wants greater oversight. We talk more about this with Azadeh Shahshahani, the legal and advocacy director with Project South.

Then, all this week we get additions to the essential Georgia Playlist from musicians playing at Bragg Jam in Macon this weekend, July 28-29. The series is produced by GPB’s Trevor Young. Today’s picks come from Vanessa Briscoe Hay, former frontwoman for the legendary Athens band Pylon. She’s now singing with the Pylon Reenactment Society, who perform at Bragg Jam on Saturday, 9:30 p.m. at Fresh Produce Records. She brings us music from The Brains and the Classics IV.

Finally, Atlanta band Manchester Orchestra has been going strong since 2004, having performed at big festivals like Shaky Knees, Lollapalooza, and Bonnaroo. But the band reached new fame after scoring the 2016 cult film “Swiss Army Man” with Daniel Radcliffe and Paul Dano. Now the group is gearing up to release their fifth studio album, called “A Black Mile to the Surface.” We talk with the songwriting duo behind the group, Andy Hull and Robert McDowell.