Clayton State professor celebrates the centennial of Georgia’s President

(October 1, 2024) - To say that Dr. Jason Lee Guthrie is a big fan of Jimmy Carter is an understatement.

The associate professor of Communication and Media Studies is set to launch the final episode of his podcast Recollecting Carter on October 1, 2024, the former president’s 100th birthday.

“I’ve been working on this for several years now,” Guthrie said. “It is really gratifying to see a large-scale project like this wrap up and tie in nicely with current events.”

Recollecting Carter debuted on Presidents' Day Weekend in 2023, and episodes have released periodically since.

One episode has even gathered thousands of views collectively across various streaming platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Facebook, and YouTube. Entitled “The Outlier” it featured Carter biographer Kai Bird, who also the authored a biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer that was the basis for the 2023 blockbuster film.

Guthrie has also interviewed people who personally met Carter, including CSU’s former Visual and Performing Arts Chair, Terre Johnson, who played in the marching band that helped celebrate Carter’s election victory ceremony in late 1976.

“Terre grew up in Americus, Georgia, right beside Plains,” Guthrie said. “He was 16 and was the drum major of the marching band that summer that Jimmy Carter was campaigning. So, the marching band played every time he would leave on the train from Plains and every time he would come back. The night of the election, it was fairly close and wasn’t called until the next morning. But Terre was there all night as a 16-17-year-old kid waiting to play the music if it called for Carter.”

Whether speaking with local historians, experts, authors, or those who saw him in person, Guthrie is passionate about the only Georgia-born president in our nation’s history.

“This project was ideal on a number of levels for me,” Guthrie said. “Focusing on ‘Georgia’s President’ made it easy for institutions like Georgia Humanities and the President’s Office at Clayton State to help support the work. I was also able to involve my students in promoting the podcast on social media. On a personal level, I have always been inspired by Carter’s integrity and his example of faith in action, so this was just a great fit all around.”

He hopes that plenty of new and previous listeners alike will tune in to the podcast’s final episode when it launches on October 1.