Religious life in Athens, and its interplay with politics, culture, business, health care and even sports.

Nikolai Mather reports on social justice for the Athens Banner-Herald in Athens, Georgia. Previously, he was a staff writer at Queen City Nerve, covering local government, social justice and workers’ rights in Charlotte, North Carolina. He earned his bachelor’s degree in 2021 as a Levine Scholar at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, where he studied Southern history and political science and was the opinion editor of the student paper. In 2019, Mather was awarded a fellowship through Humanity in Action, an international nonprofit, to study genocide in Berlin, Germany. He has worked in Norway, France and the United Kingdom, but calls Pittsboro, North Carolina home.