Lawfare Daily: The Explosive Mystery That Rocked Rural Georgia
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 29 April 2026
⏱️ 51 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In 1979, a man using a pseudonym built a strange monument in Elberton, Georgia. Called “America’s Stonehenge" by some, the massive granite monolith known as the Georgia Guidestones attracted conspiracy theories and controversy until July 2022, when someone blew them up. Those two mysteries—who built the Guidestones and who destroyed them—are at the heart of a new narrative podcast series from Goat Rodeo and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution called “Who Blew Up the Guidestones?”
Lawfare Editor in Chief Benjamin Wittes sits down with some of the team behind the show, including its host, Lawfare Managing Editor Tyler McBrien; series lead producer Megan Nadolski of Goat Rodeo; and Charles Minshew, senior editor of data journalism at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. They talk about the origins of the Guidestones and their creator, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, over-the-counter explosives, QAnon, and much, much more.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It meant something different to lots of people. |
| 0:06.1 | You know, there were people that loved it, people that thought it was quirky, |
| 0:08.8 | and then people who just absolutely thought it needed to go away. |
| 0:13.9 | It's the Lawfare podcast. |
| 0:15.9 | I'm Benjamin Wittes, editor-in-chief of Lawfare, |
| 0:18.7 | with Lawfare Managing Editor Tyler McBrion, |
| 0:22.5 | Megan Nadalski of Goat Rodeo, and Charles Minshue of the Atlanta Journal Constitution. |
| 0:30.2 | This really, I think, made our task so much harder and made the task of the GBI so much harder. |
| 0:34.8 | It's a monument hated by so many people with so many |
| 0:39.9 | motives blown up by something that anyone can buy, anyone, anyone over 18. Today we're talking |
| 0:48.2 | the Georgia Guidestones, the mysterious Stonehenge of the United States that showed up in 1979 and got |
| 0:58.0 | blowed up in 2022, who blew up the guidestones? |
| 1:03.9 | We may have an answer for you. |
| 1:07.1 | So, Tyler, first of all, why did you run off and do this project where you solve a terrorism incident with a publication other than lawfare? |
| 1:23.1 | Because you said no. |
| 1:26.3 | Yeah, bad move on my part. |
| 1:30.0 | But in all seriousness, it's just such a Georgia story. |
| 1:33.6 | And, you know, teaming up with the Atlanta Journal Constitution was just, was very logical. |
| 1:39.5 | It was a very, a marriage of interests and needs. |
| 1:44.1 | And then, of course, you know, the bridge here is the wonderful |
| 1:47.0 | people at Goat Rodeo who produce all of Lawfare's podcasts and now the AJC as well. |
| 1:52.9 | Yeah. So give us a little bit of the history of the project for those who have not listened |
... |
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