Thornton Kennedy and James Ottley have always been history buffs, even as their careers carried them in different directions. Kennedy, a sixth-generation Atlantan, is a journalist and the founder and president of the public relations firm PR South, and he has written a weekly history column for the Northside Neighbor for 15 years. Ottley, a fourth-generation Atlantan, is a real estate lending attorney with the Atlanta firm Stout Kaiser and the author of two books of local lore, “Atlanta History for Cocktail Parties” and its sequel, “Atlanta History for Cocktail Parties II – Another Round.”
Now the longtime friends have taken that shared passion online. Their informative yet feel-good podcast, “History for Cocktail Parties,” breaks down dense research into bite-sized, 30-minute episodes, usually accompanied by a themed cocktail.
The name doubles as the mission statement.
“Hopefully the stories we’re telling are compelling enough and packaged in a way that somebody would find it interesting enough to share at a cocktail party,” Ottley said. “People that aren’t necessarily history buffs — that might not even think about picking up a history book or listening to a history podcast — might still come to us and listen!”
From Snake Nation to the studio
Both born and raised in Buckhead, Kennedy and Ottley were bound to cross paths. Ottley was in the same class at Lovett School as Kennedy’s older brother, but the friendship took hold nearly 25 years ago — fittingly, through Snake Nation, the Atlanta History Center’s group for younger members, where both were active in fundraising for one of the city’s best-known historical institutions.
The Buckhead roots run deep on both sides. Kennedy’s family history in Atlanta stretches back to the 1840s, and Ottley’s great-grandfather, a prominent banker, kept an equestrian estate — complete with its own train stop — on land that is now Lenox Square.
“Both James and I, on sometimes parallel, sometimes separate tracks, have been talking about history in front of rooms full of people for as long as we’ve known each other,” Kennedy said. “So the podcast is kind of a logical progression of that — sharing history.”
Often joined by a rotating band of fellow history lovers, the pair began gathering at local breweries to trade tidbits of the past over a beer. It was in one of those meetings that the idea for a podcast was sparked.
“We would just be talking history — ‘What are you reading? What are you reading?’ and had some pretty interesting conversations,” Ottley said. “And I think it was somewhere along the way, either one of us said it or a friend said, ‘God, you should do a podcast on that.’ That was kind of the genesis of the idea.”
Once the decision was made to start the show, Kennedy and Ottley dove in headfirst. Neither had a background in digital media, recording, or podcasting, but they went online, bought the necessary equipment, and started recording. “I was reading a book about the Athens music scene. James was reading a book about R.E.M., and we said, let’s just do this. We both have this information fresh right in front of us,” Kennedy said. “And so our first episode was on the story of the founding of R.E.M.”
“But the sound quality was terrible,” Ottley said with a laugh.
The podcast evolved from there, its content and sound refined as the pair continued to learn — helped along by Charles Bonner, a friend who composed the show’s intro and outro music and remains, in Kennedy’s words, “very much behind the scenes but very critical” to how it all sounds.
“We really were learning on the fly. It’s kind of like building an airplane when you’re up in the air,” Kennedy said. “My thesis was: The only way we’re going to get halfway good at this is by doing it.”
A conversation, not a lecture
That chemistry — two old friends keeping it conversational — is essential to the production style of “History for Cocktail Parties.” Born out of a natural love of history and storytelling, the show presents complex history in an engaging, accessible way.
An episode feels less like a lecture and more like pulling up a stool next to two well-read friends.
“There are a lot of history podcasts which are just one person explaining history. … We felt like something different was having two people going back and forth, filling in gaps, and being more conversational than just a straightforward lecture,” Kennedy said.
He points to radio legend Paul Harvey as the model — packaging history so that “people are kind of on the edge of their seat,” Kennedy said.
“We are picking up on nuggets that you’re not going to find on the internet. ChatGPT is not going to have this. Google is not going to have this information,” Ottley added.
Those nuggets are the product of rigorous research. The hosts give themselves two weeks between episodes, and often more than 10 hours of work goes into each one, from the initial idea to the final edits.
“I’ve kind of been given the name ‘Scraper’ because I scrape up too much stuff. … I love research. I find this stuff fascinating. I’ll show up to the table with copious notes, pages and pages,” Ottley said.
“He’s such a smart cat, it’s ridiculous. I’m just here for comic relief,” Kennedy added.
What to cue up
The catalog — more than 40 episodes deep — already has range. Since launching in early 2025 with the story of R.E.M.’s founding, the pair has tackled everything from the founding of the Masters— to their current deep dive into the Revolutionary War in the South.
Their biggest hit, though, is an early series that began as the story of Jekyll Island and evolved into a history of the Federal Reserve. For that one, Ottley even interviewed a former college classmate who had served in the Federal Reserve system. “The amount of information in those episodes is incredible,” Kennedy said. “It was epic.”
For first-time listeners, Kennedy recommends the Charleston series — “Charleston is maybe my favorite American city,” he said — while Ottley points newcomers to the episodes on Sea Island.
As for dream topics still on the shelf: A return to JFK and, for Kennedy, the Allman Brothers. “This is a Southern band that just defined my high school and college years,” he said, adding that he is eager to explore “how this little band from Macon has this outsized influence on rock ’n’ roll music and art.”
The formula is clearly working. The show has attracted a roster of partners and sponsors — SouthState Bank, wealth management firm HB Wealth, insurance firm Sterling Seacrest Pritchard and the marketing and advertising firm Play LLC — all of whom approached the hosts, not the other way around. “All of these companies came to us; they heard the podcast,” Ottley said. “That’s kind of an honor.” And the pair teased big news on the horizon which they are not ready to announce just yet. “We’re not taking for granted where we are currently,” Kennedy said, adding that the goal “is to continue to grow this thing and to reach as many people as we can.”
Not that any of it was ever about the numbers.
“I would do this without any listeners,” Kennedy said. “This really was founded by us sitting down and drinking beers and talking history with an audience of zero. So the fact that we get to do this in a way that broadcasts it out to people, and that people are responding to it, is hugely humbling.”
New episodes of “History for Cocktail Parties” arrive every two weeks on all major podcast platforms. The show is also on social media, including TikTok, Instagram and Facebook.
