Thursday Nov 27, 2025
Episode 9: The Big Reveal
The Savannah Sideways Podcast
Savannah Sideways, Season 1: The Strange Story of Savannah's Ancient Roman Statuary is a ten-episode journey into one of the South’s strangest true stories — the saga of ancient Roman statues hidden in plain sight. When marble relics resurfaced in a Savannah, Georgia City Council meeting nearly a century after being unearthed in a cemetery, writer Jessica Leigh Lebos got obsessed and started digging. What she found spans continents and centuries: Gilded Age tycoons, Revolutionary War heroes, vanished mansions, Georgia’s longleaf pine forests, barrier-island battles, Gullah Geechee heritage — even a cameo from James Brown. History, mystery, and Southern Gothic collide in this unforgettable deep dive into Savannah’s secrets.
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Thursday Dec 04, 2025
Thursday Dec 04, 2025
Welcome to the Savannah Sideways Podcast – Season One – The Strange Story of Savannah’s Ancient Roman Statuary.
In this season finale, host Jessica Leigh Lebos returns to where the entire journey began: the quiet, storied grounds of Greenwich Cemetery. Five years after first hearing whispers of long-forgotten marble relics hidden away by the City of Savannah, she reflects on how a single question about a set of statues unraveled a sweeping tale of art, ambition, politics, preservation, and the ever-shifting identity of a city.
As Savannah continues to grow and transform, Jessica traces the new paths the story has taken—from updates on key figures and communities featured throughout the season, to unexpected developments that could shape the future of the statues themselves. Out at the Shady Lagoon, surrounded by newly restored landscapes and the hum of pollinators on the Rosalynn Carter Butterfly Trail, she considers the larger forces that bind history, nature, and civic responsibility.
City staff, historians, and preservationists reenter the narrative, offering fresh context and hints of what may lie ahead for the marble collection. The fate of the statues is still unsettled and competing visions for their future raise new questions about stewardship, legacy, and the meaning we assign to the objects—and stories—we inherit.
As Jessica closes the chapter on Season One, she leaves listeners with a sense of wonder, urgency, and possibility. The threads she’s followed through archives, graveyards, museums, and bureaucratic halls point to a story that may be coming full circle… or perhaps opening the door to an entirely new mystery.
If there's one thing we've learned, it’s that Savannah always has another secret waiting in the wings.
SHOW LINKS:Meet Jessica Leigh LebosCheck out Savannah Sideways SubstackCheck out Jessica's booksMeet the Producers: Dee Daniels MediaTHANKS TO THOSE WHO MADE THIS SHOW POSSIBLE:Dr. Erika Morrow and the team at ForSight Unique Eye Care & Eye WearBubba Gumbo's Tybee IslandTybee Island MarinaBG’s Seafood Co-Op Bonaventure DonThe 5 SpotShips of the Sea Maritime Museum Shot By SomiSIXBYLone Wolf LoungeOver Yonder Celebritees
FIND A FAVORITE SPOT IN THIS EPISODE:
00:00 Introduction and Recap
00:46 Changes in Savannah
01:28 Updates on Key Figures and Communities
02:15 A Serene Morning at Greenwich Cemetery
03:58 The Historical Significance of the Statues
06:55 The Future of the Statues
13:30 City Hall Restoration and Civic Engagement
19:05 Conclusion and Reflections