By Eric Curl
Oct. 10, 2025 – History is full of mysteries and longtime Savannah storyteller Jessica Leigh Lebos is here to tell the tale.
Lebos has taken her penchant for the written word to the audio format in her new Savannah Sideways podcast about how the city of Savannah came to own an assortment of ancient Roman statuary and what the relics reveal about the city’s layered past. As her podcast’s website states, the story “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.”
“Most of you know this is a story I’ve been trying to tell for a really long time,” Lebos said during a launch party for the podcast at the Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum on Thursday. Earlier that day, Lebos premiered the first two episodes of the 10-episode narrative, detailing the saga of the statuary, its ties to Greenwich Cemetery, a “beautiful slice of land on the Wilmington River behind Bonaventure Cemetery,” and the city’s vote to auction off the surplus storage in 2020.
Lebos said “it is such a story, I could never tell it all,” but that the timing for the launch was appropriate. The Oct. 9 launch date was the date in 1779 when a key figure in the podcast, General Casimir Pulaski, was mortally wounded in the Siege of Savannah.
“So, I just thought that was kind of auspicious and wonderful and this whole project has just fallen into place,” she said. “It was really the right time, and providence has just opened up for all of it.”
Of course, Lebos did not bring this project to life by herself. At Thursday’s event, amid “living statues,” ship models and a spread from B. Matthew’s Eatery and The 5 Spot, she expressed her appreciation to her supporters and collaborators who helped make the series possible, including Dee Daniels Media producers Dee Daniels and Megan Mason, “Bonaventure Don” Teuton and city of Savannah archivist Luciana Spracher, for providing their technical assistance and historical knowledge needed to ensure Lebos storytelling was buttressed with clarity and accuracy.
“If the phrase ‘under promise and overdeliver’ had an emoji, it would be a mohawk next to a gorgeous redhead,” Lebos said, referring to Daniels’ and Mason’s individual coifs. “This story has come to life because of their skills and their hard work.”
Daniels shared Lebos’ enthusiasm for the project, stating that the podcast’s launch was like “birthing a baby.”
“This has been one of the greatest joys of our business to be a part of the production of this podcast,” she said. “Jessica Leigh Lebos is one of the most talented people that we have ever had the opportunity to work with.”
Lebos noted that her Kickstarter campaign for the project had garnered almost 200% of its fundraising goal, money that was going to “local businesses, local people, local artists, local craft people.”
“I’ve always kind of relied on the kindness of my subscribers, who, first of all, the paid subscribers of the Savannah Sideways (column), thank you … ” she said. “Some of you have been with me for five years, since the Substack has been going on and I’m so grateful. Thanks for making an honest woman out of me. That’s a big deal.”
Season one of the Savannah Sideways podcast is available now on major podcast platforms, with new episodes released weekly.
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