Mike Kiniry
Producermkiniry@wgcu.org
Mike Kiniry is producer of Gulf Coast Live, and co-creator and host of the WGCU podcast Three Song Stories: Biography Through Music. He first joined the WGCU team in the summer of 2003 as an intern while studying Communication at Florida Gulf Coast University.
He became the first producer of Gulf Coast Live when the show launched in 2004, and also worked as the host of All Things Considered from 2004 to 2006, and the host of Morning Edition from 2006 to 2011. He then left public radio to work as PR Director for the Alliance for the Arts for five years, and was then Principled Communicator at the election integrity company Free & Fair for a year before returning to WGCU in October, 2017.
In the past Mike has been a bartender and cook at Liquid Café in downtown Fort Myers, a golf club fixer/seller at the Broken Niblick Golf Shop in Fort Myers, and a bookseller at Ives Book Shop in Fort Myers. He lives near downtown Fort Myers with his daughter, and their dog and two cats.
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Up until the early 1900s about three-quarters of Florida’s southern coast, from about Tampa Bay on the Gulf side around to The Indian River Lagoon on the Atlantic Ocean, was covered with, and protected by mangroves. After coastal development took off in the 1900s hundreds of thousands of acres of mangroves were removed in urbanizing coastal regions. Mangroves are important for many reasons, so we have a Mangroves 101 conversation to learn about the role they play in our coastal ecosystems. Our guests are Dr. Brian Bovard, Wetland Plant Ecologist in the Department of Ecology and Environmental Studies within the Water School at FGCU and Dr. Win Everham, Professor in the Department of Ecology & Environmental Studies at FGCU. -
The Florida Department of Health says contact with water from areas with blue-green algae can make people and animals sick, and it advises people to stay away from these waters. Brand new research found cyanobacterial and algal toxins in low concentrations in the majority of air samples taken around SWFL. We dig into this new research and its implications with the study's lead scientist, Dr. James Metcalf, from Brain Chemistry Labs in Jackson Hole, WY; and Jason Pim, Board President of Calusa Waterkeeper. -
A Guardian ad Litem is a legally appointed, trained volunteer who represents the best interests of children who have become involved in court proceedings, often in cases related to abuse, neglect, custody disputes, and other situations where a child's welfare is at stake. There are more than 500 court certified Guardian ad Litem volunteers in the 20th Judicial Circuit. On any given day in Southwest Florida, more than 1,000 children are displaced due to abuse, abandonment, or neglect in their home. We learn about the nonprofit A.N.A.s Friends with Executive Director, Jessica Kaestner; and Board President Bruce Greenberg. -
Active Parenting education programs have been around since the early 1980s. They are evidence-based, meaning they use research-backed curriculum that teach techniques and approaches that have been studied and shown to provide benefits including lowering household conflict and improving child behavior. We learn about a new series of free Active Parenting courses that begin soon through the David Lawrence Centers for Behavioral Health in Collier County from Jasmine Pagano, Wellness Program Supervisor at the DLC Wellness Institute. -
Since 2008, more than 100 cities have officially declared that they are "Compassionate Communities" which affirm the Charter for Compassion. In Florida, St. Augustine signed on in 2013 and St. Petersburg did as well in 2018. One year ago, a group of southwest Floridians held their first ‘shaping a compassionate Fort Myers’ event to start building momentum toward imbedding compassion into our local community. Compassionate Southwest Florida is holding its 12th Community Conversation on Saturday, July 25 and we get a preview. -
The Burroughs Home & Gardens in downtown Fort Myers was constructed in 1901 so is celebrating its 125th birthday this year, with the help of the Uncommon Friends Foundation — part of their mission is preserving the historic home. Alongside historic preservation, the Uncommon Friends Foundation’s mission also includes promoting good character and ethics, and providing scholarships to local students. We get an update on what the foundation is up to, and get a bit of history on the Burroughs Home and the namesake 'uncommon friends'. -
Data Centers are all over the news lately because AI companies are building them, apparently as fast as they can manage. They take up huge amounts of resources, including electricity and water and hardware and all of the things building huge facilities requires. But what exactly is a data center, and why do we need so many of them? And why do they consume so much electricity and water and other resources? What are they doing? Are they all doing the same thing or are there different kinds? We discuss these questions, and some of the ways we all use data centers every day even if we don't use Generative AI — and some of the benefits we all receive without realizing there's a data center on the other end of the service. -
During the Covid pandemic, retired U.S. Army Lt. Colonel Michael Troop got into audio production and that led to him pitching an idea to Bryce Alexander from the Naples Players to recreate, from the ground up with professional and amateur actors, and full sound design, old-time narrative radio shows from the 1930s, 40s, and 50s and the Naples Players Repertoire Radio Theatre podcast was born and is now off and running. -
The New World Screwworm has been in the news lately because it turned up in southern Texas in early June. These parasites are endemic to central and south America these days, but they were once present in the southern United States but were eradicated in the mid 1960s. The parasite is actually a fly whose larvae burrow into and feed on the living flesh of warm-blooded animals, cattle primarily in the Texas cases but also sheep. Unchecked, screwworm outbreaks can be economically devastating for cattle and other livestock farmers. Because a screwworm outbreak is potentially a big deal for the entire United States, including here in Florida, we talk with an expert from University of Florida. -
During the Covid pandemic, retired U.S. Army Lt. Colonel Michael Troop got into audio production and that led to him pitching an idea to Bryce Alexander from the Naples Players to recreate, from the ground up with professional and amateur actors, and full sound design, old-time narrative radio shows from the 1930s, 40s, and 50s and the Repertoire Radio Theatre podcast was born and is now off and running.
