This episode originally aired on October 12, 2021.
Journalist Craig Pittman is a native Floridian, born and raised in Pensacola, so he is a literal Florida Man. He studied journalism at Troy State University in Alabama, where according to his bio “his muckraking work for the student paper prompted an agitated dean to label him "the most destructive force on campus." He says he pursued journalism as a stepping stone to becoming a novelist but that didn’t pan out. But, he has spent decades as an investigative and environmental journalist, mostly with the Tampa Bay Times which he wrote for from 1998 until last year, covering a variety of newspaper beats and quite a few natural disasters, again his bio says “including hurricanes, wildfires and the Florida Legislature.” These days he writes for the nonprofit Florida Phoenix, and he co-hosts the podcast Welcome to Florida.
Over the years as a journalist Pittman has had the opportunity to write about some of Florida’s most interesting characters and the wild stories they tend to star in. He’s also the author of a number of non-fiction books, including his latest “The State You’re In: Florida Men, Florida Women, and Other Wildlife.” He joins us to talk about the new book, and his work documenting Florida’s weirdness, or shall we say its distinctiveness.