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Dr. Martínez-Fernández has published at least eight books, including “Key to the New World: A History of Early Colonial Cuba” in 2019, and “Revolutionary Cuba: A History” in 2014. He was also a nationally syndicated columnist for Creators Syndicate — it’s an independent media and syndication company. He was on the FGCU campus last week to give a talk titled “Chiseled out of stone and cast out of bronze: a history of the Caribbean as told by its statues.” But, because of recent events in South & Central America and the Caribbean — and in Iran and the Middle East and other parts of the world and how it’s all connected — we didn’t talk about statues, but instead began our wide-ranging conversation with his most recent book, “When the World Turned Upside Down: Politics, Culture, and the Unimaginable Events of 2019-2022."

In the weeks after Hurricane Ian a year ago, Florida deployed the first-ever State Emergency Response Mental Health Task Force. It was comprised of mental health professionals including therapists, counselors, and massage therapists who worked directly with residents and first responders who were still in the midst of recovery. Now, almost exactly one year post-Ian, the Task Force has been deployed a second time to help people in the panhandle who were impacted by Hurricane Idalia.

We hear from former This American Life producer Stephanie Foo, who talks about her compelling memoir What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma.

This novel, a National Book Award finalist, follows an interpreter at the International Criminal Court who must speak for a leader accused of horrific genocidal crimes.

“Fort Myers Historic Hurricanes” offers a history of severe storms that have impacted southwest Florida dating all the way back to 1841, but also a dire warning about this area’s severe risk from hurricanes and storm surge in general. It opens with a hurricane in 1841 that swept across the region making landfall near Sanibel Island and bringing 14' of storm surge to the U.S. Army fort on Punta Rassa.

Florida has the second-highest incidents of the disease in The US. New research is showing the benefits that a positive lifestyle can have on delaying the effects of Alzheimer’s and Dementia.

Last July we talked with a woman who was closely following Project 2025 on her Substack “How Project 2025 Will Ruin Your Life.” Andra Watkins is a bestselling author who doesn’t normally follow these kinds of things, but she was raised with a Christian Nationalist worldview and when she started reading through Project 2025 was alarmed by things she found in it that she says align directly with that worldview, which she has long-since left behind. Now that President Trump has returned to the White House, and many of his initial flurry of executive actions align with what’s in Project 2025, we’ve brought her back for a follow up conversation to get her take on what's unfolded so far.

This time on the Gulf Coast Life Book Club, we hear from Lydia Conklin, author of the short story collection Rainbow Rainbow, which Time magazine named one of the most anticipated books of the year.

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