Search results for

Back in mid-October the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began discharging billions of gallons of water from Lake Okeechobee down the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie Rivers. And with Tropical Storm Eta dumping rain across the region they have continued, for now.

A feature story in the April issue of National Geographic magazine highlights the importance of a network of public and private lands that runs throughout the state called the Florida Wildlife Corridor — and the crucial role it plays to help ensure Florida wildlife’s long-term survival. It features stunning photographs of the endangered Florida panther. Our guest today spent more than five years working to collect those images.

A new assessment published by Calusa Waterkeeper found that water quality across southwest Florida continues to decline despite efforts to mitigate pollution stemming from development and agriculture.

Throughout Ernest Hemingway’s life he had a number of famous residences, including in Cuba, and in Key West where he lived for about a decade from the late 1920s to the late 1930s. We get a sense of his time in The Keys with author, poet, and publisher Arlo Haskell. He’s executive director of the Key West Literary Seminar and grew up in The Keys surrounded by Hemingway’s influence and legacy.

We’re learning about the international nonprofit Best Buddies, which creates one-to-one relationships between volunteers and individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

We learn about the Fort Myers nonprofit My Autism Connection, which as brought adults on the spectrum together since 2012. Its mission is to provide experiential opportunities for adults diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome and Autism Spectrum Disorder to help them develop skills towards independence and building healthy relationships.

One of the systems that’s had to respond to social distancing in ways it’s never done before is the court system. To get a sense of how these past three months have unfolded, and what modifications have been made, and how things are proceeding as the state opens up, we’re joined by Judge Michael McHugh, Chief Judge of Florida’s 20th Judicial Circuit, which includes Charlotte, Collier, Glades, Hendry and Lee Counties.

Back in 2017 a major rain event was followed just two weeks later by Hurricane Irma, dumping up to 30 inches of rain on some areas of Lee County. The subsequent flooding destroyed homes and put lives at risk, which prompted county commissioners to approve a three phase plan to mitigate flooding in the future.

The documentary film “Love Wins Over Hate” features a series of honest and thought-provoking interviews with former white supremacists, and others who held extreme views but have since renounced them. It attempts to get to the heart of why people hate, and sometimes take on extremist ideologies like white supremacy — and what it takes to escape that world, and in some cases go on to work to help others escape. We talk with its producer and director, Susan Polis Schutz.

In lieu of Gulf Coast Life Arts Edition today we’re featuring an episode of the WGCU podcast Three Song Stories. The show uses the way songs connect us to our memories and our lives as a means to get to know our guests in a more intimate way. We're listening back to episode 83 featuring Fabiana Solano. She’s a native of Venezuela, an FGCU graduate and a photographer. This episode originally dropped in October of 2019, but since that time, Solano has earned a Master of Public Administration degree from Florida Gulf Coast University with a concentration in Environmental Policy and Planning, and she’s now working as a planner for the city of Punta Gorda.