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Regionwide-destruction caused by Hurricane Ian is beginning to come into focus today after Ian made landfall yesterday afternoon as one of the strongest hurricanes ever to hit the United States. Ian flooded homes and destroyed a portion of the Sanibel Causeway leaving the island with no access besides by boat. At its peak, Ian knocked out electricity to 2.7 million FL homes and businesses and there are curfews in place in Lee and Charlotte counties where emergency officials are urging people not to go out and tour the damage. On today's show we are going to connect with some of our reporters and producers out in the field surveying damage to try to get a sense of what we're facing and begin to consider what it's going to take to try to recover.

Christopher Phillips has spent his life working to facilitate thoughtful and inclusive conversations among people of all walks of life, from all around the world, about deep and meaningful issues.He is an author, educator, scholar, lecturer, and pro-democracy advocate. He has published six books for adults and ten for children, including his latest 'Soul of Goodness: Transform Grievous Hurt, Betrayal, and Setback into Love, Joy and Compassion' in which he shares lessons learned from his intimate and often unexpected encounters with people he met while traveling the world while reflecting on the death of his father.

We get a sense of how Russia’s war on Ukraine is impacting Russian people with Dr. Kathryn Stoner, she is Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, and Mosbacher Director of the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law — both at Stanford University — where she is also a Professor of Political Science (by courtesy). Dr. Stoner is also a Senior Fellow (by courtesy) at the Hoover Institution.

The idea that Ukraine is an independent nation with its own national identity is one that Russian President Vladimir Putin has openly disputed since long before the invasion, and he’s not alone and this is not a modern idea but one that dates far back into history. Our guest today strongly disputes this claim, and his recent books offer direct evidence of a decades-long effort by the Soviet Union and then Russian to stoke divisions among the Ukrainian diaspora and people around the world, and cast doubt on the very idea of an independent Ukraine.

We meet Fran Mainella, the new Director of the Alliance for Florida's National Parks. The 20-year-old nonprofit works to promote the Everglades, Dry Tortugas and Biscayne National Parks, as well as Big Cypress National Preserve. Its website says their goal is “to instill in all people an appreciation of Florida's public lands and natural resources for what they are – the key to the sustainability and prosperity of the state - by enriching the park experience and connecting diverse communities to the nature that abounds in their backyards.”

We learn about a UF/IFAS Extension and Florida Sea Grant citizen science program called Eyes on Seagrass that has been collecting information about seagrasses in upper Charlotte Harbor and Lemon Bay since 2019 — and is planning to expand into Lee County next year. Citizen Science is the collection and analysis of data relating to the natural world by everyday people who aren’t necessarily scientists themselves, typically as part of a collaborative project with professional scientists. In other words — giving scientists more hands to collect the information they need to better understand whatever it is they are studying.

Founded in 2003 as an independent nonprofit, the StoryCorps team has now helped nearly 700,000 people across the country have meaningful conversations about their lives, most of which are collected in the U.S. Library of Congress and in their own online archive. StoryCorps has been a beloved segment heard weekly on NPR stations on Friday mornings during Morning Edition for about 20 years. The StoryCorps Mobile Tour is set up now at the Alliance for the Arts in Fort Myers and it's not too late to sign up.

Research into the science of kindness in recent decades has moved the conversation from kindness being a "feel-good" sentiment into a rigorous field of study that shows significant physiological and psychological benefits for people who practice it. At the same time, there is a growing global kindness movement comprised of a network of organizations dedicated to highlighting these kinds of benefits, and encouraging ways to embed the practice of kindness into our everyday lives. FGCU's Roots of Compassion & Kindness Center is hosting the first K20 Kindness Summit to kick off the "Kindness Without Borders" initiative.

Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic we’ve worked to highlight the impact it’s having on different aspects of society and our lives. Today we’re looking at how it has affected those with Alzheimer’s Disease and other memory disorders, and their caregivers.

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.