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Stuart Eizenstat met Jimmy Carter when he was running for Governor of Georgia in 1970 and remained a central figure of Carter’s team until he left the White House in 1980. During President Carter’s administration Eizenstat served as Carter’s Chief Domestic Policy Adviser, and throughout his career and life Ambassador Eizenstat remained a close advisor to President Carter. We speak with him about his career in politics and the changes he's witnessed over the decades, and about his longtime colleague and friend Jimmy Carter.

Over the decades, the nonprofit Calusa Nature Center and Planetarium has introduced countless people of all ages to the natural world, and the cosmos, through educational programs. Their 105-acre site features a natural history museum with live native and teaching animals, a butterfly garden and raptor aviary, as well as exhibits about the animals, plants, and environment of Southwest Florida. And they host events like music under the stars, paint and sips, night hikes, summer camps, and even an event called Potter in the Park. We sat down in their planetarium on a Saturday morning to shine some light on the work they do and the resources they provide to the community.

At the 32nd Annual Southwest Florida Model United Nations conference at Florida Gulf Coast University in March, high school teams were challenged to imagine solutions for the problem of land-based plastics and the micro and nano plastics that we now know are in the world all around us. Cypress Lake High School’s Model UN team took top honors and a $1,000 prize for their presentation proposing a creative and actionable — and ambitious — plan to address plastic pollution along Southwest Florida’s Gulf Coast. We learn about their plan from one of the team's members.

Bacardi Jackson took over the role of Executive Director of the ACLU of Florida in May of 2024. Prior to joining the 60-year-old organization, Jackson was deputy legal director of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s “Democracy: Education and Youth” advocacy and litigation team, where she led efforts to stop the school-to-prison pipeline and to ensure equitable access to mental health services and high-quality public education in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi. We talk about the work the ACLU of Florida is focusing on now, as the executives, both here in Florida and at the federal level, are exerting their executive power beyond the bounds of what we’re accustomed to.

Florida Gulf Coast University is hosting a virtual debate today on Affirmative Action in University Admissions and the Cost of Higher Education. The debate participants are Dr. Cornel West, he is a progressive professor and author, and currently an Independent candidate for president; and Robert George is a conservative legal scholar and political philosopher, and Founding Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University. The debate is moderated by Dr. Christopher Phillips. Dr. Phillips has devoted his life to facilitating thoughtful and inclusive conversations among people of all walks of life, from all around the world, about deep and meaningful issues.

John Lack has had a front row seat to the development of some household names in media during his four-decade-long career in media. He was Chief Operating Officer of Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment from 1979 to 1984 where he was mandated to develop cable channels for specialized audiences. That led to the Movie Channel, Nickelodeon, and MTV. After moving to Fort Myers about a year ago, Lack decided he wanted to teach and is now doing just at FGCU where he’s an adjunct professor in the Department of Communication and Philosophy, teaching a course called Media Perspective.

Here in Florida, when a youth’s bad behavior brings them into contact with law enforcement there is a chance they will be diverted into a program that will keep them out of the juvenile justice system — providing their offense is a misdemeanor and generally non-serious. The goal is basically to address behavioral needs of youth during their first contact with law enforcement in order to try and keep them out of trouble in the future — and keep them from winding up with a criminal record so early in their lives.

President Trump has signed 157 Executive orders since taking office in January. Many of them are well-within the authority of the President. But our guest is sounding the alarm about what he says are actions that exceed the authority given to the Executive Branch under the U.S. Constitution — powers meant to be shared with other branches of government, or that defy Supreme Court interpretations of what the law and the Constitution mean as historically understood.

Project 2025 is not an entirely new concept. The Heritage Foundation has published what it calls Mandate for Leadership policy blueprints since 1979. The first one preceded the first Reagan administration. Over the decades they have outlined what conservatives hope to see out of a Republican administration, if that’s who wins the election. But, Project 2025 has a different tone and nature — and is far more detailed when it comes to exactly what policies it’s calling for, and just how they can be achieved.

In March of this year, Governor Ron DeSantis signed HB1 into law — expanding the voucher program and significantly increasing taxpayer funding for private schools. The new law eliminates the current financial eligibility restrictions and allows any student who is a resident of Florida and eligible to enroll in K-12 public schools to participate. The new universal voucher program is estimated to cost $4 billion in the first year of implementation alone, according to a cost analysis by Florida Policy Institute and the Education Law Center. We get some context on the new law, and the history of how vouchers work in Florida, with Dr. Norín Dollard, Senior Policy Analyst and KIDS COUNT Director at the Florida Policy Institute; and Damaris Allen, Executive director of Coral Gables-based Families for Strong Public Schools.