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Winston Scott grew up in Miami and attended Florida State University to study music. While at FSU he started getting into engineering and at one point the word astronaut flashed briefly through his mind. So, after graduating in 1972, he entered Naval Aviation Officer Candidate School and two years later became a Naval Aviator and served as a production test pilot flying the F/A-18 Hornet at A-7 Corsair. Mr. Scott was then selected by NASA to become an astronaut and reported to the Johnson Space Center in 1992. These days he’s Director of Operational Excellence at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor’s Complex and in that role was touring last week so we brough him by the studio to talk about being an astronaut, and what goes on at the KSC Visitor’s Complex.

We get some insight into the long and challenging journeys dementia caregivers are on from two men who became caregivers themselves after their wives were diagnosed with dementia. Dan Moser’s wife Maria was diagnosed with what’s called Frontotemporal Degeneration (FTD) in 2015 and he was her caregiver until she passed away about two years ago. During that time, he pivoted away from his work as a bike and pedestrian safety advocate toward dementia caregiving, a role he continues to this day. And Jeff Edwards’ wife Bunny was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2018 and he’s still taking care of her. Jeff retired from a 50-plus year in radio a couple of years ago and since then has been producing a podcast called GUTPUNCHED that explores the challenges of dementia caregiving, and shares resources they've found, and as he puts it “their heartbreaks and their little victories.”

The world filled with portable devices and electric cars that we’ve come to rely upon is mostly powered with lithium-ion batteries. Most of the lithium-ion batteries we use require cobalt. Most of the cobalt that’s being used in these batteries is extracted from the ground in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and much of it is sent to China to be processed for the global market. The Blood Diamond initiative in the 1990s sought to raise awareness about, and eventually create systems to mitigate the use here in the U.S. of, so-called ‘blood’ or ‘conflict’ diamonds that were being mined in places like Sierra Leone and the DRC where workers were being mistreated and profits were fueling war. Our guest was instrumental in the Blood Diamonds initiative, and is now leading the new Blood Battery Campaign that’s modelled after it.

When Governor Ron DeSantis announced he was using his emergency powers to have the State of Florida build a detention facility on a relatively unused airbase in Big Cypress National Preserve in Collier County the idea immediately drew criticisms, including the cost and the environmental impact. But there is another aspect of this camp and the name Alligator Alcatraz that has drawn another kind of criticism: echoes of racist language that bring to mind the trope of ‘alligator bait’ that dates back to the late 1800s and the days of Jim Crow. We explore that history with a reporter from the Miami Herald and a Naples Rabbi whose recent sermon titled “A Fence Around Compassion” went viral on Facebook.

Tuesday, Aug. 28 was Election Day in the Florida primaries. Voters, registered either Republican or Democrat, cast their ballots to decide who would be…

This week, we listen back to one of our favorite GCL Book Club conversations of the year. Poet and journalist Clint Smith’s How the Word is Passed, A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America, is essential reading.

A fatal black bear attack that claimed the lives of an 89-year-old rural Collier County man and his dog this week has been confirmed by the Florida Fish & Wildlife Commission.The confirmation of the attack that took place early Monday in the community of Jerome, was issued Friday. It was the first such confirmed attack in the state's history.

A project for the milling and resurfacing of Periwinkle Way on Sanibel Island is set to start Sept. 15 and run about four months.The stretch of Periwinkle included in the project is from 500 feet west of Casa Ybel Road to approximately one-third of a mile east of Donax Street.

Monday, Feb. 3, is the deadline for City of Sanibel residents to register for the March 4 election for three council member positions and a Charter Amendment Referendum concerning council member vacancies.To participate in the upcoming election, individuals must be registered Florida voters and reside in the City of Sanibel.

Southwest Florida International Airport turned in a record-setting year for passenger traffic in 2024 with nearly three-quarters of a million more people filing through the Lee County air travel site.That increased passenger traffic was also reflected during December when 1,121,793 passengers traveled through RSW. This was an increase of 2.5 percent compared to December 2023. Year-to-date, passenger traffic was up 9.5 percent.