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Bertha Vasquez spent most of her career in the classroom teaching science to middle schoolers in Miami-Dade County. She’s a passionate advocate for the scientific method and the many ways it’s made life better for humanity. And she’s a strong believer in skepticism when it comes to understanding the world around us, especially when extraordinary claims are made. These days Ms. Vasquez has taken on the role of Director of Education at the The Center for Inquiry, and Director of its Teacher Institute for Evolutionary Science. The CFI’s roots go back to the 1970s when Carl Sagan, Isaac Asimov, and other critical thinkers began seeing the need to mitigate growing belief in pseudoscience and paranormal claims using rational means and methods.

Conservation photographer Ian Wilson-Navarro was born in Miami but has lived his entire life in Key Largo. He got his first camera as a teenager, and first visited the Dry Tortugas around that same time camping and fishing with his father. In 2021, he and a friend were chosen for a National Parks Arts Foundation artist residency in the Dry Tortugas on Loggerhead Key. His proposal for the residency pitched the idea of capturing images to create a book, and that book is now out. "Dry Tortugas: Stronghold of Nature" was published last month by University Press of Florida. It features about 200 of his photographs along with essays by people with intimate knowledge of the park who explore its history, culture, and environment.

A recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal opens with the story of a man who believed his 83-year-old mother was plotting to assassinate him. His conversational partner and sounding board — in that case ChatGPT — told him he wasn’t crazy and his instincts were sharp, and that vigilance was fully justified. Not long after the man killed his mother before taking his own life. This is an example of what’s been dubbed ‘AI Psychosis’ — that’s when people are if not encouraged to cause harm to themselves or others, at least are not discouraged to do so by chatbots like ChatGPT or Gemini, or others. We talk with its author, who is co-founder of a nonprofit that's creating tools and demos to help people understand AI systems on a visceral level.

The Education Foundation of Collier County's Champions for Learning program was started in 1990 with a mission to serve as a catalyst for educational success by investing in Collier’s students and educators. They have programs for students designed to prepare them for their future learning and career goals, both college or occupation-based learning and skill building. Of the roughly 350 students they worked with in their mentorship program, 100% graduated high school last year, 33 of which took dual enrollment courses and 62 received industry certifications. Almost three-quarters of their students are slated to be the first in their family to go to college or receive any other kind of post-secondary education. We talk with their new President and CEO, and an alumna of the program to better understand what they do and the impact their programs can have.

Investigative reporter Katherine Stewart first turned her attention to the Religious Right in the United States in 2007 after her child’s school hosted what’s called a Good News Club. She was surprised to learn of religious program in public schools, and is an investigative reporter whose work has appeared in The New York Times and other major publications, so she started researching and that led to her first book on the subject, “The Good News Club.” She recently stopped by the studio to chat about her third book on this subject, published in February, called “Money, Lies, and God: Inside the Movement to Destroy American Democracy.”

If you’ve ever called 211 here in Southwest Florida to find assistance with things like housing, food, healthcare, mental health — the list goes on — the United Way of Lee, Hendry, and Glades is who is supporting the 211 service, and is helping to fund the many agencies and nonprofits around the region who are there to help. Each year their fundraising campaign is designed to raise the money they need to help fund more than 90 partner agencies who help around a half-million people each year. Put simply, the United Way of Lee, Hendry, and Glades provides an essential backbone for social services in southwest Florida. We learn about a breakfast on Monday, Aug. 4 that will help set the tone for this year's campaign.

The Midwest Food Bank was founded on a farm in Illinois in 2003 and has grown ever since, adding branches around the country including one that covers Florida. The Midwest Food Bank Florida branch opened in Fort Myers in 2014 and has been providing food to its more than 200 partner agencies ever since. These days they’re providing tens of thousands of meals every month. They pretty much runs on volunteers — they had about 2000 last year — and they only have six paid employees so they’re able to turn every dollar donated into 34 meals. We meet their new Executive Director to get to know him and better understand what they do.

We get some insight into the world of dementia caregiver support — and we we learn about a relatively rare form of dementia called Frontotemporal Degeneration (FTD). It’s a type of dementia that affects the areas that control behavior, personality, language, and decision-making. People with FTD might start acting differently, like becoming rude or impulsive, or they may have trouble speaking and understanding language. It usually appears in people younger than 65, and unlike other forms of dementia, memory problems aren't usually the first sign, but instead changes in behavior or communication skills are more noticeable early on.

Since President Trump returned to the White House in January his administration has undertaken a number of actions that seem to signify a retreat from international support and cooperation, and reflect a broader shift toward prioritizing domestic interests over international collaboration, fundamentally altering the United States' traditional role in global affairs. Our guest's work focuses on issues that intersect with what’s been unfolding on a number of levels. Dr. Andrew Rosenberg is an Associate Professor of International Relations and Political Methodology at University of Florida. His 2022 book “Undesirable Immigrants: Why Racism Persists in International Migration” focuses on the politics of international migration and what drives and constrains it.

The United States was founded with three branches of government which were designed to act as checks on each others’ authority, and the role of the head of the Executive Branch — the President — was intended to be that of a head of state who would be a unifying force that stayed above the partisan fray. But the role of the president has changed greatly since George Washington left office, and has evolved to become more of a party head who makes bold promises in order to gain and maintain support for their policy agenda. Our guest says this evolution has not strengthened the United States and in many ways has led to the deeply partisan divide we’re living through right now.