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We meet the new Collier County Waterkeeper, Ray Bearfield. Bearfield is a former fishing guide and educator at Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, who first came to Naples in the mid-1970s as an editor of The Naples Daily News. He has written extensively about Southwest Florida for the Coastal Conservation Association, Florida Sportsman magazine, The Miami Herald and other publications.

According to the latest available data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the rate at which kids in the U.S. are being diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder has risen to one in 36 children. That’s up from 1 in 44 in 2018, and 1 in 101 in 2015. The increasing rate has driven a growing demand for education, therapy and other services for neurodivergent kids and their families — and for their entire support networks.

We catch up with former FGCU president, Dr. Martin, to have him reflect on his time at FGCU and what’s on his horizon going forward.

We explore some of what’s been happening in the world of space science with Dr. Derek Buzasi. He is an astronomer and the Whitaker Eminent Scholar in Florida Gulf Coast University’s Department of Chemistry and Physics.

Beginning Wednesday, August 9 WGCU will begin airing a new essay series called “Reflections of a Colored Girl” by Dr. Martha Bireda. Dr. Bireda was born in southwest Florida in 1945 but spent the first 10 years of her life in a small town in Western Virginia. Her family then moved back to Punta Gorda, where they have deep roots. We sat down with Dr. Bireda to talk about her new essay series, and what she hopes to pass along with it.

When we do something — when we think we’ve made a decision about how to act or behave — are we always consciously aware of why we made that particular decision? That is just one part of the field of research our guest today has spent the past three decades investigating. Dr. Sandra Schneider is a Professor in Cognition, Neuroscience, and Social Psychology in the Department of Psychology at the University of South Florida in Tampa. And she founded the USF Judgment and Decision Making Lab in the early 90s.

We learn about the Immokalee Foundatin's Mentor Program, which pairs volunteer mentors with students whose interests align with their expertise. The nonprofit has been supporting and educating students in the small, rural, mostly agricultural community about 25 miles east of Naples since 1991.

Many young Pakistanis have grown up in the grip of religious extremism. But Saeed Malik is trying to reverse that trend, starting at the most basic level. He has created a bookmobile that offers English and Urdu books to underprivileged children, in hopes of broadening their minds and fostering tolerance.

Before the pandemic, The Harry Chapin Food Bank of Southwest Florida was spending almost $40,000 dollars a month to buy food. That jumped to $1.4 million a month during the first year of the pandemic, and has remained high ever since. According to their president & CEO, Richard LeBer, they’re currently having to spend almost a million dollars a month to provide food to those in need. Add the challenges and increased need brought about by Hurricane Ian, and the coming summer months when kids are out of school and seasonal workers have less income, and it’s easy to see how hard the staff and volunteers at the Harry Chapin Food Bank must be working to continue meeting the demand for food across this region.

Since the beginning of 2013, the state Department of Children and Families says seven children in Florida have died after being left in hot cars.…