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Janet Mtali discovered her passion for radio when she was invited to host a children’s show on TWR Malawi when she was still in high school. Since then, she has worked her way up and is now its National Director. Mtali is one of 25 Mandela Fellowship for Young African Leaders participants who are in Southwest Florida for the 2024 Leadership Institute being hosted by Florida Gulf Coast University. We meet her today to talk about the work she does and the Mandela Fellowship experience.

We shine some light on a southwest Florida nonprofit that’s been working to make the lives of this area's seniors better for more than half a century. Founded in 1973, Senior Friendship Centers began in a small bungalow in Sarasota, and first began expanding when it began receiving federal funding to provide meals to older adults. Erin McLeod joined the organization as Director of Communications in 2004. It was her first job at a nonprofit and she says she immediately fell in love with the mission and has been there ever since, now as its CEO.

Miami-based photographer and author Kirsten Hines spends her life immersed in the natural world. She started off as a wildlife biologist but found herself more interested in talking pictures of the natural world than doing science with it. She has now published nine books in all, the latest of which is “Birds of Florida.” It’s a guidebook featuring 310 birds you can find in Florida, with photographs she took and brief descriptions she wrote that provide insight into the various species, and tips on where to find them.

Tim Love spent his career in advertising, and he says there are correlations between the early days of that industry and mass media, and where we find ourselves today with our wide open and unregulated online world. He was Vice-Chairman of Omnicom Group, it’s a global advertising and marketing services company. But since retiring in 2013, he has focused his attention on our online world, and how, he says, it’s being openly used against us to sow division and uncertainty.

On Saturday, July 19 there will be a daylong gathering in Fort Myers to begin a conversation about moving the City of Palms toward openly becoming a Compassionate City. One that holds empathy, dignity, and care at the core. The organizers are calling for educators, civic leaders, healthcare workers, artists, entrepreneurs, faith voices, and anyone really, who want to join the conversation about the importance of compassion and empathy and how to find ways to build them into the community. We talk with three of the people involved with Saturday’s event to get a preview and to talk about compassion.

Florida is home to more than 500 nonnative species, more than 50 of which are reptiles. Current monitoring techniques depend on visual surveys by scientists, and this is far from an exact science because reptiles — particularly snakes — are extremely elusive. A new technique being developed by scientists at University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) can identify DNA traces of Burmese pythons — as well as northern African pythons, boa constrictors, and rainbow boas — weeks after they have left an area using soil or water samples.

Naples resident Joanne Huskey lived abroad for decades as part of a diplomatic family – her husband Jim was a U.S. Foreign Service officer for almost 30 years. And their time overseas intersected with some historic events: they were in China when the Tiananmen Square massacre happened in 1989; and they were in Nairobi, Kenya when the U.S. Embassy there was bombed in 1998. Throughout her time abroad, her efforts were always aimed at "Promoting intercultural understanding and education." She joins us to talk about her life promoting intercultural understanding and the need for more of it in today’s world.

Miami-based photographer and author Kirsten Hines spends her life immersed in the natural world. She started off as a wildlife biologist but found herself more interested in talking pictures of the natural world than doing science with it. She has now published nine books in all, the latest of which is “Birds of Florida.” It’s a guidebook featuring 310 birds you can find in Florida, with photographs she took and brief descriptions she wrote that provide insight into the various species, and tips on where to find them.

The United Nations 2024 global climate conference, COP 29, kicked off in Baku, Azerbaijan on Monday, Nov. 11 and runs until Friday, Nov. 22. It's a chance for leaders and delegates from nearly 200 countries to talk about, and make plans for action around, the global climate crisis. Timed to coincide with COP 29, Florida Gulf Coast University and The Water School have kicked off “Two Weeks of Climate Change.” It's a series of events that explore local and global challenges, and solutions for our changing climate. We get preview of it, and a chance to better understand what happens at these global COP conferences.

Here in Southwest Florida about 30% of the population is 60 and older. That translates to about 1.3 million people, and this population and percentage is growing. Demographic trends show an expected 38% increase in adults over 60 by 2040 and a 62% increase in adults over 70 by that same year. While southwest Florida has been a destination for older people when they retire for decades, this area’s aging population is chronically underserved. We learn about the work being done to address the need at Florida Gulf Coast University’s still relatively new Shady Rest Institute on Positive Aging.