How different news stories are presented by various news sources is rarely uniform. Different news outlets have different takes, or present different aspects of a story or highlight different facts about it, and this shapes what consumers of that news take away from the story. Add the internet and social media algorithms and you wind up with what are referred to as "filter bubbles" where, depending on which news sources you pay attention to, different people develop fundamentally different understandings of the same events or stories. We learn about AllSides Technologies, whose team uses various methods to estimate the perceived political bias of news outlets and then presents different versions of similar news stories from sources they’ve rated as being on the political right, left, or center, with a mission to show readers news outside their filter bubble and illustrate media bias.

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.

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.

Toni Westland joined the federal workforce as a ranger with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers giving lock and dam tours on the Mississippi River. She then had a stint in north Georgia at Lake Lanier, then moved on to Lake Okeechobee and then Manatee Park in East Fort Myers. At some point she had vacationed on Sanibel Island so knew she loved the J.N. “Ding” Darling Wildlife Refuge, so when the opportunity arose in 2002 for her to join their team as an education specialist, she jumped on it and has been at Ding Darling ever since. Now, she's taking an early retirement as part of the federal government's downsizing DOGE efforts.

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.

About 1 in 5 women experience some negative feelings after the birth of a child or a mental health condition during pregnancy. About three quarters of these women do not receive any treatment, especially in underserved communities. Untreated mental health issues can lead to things like disrupted child bonding, impaired infant development, and even some serious health outcomes for the child and mother – suicide and overdose are among the leading causes of maternal death in the U.S., especially in the late postpartum period. Since its founding in 1977, Healthcare Network of Southwest Florida has had a mission to provide quality healthcare that is accessible to everyone, regardless of their financial means or insurance status. We sit down with its Chief Medical Officer to have a conversation about women's mental health.

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.

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.

Normal is Overrated is an annual event designed to help young people break barriers and improve communication about their own mental health and well-being and open up about their own personal challenges and the kinds of help they’ve received. We get a preview of this year's event that's happening on Sat., May 3 from 11am to 2pm at Florida Southwestern State College in Fort Myers.

It’s impossible to point to an exact moment or song when what became known as Rock n’ Roll emerged, but it happened in the early to mid-1950s in the United States and was a fusion of genres including rhythm and blues, gospel, and country music. Dr. Clay Motley received his PhD in the history of American Literature but over time found himself drawn to music and its history, particularly Blues and early Rock n’ Roll. Last week he gave a talk at FGCU on the ‘The History of Rock n’ Roll’ so we brought him by the studio to chat about music and how this artform that took over the world came to be.