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.

The 2024 nesting season is being described as "steady" even though several storms disrupted hatching success. Southwest Florida’s beaches faced multiple wash-over events, including Tropical Storms Debbie & Francine, and Hurricanes Helene & Milton. On Keewaydin Island in Collier County approximately 43% of nests were lost to impacts from these storms. Overall, there were 425 nests on the island (almost all loggerhead turtles) and about 242 of them were successful. Monitors from the Conservancy of Southwest Florida estimate that 14,975 hatchlings made it to the Gulf from nests just on Keewaydin Island. We talk with someone who has been keeping tabs on sea turtles in southwest Florida for decades.

In January of 1742, while sailing around waters south of Florida in search of Spanish vessels to "sink, burn or destroy" the British Royal Navy’s HMS Tyger ran aground at Garden Key in what’s now Dry Tortugas National Park. What unfolded after the Tyger ran aground at Garden Key is a fascinating narrative that is compiled in a new paper published in the International Journal of Nautical Archaeology titled “Hunting HMS Tyger, 1742: Identifying a Ship-of-the-Line in Dry Tortugas National Park” co-authored by Andrew Van Slyke & Joshua Marano. To get a sense of the Tyger and its crew's story, and the archeological efforts that go into this kind of identification, we talk with the team lead for the HMS Tyger identification effort.

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.

According to 2024 data from the American Medical Association, around 40% of physicians surveyed indicated they were likely to reduce their clinical hours in the next year. One in 5 physicians say they intend to leave the profession entirely within the next two years, with nearly 28% of doctors surveyed reporting dissatisfaction with their current healthcare jobs. Our guest left direct patient care behind in 2022 after practicing as a Gynecologic Oncology surgeon for just four years. Dr. Wilbur then embarked on a project to conduct a series of one-on-one interviews with doctors like herself who had either recently left practice, or were strongly considering doing so, to shine light on this growing trend and what factors were driving it. We talk with her about her new book that came out of those conversations, “The Doctor is No Longer In: Conversations with U.S. physicians.”

Research shows that suppressing melatonin production through excessive night lighting, especially blue light, leads health effects including an increase in certain endocrine-related carcinomas. It is now well known that circadian disturbance causes a 20–30% increase in breast cancer rates, and a similar increase in prostate cancers. We discuss the nexus between light pollution and human health, the environment, and public safety with part-time Naples resident, Dr. Mario Motta.

According to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, as of late 2023, the U.S. immigration court system faced a backlog of more than 3 million pending cases. This number has more than doubled since 2019 and continues to grow, placing immense pressure on the system. Immigration judges are currently being asked to handle an average of 4,500 cases each and so struggle to manage their caseloads effectively. This backlog includes a mix of individuals seeking asylum, appealing deportation orders, or addressing other immigration-related issues. To get some insight into the challenges the system faces we talk with a retired Immigration Judge who spent 24 years hearing cases.

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.

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.

Voter turnout in the 2024 presidential election was down compared to 2020, but was still up by recent voting trends because 2020 was a record-setting year. We explore what drives voter turnout and how partisan redistricting across the country has impacted voter turnout rates and the way we vote in a conversation with University of Florida Political Scientist Michael McDonald, Ph.D.