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.

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.

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.

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.

Dr. Christopher Landsea is Chief of the Tropical Analysis and Forecast Branch at the National Hurricane Center in Miami, where his team generates wind and wave forecasts for the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, tropical North Atlantic Ocean, and tropical northeastern Pacific Ocean. He was on the Florida Gulf Coast University campus last week to give a talk so we brought him by the studio to talk about hurricane meteorology and forecasting and how it’s evolved over time and what lies ahead as technology advances.

While using nuclear fission has been well established and used commercially for decades to generate electricity, nuclear fusion has remained out of reach because of the extremely complicated engineering, and extraordinary power and resource needs required. There’s another branch of fusion research known as 'cold fusion’ which takes a different approach to fuse atoms together that does not require huge amounts of energy and resources. Our guest is working on his own approach to cold fusion and has achieved interesting, early results that have now been published in the May, 2024 edition of the journal Nature Scientific Reports.