Gulf Coast Life

In this tense literary thriller, the only Asian-American partner in a NYC law firm is accused of murder.

Jason Vuic is an author and historian who lives in Fort Worth Texas but grew up in Punta Gorda so many of his books delve into Florida history and culture. His brand new book tells two seemingly unconnected yet strangely overlapping stories that unfolded in the small, rural town of Arcadia in DeSoto County beginning in the 1960s that come together in the 1980s. "A Town Without Pity: Aids, race and resistance in Florida’s Deep South" explores the wrongful conviction and long incarceration of a migrant farmworker named James Richardson, and the town's response to three young boys who were infected with the HIV virus via blood transfusions in the mid 80s.

Investigative reporter Katherine Stewart first turned her attention to the Religious Right in the United States in 2007 after her child’s school hosted what’s called a Good News Club. She was surprised to learn of religious program in public schools, and is an investigative reporter whose work has appeared in The New York Times and other major publications, so she started researching and that led to her first book on the subject, “The Good News Club.” She recently stopped by the studio to chat about her third book on this subject, published in February, called “Money, Lies, and God: Inside the Movement to Destroy American Democracy.”

We listen back to our April show featuring Emmy-nominated jazz trumpeter, vocalist and composer Benny Benack III performing live in studio with the Florida Gulf Coast University Jazz Combo.

The Education Foundation of Collier County's Champions for Learning program was started in 1990 with a mission to serve as a catalyst for educational success by investing in Collier’s students and educators. They have programs for students designed to prepare them for their future learning and career goals, both college or occupation-based learning and skill building. Of the roughly 350 students they worked with in their mentorship program, 100% graduated high school last year, 33 of which took dual enrollment courses and 62 received industry certifications. Almost three-quarters of their students are slated to be the first in their family to go to college or receive any other kind of post-secondary education. We talk with their new President and CEO, and an alumna of the program to better understand what they do and the impact their programs can have.

Florida Repertory Theatre is mounting a production of playwright John Patrick Shanely’s Pulitzer Prize and Tony award-winning drama “Doubt, A Parable.” We take a deeper dive into the show in a conversation with cast members Matt Lytle, Taylor Reister, and Alia Shakira.

In her novel The Ten Year Affair, author Erin Somers investigates the married life of her millennial characters.

A recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal opens with the story of a man who believed his 83-year-old mother was plotting to assassinate him. His conversational partner and sounding board — in that case ChatGPT — told him he wasn’t crazy and his instincts were sharp, and that vigilance was fully justified. Not long after the man killed his mother before taking his own life. This is an example of what’s been dubbed ‘AI Psychosis’ — that’s when people are if not encouraged to cause harm to themselves or others, at least are not discouraged to do so by chatbots like ChatGPT or Gemini, or others. We talk with its author, who is co-founder of a nonprofit that's creating tools and demos to help people understand AI systems on a visceral level.

A new paper published in the Journal Nature Communications Biology investigates the link between exposure to Harmful Algal Bloom neurotoxins and the development of Alzheimer's disease signatures in the brain transcriptome of stranded common bottlenose dolphins found in Florida's Indian River Lagoon. They essentially correlated changes in the dolphin brains’ DNA to chronic and acute exposure to blue green algae blooms. Dolphins serve as a "sentinel species" for Alzheimer’s Diseased because they live so long and can naturally develop Alzheimer’s-like neuropathological changes with age.

Bruce Costella brings a limited engagement of his one-man show “MUTTNIK” at the Calusa Nature Center & Planetarium November 7 – 9. The performance tells the story of Laika, stray dog from the streets of Moscow, who was chosen by Soviet scientists to become the first living animal to orbit the Earth aboard the Sputnik 2 in 1957.