Gulf Coast Life

The 16th annual Fort Myers Film Festival will deliver five days of film screenings, filmmaker panels, and celebration. The festival, which runs May 20-24, 2026, will include 81 selected feature, documentary, and short films from all over the world. We’ll get a preview of the festival in a conversation with Fort Myers Film Festival founder and Executive Director Eric Raddatz. We’ll also talk with multi-award winning filmmaker Jordan Axelrod, whose short film “Szypliski” will be featured at the opening night red carpet gala at the Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center.

Schools are letting out and summer is fast-approaching so many parents are considering activities for their kids to experience over the break. We meet the Education Manager at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary to learn about their Summer Adventure Camp and other nature experiences at the sanctuary. And we meet two Corkscrew summer camp alumni, aged 11 and 14, to get their perspectives.

FGCU's Roots of Compassion & Kindness Center will kick off the "Kindness Without Borders Initiative" this Friday during the inaugural K20 Kindness Summit. Research into the science of kindness in recent decades has moved the conversation from kindness being a "feel-good" sentiment into a rigorous field of study that shows significant physiological and psychological benefits for people who practice it. At the same time, there is a growing global kindness movement comprised of a network of organizations dedicated to highlighting these kinds of benefits, and encouraging ways to embed the practice of kindness into our everyday lives.

The fourth annual Fort Myers Fringe will bring a roster of top nationally and internationally touring independent, experimental, and alternative artists to Southwest Florida for a wide variety of performances including deeply personal storytelling, boundary-pushing comedy, live music, and shows specifically for kids and teens. We will get a preview of the festival with founder and organizer Bill Taylor, who is also the founding Producing Artistic Director for Theatre Conspiracy. We will also highlight Theatre Conspiracy’s upcoming summer offerings, which include a blend of intimate theater and live music events.

Today’s episode is something special. For the first time, we hear from an audiobook narrator. If you listen to audiobooks, you’ve probably heard the voice of Edoardo Ballerini. In the world of audiobooks, winning an Audie is like winning an Oscar, and Ballerini has won several of them, including Best Male Narrator, twice.He talks to us about how his background in acting helps his performances, how he began recording classic texts just for fun during the pandemic, and whether he has time to read for fun.

Governor Ron DeSantis, on Monday, signed into law Florida’s new congressional district map approved by the state legislature in last week’s special session. Just hours later, lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the new map were filed. FGCU Political Science Professor Sandra Pavelka, Ph.D., and UCF Political Science Professor Aubrey Jewett, Ph.D., weigh in on what this means for candidates and voters, and what’s next for the Florida legislature.

Florida Gulf Coast University professor, Dr. Jo Muller, has spent much of her career studying the history of hurricanes and tropical storms, from how frequently they occur to how damaging they are. For instance, she studies past tropical cyclone activity using geological evidence found in core samples taken from lagoons and bays behind barrier islands. She her team have created a comprehensive database of Atlantic tropical cyclones that impacted the continental United States since 1963, with a focus on how many people died as a direct result of storms, and what caused their deaths.

A solo exhibition of works by Southwest Florida-based painter, illustrator, writer, and designer Kathleen Kinkopf opens May 1 at the Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center.Ahead of the opening, we’ll talk with Kinkopf about her striking works, often described as “magical realism” with highly detailed realistic imagery infused with dreamlike symbolism and fantasy elements.

Dr. Karen Tang is the author of the new book It’s Not Hysteria: Everything You Need to Know About Your Reproductive Health (But Were Never Told). It’s a comprehensive guide to treatment options and common conditions, many of which are under-discussed and misunderstood.

Whether you’re an absolute newbie with no experience yet hoping to catch up, or if an educator or researcher, or industry professional or nonprofit leader, the Summer AI Academy is offering more than 30 sessions totaling more than 150 hours, with topics ranging from basic AI literacy and using image generation tools, to things like programming with AI and doing data analysis. They even have sessions aimed at certain industries like one called Hands-On AI Workshop for Construction Professionals. The Summer Academy kicks off on May 4.