Gulf Coast Life

Players Circle Theater closes its seventh season with a production of Bernard Slade’s multi award-winning romantic comedy “Same Time, Next Year.” The play is about a man and woman who carry on a decades-long clandestine affair, meeting just once a year. It is less about the affair itself, and more about exploring how people change over time. We explore the play in a conversation with the director Ted Wioncek III, and actors Kimberly Suskind and AJ Mendini.

Stephen Cavitt’s bio begins by saying he’s always chasing the next great story. He’s been an instructor at Florida Gulf Coast University since 2018, teaching English, Creative Writing, and Interdisciplinary courses as well as advising the university’s Creative Writing Club and is a Faculty Mentor with the WiSER Research Assistant Program. His sci-fi novella, The Distance Between Stars, came out in April, 2025 and was also released as a podcast audiobook. It's the first entry in what he calls the Und Wars series. It tells a story of survival after Earth is devastated by Aliens called the Und. It’s told through short monologues by everyday people who escaped and are headed into space to try to start over.

Diane Devereuax grew up in Michigan and has been growing and preserving food since she was a kid. She’s known as ‘The Canning Diva’ and is author of seven cookbooks, and she’s an internationally recognized food preservation expert, television presenter, and instructor. Ms. Devereaux recently transplanted to Southwest Florida, so we invited her into the studio to talk about her latest book, “From Seed to Table: a comprehensive guide to gardening, preserving, and cooking for sustainable living.”

As generative AI continues its meteoric and disruptive rise a recent controversy emerged around a novel called “Shy Girl.” It is the first known instance of a major publisher canceling a book due to suspected AI generation. After cancelling the U.S. release, Hachette Book Group issued a statement reaffirming its commitment to "original creative expression" and noted that authors are required to disclose any use of AI. Our guest says the "Shy Girl" story is just the tip of the iceberg and that he knows of major publishers that accept manuscripts they suspect contain AI-generated text and simply edits them so it’s not obvious. We talk with Joshua Lisec to get some clarity on where AI is finding its way into publishing, and what U.S. Copyright Law has to say about it.

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.