Gulf Coast Life

The Naples-based nonprofit House of Gaia hosts the “Bee Gaia Bloom Art Show” April 25, 2026, featuring works created by artists within the neurodivergent community. House of Gaia Founder and Director Lulu Carter joins us to explore the sensory, multimedia exhibit and the organization’s broader focus on arts education, social inclusion, community building and kindness.

With a measles outbreak ongoing in Florida and historically low rates of vaccination, we hear from Dr. Nicole Iovine, infectious disease expert as well as chief hospital epidemiologist at University of Florida Health Shands Hospital. She’ll discuss how vaccines—and our immune systems—work to keep us healthy.

Florida’s climate is getting warmer and warmer each year. It's rapidly intensifying hurricanes, decreasing the number of safe, workable days in the state, and making flooding worse. Southwest Florida’s coastal positioning doesn’t help in the case of hurricanes and storm surge. These challenges call for solutions— including ones that use the resources we already have here on Earth. They’re called nature-based solutions.

Carly Chase began her career at Goldman Sachs but after a few years she felt discontented, so pivoted to a job at the NYC Economic Development Corporation and that introduced her to entrepreneurs and startups and that put her on the path she’s still on today. Ms. Chase has taught entrepreneurship as an adjunct professor at Columbia Business School and MIT – and she was an Entrepreneur in Residence at MIT’s Martin Trust Center for Entrepreneurship. And she's co-founder of Crabwalk, it’s an education and coaching company that builds career agility based on the principle that you don’t have to walk in a straight line to move forward in your career — and important concept in today's fast-changing job landscape.

The Bridging the Gap Center for the Arts will host a murder mystery dinner theater event, April 25th featuring the first public performance of the comedic play “Devil Ain’t Got No Tail in Grandma’s House,” written by Veronica Barber, who is the mother of Bridging the Gap founder and Executive Director Sonya McCarter.

Three women who were all married to murderers become friends and band together to solve a local murder.

Then President Trump recently posted “Based on the tremendous interest shown, I will be directing the Secretary of War, and other relevant Departments and Agencies, to begin the process of identifying and releasing Government files related to alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs), and any and all other information connected to these highly complex, but extremely interesting and important, matters." Some people believe there is evidence that can be produced that proves the existence of non-human life or intelligence present on planet Earth. Others believe this whole idea is either delusion or misinformation designed to distract.

Patrick Mork has spent more than two decades working in the tech world, building and leading marketing teams at tech startups and helping to launch numerous products and brands across 3 different continents. In 2011, he joined Google and led the team there that created the Google Play brand. But, in 2017, he had a major life crisis that led him to pivot toward coaching and developing leaders in startups across Latin America. He moved to Chile and launched LEAP, it’s a leadership development company. All of that inspired his first book, “Step Back and Leap: 9 Keys to Unlock Your Life and Make Change Happen.” He was on the Florida Gulf Coast University campus last week to give the final talk for the university's Provost's Seminar Series. The title of his talk was “Becoming Unstoppable: 5 Pillars to Build Resilience in the Age of AI.”

Players Circle Theater is putting on a production of the one-woman play “I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti,” based on the bestselling book of the same title by Giulia Melucci. In the show, Giulia regales audiences with tales of her dating life all while actually cooking a three-course meal on stage. We’ll explore the play in conversation with actor Amanda Ladd and director Bob Cacioppo.

Since 1970, the bird populations of North America have experienced a net loss of nearly 3 billion birds, and biologists say we are approaching "tipping points" that could fundamentally alter our ecosystems. More than one-fifth of native North American pollinators are at risk of extinction due to climate change, habitat loss, and pesticide use, including key species like monarch butterflies and various bumble bees that are declining even faster. While these large-scale problems might seem beyond the scope of what an individual can do in their own lives to help, a new campaign from Audubon Western Everglades called “Nature Where We Live” seeks to help people understand that the kinds of plants we use around our homes can make a real difference.