First Coast Connect

A Jacksonville-based lung study could help reshape lung disease screening guidelines for people considered low risk. The $24.8 million national study is led locally by UF Health and Nemours Children’s Health and is tracking the lung health of 4,000 young adults to better understand how lung disease develops over time. One participant, a 35-year-old nonsmoker, credits the study with saving her life after a scan revealed a cancerous nodule in her right lung. We speak with the lung cohort member and the study’s research director about what participants can expect and how early detection can save lives.

Guests:

• Dr. Kathryn Blake, director, Center for Pharmacogenomics and Translational Research, Nemours Children’s Health
• Cindy Springer, Lung Health Cohort Study participant and development director for the American Lung Association in Jacksonville

A new book explores the adventure one aging musician goes on after learning she may soon forget how to sing or play guitar. Lost in the Summer of ‘69 is USA Today bestselling author Eliza Knight’s latest historical fiction following Eleanor Bell just before her 69th birthday after she learns she is showing early signs of Alzheimer’s disease. She’s determined to make the most of her time left and sets out on a cross-country road trip to California to rediscover her love for music. But Eleanor forgets to tell her family where she’s going, prompting her daughter and granddaughter to go on a journey to find her. We ask the book’s creator about the inspiration for the novel and the importance of the historical setting ahead of two local book events happening this week.

Guest: Eliza Knight, USA Today bestselling author of Lost in the Summer of '69

Big band music and ballroom dancing return to Amelia Island this summer. The Amelia Island Dance Festival features a 12-piece live band, professional vocalists and, of course, dancing. The series includes songs spanning nearly a century from the Jazz Age to modern hits. Dancers of all skill levels are welcome, whether they’re seasoned ballroom enthusiasts or first-timers. Musicians from Crescendo Amelia join us to discuss how the series is helping keep the legacy of big band and jazz alive while creating a vibrant cultural gathering for residents and visitors alike.

Guests:

• Dennis Negrin, bandleader, Crescendo Amelia
• Kim Reteguiz, vocalist, Crescendo Amelia

A city program to incentivize and ignite the Downtown bar and restaurant scene has been picking up steam, with 11 project grants awarded since 2024 — nearly four times as many as in the program’s first three years. Food writer Hanna Raskin says the often significant grants paved the way for several new additions to the urban core landscape, including a vinyl listening room over Keane’s Tavern, Dorothy’s Downtown restaurant and the Pour Taproom. We talk about what the tax incentives have bought and whether that could be changing in an uncertain budget landscape.

Guest: Hanna Raskin, food writer for Jacksonville Today

The fight to unionize the world’s largest coffee chain is the subject of a new documentary. In 2021, workers at a Starbucks in Buffalo, New York, became the first store in the country to form a union. The film traces the evolution of the movement, which has now spread to 700 stores nationwide, even though workers are still fighting for their first contract. The film, which is narrated by Susan Sarandon, screens at the Museum of Contemporary Art at noon June 20, followed by a Q&A with director Mark Mori, moderated by the city’s film commissioner, Todd Roobin.

Guest: Mark Mori, director, Baristas vs Billionaires

Since its inception in 2007, the St. Augustine Music Festival has focused on uplifting music in an exceptional space. The annual event, held at the Cathedral Basilica on the Plaza de la Constitución, is the brainchild of acclaimed musicians Jorge Peña (viola) and Jin Kim-Peña (cello), who both played with the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra before creating the region’s largest free classical chamber music concert series. In honor of its 20th anniversary and the nation’s 250th, this year’s festival is shaped around themes highlighting the spirit of America, as well as the classical sounds that inspire the human spirit.

Guests:

• Jorge Peña, St. Augustine Music Festival co-founder and artistic director
• Jin Kim, St. Augustine Music Festival co-founder and artistic director

Each Friday, our media roundtable dives into the biggest stories of the week. Among our topics this week:

• After 100 days and the intervention of a First Amendment lawyer, the city releases subpoenaed public records from City Council President Kevin Carrico.
• AI gains a foothold in the campaign for governor, as well as in a local race featuring a candidate photo doctored to add Black supporters.
• A Jacksonville attorney’s fight against Confederate memorials of every kind comes to an end in the 11 Circuit Court of Appeals.
• The future of a Downtown Publix could be imperiled by a City Council rethinking completion grants.

Guests:

• Deja Mayfield, reporter/weekend anchor, Action News Jax
• Mike Mendenhall, City Hall reporter and associate editor at Jacksonville Today
• Frank Powers, former assignment manager at News4Jax

A local event commemorates an unimaginable loss. Ten years after the tragic shooting at an Orlando nightclub claimed the lives of 49 victims, memorials are planned around the state. Here in Jacksonville, the AIDS Memorial Project of Northeast Florida is hosting a remembrance ceremony at Willowbranch Park. The park has a history involving the LGBTQ+ community. It was home to Jacksonville’s first Gay Pride Festival in 1978 and has been a space where community members have gathered to honor residents who died from AIDS. Two years ago, organizers dedicated a bench to memorialize Darryl “DJ” Roman Burt II, a Jacksonville resident who was killed in the shooting on June 12, 2016. The bench replaced one stolen after it was originally erected following the Pulse nightclub massacre. The event will feature a candlelight vigil, a reading of victims' names and several guest speakers. It begins at 6 p.m. Friday, exactly 10 years after the shooting.

Guests:

• Dan Hutton, president, AIDS Memorial Project of Northeast Florida
• Manny Andrade, vice president, AIDS Memorial Project of Northeast Florida
• Richard Ceriello, founder, AIDS Memorial Project of Northeast Florida

With qualifying in all Florida races set to wrap this Friday, we catch up with Democratic candidate for state attorney general José Javier Rodríguez. Some recent internal and external polls suggest his challenge of appointed Republican incumbent James Uthmeier is within a handful of percentage points. We ask the candidate if his campaign is being affected by state and national news, how politicians are coping in a field already flooded with AI slop, and get his take on the current AG’s frequent forays into Jacksonville city business.

Guest: José Javier Rodríguez, Democratic candidate for Florida attorney general

A “shared call to justice” and a celebration of African American sacred choral music is at the core of a planned Juneteenth observance at St. John’s Cathedral in Downtown Jacksonville. The program’s theme is built around a piece by singer/songwriter Beth Neilsen Chapman, titled How We Love, performed by the Jacksonville Gospel Chorale with assistance from visiting composer, conductor and African American gospel music scholar Dr. Raymond Wise. Wise was the conductor and choir leader in the Emmy and Award Winning PBS documentary Amen: Music of the Black Church. The annual event, which features the Very Rev. Kate Moorehead Carroll as keynote speaker, will be held at 5 p.m. Saturday at the cathedral on East Church Street, followed by a reception.

Guests:

• Dr. Raymond Wise, executive director of the African American Arts Institute and professor of African American and African Diaspora Studies at Indiana University
• Dr. Barbara Bouie, Sandalwood High School choral director, former choral activities director at Edward Waters University

Live music and local art under the oaks at the AMP are de rigueur at the quarterly Night Market in St. Augustine. Since its creation nearly a decade ago, the event has blossomed into a packed attraction: part farmers market, part street festival. In addition to crafts, gifts, a food truck court and cocktail concessionaires, the June event features performances by local artists Claire Vandiver and Bad Dog Mama on the Front Porch stage. The next Night Market will be 5-9 p.m. Tuesday at the St. Augustine Amphitheatre. The event is free, and overflow parking is available at the Elk’s Lodge next door.

Guest: Dianya Markovits, director of public relations and partnerships at SJC Cultural Events, Inc.

A 6.1 earthquake is just the latest jolt to the lives of ordinary Cubans, who are dealing with political uncertainty, frequent blackouts and an oil shortage so severe people have taken to burning garbage for fuel. We speak to four Jacksonville organizers of a youth and labor delegation that recently traveled to Cuba. They discuss the challenges, as well as how supply and power shortages are affecting the nation’s much-lauded healthcare system.

Guests:

• Hakim Jihad, organizer, U.S. Hands off Cuba Committee of Jacksonville
• Kaya Cuny, organizer, U.S. Hands off Cuba Committee of Jacksonville
• Mike Todd, organizer, U.S. Hands off Cuba Committee of Jacksonville
• Wells Todd, organizer, U.S. Hands off Cuba Committee of Jacksonville

Growing up in rural Iowa, Bryson Hendricks faced an early, determinative injury: losing part of his hand. That injury impacted but did not deter him, as he recounts in his new book, Don’t Miss: A Small-Town Boy’s Victory Over Adversity. Now a St. Augustine resident, Hendricks is both an accomplished musician and a (now retired) homebuilder, who continued working construction throughout his life. We ask the author why he wanted to tell his story now and what message he hopes it has for others facing a personal calamity.

Guest: Bryson Hendricks, musician, author of Don’t Miss: A Small-Town Boy’s Victory Over Adversity

A group of local environmental nonprofits are employing oysters to help improve water quality in the St. Johns and Trout rivers. Organizations are creating the largest artificial oyster reef in the St. Johns River watershed, continuing similar work last year along the shoreline at Riverview Park. Oysters are natural filter feeders, with just one adult oyster able to filter up to 50 gallons of water a day. The groups are installing 30-pound structures, called Pervious Oyster Shell Habitat — or POSH — modules made up of recycled oyster shells and concrete to create a plastic-free habitat for oysters to thrive. We ask two organizers how the project is part of a bigger push to bring more environmental education and restoration efforts to North Jacksonville.

Guests:

• Hunter Mathews, founder, Jax Oyster Conservation
• Marshiray Wellington, chair, Riverview Collective Community Organization

After the Legislature’s decision to put the future of property tax cuts before voters in November, we look at the potential blast radius of the revenue loss. In our monthly Ask the Mayor segment, we also ask Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan about her new blight abatement efforts, community blowback after a traffic-plagued Ironman event and her working relationship with incoming City Council president Nick Howland.

Guest: Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan

From Rachmaninoff's 1st to Beethoven's 9th, the Jacksonville Symphony announces its upcoming season in a newly renovated performance hall. The orchestra’s 2026/27 concert season includes classical stalwarts like Mozart, Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Mahler, but includes a pops series featuring songs from stage and screen, as well as by artists like Elton John, Stevie Wonder, Frank Sinatra, Jimmy Buffet and Paul McCartney. Of particular local interest is a one-night-only performance of an original musical score written to accompany the 1926 silent film, The Flying Ace, which features an all-Black cast and is the only full-length surviving "race film" produced by Norman Studios in Arlington. The performance marks the film’s 100th anniversary. We ask the orchestra’s director how the performances were chosen and what he’s looking forward to after this summer’s extensive acoustic renovations to Jacoby Symphony Hall.

Guest: Courtney Lewis, music director, Jacksonville Symphony

As the city with the largest Filipino population in Florida, Jacksonville undertakes a celebration of Pinoy pride at the weekly Riverside Arts Market under the Fuller Warren Bridge this weekend. The event features multiple food vendors selling Filipino favorites like lumpia, pancit, halo-halo, adobo, sisig and much more. The event also features a Manila streetwear fashion show, a performance of the traditional Tinikling dance, a kids zone and more than 50 Filipino retailers and entertainers. The event commemorates the 128-year anniversary of the Pacific island nation’s independence from Spanish rule. The Philippines Independence Day Celebration runs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, June 13. RAM is free and open to the public.

Guests:

• Nique Jelen Dayrit Davis, board member, Jax Filipinos
• SJ Osborne, market manager, Riverside Arts Market

The city’s commitment to nonprofit spending — from healthcare for the poor to programs for at-risk youth and families — will be thrown into stark relief as the city crafts a budget in the shadow of potentially massive tax cuts. It’s a difficult posture for any lawmaker, but one that incoming City Council President Nick Howland will inherit ahead of a statewide vote on property taxes this November. Howland says the fiscal reality will distill local priorities, and require a new focus on "core services." Until the numbers are crunched, Howland says he can't commit to supporting a $28 million dollar deal to bring a Publix downtown. But despite budget constraints, Howland believes Jacksonville "should be punished" $5M for keeping an illegal gun registry (as Florida's Attorney General has suggested) because "mistakes were made." He discusses all that, as well as the impact of spiraling JEA investigations and his relationship with the Mayor, on Monday's show.

Guest: Nick Howland, Jacksonville City Council president-elect

After a 46-year career in law enforcement, including three decades with the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office and 15 years as a school resource officer at Parkwood Heights Elementary, Officer Willie Perry got his flowers — and then some. A recent schoolwide sendoff included a children's book, The Legend on the Sidewalk: A Story for Officer Willie Perry, written by the school’s reading coach about Perry's lasting effect on the students. A copy of the book was also provided to every student at the school. We talk to the author and “The Legend” himself about the impact and rewards of his years of service to the Arlington school.

Guests:

• Amy Clark, author of The Legend on the Sidewalk, reading interventionist at Parkwood Heights Elementary
• Officer Willie Perry, recently retired school resource officer, Duval County School Police

Each Friday, our media roundtable dives into the biggest stories of the week. Among our topics this week:

• Famed environmental attorney Erin Brockovich enters the data center controversy even as Nassau County hits pause on their construction. 
• A St. Johns County teacher is fired over a yearbook rap lyric she says she didn’t quote.
• Local governments start to grapple with the possibility of losing as much as half their funding to property tax cuts.

Guests:

• Obi Umunna, attorney and political consultant
• Jack Webb, attorney and former Jacksonville City Council president
• Jake Stofan, city and state government reporter at Action News Jax
• Noah Hertz, St. Johns County reporter, Jacksonville Today

A St. Marys community theater presents a darker but still comedic spin-off of one of the most popular sitcoms in TV history. Trouble at the Tropicabana parodies the iconic characters of I Love Lucy, featuring Lucy, Ricky, Ethel and Fred as they get involved with mobsters and movie moguls in an interactive murder mystery. Hosted for one day at Cottle and Gunn, a locally owned vintage shop in downtown St. Marys, the performance also includes a three-course, Cuban-inspired meal.

Guests:

• David Wyttenbach, director, Trouble at Tropicabana
• Vicki Wyttenbach, actor playing Lucy
• Deborah Cottle, actor playing as Ethel
• Carlos Semidei, actor playing Ricky

A high profile murder case saw some high stakes legal developments with the recent disclosure of a statement allegedly made by the defendant to an informant in the Duval County jail. According to a document released by prosecutors last week, the inmate claims accused killer Mario Fernandez Saldana revealed that his wife, Shanna Gardner, was the mastermind of the fatal 2022 ambush that claimed the life of St. Augustine father of four Jared Bridegan (Shanna Gardner’s estranged ex-husband). The document says Fernandez Saldana also asked the inmate to help frame Bridegan’s widow (his second wife) after the inmate bonded out. With jury selection in Fernandez Saldana’s murder trial set to begin Aug. 10, we get legal perspective on how consequential the new disclosure could be, both for him and his co-defendant, Shanna Gardner.

Guest: Belkis Plata, criminal defense attorney

It’s been burned to the ground, rebuilt, destroyed, relocated, repurposed and ultimately operated under at least eight different names, but the Stanton moniker and what it signifies remains an indelible piece of local history, one deeply embedded in Jacksonville’s African American community. We talk to the authors of Stanton, a book exploring the 140-plus year history of an institution that began as the first school for Black students in post-Emancipation Florida and was for a time led by civil rights activist and writer (then-Principal) James Weldon Johnson. Stanton later became Duval County’s first magnet school and remains the oldest continually operating high school in the state. The book tells the story through hundreds of photographs, memories of famed alumni, sports records, cultural endeavors and decades of academic achievements.

Guests:  

• Ronald Galvin, co-author, Stanton
• Tiffany Galvin Green, co-author, Stanton

Amid our seemingly inescapable technological landscape, it’s increasingly rare to find kids engaging in simple things like going outside to play, searching for critters and getting their hands dirty. But one Jacksonville 8-year-old is bucking that trend and getting recognized for doing so. Raza Syed’s interest in nature and wildlife led him to the Junior Ranger program and later the Jr. Ranger Competition, a National Wildlife Federation event that asks young explorers to share their outdoor adventures in a bid for the national title. Raza placed second in the competition semifinals, ranking in the top 1% out of more than 100,00 kids participating nationwide. We ask Raza about his favorite animal facts and hear how the competition allowed him to gain a deeper appreciation for the great outdoors.

Guests:

• Raza Syed, Jr. Ranger quarterfinalist
• Asghar Syed, Raza’s father

The spiraling Ebola epidemic in central Africa and the recent hantavirus outbreak are sobering reminders of the globally interdependent realities of healthcare. We discuss how the current political landscape and changes in spending on international medicine could be contributing to the spread of disease. Also, RFK wants you off your antidepressants and has no problem calling you fat: Why some say his approach to addiction, obesity and mental health is a retread of decades-old “shame-based” messaging. We discuss those recent medical headlines with Dr. Joe Sirven, who also answers your healthcare questions on any topic.

Guest: Dr. Joe Sirven, Mayo Clinic neurologist and host of WJCT’s What’s Health Got To Do With It?

A celebration of experimental publishing is headed to the heart of Jacksonville’s art scene. The 5th annual Duval Comic & Zine Fest sets up shop — including demos, displays and DIY inspiration — in the CoRK Arts District. It’s a chance to check out the evolution of the ‘zine from the early fanzines of the punk and indie music scenes to the social justice and protest era to its modern iteration as an anything-goes artist chapbook. More than 70 artists will be on hand showing/selling/swapping their wares, and activities include live risograph or RISO printing, button making and hands-on workshops. We talk to two participant organizers about how the event has grown to meet the moment.

Guests:  

• Kiana Blaylock, poet, teacher, independent journalist and zinester
• Thony Aiuppy, art educator, cartoonist, zinester and storyteller

The legendary lyricist and composer Stephen Sondheim died five years ago as a nonagenarian, but he remains freshly fascinating for generations of fans. A new book by Pulitzer finalist Daniel Okrent about his life and troubled relationship with his mother, Stephen Sondheim: Art Isn't Easy, has reignited conversations about the demanding and influential artist. Considered a “difficult genius,” Sondheim is the creator behind such seminal Broadway musicals as Gypsy, West Side Story, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, Sweeney Todd and Sunday In The Park With George, among many others. A local production of the musical revue Sondheim on Sondheim marries the best of his personal songbook with video interview segments with the master himself. The show runs at Theatre Jacksonville from June 5 to June 21.

Guests:

• Curtis J. Williams, director, Sondheim on Sondheim at Theatre Jacksonville
• Josh Waller, actor
• Leanne Gullo, actor