Beginning this Sunday, Oct. 5 at 5am WGCU will begin airing a weekly interview show called “What’s Health Got to Do With It?” that explores the intersection of healthcare and daily life with a focus on guiding listeners on their journeys through the increasingly convoluted medical bureaucracy. We meet its host, Dr. Joe Sirven. He’s a practicing neurologist, and professor of neurology and Chairman Emeritus of the Department of Neurology at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona. He's also a well-published author on epilepsy, a former editor-in-chief of epilepsy.com, and he currently serves as the editor-in-chief of Brain & Life en Español.

We meet an Venice high school student who turned her attention to feral cats at the local level — and kittens in particular — and the need to both reduce their reproduction rate and to help as many homeless kittens become socialized so they can hopefully be adopted. Venice High School Junior, Maddie Canty, has been a Girl Scout for 12 years. Earlier this year she earned the Girl Scout Gold Award with her project called A Hope for Kittens. The Gold Award is the top award a Girl Scout Can earn. Her project focused on reducing kitten euthanasia by combining public education, direct care, and local policy change.

When President Donald Trump returned to the White House in January, he declared a commitment to tightening immigration policies and enhancing border security. The administration has followed through on its promise to ramp up deportations, and recent military strikes on boats departing Venezuela are demonstrations of its willingness to act upon its goal of targeting what they claim are drug smugglers from ‘cartels or other organizations.’ The administration has also designated six Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations so the question remains whether it will take similar military action in Mexico. So, what effect have these kinds of policies had on our relationship with Mexico and other countries in Latin America, and how people in those countries perceive the United States?

Thunderstorm Aversion or storm anxiety is when dogs experience significant fear or anxiety during storms. Loud noises are the most obvious trigger, but dogs can react to other storm-related cues like lightning flashes, the sounds of wind or rain hitting the home, changes in barometric pressure, and even static electricity in the air. We learn about Thunderstorm Aversion and ways veterinarians try to help dogs and their owners. And we learn about a three-year, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of a new treatment that’s hoping to become a medical solution.

The word compassion can be somewhat amorphous depending on the context it’s used in. Our guests would say it definitely takes action to be a truly compassionate person, and they’re all supporting an effort to develop a compassionate attitude in the community. This Saturday, Sept. 20, they are hosting their third “Shaping a Compassionate Fort Myers” event since they held the first one two months ago. We talk about out how their first two events went, and have a conversation about compassion and why it’s important, especially during the times we’re in.

Gov. Ron DeSantis has floated the idea of Florida following Texas and California in drawing new Congressional districts mid-decade, breaking with norms. But what do the 2010 Fair Districts Amendments to Florida’s constitution have to say about mid-decade redistricting being done for openly partisan reasons? We talk with the leader of the Fair Districts Coalition when it helped to create and advocated for the passage of the Fair Districts Amendments to find out.

We learn about a nationwide clinical trial, funded by the National Institute of Aging, that's trying to determine if high doses of a synthetic form of Vitamin B1 called benfotiamine might be an effective treatment for mild cognitive impairment or early Alzheimer's Disease. Also known as thiamine, Vitamin B1 is important for brain health, and it's known that people with Alzheimer's have a thiamine deficiency.

When Governor Ron DeSantis announced he was using his emergency powers to have the State of Florida build a detention facility on a relatively unused airbase in Big Cypress National Preserve in Collier County the idea immediately drew criticisms, including the cost and the environmental impact. But there is another aspect of this camp and the name Alligator Alcatraz that has drawn another kind of criticism: echoes of racist language that bring to mind the trope of ‘alligator bait’ that dates back to the late 1800s and the days of Jim Crow. We explore that history with a reporter from the Miami Herald and a Naples Rabbi whose recent sermon titled “A Fence Around Compassion” went viral on Facebook.

Mahjong originated in China in the mid-to-late 19th century, but its exact origins are debated. It was first introduced to the United States in the 1920s and it quickly became a massive fad. There was a mahjong revival in the 1950s and 60s and in recent years there’s been a resurgence in popularity, with new generations discovering this century old game. We meet three members of Southwest Florida Mahjong to find out what their group is all about, and exactly what it is about this 'old-fashioned' game that resonates in today's world.