Gulf Coast Life

Peter Max might not have been a household name at the end of his life, but his visual style — and utterly prolific artistic output over his roughly six-decade career — undoubtedly left a deep imprint on our country's collective artistic culture. His art evolved through numerous styles over the decades, but always keeping his distinctive approach so no matter which era of his career, his work was always instantly recognizable. When we talked with him on this show in 2009, in advance of a visit to a Naples gallery for an exhibition, Peter Max was working out of a 30,000-square-foot studio in Manhattan with a staff of 105 people. He had created a visual art empire. Max passed away on Sept. 14 at the age of 88. We revisit our conversation with him originally recorded in February of 2009.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is the federal government's primary science and natural-resource research agency. It operates thousands of stream gauges, well monitors, and sampling stations that track real-time river flow, groundwater levels, and water quality. Since the late 1990s the primary model or tool they use to estimate how pollutants (primarily nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus) move from the land into streams and rivers has been the SPARROW model. That stands for SPAtially Referenced Regression On Watershed attributes. New research details a new kind of SPARROW model that improves or extends the understanding of nutrient pollution by accounting for what's called 'storage lag' — meaning legacy nutrients stored in soils or groundwater for longer than one season before entering streams, and how those lagged nutrients are impacting water quality across the United States. We learn more about this new model, and who will be using it from USGS research hydrologist who led the study, Olivia Miller.

Starting in the late 2000s, environmental engineers and policymakers began talking about taking "nature-based" approaches to protect ourselves from storms. Concepts like 'living shorelines' were developed, where planners would work with nature. Think planting seagrasses and protecting or restoring dunes along the beach, or strategic mangrove placement as examples. But those approaches are still far from standard. The Conservancy of Southwest Florida has created a new Flood Resilience Blueprint called Working with Nature that uses the City of Naples as a test-site to show just what's possible, and what approaches would work best and where. We learn more from their Climate Resilience Advisor, Dr. Carrie Schuman.

NASA launched the new Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope from Kennedy Space Center on Aug. 30. It's field of view will be about 100 times larger than the Hubble Space Telescope. Its initial primary five-year mission will focus on finding and understanding exoplanets (planets around other stars), doing astrophysics (studying other stars and how they behave), and mapping our galaxy to hopefully get a better handle on both Dark Matter and Dark Energy We talk with space reporter Brendan Byrne, and astronomer Dr. Derek Buzasi from University of Chicago to learn what makes Roman different, and what scientists have planned for it once it starts sending data back to Earth.

We throw around the word "psychopath" a lot. But how many of us really know what makes someone a psychopath? Leanne ten Brinke knows. Listen to our conversation.

In the Fall of 2001, on a Tuesday in September, news started spreading that a plane had crashed into one of the World Trade Center buildings in New York City. At first, most people assumed it was an accident. But then, just 17 minutes later, a second commercial airliner flew directly into the other tower, and it became crystal clear that what was unfolding was not an accident but an orchestrated attack. News emerged that two other planes had been hijacked, one of which struck the Pentagon, the other crashed into a field in Somerset County, Pennsylvania after the passengers stormed the cockpit. As we approach the 25th anniversary of nine-eleven, we hear personal stories of what people experienced on that day back then. The conversations in this episode were recorded as part of our 20th anniversary special five years ago.

Jonathan Tepper's memoir describes his childhood in Spain, when his parents opened a drug rehabilitation center to help heroin addicts in Madrid.

The Wasmer Art Gallery at Florida Gulf Coast University is currently exhibiting “The History of the United States, Vol. I & II, 1774 – 1844.” There is one print for each year, each created by different contemporary artists. Some chose well-known events while others more obscure conceptual ideas, all of which were tied into what was happening during those years. During the opening reception, WGCU's Mike Kiniry was joined by three FGCU professors who had been asked to look over the collection and choose a few prints that they wanted to reflect on from their own area of expertise. The panel was comprised of Dr. Rick Coughlin, Professor of Political Science & Government; Dr. Jordan Von Cannon, Associate Professor of American Literature; and by Dr. Sarah Rodriguez, Assistant Professor of History. They were also joined on the panel by Knox Naumes-Hoch — he's a former FGCU dual-enrolled student who is now studying at College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine. Knox wrote the labels for every print to provide some historical context.

Venice Beach is often referred to as the shark teeth capital of the world, but there had never been formal, peer reviewed documentation until a Florida Gulf Coast University professor published a paper breaking down what he and his students found beneath the waters there. The Venice shark and ray assemblage contains 45 species identified from their fossil teeth, all collected by Dr. Harry Maisch, Assistant Professor of Earth Science in the Department of Marine & Earth Sciences in The Water School at FGCU. We learn about his research, and this area's fascinating geologic past.

Cold water swimming and plunging have gotten a lot of attention lately. Chris Ballard is here to tell us all about them.