Gulf Coast Life

Dr. Robert Hilliard has worn many hats over the course of his life. Born in 1925, Hilliard served as a soldier in World War II. Since then, he's been a journalist, educator, author, playwright, and humanitarian activist. He lives in Southwest Florida these days and is a member of the nonpartisan nonprofit Floridians for Democracy. At the age of 99 and having lived the life he’s lived, we invited him back into the studio to reflect on the place we find ourselves politically in this country. And get his take on what he calls open fascism in the modern political right, with the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 being a prime example.

Florida Southwestern State College has deployed an “AI gun detection and intelligent situational awareness solutions” across its four campuses, using their existing camera systems. We talk with one of the founders of the company that makes the system, called ZeroEyes, as well as FSW’s Chief Operating Officer and its Chief of Police.

So far this year there have been almost a thousand travel-related cases of dengue fever reported in the continental United States, with 278 of them coming from Florida. This means someone contracted the disease outside of the country and then got sick once they were back home. There have also been 16 locally acquired cases of dengue so far this year — all of those were acquired here in Florida. Dengue is a mosquito-borne disease, so we sit down with two people from the Lee County Mosquito Control District to learn about their extensive operations.

We learn about the Immokalee Foundatin's Mentor Program, which pairs volunteer mentors with students whose interests align with their expertise. The nonprofit has been supporting and educating students in the small, rural, mostly agricultural community about 25 miles east of Naples since 1991.

Project 2025 is not an entirely new concept. The Heritage Foundation has published what it calls Mandate for Leadership policy blueprints since 1979. The first one preceded the first Reagan administration. Over the decades they have outlined what conservatives hope to see out of a Republican administration, if that’s who wins the election. But, Project 2025 has a different tone and nature — and is far more detailed when it comes to exactly what policies it’s calling for, and just how they can be achieved.

President Joe Biden announced, Sunday, he’s dropping out of the presidential race and has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, instead. We get reaction and explore what’s next for the Democratic party in a conversation with Founding Director of the Institute for Youth and Justice Studies at Florida Gulf Coast University, Sandra Pavelka, Ph.D., and Interim Chair of the Democratic Party of Lee County, Jim Rosinus.

When it comes to the ways global climate change impacts the world’s oceans things like melting ice caps and glaciers, and what’s called thermal expansion — that’s when water takes up more volume as its temperature goes up — are probably what first come to mind. Or how increased water temperatures impact sea life, like recent, widespread coral bleaching events off Florida’s coast and around the world. Or even how changes in temperature and salinity can alter ocean currents, which are crucial for regulating global climate and weather patterns. But, an overlooked aspect of this story is how increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increases the acidity — or the pH level — of the world’s oceans.

Bonaventure Bondo is an environmentalist and climate activist based in Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He is the founder and national coordinator of the Youth Movement for the Protection of the Environment. It’s a youth organization working in the fight against climate change and biodiversity loss in the DRC. His efforts focus on protecting forests, promoting renewable energies, defending the rights of local communities, and campaigning against the exploitation of fossil fuels in the Congo Basin Rainforest.

Katherine Stewart is an investigative reporter and author whose work focuses on issues around religious liberty, politics, policy, and education. Her work appears in the New York Times op ed, on NBC, in the New Republic, and in the New York Review of Books. In her latest book, "The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism" Stewart lays out how the Religious Right in the United States has portrayed itself as a social movement focusing on cultural issues, but is actually a well-organized political movement that has evolved into a Christian nationalist movement that seeks to gain political power and to impose its vision on all of society.

Janet Mtali discovered her passion for radio when she was invited to host a children’s show on TWR Malawi when she was still in high school. Since then, she has worked her way up and is now its National Director. Mtali is one of 25 Mandela Fellowship for Young African Leaders participants who are in Southwest Florida for the 2024 Leadership Institute being hosted by Florida Gulf Coast University. We meet her today to talk about the work she does and the Mandela Fellowship experience.