Gulf Coast Life

Governor Ron DeSantis signed legislation last week that prohibits the manufacture for sale or distribution, or selling of, cultivated or so-called or “lab-grown” meat in Florida. Now that it’s law, SB 1084 makes it a second-degree misdemeanor to sell or manufacture cultivated meat in the state. While the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) approved lab-grown meat cultivation in June of last year, it’s far from hitting the grocery store shelves or restaurant plates. To get some context on this new food science industry, and why Florida is already banning it, we talk with Dr. Jennifer Martin, she’s an meat science and safety expert at Colorado State University.

Dr. Mark Schulman served as Time magazine’s pollster for almost ten years, and he worked on the ABC News Election Decision Desk for many years. Dr. Schulman became President of the American Association for Public Opinion Research 2002. He co-founded one the nation's largest public opinion/survey research firms, Scientific Research Based Interventions or SRBI, which is now part of Abt Associates.

In April of 2023 a small group of southwest Floridians gathered to discuss their concerns about what they see as growing trends toward autocracy here in Florida. The primary focus of their concerns are the policies and positions being put forth by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and the Republican-dominated state legislature, which they say demonstrate autocratic or authoritarian tendencies. That small group of people went on to create a nonpartisan nonprofit called Floridians for Democracy which works to bring people together who share similar concerns. They now have nearly 1000 members, and together they work to shine light on issues around freedom and what they see as government overreach.

We remember Bob Graham, and get a glimpse into our nation's history, through the lens of a conversation that happened on this show on Thursday, Oct. 14, 2004. Governor Graham had just published a book titled “Intelligence Matters: The CIA, the FBI, Saudi Arabia, and the Failure of America's War on Terror.” This show launched in the Spring of 2004 as a live, hour long call-in show. Our founding host was Ryan Warner. Today we listen back to excerpts from that show with Ryan behind the mic.

Dr. Aysegul Timur officially took the reins in her new role as president of Florida Gulf Coast University on July 1, 2023. Prior to serving as president she was Assistant Vice President of Strategic Initiatives, Strategy and Program Innovation. Overall, she’s been a part of the FGCU community since 2019. Dr. Timur is the FGCU’s fifth president, and she is the university’s first female president since its founding in 1997. We sit down with her as she approaches her first year as president to get an update on how things are going so far.

The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." The idea that individuals — or the press — have the right to express opinions and ideas without government censorship or interference, while not entirely unprecedented is far from the norm throughout human history. The First Amendment to the United States Constitution remains the gold standard globally when it comes to protecting speech. But, our guest says history shows that protecting freedom of expression cannot be guaranteed without strong support from those who it protects — and that includes strongly supporting the right to expression for those who we strongly disagree with.

"Forgotten Park" explores the unexpected role a Glades County sugarcane grinding festival plays in preserving one of Florida's most important archaeological sites while honoring early agricultural traditions.

Florida’s Supreme Court recently ruled that the state’s constitution does not protect abortion, allowing the state law passed in 2023 that bans abortion after six weeks to take effect next month. But in a separate decision, the Florida Supreme Court also just ruled that an amendment to guarantee abortion rights in the state’s constitution can go on the November ballot. As all of this unfolds we listen back to a conversation from 2021 when the first modern bill to restrict abortions in Florida was filed, to get a big picture history of the legality, and criminality, of abortion in America.

Edward McGovern spent 22 years in local law enforcement with the Hallandale Beach Police Department. He retired as a major in 2020, but as far back as 2017 he began to see the need for law enforcement to bring communication tech into the modern age. So, he founded CERA-Critical Event Response Applications. It’s an app-based system that allows police to see the big picture view of what’s unfolding, and to communicate directly with people who are experiencing the mass shooting event, like students, teachers, or employees.

In January of 1742, while sailing around waters south of Florida in search of Spanish vessels to "sink, burn or destroy" the British Royal Navy’s HMS Tyger ran aground at Garden Key in what’s now Dry Tortugas National Park. What unfolded after the Tyger ran aground at Garden Key is a fascinating narrative that is compiled in a new paper published in the International Journal of Nautical Archaeology titled “Hunting HMS Tyger, 1742: Identifying a Ship-of-the-Line in Dry Tortugas National Park” co-authored by Andrew Van Slyke & Joshua Marano. To get a sense of the Tyger and its crew's story, and the archeological efforts that go into this kind of identification, we talk with the team lead for the HMS Tyger identification effort.