Gulf Coast Life

We talk with Earthjustice Oceans Program Senior Attorney Chris Eaton about the ongoing legal battle to protect Rice’s whales from extinction. The species small population of under 100 animals lives year-round in the northeaster Gulf of Mexico where they face threats from ocean noise, marine vessel traffic, oil and gas activity, and the threat of future oil spills.

We're using our Song of the Day platform to honor some of the musical artists who passed away during 2022. Join us as we provide a little trivia, a little history, and a musical tribute of sorts to just some of the hundreds of musicians who left us last year. There are too many to celebrate in one hour, so the singers, songwriters, and musicians we chose all led interesting lives, created amazing music, or made an unusual impact in their field. These 16 people may have left us in body, but in spirit, they each left their mark on us, and on music, forever.

Dr. Temple Grandin grew up with autism in the 1950s when the disorder was not well-understood. She did not talk until she was three and a half years old and back then many children with speech delays were institutionalized. Dr. Grandin is now a professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University, and her insights on animal behavior have revolutionized the livestock industry. Over her career she has written scores of scientific papers, and numerous books. She was even the focus of a semi-biographical HBO film called Temple Grandin. She joins us in advance of her talk on Saturday at the Christ Community Church in Fort Myers as part of the nonprofit Family Initiative’s ‘Redefining Autism’ speaker series.

In his new book, “Fort Myers Historic Hurricanes” Tom Hall offers a history of severe storms that have impacted southwest Florida dating all the way back to 1841, but he also provides a dire warning about this area’s severe risk from hurricanes and storm surge in general. It opens with a hurricane in 1841 that swept across the region making landfall near Sanibel Island and bringing 14' of storm surge to the U.S. Army fort on Punta Rassa.

Several weeks after Hurricane Ian made landfall a team of faculty and student researchers from Florida Gulf Coast University’s Water School joined a weeklong, offshore research trip to collect water samples and survey sea beds to better understand the storm’s ecological impact. We talk with two of the research team members to learn more about the trip and what they found.

Dig into the history of the Cuban sandwich with the authors of the new book “The Cuban Sandwich: A History in Layers.”

Anyone who lives in southwest Florida is definitely aware of the rapid rise in housing costs — especially rentals — in recent years. It’s estimated that 40% of households in Collier County struggle with housing costs, and availability of affordable housing for essential workers and seniors in Collier is reaching crisis levels. More than 40,000 workers commute daily from outside Collier County because they can’t afford to live near their jobs.

Lee County is having a record-breaking year for traffic fatalities. As of Dec. 8, there have been 119 traffic fatalities in the county, including 9 bicyclists and 24 pedestrians. Those numbers are up from last year, and continue a years-long trend of increasing traffic-related deaths here in Southwest Florida. We explore some of the reasons behind these numbers and this ongoing trend with Jay Anderson, he is Executive director of the nonprofit Stay Alive....Just Drive! and a longtime advocate for traffic safety; and Dan Moser, he is a founding member of the BikeWalkLee Coalition and a traffic safety consultant in Lee County.

A new report from Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families finds that the rate of uninsured children nationally dropped from 5.7% to 5.4% between 2019 and 2021 and that the rate of uninsured kids in Florida fell from 7.6% to 7.3%. Health policy experts warn, these gains could be short-lived because when federal protections in the Families First Act expire, states will be reevaluating Medicaid eligibility requirements and that could happen as soon as April 2023. We take a closer look in a conversation with the lead author of the report, Georgetown University Center for Children and Families co-founder and Executive Director Joan Alker.

The Shy Wolf Sanctuary Education & Experience Center in Naples got its start in 1993 when founders Nancy and Kent Smith began taking in animals that were not accepted by government animal services, wildlife rehabilitators, or zoos. In its 30 years Shy Wolf has rescued more than 1260 animals, as well as providing educational experiences to tens of thousands of visitors from around the world from its small property of just a few acres. We talk with its Executive Director, Deanna Deppen, to learn more about the work they do, how they managed during Hurricane Ian, and their plans to grow — including their fundraising effort to build a hurricane shelter for Southwest Florida pets.