Gulf Coast Life

On June 13, 1966, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down Miranda v. Arizona — a decision that fundamentally changed the way police and law enforcement officials interact with suspects who are in custody. We get some insight into how the case wound up at the Supreme Court, and how the judicial process works at our nation’s highest court, with retired attorney Jim Hale who served as a law clerk for Chief Justice Earl Warren when Miranda was decided.

We meet the new Senior Scientist in Mote's Research Division, Dr. Demian Chapman, who will also serve as the Manager for the Sharks & Rays Conservation Research Program, and hold the title of Perry W. Gilbert Chair in Shark Research. Dr. Chapman was recently an Associate Professor at Florida International University in the Department of Biological Science, and was the lead scientist for the international initiative, Global FinPrint, which is the world’s largest-ever shark survey.

This time on the Gulf Coast Life Book Club, we hear from Clint Smith, author of How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America, and Gabriela Garcia, author of Of Women and Salt.

A new study led by scientists with University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences maps out the status of crocodile populations in south Florida over the past 40 years to learn how they’ve responded to changes in the Everglades ecosystem. "American Crocodiles as restoration bioindicators in the Florida Everglades" was published in PLOS ONE on May 19.

Dr. Ella Mae Piper, an African American woman born in Georgia in 1884, moved to Fort Myers in 1915 and immediately opened businesses including a beauty salon and a soda bottling company. Her entrepreneurial spirit formed the foundation of a life focused on philanthropy and community building — including the Dr. Piper Center for Social Services that has supported low-income seniors, frail elderly, at-risk youth, and special needs children since 1976.

When gyms and yoga studios closed, instructors had to get creative. Gil Gonzalez of Gil's Zumba and yoga teacher Jackie Chiodo tell us how they managed.

Florida Gulf Coast University will soon be presenting its fourth Cannabis Professional Certificate Program that focuses on things like cannabis history, laws and policies relating to the plant, and cannabis as a business. And, it's going entirely online this time. We're joined by Dr. Martha Rosenthal, professor of neuroscience and physiology and Director of FGCU’s Cannabis Research, Education, and Workforce initiative to learn more.

Marine researchers of all kinds began studying the ecological impact caused by the Piney Point pollution release, including those with the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program, which was asked by the National Oceanographic & Atmospheric Administration to expand its monitoring efforts to include the dolphin population near Piney Point. While that research work is still in its infancy, we're checking in with Dr. Randy Wells, director of the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program, which is the world's longest-running study of a dolphin population.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed HB 233 into law on June 22. Under the new law, the Florida Board of Education will require Florida’s public colleges to survey students, faculty, and staff every year to assess “the intellectual freedom and viewpoint diversity” at each institution. We spoke with Florida Gulf Coast University President, Dr. Mike Martin, to get his take.

When our guest today came to Florida Gulf Coast University in 2007 the school didn’t even have a minor in entrepreneurship. But she immediately went to work to change that and is still here today working to grow the program. Dr. Sandra Kauanui is now Director of the FGCU School of Entrepreneurship. Since its founding in 2016 the school has rapidly grown. Its mission is to infuse an entrepreneurial mindset all across the university by offering an interdisciplinary entrepreneurship major, minor, and graduate certificate.