Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed a bill that will expand legal protections for agricultural operations. Passed by both the Florida House and Senate, the bill (SB 88) expands the state’s 1979 “Right to Farm” law and will shield the agriculture industry from what they consider nuisance lawsuits.

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.

On Thursday, May 6 the Coastal & Heartland National Estuary Partnership is hosting the 2021 Southwest Florida Climate Summit. It’s a free, virtual, daylong event featuring interactive audience question and answer sessions with experts, to exchange ideas on how best to expand southwest Florida’s capacity to respond to climate challenges, and to build climate resilience.

As Charlotte County prepares to celebrate its centennial this Friday, April 23 we meet publisher and historian, James Abraham, to talk about his new book “Century: A People’s History of Charlotte County” that expands upon existing historical accounts by providing a narrative and historical overview of some of the lesser known people and moments that shaped the county’s history since its founding.

A feature story in the April issue of National Geographic magazine highlights the importance of a network of public and private lands that runs throughout the state called the Florida Wildlife Corridor — and the crucial role it plays to help ensure Florida wildlife’s long-term survival. It features stunning photographs of the endangered Florida panther. Our guest today spent more than five years working to collect those images.

Over the past year or so the term critical race theory has begun entering the public discourse. Former-president Donald Trump described it as "divisive and un-American propaganda," and Governor Ron DeSantis’s proposed civics curriculum would explicitly exclude CRT in Florida. We get an overview of what critical race theory is and where it fits into academia with Dr. Ted Thornhill, Director of the Florida Gulf Coast University Center for Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, and Associate Professor of Sociology; and Dr. Victor Ray, Assistant Professor of sociology at University of Iowa.

We conclude our series of conversations with speakers from the Naples Discussion Group’s 20-21 schedule by talking with Dr. Darrell Slider, Professor Emeritus in political science at University of South Florida. His presentation on Friday, April 9 explored the challenges facing Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime in these times of great change, particularly the COVID-19 pandemic and Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

It's Parkinson’s Awareness Month, so we’re talking with two people working to help those with the neurodegenerative disease here in Southwest Florida. Dr. Ramon Gil is a neurologist at the Parkinson’s Treatment Center Of Southwest Florida, and Mary Spremulli is a medical speech-language pathologist and owner of Voice Aerobics Speech Language Therapy in Punta Gorda. We also meet one of her clients, Mike Davidson, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s five years ago.

Nearly 500 students are now participating in the “Students & Seniors: From Our Nest to Theirs” program at Florida Gulf Coast University. Students earn service-learning hours by writing letters, and creating cards, videos, poems, stories, and works of art, which are then distributed to seniors living in care facilities in Lee and Collier Counties.

We bring you an episode of the WGCU podcast Three Song Stories with singer/songwriter Bill Metts, who performed on Arts Edition just last month with fellow singer/songwriter Bruce Gallant. The duo perform at venues around SWFL and Bill is co-founder and vice president of the non-profit Hope By Song, which helps people whose stories of loss, abuse, addiction, homelessness, PTSD have not been heard by inspiring them to tell their stories through song.