Gulf Coast Life

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.

The Southwest Florida-based alternative rock/pop punk band Perfect Sequence is set to release their new EP “Defiance” on June 4. Just last week, the band released a music video for the title track of the EP that pays homage to the Black Lives Matter movement. We’ll hear band members Caleb Vilca (lead vocals/rhythm guitar), Brenden Dubois (bass/vocals), Colin Oakes (lead guitar/vocals) and Skyler Lapham (drums/vocals) perform their original music in the WGCU performance studio.

A new column in the Naples Daily News and the News-Press called "The Racial Reality" hopes to stir the hearts and minds of readers and move them to act boldly in the service of racial justice in Southwest Florida and beyond. The columnist is Florida Gulf Coast University associate professor of sociology, and Director of FGCU’s Center for Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, Dr. Ted Thornhill. He's been a professor at FGCU since 2015, where he’s taught classes on Sociology, Social Stratification, The African American Experience, White Racism, and Racism and Law Enforcement.

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.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is embarking on a new study during the 2021 algal bloom season — roughly now through September — to assess the health effects of exposure to cyanotoxins, in part to help health officials better inform the public. The “Cyanotoxins in Air Study” (CAST) will look at exposures to cyanotoxins produced by blue green algae among people who live or work near Lake Okeechobee, the Caloosahatchee River, Cape Coral’s Canals, and the St. Lucie River on the east coast.

Shortly after Governor DeSantis signed SB 90 a group of Florida-based civil rights organizations sued state and local election officials seeking to block the new restrictive voting measures. We dig into what the new law says with Patti Brigham, President of the League of Women Voters of Florida, which is leading that legal challenge; and Dr. Micah Kubic, Executive Director of the ACLU of Florida.

When we choose to do something, are we always consciously aware of why we made that decision? That is one aspect of the field of research our guest today has spent the past several decades investigating. Dr. Sandra Schneider is Professor in Cognition, Neuroscience, and Social Psychology, Department of Psychology at the University of South Florida in Tampa.

During the 2021 Annual Florida Legislative Session, state lawmakers passed a pair of bills aimed at expanding protections for landowners. The measures, currently awaiting Governor Ron DeSantis’ signature, authorize property owners to file lawsuits against government entities over local land-use regulations, even if the property owners have no formal development plans that would be impacted.Smart-growth advocacy organizations like 1,000 Friends of Florida say the bills could serve as a weaponization of the Bert Harris Act that could prevent local governments from imposing smart-growth regulations that would undermine the state’s coastal resiliency efforts. We'll take a closer look and explore the current state of toxic red tide and blue-green algae blooms in Southwest Florida.

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.

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.