The Florida Podcast

4theMouseketeers' Erika Roberts & Susanne Kain join me to discuss Florida's Magical Mouse & his finances following an important shareholder meeting this week as COVID-19 plagues the globe. Does ABC have an anti-conservative bias & was the Magical Mouse's coronavirus response sufficient? We also discuss Princess Cruises and our friends at the North Florida Wildlife Center.

A global pandemic interrupts global activity - even our podcast timeline! Statewide advisories from Governor Ron DeSantis, as well as a press meeting with President Trump & Treasury Secretary Mnuchin positing support for an Andrew Yang-like temporary Coronavirus UBI bill proposed by Representative Tulsi Gabbard (HRes 897).

Coral: rock, plant, or animal? A bit of all three? This episode we look into super corals, super reefs with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institutition, & we interview one super coral expert, José Moscoso Núñez from SUNY Stony Brook. He offers us insight on all things to do with coral, how they function, how they thrive, their family matters, & their benefits to our society.

Florida's land is very young, and very full of evidence of life. We examine Florida's geological history with the Florida Museum, tying in cosmic connections to impact craters and the shaping of Florida before the last ice age saw the rapid terrestrial expansion of our peninsula. From Oligocene to Pleistocene epochs, we begin our introduction into the great civilizations of the Americas who influenced the indigenous of Florida prior to European interaction. We also look into a process called slash-and-char, a practice of pre-Maya Amazonians used to cultivate their own soil, terra preta. This ancient form of composting enabled indigenous mound builders to cultivate enough crops to feed millions in an otherwise infertile land.

The first leader of the first settlement of freed slaves in what is now the United States of America, we explore some of the life of Francisco Menéndez, a Mandinka sold into slavery as a boy, escaped slavery in Charles Town, South Carolina Colony, fled south to San Agustín, where he was granted freedom by King Charles II of Spain. His story inspired Charles II to declare La Florida a refuge for all runaway slaves who sought freedom if they joined the militia and converted to Catholicism. We also explore two final Florida Slave Narratives to close out Black History Month, of Douglas Dorsey (Spring Glen) & Mary Minus Biddie (Eatonville).

Mosé, the first settlement of freed slaves in North America, was located in La Florida. This episode we explore the basics of Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mosé to give a taste of what to expect later in the series when we get to telling the stories of La Florida. We talk about Francisco Menéndez, the first leader of Mosé, & of the wars he fought under the Spanish Crown against the illegal colony of Georgia & the Carolinas. We also explore the Florida Slave Narrative of Rev. Squires Jackson of Jacksonville.

Today we discuss the origins of the American abolitionist movement within the Religious Society of Friends, more commonly known as the Quakers. We also continue our weekly dose of the 1937 Federal Writers' Project by presenting you with the Florida Slave Narratives of Della "Auntie Bess" Hilyard of Titusville and Anna Scott of Jacksonville. In her narrative, Mrs. Scott details 7-8 years of her life where she attempted to repatriate in Liberia under a program that was paid for by the American Colonization Society. While not directly linked with each other, we dive into abolitionism in early American history and how our founders prepared themselves for the inevitable emancipation of slaves.

Our first episode of Black History Month explores the Federal Writers' 1936 Florida Slave Narratives of Louis Napoleon of Tallahassee (of Arlington later in life) and Douglas Parish of Monticello. We also dive into the State of Florida's interpretation of The Lost Cause, a movement created by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in a last-ditch effort to bring honor for those they lost in the war. Also includes the TEDxUAMonticello Talk by Roy Wisecarver, a worthwhile message for those whose ancestors fought on the losing side of the Civil War.

Cecil Rhodes: godfather of apartheid, founder of DeBeers (of blood diamond fame), manager of the British South Africa Company, former Prime Minister of Cape Colony, imperialist and namesake of the famed Rhodes Scholarship. In our first Close-Up Special, we dive into the deceptive practices of DeBeers and draw similarities to US corporate & foreign policies.

We sit with State Representative Kristin Jacobs, D-96 of Broward County, to discuss Resiliency Florida, expanding healthcare, mass transit, and many other issues which impact Floridians. We're joined by 13-year old Lucas Dietzler, his mother Michelle, who came to Florida from Wisconsin to deliver $1200 he raised back home to Stephanie Brendl of Shark Allies.