Shows
Gulf Coast LifeDavid Lawrence Centers program helps patients transition from hospitalization to day treatmentNew David Lawrence Centers program, Pathways to Healing, helps people undergoing behavioral health treatments with transition after hospitalization.
2026-01-1425 minGulf Coast LifeFlorida 2026 Legislative Session PreviewAs Jan. 13th marks the start of Florida’s 2026 legislative session, we’re exploring bills and issues likely to take center stage over the course of the 60-day session in a conversation with Florida Gulf Coast University Political Science professors Roger Green, Ph.D., Sandra Pavelka, Ph.D, and University of Central Florida Political Science professor Aubrey Jewett, Ph.D.
2026-01-1329 minGulf Coast LifeWe check in with the Harry Chapin Food Bank of SWFL for a snapshot of current levels of food insecurityDespite record high stock markets, the Harry Chapin Food Bank of SWFL and its partners are busier than ever because of factors like high food, housing, and health insurance costs — along with cuts to federal programs that help people in need including $186 billion in cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in the so-called Big Beautiful Bill. The Harry Chapin Food Bank distributed 38.7 million pounds of food last year. And to keep up with the growing need, they have begun construction of a new 110-thousand-square-foot distribution center and warehouse being built in Fort Myers that will be their new Hu...
2026-01-1225 min
Gulf Coast LifeCROW kicks off 2026 Speaker Series with talk about SFWMD's Python Elimination ProgramIt’s well-known by now that invasive Burmese pythons have become established in the Florida Everglades. And you may have heard of the state’s annual Python Challenge, when hunters compete to remove as many Burmese pythons from the Everglades as possible with prizes going to whoever is most successful. But you may not be aware of the South Florida Water Management District’s Python Elimination Program, which has been around since 2017. Earlier in January, the head of the district’s Python Program kicked off the Clinic for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife's 2026 speaker series with a talk all about the program...
2026-01-0625 minGulf Coast Life'American Grammar: Race, Education, and the Building of a Nation'Narratives of public education in the early United States generally describe the building of a public system designed to allow people to gain knowledge and access to advancement in their lives. But, what’s often left out is the role race has always played at the root of education in America. The new book, “America Grammar: Race, Education, and the Building of a Nation” makes the case that the exploitation of Black and Indigenous people played an essential role in building American education systems all the way back to this country’s founding. We talk with its author to dig into thi...
2026-01-0529 minGulf Coast LifeRemembering Ed Carlson, longtime director of Audubon Corkscrew Swamp SanctuaryThe name Ed Carlson is synonymous with the Audubon Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary and he could rightfully be described as a legendary figure in the Southwest Florida environmental community. He passed away on Dec. 9 at the age of 75. Carlson’s stewardship of the sanctuary began when he stumbled into an internship right as he was graduating from high school in Miami in the late 1960s. He studied zoology and ornithology in college at University of South Florida with an eye on working with the land and water and wildlife. When Audubon received a grant to study wetlands from the National Science Fo...
2025-12-2225 min
Gulf Coast LifeWhat Hurricane Ian taught us about the realities of resilienceWGCU’s Documentary unit produced a film earlier this year called Rising: Surviving the Surge. It’s a gripping exploration of Hurricane Ian’s impact and what followed as survivors worked to rise from the wreckage. It includes dramatic storm footage, powerful stories of resilience, and insights from scientists, first responders, and community leaders. On Nov. 13 we screened the film at Florida Gulf Coast University’s Water School and brought together a panel of experts from the university who had different areas of expertise to get their take on the film and have a conversation about what Ian showed us, and whet...
2025-12-1657 minGulf Coast LifeBirders gear up for 126th annual Audubon Christmas Bird CountThe Audubon Society’s Christmas Bird Count began on Christmas Day in the year 1900. During the annual count, birdwatchers walk around designated circular areas and count the type, and number of birds they see and hear over the course of the day. The information they collect is used to track bird populations in North and South America, and how they have changed over time. The Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary’s Christmas Bird Count covers the sanctuary and its surroundings. This year it’s happening this coming Saturday, Dec. 20 and we talk with the Sanctuary's director to learn more.
2025-12-1523 minGulf Coast LifeHelping students with diverse learning styles flourishWe talk with a psychologist as well as a Bonita Springs student about how adolescents with diverse learning styles can thrive.
2025-12-1124 minGulf Coast LifeEncore: Rising rates of substance abuse among seniors and connections to untreated mental health conditionsAccording to local health professionals, older adults are increasingly vulnerable to addiction and co-occurring mental health issues — especially in recent years. Substance abuse — most commonly alcohol but also prescription drugs like opioids — doesn't necessarily indicate a mental health condition, but they can often be connected. To get a sense of what lies behind the increase and what treatment options are out there, and what families and caregivers should watch for and how they can support loved ones in seeking help, we talk with someone from the Hazelden Betty Ford Clinic in Naples.
2025-12-0923 minGulf Coast Life'The Big One Is Still Coming: Lessons We Should Have Learned from the Covid-19 Pandemic'Florida Gulf Coast University’s 2025-26 Provost’s Seminar Series kicked off last Friday with renowned infectious disease expert, Dr. Michael Osterholm. He is considered to be one of the nation's foremost experts in infectious diseases – and has dedicated his career to advancing global efforts to prepare and respond to emerging infectious disease threats. We normally interview speakers for the Provost’s Seminar Series in-studio while they’re on campus to talk, but we’re kicking off this year with a special on-location recording of a conversation with Dr. Osterholm, and Dr. Steve Mason, he’s a cardiologist and a member of the...
2025-12-0858 minGulf Coast Life'The Medium is the Mirror' how our online behavior is reshaping relationships, politics, and sacred beliefsCanadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan is most recognized for the expression "the medium is the message" which means the technology or medium we use to transmit information changes our behavior — and society — more than the information it carries. Tim Love spent more than four decades in the world of global advertising. He was Vice-Chairman of the global advertising and marketing services company, Omnicom Group. Since retiring, Love has turned his attention toward the way our online world operates today — and how behavior data collected on us users is being used to not only drive our behavior but is negatively impacting mental health...
2025-12-0236 minGulf Coast LifeSymposium in Naples explores the importance of Nostra Aetate in our timeThis year marks the 60th anniversary of a landmark document called Nostra Aetate (translates as In Our Time) which was the result of Jewish and Catholic collaboration during the Second Vatican Council that ran from 1962 to 1965. It fundamentally changed the official Roman Catholic position on Judaism and spoke out openly against antisemitism. Now, 60 years later, the Catholic-Jewish Dialogue of Collier County along with the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Naples and Ave Maria University are presenting a two-day symposium bringing together a panel of distinguished theologians and professors from across North America to discuss the landmark document that changed 20...
2025-12-0129 min
Three Song StoriesThree Song Throwback - Richard Chin QueeA return to the very first (Pilot) episode of Three Song Stories with Co-creator, producer, and sometimes host, Richard Chin Quee. Richard is FM Station manager at WGCU where he and Mike Kiniry make Three Song Stories, and this episode was the prototype for our show, today.
2025-12-0131 minGulf Coast LifeAmerican College of Sports Medicine reports on this year's fitness trendsThe American College of Sports Medicinehas issues a worldwide fitness trend forecast report each year. On this episode, we discuss what is popular now.
2025-11-2523 minGulf Coast LifeThe story of how fruit bats on Guam connect with human brain health & blue-green algae toxinsIn the late 1990s an ethnobotanist named Dr. Paul Cox spent time in two villages on the Pacific island of Guam where a huge percentage of residents were dying of a neurodegenerative disorder that’s similar to Alzheimer’s Disease or ALS. He found links between the villagers’ diet, which included large fruit bats called flying foxes, and cyanobacteria toxins that were accumulating in the seeds of cycad trees, which the foxes would eat. This led to villagers having huge amounts of the toxins in their bodies. He joins us to talk about the work he did on Guam, and where...
2025-11-2525 minGulf Coast LifeCollier County League of Women Voters produce 'Civics Unplugged' video seriesThe League of Women Voters began as a national, nonpartisan nonprofit political organization that was founded in 1920, just a few months before the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guaranteed women the right to vote. The Collier County chapter is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. One of their main information sources is Vote411.org. It’s a one-stop shop for information about who and what will be on ballots for each election. We learn about their new educational effort is a series of videos called Civics Unplugged which cover basic government functions like the three branches, the houses of...
2025-11-2425 minGulf Coast Life'A Town Without Pity' tells two stories of injustice in Arcadia, FloridaJason Vuic is an author and historian who lives in Fort Worth Texas but grew up in Punta Gorda so many of his books delve into Florida history and culture. His brand new book tells two seemingly unconnected yet strangely overlapping stories that unfolded in the small, rural town of Arcadia in DeSoto County beginning in the 1960s that come together in the 1980s. "A Town Without Pity: Aids, race and resistance in Florida’s Deep South" explores the wrongful conviction and long incarceration of a migrant farmworker named James Richardson, and the town's response to three young boys who we...
2025-11-1827 minGulf Coast Life'Money, Lies, and God: Inside the Movement to Destroy American Democracy' author Katherine StewartInvestigative reporter Katherine Stewart first turned her attention to the Religious Right in the United States in 2007 after her child’s school hosted what’s called a Good News Club. She was surprised to learn of religious program in public schools, and is an investigative reporter whose work has appeared in The New York Times and other major publications, so she started researching and that led to her first book on the subject, “The Good News Club.” She recently stopped by the studio to chat about her third book on this subject, published in February, called “Money, Lies, and God: Inside the...
2025-11-1727 minGulf Coast LifeSarasota Memorial Hospital celebrates 100 years of providing care; growing with communityOn November 2, 1925, Sarasota Memorial Hospital opened as a 32-bed community hospital. Now one of Florida’s largest public health systems, it has grown with the area to serve residents’ needs. We spoke with President and CEO David Verinder about the system's growth.
2025-11-1222 minGulf Coast LifeChampions for Learning program helps Collier County students and teachers achieve successThe Education Foundation of Collier County's Champions for Learning program was started in 1990 with a mission to serve as a catalyst for educational success by investing in Collier’s students and educators. They have programs for students designed to prepare them for their future learning and career goals, both college or occupation-based learning and skill building. Of the roughly 350 students they worked with in their mentorship program, 100% graduated high school last year, 33 of which took dual enrollment courses and 62 received industry certifications. Almost three-quarters of their students are slated to be the first in their family to go to college or...
2025-11-1026 minGulf Coast LifeChatbots contributing to what's being called AI Psychosis?A recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal opens with the story of a man who believed his 83-year-old mother was plotting to assassinate him. His conversational partner and sounding board — in that case ChatGPT — told him he wasn’t crazy and his instincts were sharp, and that vigilance was fully justified. Not long after the man killed his mother before taking his own life. This is an example of what’s been dubbed ‘AI Psychosis’ — that’s when people are if not encouraged to cause harm to themselves or others, at least are not discouraged to do so by chatbots like Ch...
2025-11-0424 minGulf Coast LifeNew research shows Alzheimer’s-like brain changes in dolphins linked to toxic algae bloomsA new paper published in the Journal Nature Communications Biology investigates the link between exposure to Harmful Algal Bloom neurotoxins and the development of Alzheimer's disease signatures in the brain transcriptome of stranded common bottlenose dolphins found in Florida's Indian River Lagoon. They essentially correlated changes in the dolphin brains’ DNA to chronic and acute exposure to blue green algae blooms. Dolphins serve as a "sentinel species" for Alzheimer’s Diseased because they live so long and can naturally develop Alzheimer’s-like neuropathological changes with age.
2025-11-0327 minGulf Coast LifeAll things spaceflight and space science: Are We There Yet?WMFE in Orlando — now called Central Florida Public Media — slowed its coverage of space after the Shuttle Program ended in 2011, but at the end of 2014 they covered the first, uncrewed flight of NASA’s Orion spacecraft — which is part of the Artemis lunar mission — and WMFE’s Brendan Byrne covered it. That story pretty much launched his career covering space, including hosting a podcast called Are We There Yet? which we now air on Saturday evenings at 7:30 on WGCU-FM. So, we thought it would be a good time to get to know him and the show.
2025-10-2825 minGulf Coast Life'Faces Beyond Homelessness' exhibit illustrates the complexity of homelessnessSt. Matthew’s House in Naples is a faith-based nonprofit that is dedicated to addressing hunger, homelessness, and addiction. Their recent project Faces Beyond Homelessness brings the complex story of homelessness to the community and helps people understand the complex dynamics of homelessness and the people experiencing it. It features 10 chalk drawings by artist Wendy Wagner and is on display now at her gallery in Naples. The portraits capture emotional moments as 10 St. Matthew’s House residents shared the stories of their journey from homelessness to hope for the future.
2025-10-2722 minGulf Coast LifeGLSEN Collier presenting 2025 Youth Pride Conference in NaplesGLSEN is a national nonprofit that works to end discrimination, harassment, and bullying based on sexual orientation and gender identity and promote LGBT inclusion and awareness in K-12 schools. It has more than 40 local chapters across the United States, including one in Collier County. This Saturday, they are presenting the 2025 Youth Pride Conference in Naples from 10am to 4pm at the Naples United Church of Christ. We talk to two GLSEN Collier alumni who are part of Saturday's conference.
2025-10-2223 minGulf Coast LifeDendritic Institute: a hub for innovation and collaboration around AI & data scienceThe idea for an AI Institute at Florida Gulf Coast University dates back to before OpenAI released ChatGPT in the fall of 2022. Founded in Aug. 2023, the FGCU Dendritic Institute is a hub for all things AI and data science, from research to education to community outreach. FGCU recently announced a multi-year initiative focusing on responsible, ethical and practical use of AI to enhance teaching, learning, researching and collaborating, so we sit down with the Dendritic Institute's founding director Dr. Leandro de Castro to get the Institute’s origin story and what lies ahead.
2025-10-2125 minGulf Coast LifeRising rates of substance abuse among seniors and connections to untreated mental health conditionsAccording to local health professionals, older adults are increasingly vulnerable to addiction and co-occurring mental health issues — especially in recent years. Substance abuse — most commonly alcohol but also prescription drugs like opioids — doesn't necessarily indicate a mental health condition, but they can often be connected. To get a sense of what lies behind the increase and what treatment options are out there, and what families and caregivers should watch for and how they can support loved ones in seeking help, we talk with someone from the Hazelden Betty Ford Clinic in Naples.
2025-10-2023 minGulf Coast LifeFighting the Florida ShuffleWhen the Affordable Care Act was passed in 2010 it guaranteed coverage for people going through addiction treatment for the first time. This was a huge benefit for many people, but it also created conditions that led to some treatment providers taking advantage of people in recovery — and part of that corrupt system is what’s referred to as The Florida Shuffle. Put simply, the Florida Shuffle is when proprietors of what are called ‘sober homes’ effectively "broker patients" in order to keep them in a cycle of addiction and recovery. Well-run sober homes are meant to be a place where people w...
2025-10-1327 minGulf Coast LifeSWFL nonprofit funds mammograms and breast cancer care for uninsuredOctober is Breast Cancer Awareness Month so we’re doing our part to increase awareness about breast cancer and the importance of screening, both self and diagnostic, and learning about how treatments and screenings have evolved since 1985 when Breast Cancer Awareness Month was initiated. According to the National Breast Cancer Foundation 1 in 8 women in the United States will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime. We get a snapshot of the state of screening and treatment, and risk factors to consider — and we learn about Partners for Breast Cancer Care, a nonprofit that funds breast screening, diagnostic testing, and trea...
2025-10-0823 minGulf Coast LifeThe 'memeification' of mainstream culture & politicsAs internet use became common, communities formed in different ways. Early examples would include internet forums, or message boards. In the early 2000s a message board called 4chan was created that was anonymous by design. And posts made to it, and replies, were inherently temporary. While 4chan had message boards for all sorts of topics its anonymity combined with posts that would eventually disappear led to the emergence of an online culture that would seem strange and even extreme to many people who didn’t spend time there. Our guest grew up immersed in this online culture, and is now a...
2025-10-0723 minGulf Coast LifeSupporting free speech requires protecting opinions you strongly disagree withThe First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution remains the gold standard globally when it comes to protecting speech. But our guest says free speech protections cannot be guaranteed without strong support from those who it protects — including supporting others’ right to express ideas you might strongly disagree with. Jacob Mchangama has spent his career tracking free speech trends globally and understanding how it has ebbed and flowed over the course of recorded history. He is director of the Future of Free Speech think tank at Vanderbilt University, a Senior Fellow at The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression in Phil...
2025-10-0623 minGulf Coast Life"What's Health Got to Do With It?" joins the WGCU lineupBeginning this Sunday, Oct. 5 at 5am WGCU will begin airing a weekly interview show called “What’s Health Got to Do With It?” that explores the intersection of healthcare and daily life with a focus on guiding listeners on their journeys through the increasingly convoluted medical bureaucracy. We meet its host, Dr. Joe Sirven. He’s a practicing neurologist, and professor of neurology and Chairman Emeritus of the Department of Neurology at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona. He's also a well-published author on epilepsy, a former editor-in-chief of epilepsy.com, and he currently serves as the editor-in-chief of Brain & Life en Españ
2025-09-2923 minGulf Coast LifeVenice teen wins Girl Scout Gold Award for fostering feral kittensWe meet an Venice high school student who turned her attention to feral cats at the local level — and kittens in particular — and the need to both reduce their reproduction rate and to help as many homeless kittens become socialized so they can hopefully be adopted. Venice High School Junior, Maddie Canty, has been a Girl Scout for 12 years. Earlier this year she earned the Girl Scout Gold Award with her project called A Hope for Kittens. The Gold Award is the top award a Girl Scout Can earn. Her project focused on reducing kitten euthanasia by combining public education, dire...
2025-09-2423 minGulf Coast LifeFGCU political scientist reflects on immigration and foreign policy events & trendsWhen President Donald Trump returned to the White House in January, he declared a commitment to tightening immigration policies and enhancing border security. The administration has followed through on its promise to ramp up deportations, and recent military strikes on boats departing Venezuela are demonstrations of its willingness to act upon its goal of targeting what they claim are drug smugglers from ‘cartels or other organizations.’ The administration has also designated six Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations so the question remains whether it will take similar military action in Mexico. So, what effect have these kinds of policies had on our...
2025-09-2229 minGulf Coast LifeEncore: Double-blind study aims to help dogs with Thunderstorm AversionThunderstorm Aversion or storm anxiety is when dogs experience significant fear or anxiety during storms. Loud noises are the most obvious trigger, but dogs can react to other storm-related cues like lightning flashes, the sounds of wind or rain hitting the home, changes in barometric pressure, and even static electricity in the air. We learn about Thunderstorm Aversion and ways veterinarians try to help dogs and their owners. And we learn about a three-year, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of a new treatment that’s hoping to become a medical solution.
2025-09-1729 minGulf Coast LifeShaping a Compassionate Fort MyersThe word compassion can be somewhat amorphous depending on the context it’s used in. Our guests would say it definitely takes action to be a truly compassionate person, and they’re all supporting an effort to develop a compassionate attitude in the community. This Saturday, Sept. 20, they are hosting their third “Shaping a Compassionate Fort Myers” event since they held the first one two months ago. We talk about out how their first two events went, and have a conversation about compassion and why it’s important, especially during the times we’re in.
2025-09-1629 minGulf Coast LifeMid-decade redistricting versus Florida's Fair Districts Amendments?Gov. Ron DeSantis has floated the idea of Florida following Texas and California in drawing new Congressional districts mid-decade, breaking with norms. But what do the 2010 Fair Districts Amendments to Florida’s constitution have to say about mid-decade redistricting being done for openly partisan reasons? We talk with the leader of the Fair Districts Coalition when it helped to create and advocated for the passage of the Fair Districts Amendments to find out.
2025-09-0923 minGulf Coast LifeCould synthetic Vitamin B1 help treat early Alzheimer's?We learn about a nationwide clinical trial, funded by the National Institute of Aging, that's trying to determine if high doses of a synthetic form of Vitamin B1 called benfotiamine might be an effective treatment for mild cognitive impairment or early Alzheimer's Disease. Also known as thiamine, Vitamin B1 is important for brain health, and it's known that people with Alzheimer's have a thiamine deficiency.
2025-09-0829 min2025-08-1129 minGulf Coast LifeSupport your local pollinator during the Great Southeast Pollinator CensusAbout 75% of the world’s flowering plants and about 30% of crops rely on pollinators. Things like habitat loss, pesticide use, climate change, and invasive species are all threats to pollinator populations, which are truly essential for both ecological balance and food security. On August 22-23 Floridians can do their part as citizen scientists to help researchers keep tabs on the health of pollinator populations by participating in the Great Southeast Pollinator Census. To participate, during those two days you simply pick one or more plants in your yard that attract pollinators and watch them closely for 15 minutes and count each ti...
2025-08-0532 minGulf Coast LifeWe meet the new Executive Director of Midwest Food Bank FloridaThe Midwest Food Bank was founded on a farm in Illinois in 2003 and has grown ever since, adding branches around the country including one that covers Florida. The Midwest Food Bank Florida branch opened in Fort Myers in 2014 and has been providing food to its more than 200 partner agencies ever since. These days they’re providing tens of thousands of meals every month. They pretty much runs on volunteers — they had about 2000 last year — and they only have six paid employees so they’re able to turn every dollar donated into 34 meals. We meet their new Executive Director to get to know...
2025-08-0420 minGulf Coast LifePacesetter Breakfast sets the tone for the United Way of Lee, Hendry, and Glades' fundraising campaignIf you’ve ever called 211 here in Southwest Florida to find assistance with things like housing, food, healthcare, mental health — the list goes on — the United Way of Lee, Hendry, and Glades is who is supporting the 211 service, and is helping to fund the many agencies and nonprofits around the region who are there to help. Each year their fundraising campaign is designed to raise the money they need to help fund more than 90 partner agencies who help around a half-million people each year. Put simply, the United Way of Lee, Hendry, and Glades provides an essential backbone for social servic...
2025-07-3023 minGulf Coast LifeFGCU researcher collaborates with student to learn about 'spider' lightningLightning comes in different varieties, the most common kinds don't reach the ground, called intra-cloud and cloud-to-cloud. Cloud to ground lightning actually only makes up about 10-20% of strikes. About 1% is ground to cloud. Then one of the outlier forms of lightning stretches for miles (sometimes dozens of miles) horizontally and can resemble a spider web, and that’s why it’s called spider lightning. We learn about ongoing research at Florida Gulf Coast University into this form of lightning with the instructor who is leading it and a student who helped her work with the data.
2025-07-2323 minGulf Coast LifeThe history of birthright citizenship and the Trump administration's challenge to itThe concept of birthright citizenship dates to English Common Law, and it was codified in 1868 by the ratification of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and was upheld in 1898 in a Supreme Court ruling called United States v. Wong Kim Ark, and it was further strengthened in 1940 when Congress passed the Nationality Act. President Trump signed an Executive Order that claim “The 14th Amendment has never been interpreted to extend citizenship universally to everyone born within the United States,” and says that only children born of at least one citizen parent will be a U.S. citizen. We get...
2025-07-2129 minGulf Coast LifeA conversation about shaping a compassionate Fort MyersOn Saturday, July 19 there will be a daylong gathering in Fort Myers to begin a conversation about moving the City of Palms toward openly becoming a Compassionate City. One that holds empathy, dignity, and care at the core. The organizers are calling for educators, civic leaders, healthcare workers, artists, entrepreneurs, faith voices, and anyone really, who want to join the conversation about the importance of compassion and empathy and how to find ways to build them into the community. We talk with three of the people involved with Saturday’s event to get a preview and to talk about compassion.
2025-07-1529 minGulf Coast LifeEncore: The connection between increased CO2 levels and ocean acidificationWhen it comes to the ways global climate change impacts the world’s oceans things like melting ice caps and glaciers, and what’s called thermal expansion — that’s when water takes up more volume as its temperature goes up — are probably what first come to mind. Or how increased water temperatures impact sea life, like recent, widespread coral bleaching events off Florida’s coast and around the world. Or even how changes in temperature and salinity can alter ocean currents, which are crucial for regulating global climate and weather patterns. But, an overlooked aspect of this story is how increased le...
2025-07-1423 minGulf Coast LifeThe national debt: How and why the US government borrows moneyRight now our public debt is about 97% of our GDP. The last time we had a ratio that high was around World War II. A key number that economists are focused on right now is how much interest the U.S. Government is paying to manage the national debt. Right now, we’re paying almost $1 trillion dollars per year in interest. That is more than we spend on the military budget and almost as much as we spend on healthcare, including Medicare and Medicaid, every year. So, in order to get an overview of how the U.S. national debt wo...
2025-07-0930 minGulf Coast LifeBlood Battery Campaign takes aim at child labor in the Democratic Republic of CongoThe world filled with portable devices and electric cars that we’ve come to rely upon is mostly powered with lithium-ion batteries. Most of the lithium-ion batteries we use require cobalt. Most of the cobalt that’s being used in these batteries is extracted from the ground in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and much of it is sent to China to be processed for the global market. The Blood Diamond initiative in the 1990s sought to raise awareness about, and eventually create systems to mitigate the use here in the U.S. of, so-called ‘blood’ or ‘conflict’ diamonds that were being m...
2025-07-0725 min
Travel Tales with Mike SiegelLaura KiniryTravel writer Laura Kiniry returns after 11 years(!) to fill us in on where she's been. Hint- it's a lot of places!
2025-06-261h 08Gulf Coast LifeDouble-blind study aims to help dogs with Thunderstorm AversionThunderstorm Aversion or storm anxiety is when dogs experience significant fear or anxiety during storms. Loud noises are the most obvious trigger, but dogs can react to other storm-related cues like lightning flashes, the sounds of wind or rain hitting the home, changes in barometric pressure, and even static electricity in the air. We learn about Thunderstorm Aversion and ways veterinarians try to help dogs and their owners. And we learn about a three-year, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of a new treatment that’s hoping to become a medical solution.
2025-06-2429 minGulf Coast LifeThe long and challenging journey of being a dementia caregiverWe get some insight into the long and challenging journeys dementia caregivers are on from two men who became caregivers themselves after their wives were diagnosed with dementia. Dan Moser’s wife Maria was diagnosed with what’s called Frontotemporal Degeneration (FTD) in 2015 and he was her caregiver until she passed away about two years ago. During that time, he pivoted away from his work as a bike and pedestrian safety advocate toward dementia caregiving, a role he continues to this day. And Jeff Edwards’ wife Bunny was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2018 and he’s still taking care of her. Jeff...
2025-06-2329 min
CBS Mornings on the GoCarrie Coon Talks "The Gilded Age" | Noah Wyle on Caring For Health Care WorkersA passenger plane headed to London crashed in India shortly after takeoff with more than 240 people on board. CBS News' Ramy Inocencio has the latest.
A jury found Harvey Weinstein guilty of criminal sexual assault, but it will continue to deliberate on Thursday. CBS News' Nikki Battiste and CBS News legal analyst Caroline Polisi discuss the partial verdict and what to expect next.Meta has announced a series of measures aimed at targeting the companies responsible for "nudify" deepfake ads. They use AI-generated software to turn regular photos into sexually explicit images. CBS News' Leigh Kiniry has more.
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2025-06-1242 minCBS Mornings on the GoCarrie Coon Talks "The Gilded Age" | Noah Wyle on Caring For Health Care WorkersA passenger plane headed to London crashed in India shortly after takeoff with more than 240 people on board. CBS News' Ramy Inocencio has the latest.
A jury found Harvey Weinstein guilty of criminal sexual assault, but it will continue to deliberate on Thursday. CBS News' Nikki Battiste and CBS News legal analyst Caroline Polisi discuss the partial verdict and what to expect next.Meta has announced a series of measures aimed at targeting the companies responsible for "nudify" deepfake ads. They use AI-generated software to turn regular photos into sexually explicit images. CBS News' Leigh Kiniry has more.
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2025-06-1241 minGulf Coast LifeImmigration attorney weighs in on what he says is broken systemThe fear of deportation is growing for hundreds of thousands of immigrants across the country after a recent ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, which allows the Trump administration to revoke their Temporary Protected Status (TPS). The Trump administration also continues efforts to make good on its pledge to deport 3,000 people per day. Florida leads the country in the number of local law enforcement agencies partnering with ICE to deport undocumented people. And recently, the Trump administration has enacted sweeping travel bans and restrictions on citizens from some countries in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean. To help us understand...
2025-06-1123 minGulf Coast LifeNew WGCU documentary tells the story of Hurricane Ian and explores the reality of storm surgeThis Thursday, June 12 WGCU’s Documentary Unit will premiere the new film “Rising: Surviving the Surge.” It features dramatic storm footage, powerful stories of resilience, and insights from scientists, first responders, and community leaders to provide a wake-up call to the reality of storm surge that we all now know is possible on a very personal level. And it offers a vital reminder to be prepared for when it matters most. We discuss the making of Rising and some of the lessons we've learned from the storm that forever changed Southwest Florida.
2025-06-0924 minGulf Coast LifeFormer ACLU State Director speaking out about President Trump's 'Executive Overreach'President Trump has signed 157 Executive orders since taking office in January. Many of them are well-within the authority of the President. But our guest is sounding the alarm about what he says are actions that exceed the authority given to the Executive Branch under the U.S. Constitution — powers meant to be shared with other branches of government, or that defy Supreme Court interpretations of what the law and the Constitution mean as historically understood.
2025-06-0329 minGulf Coast LifeRainy season is here so fertilizer bans are in place across SWFLBack in the 1990s, as the southwest Florida population grew, it became apparent that local water bodies and waterways were being impacted — and impaired — by nutrient pollution. So, in the late 2000s several local governments began implementing ordinances that prohibited the application of lawn fertilizer during the rainy season, which generally speaking runs from June first through September or so. We learn about Lee County’s ordinance, and the importance of complying with these rules to benefit our waters and ecosystems.
2025-06-0229 minGulf Coast LifeRanger Toni retires after 23 Years of service, leaving a lasting legacy at the ‘Ding’ Darling RefugeToni Westland joined the federal workforce as a ranger with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers giving lock and dam tours on the Mississippi River. She then had a stint in north Georgia at Lake Lanier, then moved on to Lake Okeechobee and then Manatee Park in East Fort Myers. At some point she had vacationed on Sanibel Island so knew she loved the J.N. “Ding” Darling Wildlife Refuge, so when the opportunity arose in 2002 for her to join their team as an education specialist, she jumped on it and has been at Ding Darling ever since. Now, she...
2025-05-1929 minGulf Coast LifeMaternal Mental Health and the systems in place to provide careAbout 1 in 5 women experience some negative feelings after the birth of a child or a mental health condition during pregnancy. About three quarters of these women do not receive any treatment, especially in underserved communities. Untreated mental health issues can lead to things like disrupted child bonding, impaired infant development, and even some serious health outcomes for the child and mother – suicide and overdose are among the leading causes of maternal death in the U.S., especially in the late postpartum period. Since its founding in 1977, Healthcare Network of Southwest Florida has had a mission to provide quality healthcare that is...
2025-05-1324 min
Gulf Coast LifeNASA Astronaut Winston Scott on his time in orbit and at the KSC Visitor's ComplexWinston Scott grew up in Miami and attended Florida State University to study music. While at FSU he started getting into engineering and at one point the word astronaut flashed briefly through his mind. So, after graduating in 1972, he entered Naval Aviation Officer Candidate School and two years later became a Naval Aviator and served as a production test pilot flying the F/A-18 Hornet at A-7 Corsair. Mr. Scott was then selected by NASA to become an astronaut and reported to the Johnson Space Center in 1992. These days he’s Director of Operational Excellence at the Kennedy Space Center Vi...
2025-05-1231 minGulf Coast LifeStudent project proposes ways to address the plastic problemAt the 32nd Annual Southwest Florida Model United Nations conference at Florida Gulf Coast University in March, high school teams were challenged to imagine solutions for the problem of land-based plastics and the micro and nano plastics that we now know are in the world all around us. Cypress Lake High School’s Model UN team took top honors and a $1,000 prize for their presentation proposing a creative and actionable — and ambitious — plan to address plastic pollution along Southwest Florida’s Gulf Coast. We learn about their plan from one of the team's members.
2025-04-2929 minGulf Coast LifeNormal is Overrated 2025 helps young people open up about their own mental healthNormal is Overrated is an annual event designed to help young people break barriers and improve communication about their own mental health and well-being and open up about their own personal challenges and the kinds of help they’ve received. We get a preview of this year's event that's happening on Sat., May 3 from 11am to 2pm at Florida Southwestern State College in Fort Myers.
2025-04-2825 min
Three Song StoriesEpisode 372 - Bill BowenBill Bowen is a singer/songwriter/computer engineer who grew up in Fort Myers but headed off to New York City in the 90s, in part to live the big city life and in part to be able to see Moxy Früvous shows. Bill is also the former roommate and Foosball partner of WGCU’s own Mike Kiniry. SONG 1: "Garden Party" released in 1972 by Rick Nelson & The Stone Canyon Band on the album of the same name. 3:45 https://youtu.be/1JK0Z6IdLF4?si=Ehx5EuV6wmldcnhw SONG 2: "The Drinking Song" by Moxy...
2025-04-212h 20
Graymalkin Lane the podcastGiant-Size X-Men 1: Second Genesis Script Reading! Plus a tribute to Len Wein with Mike Carlin and Terry Kavanagh!It's an All-New, All-Different Graymalkin Lane, and we open with a massive script reading of the single most famous X-Men comic of all time! New logo, new song, new format!With Chad Anderson as your narrator, Seth Martel as Cyclops, Alicia Wilder as Marvel Girl, Scott Free as Iceman, Andre Mason as Angel, Justin Wilder as Professor X, Justin Kosmic as Havok, Isabel Dieppa as Lorna Dane, Arturo Rojas as Wolverine, Harum Scarum as Storm, Kevin Kiniry as Nightcrawler, Phillip Sevy as Colossus, Justin Park as Sunfire, Sean Beveridge as Banshee, Scotty White as Thunderbird, and Taylor...
2025-01-061h 51
Three Song StoriesEpisode 354 - Dr. Joe KiniryDr. Joe Kiniry (Mike's big brother) - is a Principal Scientist at a Portland, Oregon-based technology company called Galois. He’s also the Principled CEO and Chief Scientist of a Galois spin-out company called Free & Fair that works on high-assurance election technologies and services. Prior to joining Galois in 2014, Joe was a Full Professor at the Technical University of Denmark where he headed up the Software Engineering section. He also held a guest appointment at the IT University of Copenhagen, and has held permanent positions at four universities in Denmark, Ireland, and The Netherlands. Joe holds five ad...
2024-12-161h 38
Lyrics To Go121 - Can't Stand Losing YouFor the penultimate episode of Policepril, we get ultra-incel with the emotionally manipulative Can't Stand Losing You. And this time.... we brought a friend! Mike Kiniry joins us to take a deep hard look at this one. A pop hit about making someone feel bad for breaking up with you by killing yourself? Sure... why not?Special Guest: Mike Kiniry.
2023-04-171h 07
The Razzle Dazzle ShowEpisode 82: Delta Series Ep 8 - Razzle Dazzle/3 Song Stories CrossoverJoin us on this very special episode featuring the hosts of 3 Song Stories, Mike Kiniry and Richard Chin Quee!! On this episode we compare and contrast the generational differences of how we consume our media! Hosts: Jared Gonzalez, Patrick Pereira. Guest Stars: Mike Kiniry, Richard Chin Quee. Editor: Joseph Hall. Graphics Editor: Giselle Caruso. Digital Media Editor: Patience Cole. Producer: Jared Gonzalez.
2021-08-302h 06
Travel Tales with Mike SiegelLaura Kiniry
Want to be a travel writer, or ever wonder how someone becomes one? Laura Kiniry tells her story about traveling the world and getting paid for it.
2014-08-0551 minBigMx RadioRegina Post Race InterviewsFor those who didn't make it out to the Regina national last weekend these are some thoughts on a the weekend of mud! Mike Alessi, Vince,Friese, Teddy Maier, Austin Politelli's Mechanic Hoody, Adam Pfeiffer, Bobby Kiniry, Kaven Benoit, Shawn Maffenbeire, Kyle Swanson and Ryan Millar!! Check this out!!
2014-06-3000 min
The PulpMX.com ShowShow #123 - Mike Alessi, Bobby Kiniry, Jimmy Albertson and Tony Berluti in StudioMotoconcepts/SmartTop racing's Mike Alessi, N-Fab's "Meathead" Bobby Kiniry, HRT's Jimmy Albertson come on with us and the always solid Tony Berluti seals the deal. Thanks for listening and all the support. Remember to listen live Monday's at 6pm PST!
2013-03-054h 17