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Welcome to Florida: The Birding and Wildlife Trail
Craig Pittman is the award-winning author of Oh, Florida!: How America’s Weirdest State Influences the Rest of the Country, The Scent of Scandal, Cat Tale, Manatee Insanity and The State You’re In, and co-author of Paving Paradise. Born in Pensacola, he graduated from Troy State University in Alabama, where his muckraking work for the student paper prompted an agitated dean to label him “the most destructive force on campus.” Since then he has covered a variety of newspaper beats and quite a few natural disasters, including hurricanes, wildfires and the Florida Legislature.
Arts Alive! podcast: Musician Jeremy Douglass
“I’m having the most fun I think I’ve had onstage in over a decade,” Jobsite Theater musical director Jeremy Douglass says on today’s edition of the Arts Alive! podcast. “No slight to the other shows that we’ve done, they’ve all been great. I loved them all...
Welcome to Florida: Worm grunting
The New College of Florida has been purged of its academic integrity and set up as an incubator of right wing ideology by Ron DeSantis, now, the school's president has destroyed an environmental preserve to construct ball fields;m Michael Adno is a freelance writer and photographer from Sarasota. He recently visited the Apalachicola State Forest in the Panhandle to investigate worm grunting.
Arts Alive! podcast: Joe Bourdow, Radio St. Pete
Our guest on today’s Arts Alive! podcast is Joe Bourdow, founder and station manager of Radio St. Pete, which streams local content – music, news, sports and more – 24 hours a day, commercial-free. Radio St. Pete is online, and also at 96.7 FM. The former president...
Welcome to Florida: Miami Beach Art Deco
What Donald Trump didn't say about climate change during the presidential debate spoke volumes. During the debate, Trump said, "During my four years, I had the best environmental numbers ever." The exact opposite is true. Trump was the most anti-environmental president in U.S. history, rolling back 100+ environmental protections ... The built environment and "vibe" of Miami Beach are defined by Art Deco, an architectural style popular during the 1920s and 30s. Daniel Ciraldo is executive director at the Miami Design Preservation League and tells us how Art Deco came to Miami Beach, how it has been protected, and the threats it faces.
Welcome to Florida: Harry Crews
Harry Crews grew up dirt poor in south Georgia during the Great Depression before moving to Florida, enrolling at UF, and then becoming a famous writer of novels, essays, reported pieces, and screenplays. He also taught creative writing at the University of Florida for three decades. Ted Geltner met Crews while working at "The Gainesville Sun" and wrote "Blood, Sweat, and Marrow: A Biography of Harry Crews." He joins us to discuss the legend of Harry Crews.
Arts Alive! podcast: Musician Jeremy Carter
After establishing himself as a musician’s musician in his native Omaha, Nebraska, jazz saxophonist Jeremy Carter – weary of the freezing midwestern winters – relocated to the Tampa Bay area in 2001. It didn’t take long for the accomplished-in-multiple-styles player to make his name here in a...
Welcome to Florida: Miami's Ventanitas
They exist only in Miami: Ventanitas. You'll find the "little windows" attached to Cuban restaurants. Customers can order food and coffee out of them, sometimes 24 hours a day. This episode's guest Daniela Perez is a Miami native who wrote a book on the subject, "Ventanitas: A Window into Miami’s Coffee Culture." Two of the ventanitas mentioned in the episode are at Versailles and Mary's Coin Laundry.
Arts Alive! podcast: Bob Devin Jones, Erica Sutherlin
It’s the changing of the guard. Today’s Arts Alive! podcast pairs Bob Devin Jones and Erica Sutherlin of The Studio @620. Los Angelino Jones founded St. Petersburg’s independent arts and performance incubator/space 20 years ago and has been an integral part of the city’s arts scene the entire time.
Welcome to Florida: John James Audubon
Everyone has heard of birder and artist John James Audubon, namesake of the Audubon Foundation. Audubon came to Florida twice while researching his epic "Birds of America." Our guest today, Kenn Kaufman, is one of America's great birders and author of “The Birds That Audubon Missed: Discovery and Desire in the American Wilderness.”
Arts Alive! podcast: Georgia Mallory Guy, Cameron Kubly
On today’s edition of the Arts Alive! podcast, we speak with Cameron Kubly, a longtime bay area musical theater performer, who’s playing Charlie Brown in the circa-1967 show based on Charles M. Schulz’ beloved Peanuts characters. Charlie Brown sings and philosophizes – as only Peanuts characters can...
Welcome to Florida: Morikami Museum & Japanese Gardens
Florida congressman Matt Gaetz wants to bomb endangered whales in the Gulf of Mexico;One of Florida's great hidden gem cultural and tourist attractions is Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens in Delray Beach. As beautiful as the gardens are today, the history of Japanese immigration to Florida and the garden's founding are equally interesting. Curator of education at Morikami Wendy Lo joins us to discuss.
Arts Alive! podcast: Katherine Pill, Museum of Fine Arts
Our guest on today’s Arts Alive! podcast is Katherine Pill, Senior Curator of Contemporary Art at the Museum of Fine Arts St. Petersburg. The conversation covers the MFA’s place in our “city of the arts” – constructed on Beach Drive in 1965, it was St. Pete’s very first art museum, and has continued to innovate, and keep pace with all those that have come after.
Arts Alive! podcast: Novelist Randy Wayne White
In September 2022, Hurricane Ian made landfall, as a Category 4, at Sanibel Island on Florida’s southwestern coast. Between the 120 miles-per-hour winds and the 12-foot storm surge, the tiny barrier island didn’t stand a chance. Homes and businesses were either destroyed or severely damaged, numerous people drowned, and a section of the causeway linking Sanibel to the mainland was literally blown away, making it difficult for first responders and law enforcement to assess and assist.
Welcome to Florida: Mar-a-Lago
Our subject this episode is the Mar-a-Lago estate on Palm Beach. We discuss its history from Marjorie Merriweather Post through the 45th president and what makes the mansion/private club special. Les Standiford, author of "Palm Beach, Mar-a-Lago, and the Rise of America's Xanadu," provides the expertise.
Welcome to Florida: Betty Mae Tiger Jumper
The state's Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson wants to sell off public lands to farmers and ranchers; This week's subject is Betty Mae Tiger Jumper, first chairwoman of the Seminole Tribe in Florida. Our guest is Patsy West, co-author of Tiger Jumper's autobiography, "A Seminole Legend: The Life of Betty Mae Tiger Jumper."
Arts Alive! podcast: Peter Tush, the Dali Museum
As the Dali Museum’s Curator of Education, Peter Tush is the person who decides how the works of the Surrealist master, and of the other artists on exhibition alongside Dali, should be “interpreted” for the public. He trains the museum’s docents, writes the audio tours and the gallery labels, arranges school programming and gives talks – lots of talks – about each exhibit as it debuts. Tush works closely with the exhibit curators as every new show is in development.
Welcome to Florida: Tampa Bay
Craig Pittman is the award-winning author of Oh, Florida!: How America’s Weirdest State Influences the Rest of the Country, The Scent of Scandal, Cat Tale, Manatee Insanity and The State You’re In, and co-author of Paving Paradise. Born in Pensacola, he graduated from Troy State University in Alabama, where his muckraking work for the student paper prompted an agitated dean to label him “the most destructive force on campus.” Since then he has covered a variety of newspaper beats and quite a few natural disasters, including hurricanes, wildfires and the Florida Legislature.
Arts Alive! podcast: LAB’s ‘Fly Away Home’
Situated on E. Henderson Avenue, where Tampa means Ybor City, LAB Theatre Project is a black box venue where only original works – plays that have not been previously produced – are mounted. LAB founder and executive producer Owen Roberston returns to the Arts Alive! podcast today, in...
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