We begin this week's episode remembering former Florida governor and U.S. Senator Bob Graham, who passed away recently. Our guest is Marty Fleischman who worked in the Jai-Alai industry across Florida for more than 40 years. He explains how the sport came to Florida, its rise to incredible popularity in Miami and Tampa, and the factors which have rendered it largely forgotten today.

Today’s Arts Alive! conversation with Pinellas County Film Commissioner Lisa Dozois covers a lot of ground. We talk about the history of movie-making in Florida, the benefits to city, county and region when filmmakers come to the area to work, and about the role of the film commissioner: Facilitator, cheerleader, location scout, lobbyist, advocate.

Our guest for this episode is archaeologist and professor in the anthropology department at USF Nancy Marie White. White researches ancient Indigenous people and cultures in the Florida Panhandle and has authored a pair of books on the subject. We're specifically discussing Indigenous mounds and middens.

Show business is in Ward Smith’s blood. He’s an actor and a standup comedian, and he operates the Off-Central, St. Petersburg’s 42-seat black box theater. The Off-Central’s tiny space epitomizes the word intimate. As Smith relates in today’s Arts Alive! podcast, the give-and-take between audience and performer is immediate, and skin-deep. This playhouse is not where you’re likely to see Les Miserables staged – or anything else with a cast of thousands. There are no nosebleed seats.

Our subject today is a giant of 20th century activism and equal rights: A. Philip Randolph. Randolph helped push through federal equal employment legislation, had a hand in integrating the American armed forces, and organized the 1963 March for Jobs and Freedom in Washington, D.C. Our guest is Alan Bliss, CEO of the Jacksonville Historical Society.

The curtain comes up on American Stage’s production of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast tonight at Demens Landing, and Producing Artistic Director Helen R. Murray is thrilled. The every-April “park musical,” in the middle of the theater’s season, is always a crowd magnet. And it’s the first “park...

On this week’s edition of Arts Alive! we welcome David Manson, founder and director of the St. Petersburg Jazz Festival, which celebrates its 15th year April 1-6. Manson, who’s taught music at St. Pete College for 32 years (he now wears the title Distinguished Faculty), explains that the festival – five concerts in various locations – was designed not to spotlight “name” artists, but to direct audience’s attention to great music and excellent musicians they may not be familiar with. Most of them are residents of the bay area, or live, work and play close by. Giving local musicians a proper showcase is a hallmark of the St. Petersburg Jazz Festival.

Everyone knows Orlando for Disney, even though the theme park isn't inside the city limits, but there's a lot more to the Magic City than rides and tourists. Scott Maxwell has been writing for the Orlando Sentinel since 1998 and joins us to discuss the myths and realities of Orlando.

Markus Gottschlich, executive director of the Warehouse Arts District Association, guests today on the Arts Alive! podcast. A native of Austria, Gottschlich was brought in to run the nonprofit WADA two years ago. The organization has many missions, including the support and public endorsement of local art and artists. The...

For 24 of Jobsite Theater’s 25 years of existence, Katrina Stevenson has been a key member of the core creative team. As an actor, she’s appeared in dozens of productions over the seasons, from contemporary dramas and comedies to Shakespearean classics to Jobsite’s traditional, seasonal horror yarns.

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.

Understandably, every conversation with Craig Pittman veers from the very funny to the absolutely hilarious. The author of the bestselling Oh Florida!, The State You’re In and several other books (with serious subjects!) talks about the other things that motivate him, such as his 30-year career as the environmental reporter for the Tampa Bay Times, and his current work for the Florida Phoenix.

What are parents for if the government is going to decide who can read what?. Of course, these so-called "book bans" aren't really bans at all. They simply limit the ability of non-adults to access pornography and propaganda without parental consent. If a parent chooses, they have every right to check out any book from a library, or buy any book they want, and give it to their child. However, the left wants to frame this as a "book ban" because it's the only way they can get the attention they desire from their shills in the media.

Our guest on today’s Arts Alive! podcast is actor Alan Mohney Jr., who plays 32 different characters – without leaving the stage – in Becky Mode’s Fully Committed, which opened Thursday night at the Off-Central in St. Petersburg. Fully Committed takes place in a shabby, fluorescent-lit...

Janet Reno is best known as being the first female U.S. Attorney General, during the Clinton Administration. She was also a Floridian, born and raised in Miami. Judith Hicks Stiehm has written the definitive biography of Reno, "Janet Reno: A Life." Judith Hicks Stiehm's daughter Jamie Stiehm joins us to discuss Reno.

Carrie Jadus is one of those left brain-right brain people who seem to be firing on all cranial cylinders. She is a painter whose dreamlike oils are both starkly reality-based and deeply impressionistic, yet she’s also able to apply a practical skill set – she’s got a B.S. in electrical engineering – to making her art work as not only a business, but a successful business.

Florida's geology, its sandy surface soil, abundance of surface water and ground water, and limestone karst bedrock make it the sinkhole capital of America. Ann Tihansky studied sinkholes for many years in Florida with the U.S. Geologic Survey. and put together the "Sinkholes 101" guidebook. She joins us to explain why and how sinkholes form.

St. Petersburg has a tightly-knit jazz community, where musicians often come together in small or larger groups, or play in duos or trios, or simply show up, instrument in hand, and play wherever they’re requested. Inevitably, everyone enjoys themselves tremendously. Many of the world-class jazz players from this side...

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.