Welcome to Florida

Mar 04 2025 250 ep. 43 mins 50
Welcome to Florida Podcast artwork

Best selling author, award winning reporter and Florida native Craig Pittman is joined by radio personality and Florida transplant Chadd Scott to discuss the state's history, people, politics, environment, animals, current events and weirdness. You'll hear great storytelling and have great fun in each weekly episode.

  History  Society & Culture  Science
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Episode 245: The Montbrook Fossil Site

Mar 04 2025 40 mins  
Alcoholic, womanizing, Islamophobe U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is also a climate denier. He has instructed the armed forces to ignore climate impacts and has demanded the Pentagon cut funding on military installations aimed at combating the effects of climate change, including at bases in Florida. The Montbrook Fossil Site roughly 45 minutes south of Gainesville in Levy Cou

Episode 244: Mullet

Feb 25 2025 41 mins  
A combination of increasing and increasingly devastating hurricanes along with skyrocketing property insurance prices have resulted in an amazing demographic event in Florida. Our guest this week is Michael Sipos from the Florida Sea Grant who joins us to talk about mullet. Make it a point one year to attend the Seminole Tribal Fair & Pow Wow held each late January at the Semin

Episode 243: Coalition of Immokalee Workers

Feb 18 2025 58 mins  
Donald Trump's threatened tariffs would be another nail in the coffin for Florida's citrus industry. You can support the "Welcome to Florida" podcast by becoming a $5 a month "patron" at www.patreon.com/welcometoflorida. Greg Asbed from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers joins us on this episode to discuss the history of working conditions for agriculture workers, especially tomato

Episode 242: Operation Pedro Pan (Peter Pan)

Feb 11 2025 34 mins  
Donald Trump signed an executive order seeking to open the eastern Gulf of Mexico to oil drilling, potentially endangering Florida's beaches and economy from the spills that inevitably follow drilling. In 1960, Cuban parents began sending their children, unaccompanied, to Miami on Pan-Am flights to get them out of the country and away from Fidel Castro. This program was called "Ope

Episode 241: Marineland

Feb 03 2025 41 mins  
The federal government in the closing days of the Biden Administration failed to secure a protection for critically endangered North Atlantic right whales. Stories like this can be found in our weekly "Florida Conservation Newsletter" exclusively available to "Welcome to Florida" patrons at www.patreon.com/welcometoflorida. Marineland opened south of St. Augustine on the Atlantic O

Episode 240: Apalachicola River

Jan 28 2025 42 mins  
Ron DeSantis wants the state to assume responsibility of Everglades restoration from the federal government. Terrible idea for the Everglades. Our guest this episode is Susan Anderson, outgoing executive director of the Apalachicola Riverkeeper. Susan grew up on the river and shares what makes it special and the numerous threats it faces. "Welcome to Florida" patrons receive exclus

Episode 239: Tampa Civil Rights Sit-ins

Jan 21 2025 50 mins  
The Cape Sable seaside sparrow is one of the most endangered birds in the continental United States, numbering only 2,000 or so individuals, all living in the Everglades. Conflicting water management aims in South Florida pitting Big Sugar against the environment is resulting in the state taking drastic measures to pursue survival of the species. In 1960, African American equal rig

Episode 238: Criteria Recording Studios in Miami

Jan 14 2025 49 mins  
Buyer beware when it comes to a new organization promoting itself as a gopher tortoise conservation solution. Miami's Criteria Recording Studios has produced a staggering volume of hit music from James Brown's "I Feel Good" to Eric Clapton's "Layla," Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours," the Eagles' "Hotel California," Jimmy Buffett's "Margaritaville," and on, and on, and on. Trevor Fletcher

Episode 237: Mister Rogers at Rollins College

Jan 07 2025 34 mins  
Craig takes a look back at the most amusing and unusual Florida news stories from 2024. Fred Rogers studied in the Music Department at Rollins College in Winter Park before going on to host "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" on PBS. Fred Rogers' nephew, Daniel Crozier, teaches in the Music Department at Rollins and shares stories of his uncle and how the famous TV personality got to Win

Episode 236: David Kirby and Florida Poets

Dec 24 2024 41 mins  
Craig Pittman has a wish list of gifts he hopes Santa brings Florida's environment. Our guest this episode is poet, essayist, and professor of English at Florida State University David Kirby. His latest anthology of poems is titled "The Winter Dance Party." In the episode, Craig quoted an Elizabeth Bishop poem you can read here. Thank you to all of our patrons at Patreon.com/Welcom