Three Song Stories: Recent Episodes
WGCU
Eric King s a senior interpretive naturalist with the Miami-Dade County Parks, Recreation, and Open Spaces Department. He manages and conducts nature-based education at Castellow Hammock Nature Center & Preserve in Redland
Eric is also an avid butterfly and vegetable gardener as well as an eclectic musician who writes and produces everything from folk to cinematic music - and he’s currently in the process of reviving a folk rock project called The Brothers King with his older brother, Scott.
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Paula Poundstone is well-known to NPR listeners - especially those who tend to tune in on the weekends to catch Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me, on which she’s a regular and beloved panelist.
Beyond Wait Wait, Paula is a legendary stand-up comedian, author, actress & voice actor, interviewer, and commentator. She was introduced to the world at large in the late 1980s through a series of hour-long HBO comedy specials and has continued performing to this day. She’s also a podcaster these days, making Nobody Listens to Paula Poundstone with fellow Wait Wait semi-regular Adam Felber.
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Daniel Donlan was born in Narragansett, Rhode Island but his family moved to southwest Florida when he was just five so pretty much considers himself a Florida man. He graduated from FGCU in 2021 and then taught high school algebra (where he was in charge of his students’ DND club) for two years before deciding that was enough of that -- he now works at Gartner in Fort Myers.
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It's time for another throwback to the songs our musician guests played for us.
Bulletproof Heart by Dan Navarro (Ep 309)
Lucky to Find Love Again by Tim McGeary (Ep. 323)
Hills by Coyote Island from the Sugarshack Sessions (Ep. 311)
Preston Rumbaugh Maggie Campbell Blues (Ep. 314)
Favorite Things by DAVE!Ja!Vu! (Ep. 326)
Buzzcut by Charlie Pace (Ep. 327)
The Ballad of Cilantro by Dan Navarro (Ep. 309)
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This week, we're featuring 3 clips from the podcast hosted by our audio producer, Jared Gonzalez - The RAZZLE DAZZLE Show.
First up, a look back at Guitar Hero, then an with renowned music composer and writer, Adam Gubman, and finally, THE DELTA QUEST, their monthly D&D campaign!
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Laura Kiniry (no relation by the way) is a freelance journalist specializing in travel, food, and culture. Laura has gone on numerous adventures including a six-month solo journey across Australia, New Zealand, and Thailand - she spent a summer working in Montana's Glacier National Park, and has visited all seven continents.
Laura’s work can be found in publications including Smithsonian Magazine, Atlas Obscura, BBC Travel, and Conde Nast Traveler.
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Lauren Robie co-founded Hope Eternal Gardens in Punta Gorda with her husband Chris Alonso. It’s a licensed natural burial cemetery with planting forests and meadows where people can celebrate loved ones in a park-like setting. The dream of creating Hope began with the last wish of Lauren’s mother-in-law, and she and her husband have kept that promise and brought her dream into reality.
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Jessica Lindsey is System Director for Performance Excellence at Lee Health (the largest public health system in Southwest Florida). She has her master's in healthcare administration but has held all sorts of roles with Lee Health over the years. Jessica also serves as treasurer on the SWFL Inc. Board of Directors and is an Advisory Board Fellow.
Beyond her professional roles, Jessica volunteers with several local community nonprofits helping their boards of directors with strategic planning. She also engages in community initiatives through The Dubin Center, The Collaboratory, and Quality Life Center of Fort Myers.
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JP Soars is a Boca Raton-based multi-instrumentalist who’s been releasing his music with his powerhouse trio The Red Hots since 2008, when he released his debut album Back Of My Mind.
JP has won the Blues Foundation’s International Blues Challenge in 2009 and the prestigious Albert King guitar award. In 2012, he was named a Blues Music Award Nominee for Best Contemporary Male Blues Artist, and in 2019, he climbed his way to the top ten of Billboard’s blues chart.
In 2022, JP was a Blues Music Award nominee for Best Blues Instrumentalist on Guitar, and he was nominated for the BB King Entertainer of the Year honors and for Band of the Year.
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Casey Kalmenson is a Los Angeles-based singer, writer, and producer who makes music under the moniker Little Monarch.
She’s also an integral member of Gracie Abrams' band and played a pivotal role in the highly acclaimed Taylor Swift The Era's Tour in 2023, showcasing her exceptional talent on a global stage.
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Vivian Howard is the chef at the center of A Chef’s Life, which ran on PBS from 2013 to 2018 - and 2020’s Somewhere South. Vivian won a Peabody, Emmy, and James Beard award for A Chef’s Life. She also runs three restaurants: Lenoir and Handy & Hot in Charleston, South Carolina, and The Kitchen Bar at Chef & the Farmer in Kinston, NC.
Vivian is author of two books, Deep Run Roots: Stories & Recipes from My Corner of the South, which was a New York Times bestseller and was named “Cookbook of the Year” by the International Association of Culinary Professionals - and This Will Make It Taste Good: A New Path to Simple Cooking, released in 2020.
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Kelsie Watts is a singer-songwriter based in Nashville. Raised in a musical family, she went on to study opera, vocal performance, and commercial music. Following her collaboration with AJ McLean from the Backstreet Boys and her appearance on The Voice, she released original songs in 2021 and 2022.
When not writing and performing, Kelsie is a mental health advocate, working with organizations like the Not Alone Challenge.
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Jay Allison is host and producer of The Moth Radio Hour, host, curator, and producer of This I Believe on NPR, and creator/producer of hundreds of documentaries, essays, and special series for national and international broadcast. Jay has won virtually every major industry award for his productions and collaborations, including six Peabodys.
He was also the 1996 recipient of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s Edward R. Murrow Award for outstanding contributions to public radio, the industry’s highest honor.
Jay is also a founder of the Association of Independents in Radio and founder of The Public Radio Exchange (or PRX), which is how many Public Radio shows and other content are shared with stations like WGCU…it’s a recipient of the MacArthur Foundation’s “Genius Organization” Award.
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Tara Lynn Rye is a musical artist and filmmaker from New Jersey who calls southwest Florida home these days. She spent time in New York City and Los Angeles honing her craft in film - she directed, produced, shot, and edited short films, documentaries and episodics.
Tara’s played shows with her band at Rockwood Music Hall, the Peppermint Club, and the legendary Viper Room. She released her song “Gator Country” back in May along with an energetic music video
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Mitchell Austin is the Urban Design Manager at the City of Punta Gorda, where he is responsible for long range planning and capital projects planning and design. Since arriving on August 16, 2004 (three days after Hurricane Charley devastated Punta Gorda), Mitchell has focused on the art and science of urban place-making in Punta Gorda.
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Courtney McNeil is museum director and chief curator at the Baker Museum at Artis—Naples. She’s an award-winning curator, art historian, and museum leader with more than two decades of museum and gallery experience. Prior to joining Artis—Naples, Courtney served 15 years in the curatorial department of Telfair Museums in Savannah, ultimately holding the title of chief curator and deputy director for curatorial affairs.
Earlier in her career, Courtney held positions at Childs Gallery in Boston, where she specialized in American painting and works on paper, and in the publications department of the National Gallery in London.
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Missy Balsam is a yoga teacher, singer-songwriter and recording artist. Missy began teaching yoga in 2007, after spending her 20s and 30s in a stressful, high-level sales and marketing career in New York City and Los Angeles.
Missy began her music career by blending elements of alternative rock with Sanskrit mantras from the yogic tradition called kirtan. Her 2016 debut studio album REVEALED was called a "spiritual rocker" by Yoga Chicago magazine.
She’s toured nationally, performing her music at yoga and music festivals -- and she’s also performed as lead vocalist with B432, a psychedelic rock band reminiscent of the Doors and Pink Floyd, with whom she released a 2020 live studio album called THE LOVE FREQUENCY BAND.
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Chuck Garfien is an Anchor and Reporter for NBC Sports-Chicago - he hosts White Sox Pre and Post-Game Live with Ozzie Guillén, Frank Thomas, and other former White Sox players. He also writes for nbcsportschicago.com and hosts the White Sox Talk Podcast. Chuck basically gets to live and breathe Chicago White Sox for a living.
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Sean Dunnigan is Owner of Ollie's Pub in Cape Coral, FL, a punk venue located on Cape Coral Pkwy. Ollie’s was one of the few venues in Southwest Florida that hosted live, original rock, metal, punk, and experimental concerts and events.
Following a challenging 2020 and weathering the aftermath of Hurricane Ian, Ollie's, unfortunately, had to make the difficult decision to close its doors in April of this year.
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CLAY is a Los Angeles-based alt-pop musical artist who has amassed more than 45 million streams across her platforms, and just wrapped up her “Waiting for God in the Garden” tour, which was her first full headlining run across the U.S. with performances in Los Angeles, Phoenix, Chicago, New York, Nashville, Denver, and San Francisco. She joined us from her home in LA
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Ken Wells is vice president and general manager of Cabbage Key. His family has owned Cabbage Key since 1976. As a young boy he collected and sold shells to visitors out of a cardboard stand along Cabbage Key’s shoreline.
In October of 2023, Ken was diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer at the age 44. He turned to making music as an emotional outlet amid the physical and emotional battles that overwhelmed his life.
That experience taught him the crucial need for cancer patients to tend to both their physical health and mental health, and so he established the “Ken Wells: The War on Cancer Fund” to help others who lack resources to navigate their personal cancer journeys through financial assistance for medical treatment, and for mental well-being through counseling or finding emotional outlets like he found with making music.
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Dr. Chaerin Kim is a multi-instrumentalist (she actually plays 10 instruments) who currently teaches piano and harp at University of Massachusetts Boston. She’s also a conductor and composer who has released 146 songs on 7 albums, and she’s scored more than 100 versions of her original song “Rendezvous” which began as a piano piece but has now been produced in 80 different languages.
Dr. Kim was born in Seoul, South Korea and lived there until she moved to London for her first round of graduate school at the Royal Academy of Music. She was recently elected as an Associate of the Academy, a title which is awarded to alumni who have distinguished themselves in the music profession and made a significant contribution in their particular field.
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Charlie Pace is a Southwest Florida singer-songwriter who's been performing since she was 7 years old. She released first her single at the age of 14, and a few months out of high school, Charlie became a backup vocalist for the nationally-touring Pink Floyd Tribute band, Floyd Nation. She performs original and cover music under her own name, as well as original punk music with her side band CAAM.
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Dave McMahan (known best by his stage name Dave!Ja!Vu! is a prominent name in SWFL's local music scene, taking the stage as a one-man acoustic guitar and harmonica playing folk punk band.
Fueled by DIY punk energy, Dave records all of his own albums and handmakes his merch, down to the artwork inserts and clothing.
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Dr. April Lynn James (AKA The PhDiva) is a classically trained soprano with a PhD from Harvard. Her “delightfully readable” book, The Tenth Muse: How Maria Antonia Advanced the Pastoral Opera debuted at #1, and is an international best-seller.
During her doctoral studies did she begin her holistic wellness journey in earnest, in order to heal from stress induced weight gain, depression, and tendonitis. The “Decade of Awfulness” following graduate school took her further along this path, leading to encounters with her guardian angel, Madison Hatta, Sonneteer, with whom she continues to collaborate in creating poetry and Wonderland-inspired Whimsical Things. Her mission is to bring joy and inspiration to the world through performances, presentations, publications and products.
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Dr. Fredara Hadley is a professor of ethnomusicology at Juilliard in New York City. She teaches courses on ethnomusicology, jazz history, and African American music - and her research focuses on the diverse musical legacies and impact of Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
Dr. Hadley’s commentary is featured in the recently released PBS series, "Gospel" and the 2021 series "The Black Church”
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Tim McGeary is a singer-songwriter who started out in the New York club scene playing at CBGB's, Trax, and Danceteria. In 1982 he was signed to A&M records with the band The Rescue - they were together for two years and opened for the likes of Duran Duran, Billy Idol, Simple Minds, Missing Persons, and Stray Cats.
Tim has recorded three solo albums, the first two under the name "Wonderful Johnson" called "Authentic Memphis Samich" and "12" and the third under his own name called "Second Hand Saint." In early 2024 he produced and performed on the Robert Paul Band’s “Lucky Number Seven.”
Tim is also a retired firefighter/paramedic/flight medic in Collier County; he was deployed to New York City following the September 11th attack and to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
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Emma Rodriguez is a journalism student at FGCU. She’s southwest-Florida born and raised and says her goal is to help keep the spirit of local journalism alive in her hometown.
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Chion Wolf is the host of Audacious on Connecticut Public Radio. It features conversations with people who have uncommon or misunderstood experiences, conditions, or professions. Audacious is a three time Gracie Award winner - the Gracie Awards recognize exemplary programming created by women, for women and about women in all facets of media and entertainment.
She is also the host of Other People's Poems - an event during which people share one poem they love that they didn’t write. Those who have their poems memorized win a loofah.
Chion used to produce and host a live storytelling event at the Mark Twain House & Museum in Hartford the The Mouth-Off - and a live advice show at Sea Tea Improv's underground comedy theater called Asking for a Friend with Chion Wolf.
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Kirsten Hines is a writer, photographer, and environmental educator who started out as a wildlife biologist, but found herself being drawn toward storytelling with images and words versus collecting data so made a big pivot in that direction.
Kirsten’s photographs and writings have appeared in numerous exhibitions and publications, including eight books…the latest of which is “Wild Florida: An Animal Odyssey.” It’s like a conversational field guide that explores Florida’s animal diversity, and its blending of creatures from the tropics with those from North America.
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Jason Crosser is owner and operator of 8-bit Hall of Fame, where he buys, sells, and trades video games, consoles, collectables, accessories, trading cards, pro-wrestling memorabilia, and Vinyl albums, figurines. In 2022 hurricane Ian destroyed his store and more than $2 million of inventory, but the store reopened and Jason is back doing what he loves.
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Stacey Holman is Series Producer & Director of the new four-part PBS documentary series, Gospel. She's a Harlem-based filmmaker who has directed and/or produced a number of award-winning projects including an episode of the 2018 PBS series Reconstruction: America After the Civil War hosted by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
She was a producer on the critically acclaimed documentary Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Black Colleges and Universities, and she was an Associate Producer on the Emmy award-winning film Freedom Riders.
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Gina Sabiston has been a DJ, sold puppets, is an eight-time Golden Apple Finalist, and has served on the City of Fort Myers Historic Preservation Board since 2003, also chairing the board for a significant portion of that time. She has served on the Charter Review Committee, ran for city council, and dedicated her time to nearly 30 boards.
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Walt Tiburski spent more than 50 consecutive years in the commercial radio business, starting in college at a local radio station as a “gopher” and working his way up to becoming a radio station group owner of 23 stations.
Walt quickly rose from Account Executive to Sales Manager to Vice President and General Manager of the legendary WMMS 101.1FM “The Buzzard” in Cleveland. Also during that time The Buzzard was named "Radio Station of the Year" by Rolling Stone Magazine for 5 consecutive years.
Walt rounded out his half-century-plus in radio with Alpine Broadcasting Corporation’s WAVV 101.1FM in Southwest Florida where he has served as General Manager and Vice President of Sales for 13 years.
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Katie Garcia is Vice President of A&R at Capitol Music Group. Prior to that Katie worked at Secretly Group for 8 years and helped sign some of their flagship artists including Slowdive, Faye Webster, serptentwithfeet, Japanese Breakfast, and Phoebe Bridgers.
Before that she was the label manager and head of A&R at the independent record label, Captured Tracks. She also co-founded Bayonet Records with her husband Dustin.
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Preston Rumbaugh is a roots-music veteran now based in Clarksdale, Mississippi where he is a member of the Big A & the Allstars blues trio. He also leads his own blues band that features Big A & the Allstars members Anthony "Big A" Sherrod and Lee Williams, and he plays solo gigs.
Preston has backed a who's who of blues legends including Robert "Bilbo" Walker, Big George Brock, and Terry "Big T" Williams, and he's a regular at festivals like the Juke Joint Festival in Clarksdale and venues like Ground Zero Blues Club.
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Grace Lougen is a guitarist and songwriter from Buffalo, NY. She toured Europe and the US with award-winning bandleader Robert Parker and with Grace Stumberg, who also performed as Joan Baez’s background vocalist for 8 years.
In the studio, Grace has contributed her songwriting and guitar playing to more than a dozen full-length records and in 2018 she joined forces with Megan Brown, Josh English, and Dylan Hund to form the band Grosh. They have put out two albums and an EP, and are currently at work on their third record, produced by the legendary Tim Lefebvre.
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Dr. Dawn Belamarich is president and CEO of the Collaboratory in downtown Fort Myers, which used to be the Southwest Florida Community Foundation. She leads a team that coordinates efforts to solve Southwest Florida’s social problems on an eighteen-year deadline.
She holds a Doctorate in Business Administration and Leadership, and has dual master’s degrees in Sociology/Criminology, as well as Mental Health Counseling.
Prior to coming to Southwest Florida, her previous roles included Senior Vice President of Clinical and Operational Excellence, Chief Executive Officer, and Executive Director at Recovery Centers of America, a national addiction treatment provider.
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Bryce Ivie is Events Director for Sugarshack Music Channel - and he hosts their podcast that features conversations with the cool bands they bring to their porch. He’s also the frontman for an Americana Folk Rock band called Sun State Blues.
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Chef Paul Rogalski is the Culinary Director & Co-Owner of Rouge Restaurant in Calgary - one of San Pellegrino’s "World’s 50 Best Restaurants".
He can be seen starring in Les Stroud’s Wild Harvest on PBS, where he explores natural landscapes across North America with Survivorman Les Stroud. In each location, Les forages native ingredients that Paul then turns into culinary delights.
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Dan Navarro is a singer and has been a songwriter for artists including Pat Benatar (he co-wrote “We Belong”) The Bangles, Jackson Browne, The Temptations, Dionne Warwick and more.
He's also a voice actor and singer. Most recently, he sang on six Lin-Manuel Miranda songs in the Disney Film Encanto. He’s also done voice work for Family Guy, American Dad, and for video games and TV commercials.
Dan’s latest album, "Horizon Line" was produced by multiple Grammy®-winner Jim Scott who’s worked with the likes of Tom Petty, Wilco, and the Dixie Chicks.
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Alexander Goldstein has composed music scores for 26 feature films, two silent classics, approximately 300 documentary films, animations, countless radio and television shows, circus and stage shows, commercials, and sports programs in the U.S. and abroad.
More than 40 Olympic Medals and over 120 World Medals were won using the music that he either edited or arranged.
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Jazmyn Hunter is the first-ever City Curator for Sofar Sounds, a movement that creates intimate concerts with local artists in nontraditional settings, in 400 cities around the world.
After recently moving to Ft. Myers and falling love with the local music scene there, she’s made it her personal mission to disprove the myth that Fort Myers is boring.
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Liz Cochran is owner of Stellar Records. Born and raised in New York, she quickly became immersed in the Southwest Florida music scene when she moved there at 20 years old. She's a buyer, seller, collector, and advocate for listening to new and vintage music on vinyl.
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Nick Walters left his job in Finance in 2020 and moved to Napa, California where he spent time at Cakebread Cellars and Chappellet Winery. In 2021 he joined the team at Eleven Madison Park, a 3-Michelin Star restaurant in NYC, frequently named one of the top restaurants in the world. Now a Sommelier there, he helps to oversee one of the most awarded wine and beverage programs in the world.
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It’s the end of the year and that means it’s time for our next Parting Tune Roundup!
Music Guests:
Jen & Amelia Ford (and Seth) - Leave My Mangoes Alone
Apollo Fresh - Rich off the Internet
Michaela Berres - It Don't Mean a Thing
Camryn Cole - Them There Eyes
Jim Hale - Blue Eyes Cryin' in the Rain
Cadence Bakker - And She Smiled
Mia Borders - These Roads
Phil Roy - Melt
Dan Bern - Regent Street / Singin' the Blues in Tallahassee
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Eli & Fur are DJs and electronic music producers originally from London. The duo’s debut track "You’re So High" reached the top 3 on Hype Machine in 2013 and has since received more than 73 million views on YouTube.
They’ve performed regularly around the world at clubs, and at festivals including Coachella, Tomorrowland, and Glastonbury.
They've relaunched their own record label, NYX Music.
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Samantha Uzbay is a Producer and Director of Business Development at Premier Music Group, a firm that oversees the music for film, television, advertisements, and more. Most recently, she contributed to the GRAMMY-nominated For the Birds: The Birdsong Project, a 242-piece collection of original music, poetry, and art, including works by Yo-Yo Ma, Mark Ronson, Beck, and others, all inspired by birdsong to benefit birdlife.
Samantha is also a professional violist and violinist who earned her B.A. in Viola Performance from Boston University's College of Fine Arts and studied at the Royal College of Music in London and the Manhattan School of Music.
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Eddie Kopp is the founder of the Sugarshack music channel. The YouTube-based platform showcases local, emerging, and national Musicians, with videos of them performing intimate, stripped down acoustic versions of their songs. The channel has grown from a backyard hobby into a business that includes audio and video production, photography, graphic design, and conceptual development, as well as a YouTube channel with than 350K subscribers and 400M views.
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Rebecca Shaw and Ben Kronengold are both comedy writers just coming off of a 2-year stint on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon, where they were the youngest writers in late night television. They also have several new shows in the works.
Their new book, called “Naked in the Rideshare” is a collection of stories about the different stages of life, from childhood to college to adulthood. One of the blurbs on the jacket comes from Will Ferrell, who describes it as “Incredibly original, bizarre, and funny.”
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Bob Lewis is a poet, composer, and musician – probably best known as co-founder and early guitarist for the band DEVO. Bob attended Kent State University in the late 60s and after the Kent State shootings on May 4th, 1970, Bob and his friend Gerald Casale started exploring the theme of what they termed “de-evolution.” Peter Gregg joined them the following year and the trio recorded three proto-Devo songs —"I Been Refused", "I Need a Chick" and "Auto Modown".In 1973, they formed the band DEVO with Mark Mothersbaugh and made their debut performing at the K.S.U. Creative Arts Festival as the Sextet Devo.
Bob stopped by our studio while he was in town for a Q. & A. event as part of the “DEVO 5-0: The Beginning was the End – A Fiftieth Anniversary Tribute to The De-Evolution Band.”
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James Haick III is the president of Scout Comics - a publishing house for creator-owned comics that also connects writers and artists (and their characters) with producers of movies, tv shows, and video games.
He's also the creator of several comics, including Solar Flare (set in a post-apocalyptic world brought about by sudden disabling of technology) CODENAME: Ric Flair (a comic about the secret agent adventures of Ric Flair the pro wrestler - who worked on the comic with James), and The Mall (three teens in the 80’s become owners of mall stores that are actually mob-fronts).
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Kidd Kwest is founder and member of DeadLink Clique art collective, and the booking and event manager for Trackout Studios. He writes all his own lyrics, raps, and produces music as well as dabbling in acting. He’s performed in New Jersey, California, and Texas for SXSW, and all over Florida including the 2nd ever Rolling Loud Hip Hop festival.
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Andrew Armstrong is a pianist who has performed for audiences all over the world, including performances at Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, London’s Wigmore Hall, the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, and Warsaw’s National Philharmonic.
He has performed with conductors including as Peter Oundjian, Itzhak Perlman, Günther Herbig, Stefan Sanderling, Jean-Marie Zeitouni and Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, and has appeared in solo recitals and in chamber music concerts with a bunch of Quartets and as a member of the Caramoor Virtuosi, Boston Chamber Music Society, Seattle Chamber Music Society, and the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players.
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Brent Crawford is the Managing Director for Busey Bank’s Wealth Management Group Southwest Florida.
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Known as the “Barefoot Baroness”, Wendy Oxenhorn is the founding director and vice chairman of the Jazz Foundation of America, a non-profit that helps jazz and blues musicians in need of emergency funds.
Prominent board members include Quincy Jones, their current chairman; Richard Parsons, Agnes Varis, Elvis Costello, Danny Glover, Michael Novogratz and Lou Reed. Under her leadership the foundation has raised more than $70 million and helped countless musicians in crisis over the decades.
Wendy also plays a mean harmonica and was named a NEA Jazz Master in 2016.
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Jon Brooks is a Canadian singer songwriter who holds record for most nominations for ‘Songwriter of the Year’ at The Canadian Folk Music Awards.
His seven albums explore themes of paradox, love, fear, grief, religion, war, post traumatic stress, AI, refugee crises, animal justice, murder, ecology, esoterica, and the stars.
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Robert Margouleff is a Grammy Award-winning record producer, sound engineer, and electronic music pioneer who might be best known for his work with Stevie Wonder in the early '70s on a string of award-winning albums, like Music of My Mind, Talking Book, Innervisions, and Fulfillingness's First Finale. In 1980, Margouleff produced DEVO’s Freedom of Choice album which included Whip It.
Robert has spent time in the studio producing and engineering for Quincy Jones, Jeff Beck, the Doobie Brothers, Depeche Mode, Oingo Boingo, DEVO, and the list goes on and on.
He was a colleague and friend of synthesizer inventor Robert Moog, and was also an early creative resource for Andy Warhol's "factory" and co-producer of the cult classic film “Ciao! Manhattan” in 1972.
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J Robert Houghtaling is a BMI writer with film score credits on National TV shows including "Big Bang Theory," "Madame Secretary,” as well as on shows on the Travel Channel and Hallmark Channel.
He’s appeared on folk stages around Florida as a fiddle player with the likes of John McEuen and Chief Jim Billie, and he’s warmed up shows for the Charlie Daniels Band, Doug Kershaw, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and Bonnie Raitt.
J Robert's music is featured in several Florida feature films, including the award winning PBS documentary "The Great Florida Cattle Drive,” the recent PBS film “Southwest Florida’s Mangrove Coast,” and the upcoming story of “Peter Gerbert – Florida Nature Artist.”
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Terry Tincher has been involved in almost every aspect of the arts here in Southwest Florida: music & theater, and he’s been a gallery & bar owner. He's owned Space 39 and The Tincture Gallery in downtown Fort Myers. He now works as a consultant to the Alliance for the Arts and represents several national and regional artists.
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Jeremey Hunsicker was the frontman for one of the most popular Journey cover bands in the USA, called Frontiers, and in 2007 he was even offered the role of lead singer with the actual band Journey. His songwriting contributions earned him a Platinum RIAA sales award for the band’s 2008 release, Revelations.
Jeremey’s life and career has spanned everything from sales and operations in the trucking industry, to professional musician and songwriter, to his current career as a copywriter and direct response marketing strategist. He’s founder of the email marketing firm, The Isotope Agency.
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Sheena Brook is a singer and songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who was selected for Season 12 of NBC’s The Voice and since that appearance she’s moved on to partner with several Multi-Platinum Songwriters and Artists.
She’s also the founder of The F.E.M. Collective, a nonprofit that hosts events in support of women and equality in the industry.
Sheena will also be one of the featured performers at the Island Hoppers Songwriting Fest which runs from Sep 22 - Oct 1.
Thomas Lockyear is manager of the Museum of the Everglades in Everglades City, Florida. He made his living as a musician from the late 80s until the early 2000s, first as a keyboardist for the band My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult, and then as the frontman and songwriter for the Electric Hellfire club. They toured extensively in the U.S. and recorded five full-length albums.
He then put music aside and moved to Key West to start over in 2005 and has now been a museum professional for 17 years. Thomas has served as curator at the Key West Shipwreck Treasures Museum, and at Historic Pigeon Key. He was then Executive Director of the History of Diving Museum in Islamorada before taking on his current role at Museum of the Everglades.
Megan Borowski is a Senior Meteorologist for the Florida Public Radio Emergency Network, headquartered at the UF. Megan completed her B.S. in Meteorology from Rutgers University and graduated at the top of her class. She was formerly a freelance meteorologist for ABC News in New York where she produced content for Good Morning America’s Ginger Zee and Rob Marciano. Megan’s prior work also interned as a meteorologist for WNBC in New York and interned at the National Weather Service.
Michael Owen is an award-winning photographer who has shot weddings, apparel, food, and fashion for individuals and commercial clients like the Boston Red Sox and Marissa Collections.
After getting his Masters, Michael became teaching Photo II at FGCU, and also shot for the Naples Scout Guide for two years.
Greg Hennessey Greg is host of In the Flamingo Lounge with Rockabilly Greg - a podcast that focuses on musicians and music industry professionals from Buffalo and Western New York. He’s also a vocalist with a folk duo called "Old Friends", and has performed as a guest vocalist with the Andrews Sisters tribute act “Buffalo Dolls” and in local musical theater productions.
Greg has also served on the Board of Trustees of the Buffalo Music Hall of Fame and currently serves on the Board of the Sportsmen’s Americana Music Foundation.
Jonathan Lawrence is a classically trained jazz violinist and fiddle player who began studying violin when he was 9. He utilizes his skills as an electric violinist, guitarist, vocalist, pianist, and loop station artist to perform both original songs and new takes on Americana covers. His album is called The Lonely Warrior which is available on most streaming platforms.
He also teaches general music, violin, orchestra, and chorus at the elementary level, performs with the Gulf Coast Symphony, and sometimes subs with the Southwest Florida Symphony.
Mia Borders is a singer, songwriter, and guitarist who's become a perennial figure in the uptown New Orleans music scene. She's performed at House of Blues New Orleans, Essence Festival, Brazil’s Bourbon Street Music Festival, Santa Cruz Blues Fest, Chattanooga’s NightFall, Voice of the Wetlands, Memphis’s Levitt Shell, Long’s Park Amphitheater, and The Kennedy Center for Performing Arts.
Her catalog includes live albums, six LPs, five singles, and three EPs – including 2019’s “Good Side of Bad” produced under her own label, Blaxican Records.
Phil Roy has written songs for some of the greats, including Ray Charles, Aaron Neville, and Joe Cocker, and Mavis Staples, and songs for two Academy Award-winning films: Leaving Las Vegas and As Good As It Gets. He co-wrote one of his songs, Melt, with his long-time friend, Nicolas Cage.
Phil was born and raised in Philadelphia, and attended Berklee College of Music as a guitar major. It was around then he first took an interest in songwriting. He moved to LA in 1981 and almost immediately got signed to Warner Brothers records with his band Carrera. In 1987 he became a staff songwriter.
In 2000 he self-released his album Grouchyfriendly - it won “Independent Album of the Year” from Musician’s Atlas Magazine. He has since released three more solo albums: Issues + Options in 2003, The Great Longing in 2005, and In The Weird Small Hours in 2009, which won a “Concept Album of the Year” by the Independent Music Awards.
Scott Carter is Co-creator and Executive Producer Love & Respect with Killer Mike on PBS, and was a writer for Politically Incorrect hosted by Bill Maher on Comedy Central, and then writer and producer for Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO for its first 16 seasons.
Scott’s podcast Ye Gods! with Scott Carter launched in February of 2023. On it, he discusses personal faith and ethics with a diverse group of interfaith and non-faith celebrity guests to uncover what we believe and what we don’t.
Dr. Jonathan Harrison obtained his PhD in Sociology from the University of Leicester in the UK in 2006 and then migrated to Florida that same year. He has taught as an adjunct instructor since 2012 at FGCU, Florida Southwestern State University, and Hodges University. Jonathan has written extensively about segregation in Fort Myers and contributed to the WGCU documentary With a Made Up Mind, which explores the history of voter suppression in Southwest Florida.
James Priestner is the frontman of the Canadian band Rare Americans. They’ve released four albums and an EP and their songs, each paired with narrative-driven animated video, have garnered them a Billboard 100 album, a JUNO award for their most listened to track to date, “Brittle Bones Nicky,” more than 500 million streams, and more than 875K YouTube subscribers.
The band just released the first installment of their most ambitious project to date, “Searching For Strawberries: The Story Of Jongo Bongo.” It’s one-part 33-minute-long fully animated musical feature and one-part good old fashioned album that together create an immersive listening and viewing experience.
David Oquendo worked in business and retail management more than a decade, and decided decided to turn his passion for film and television in his actual job. Since then, has worked on productions for CMT, PBS, Oxygen, the Travel Channel, and the El Rey Networks, and is now at the helm of WGCU’s video productions for TV and web.
Bob Kealing is a journalist who spent most of his three decade long career at WESH-TV in Orlando. He’s won four Emmys and an Edward R. Murrow award, and has appeared on Dateline NBC, the Today Show, CBS This Morning, and has appeared as a guest on NPR, CNN, MSNBC, NBC and C-SPAN.
The author of four non-fiction books, Bob’s research led to the establishment of the Jack Kerouac House in Orlando, a literary landmark in the National Register of Historic Places, and Gram ‘cosmic cowboy’ Parsons Derry Down, a Florida Heritage site honoring the pioneering country rock musician in his birthplace, Winter Haven.
His latest book is Good Day Sunshine: How the Beatles Rocked Florida
John Donvan has been host and moderator of Open to Debate (recently changed from Intelligence Squared US) since 2008. John is also an author and four-time Emmy Award winning journalist who during his career reported for ABC, CNN, and PBS, including multi-year postings in Moscow, London, Jerusalem, and Amman, and he spent one term as chief White House correspondent for ABC News. His 2016 book, "In a Different Key: The Story of Autism" was a New York Times bestseller and a Pulitzer Prize Finalist - there is also a PBS documentary of the same name based on it.
Tim Morrison is a lifelong musician and singer, but he says he still took the safe path and made sure to go to college. A Journalism degree later and a move to New York City led him to a unique career and life that wound up in anti-counterfeiting in the fashion world.
Deaths in the family lead to a move to Naples in 2005 and a return to music. His self-written/performed/engineered/produced/promoted/laptop album ended up with his song “Weight” featured on All Songs Considered - Second Stage and an interview on Gulf Coast Live - Arts Edition, back before it was Gulf Coast Life.
Tim ended up working at the Naples Zoo, the Holocaust Museum & Cohen Education Center, and right here in public media at WGCU.
Dr. Eric Otto plays guitar for the Immokalee Road Band with his FGCU colleagues Miles Mancini and Mike Kennedy, and since 2019 he has also been the guitarist for the Gulf Coast Big Band, which raises scholarship money to support jazz education in Southwest Florida. For his day job, Eric is Professor of Environmental Humanities, Director of General Education, and Interim Chair of the Department of Integrated Studies at FGCU.
Konstantinos Vranishti is a 35-year old student at Florida Gulf Coast University who was born in Albania but spent most of his life in Greece before moving to the United States in 2019.
His family first landed in Maryland, but then moved to Fort Myers during the early days of the pandemic. He started off as a journalism student at FGCU because he worked as a journalist in Greece, but recently changed his major to Communication.
Dayna Harpster is a journalist, writer, and Communications Specialist at WGCU. She started teaching journalism classes at Florida Gulf Coast University last year.
Craig Pittman is the author of six Oh, Florida! How America's Weirdest State Influences the Rest of the Country which made the New York Times bestseller list; Cat Tale: The Wild, Weird Battle to Save the Florida Panther, which earned him the Rachel Carson Award from the national Sierra Club; and his latest The State You’re In: Florida Men, Florida Women, and Other Wildlife, and he co-hosts the podcast “Welcome to Florida.”
Craig is also a journalist and native Floridian, born and raised in Pensacola, so he is a literal Florida Man. He studied journalism at Troy State University in Alabama, where according to his bio “his muckraking work for the student paper prompted an agitated dean to label him "the most destructive force on campus."
Rada Angelova is known for her work in theater in New York City. She started as the actor, writer & producer of her own solo show that was presented at the Midtown International Theater Festival, and then she stepped behind the curtain to represent some of the world’s longest-running musicals including “Chicago” and “Cats” while they were on tour in the U.S.
Rada is originally from Bulgaria where she says she first found her passion for music. Today she co-writes with songwriters from Nashville, Canada, North Macedonia and others. Her songs “Anonymous In New York” and “Margarita” are among her most popular and can be found under her music artist name “Rada And Subject To Change.”
Greg Longenhagen is an accomplished actor, director, producer, teacher, and coach. Greg’s career spans over 30 years in professional theatre, radio, television, and film, and he's a member of the original founding company of Florida Repertory Theatre in downtown Fort Myers, and is in his third decade with the organization, now serving as its Artistic Director.
Greg has been involved with 64 productions at Florida Rep and has also performed at numerous theaters here in Florida and around the country.
He served as the Resident Director for Pittsburgh’s “Shakespeare in the Schools” while working as an actor in New York City, and he later served as an Assistant Professor of Theatre at Florida Gulf Coast University.
Brian Schreck is a music therapist at the Norton Cancer Institute in Louisville, Kentucky and has been professionally serving people with a wide range of illnesses since 2004. He pioneered music therapy services at St. Vincent’s Catholic Hospital Medical Center in Manhattan, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, and the Norton Cancer Institute in Louisville.
Part of Brian's work involves using the sounds of a patient's life to create individualized recordings and projects for patients and their families and loved ones, including using stethoscopes and microphones to capture heartbeats that he weaves into musical compositions.
Karyn Parsons is probably best known for playing Hilary on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Her character was, and is, truly beloved by fans around the U.S. and beyond. What her fans didn't know until 2005 was that Parsons was also a writer who spent quite a bit of time writing short fiction, and learning about history - particularly inspiring and empowering stories of African American achievement.
Once she set acting aside in the early 2000s, and had her first child, Parsons decided it was time to take her passion for writing and history seriously and so founded a nonprofit called Sweet Blackberry. They would turn her stories about little-known African American figures, ones that she thought would pique the imaginations of young people, into short films and picture-books. The animated films feature narration from voices like Alfre Woodard, Queen Latifah, Chris Rock, and Laurence Fishburne.
Parsons published her first young adult novel called "How High the Moon" in 2019 and has another one coming out this Summer. “How High the Moon” was inspired by her mother's childhood stories of being a young person growing up in South Carolina during the time of Jim Crow.
John McKenney is a bassist who has played in bands like “The Tropics”, “The HiTones”, and “The Painted Faces” which was one of Ft. Myers most well known bands. They played all over Florida and opened for a number of big names including Roy Orbinson and Neil Diamond. They were written up in BillBoard magazine and were listed as one of the top Florida garage bands of the 60s.
John is currently playing in a Blues band and rehearsing with a local 80s band in Portland, Oregon, which is where he and his wife have lived since 1979.
Jennifer Rowley is a soprano who is acclaimed worldwide for her voice and stage presence, and for her wide variety of roles that have spanned many of opera’s greatest heroines. She has appeared at The Metropolitan Opera in lead roles including in Cyrano de Bergerac, Tosca, Il Trovatore and La Boheme.
Throughout her career she has also performed at Opernhaus Zurich, Teatro del Liceu in Barcelona, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Staatsoper Berlin, Opera National de Paris, the National Theatre Prague, and the Royal Opera House in London.
Jennifer also recently created her own summer festival in Sarasota, called Jennifer Rowley’s Aria Bootcamp. She has been a Artist in Residence at Baldwin Wallace University, Fort Worth Opera, and the International Summer Opera Festival of Morelia, and is sought after for her seminars and masterclasses.
Robert Van Winkle is Community Outreach Ambassador for the Southwest Florida Symphony Orchestra, but is still often recognized as the former Chief Meteorologist for NBC-2 in Fort Myers. He’s also a U.S. Navy Veteran and worked as a meteorologist on the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz.
After a 31-year career on television Robert “retired” and moved to Arizona to take care of his Mom when she was diagnosed with cancer. After returning to Southwest Florida, he worked a number of jobs including Real Estate, Substitute Teaching, and even Naturalist on Whale Watching tours in Sitka, Alaska.
Kristen Noble is a 17-year-old Senior at Cypress Lake High School.
As a musician, Kristen released her original debut album, “Lyrical Therapy” in October of 2022. It’s on all streaming platforms and as of this recording it has accumulated more than 400,000 streams on Spotify.
She's also participated in many music ensembles and groups, including "The A Cappella Group," at Cypress with whom she recorded original songs on two albums and won Outstanding Arrangement for her original song "Simple Math."
Dan Bern is a singer-songwriter whose songs have appeared in numerous films and TV shows, including original songs for the film “Walk Hard — The Dewey Cox Story”. He's released 30 albums and EPs, and played thousands of shows across North America and Europe over the course of his life.
Mike, Richard, Tara, and Jared gather to reminisce about the last two years of guests, songs, and stories in our (usually) annual review! Join us for 9 song stories, a Dungeons and Dragons montage, and an encore of "Rock Talk" - Mike's Rock tumbling podcast".
Robin Young is host NPR's Here & Now. Robin is a Peabody Award-winning documentary filmmaker who has also reported for NBC, CBS, and ABC television and for several years was substitute host and correspondent for The Today Show.
Robin has received several Emmy Awards for her television work, as well as cable's Ace award, the Religious Public Relations Council's Wilbur Award and the National Conference of Christians and Jews Gold Award. She has also received radio's regional Edward R. Murrow award. As an independent documentary filmmaker, she produced and directed the opening film for Marion Wright Edelman's White House Conference on Children and followed the rise of then unknown filmmaker John Singleton in the film "Straight From the Hood."
Her documentary "The Los Altos Story," made in association with the Rotary Club of Los Altos, California, won the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award and is now the backbone of a worldwide HIV/AIDS awareness initiative.
Ryan Wolfgang is Assistant Manager of Props at Universal Creative (as in Universal Studios) and has been in the prop and decor field since 2003, first working in the motion picture industry, starting out as an intern and then working his way up to Propmaster on feature films, commercials for international brands and other various video, photography, and TV projects.
Jeremy Hobson is an NPR Host, Journalist, and Producer who has worked in public radio for more than 20 years, most recently as host for Here and Now where he was for more than seven years. Prior to that he reported for and then hosted the Marketplace Morning Report.
Jeremy has also reported and hosted for public radio stations in Rhode Island, Cape Cod, and Illinois. And he spent time as a producer for All Things Considered, Day to Day, and Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!
He's also the creator and host of The Middle, a new show focusing on listeners, voters, and the marginalized in the "middle" of the country.
John McEuen is a banjo, guitar, mandolin, and fiddle player, and a founding member of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. He has made almost 50 albums, that have earned four platinum and five gold records, multiple Grammy Awards and nominations, CMA, and ACM awards.
John produced Steve Martin’s 2010 album, The Crow, which won a Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album.
He was inducted in 2017 to the American Banjo Museum Hall of Fame, and his popular Sirius/XM Acoustic Traveller Show is now in its 14th year.
He’s also an author - his bio “The Life I’ve Picked” was published in 2018.
Alex Adams is a theatre major at FGCU, with a background in musical theatre which began all the way back when she was 6 years old. She will be playing the role of Horatio in FGCU’s upcoming April production of Hamlet.
Laura Ellis is Director of Podcasts and Special Projects at Louisville Public Media, WFPL. She’s a Peabody Award-winning producer who started her career in public radio as a talk show assistant. She’s managed WFPL’s podcast strategy as Senior Producer and Podcast Editor since 2018.
In her role as Director of Podcasts and Special Projects, Laura manages a podcast incubator designed to amplify important and diverse voices and stories in Louisville.
When she's not making radio, she's on stage or in a sound booth making theater, or singing old-fashioned music.
Evgeniya Radilova is an award winning Bulgarian-American actress, filmmaker, model, fire dancer, teacher and more who calls New York City home. She has appeared in a number of prime time TV shows including: "Law & Order: SVU", "Limitless", "Elementary", "Sex&Drugs & Rock&Roll", "Spartacus", and most recently “Blue Bloods.”
She recently won Best Actress and Audience Award Best Film at the Chelsea Film Festival for her latest project: a feature length film called Lost Cos.
At 18 she was cast in one of the biggest TV shows in Bulgaria called "Masters of the TV", which she co-hosted for three years every night on Bulgarian National TV. She then moved to New York where she graduated with honors from "The American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Since then, she has appeared Off-Broadway and is a lifetime member of The Actors Studio.
Evgeniya has her own production company, called “I Dare Productions” and she also dances with fire and creates shows all over NYC and LA's cabaret stages with her company Evgeniya Entertainment.
Cory and Kirsten are co-hosts and co-producers of the “Florida Freakshow” podcast, which chronicles the many bizarre news stories that come from the Sunshine State. Kirsten has been a college speech instructor, debate coach, television sports reporter, and now she's a marketing project lead for Aviv Clinics in The Villages. Cory has been a marketing professional and journalist The News-Press and Naples Daily News. He also launched the Southwest Florida Storytellers Project. These days he leads the marketing team for Owen-Ames-Kimball Company.
We’re looking back at our collection of songs that musician guests have played for us at the end of their episodes. This episode's music guests are:
Dan PhilgreenDanny BlackJon MichaelsMichael PinckneyEhren GerhardMike KennedyMike Patella
Amanda Inscore is an award-winning photojournalist who has been at The News-Press in Fort Myers since 2003. She was born in North Carolina and graduated from the University of North Carolina’s journalism school. Amanda's also a gymnast, a yogi, and a breast cancer survivor, and she enjoys traveling, hiking and chocolate.
Dave Lapham became a professional guitar tech from 2003-2017, Touring the world with bands like QOTSA an MCR, and musicians Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains, Chris Cornell of Soundgarden, Peter Murphy of Bauhaus, Billy Idol and on and on…
Dave grew up in Dearborn, Michigan surrounded by rock and punk music of the 70’s and through the 90’s, setting the tone for the rest of his life. As a kid he was into guitars, muscle cars, girls, BMX and skateboarding.
Tatum Bates is a sophomore Theatre major at Florida Gulf Coast University. She's acted in plays, musicals, and films produced all over Florida, and she also shows off her work in special effects movie makeup, on her TikTok. She's also the newest cohost on the Razzle Dazzle podcast.
We’re dipping back into our collection of songs that our musician guests have played for us at the end of their episodes. It’s one of our very favorite things about this show. This episode's music guests are:
David Mayfield
Sergio Munoz
Max Hatt and Edda Glass
Billy Kemp
David Hintz
Cody Smith
Spencer "Duke Stamina" Elles
Katie Lyon
Rendy Ramos is a videographer, editor, and avid cinephile. He has worked on shoots including ESPN, music festivals on cruises, nationally broadcast dog shows, wedding films, and music videos.
Rendy moved back to Southwest Florida in 2013 and was a Production Director for Waterman Broadcasting, the local NBC/ABC affiliate before shifting to Photojournalism and joining us here at WGCU developing content and stories.
Whenever we have musicians on the show we ask them to play a song for us as that week’s parting tune. Over the years we’ve compiled quite a collection of songs, so today we’re putting some of them together for Volume 1. of our Music Guest Roundup.
Dr. Ebony Green has been a teacher, principal, district leader and is now nationally recognized champion for Equity at the Institute for Student Achievement, where she supports school districts nationally to ensure equitable outcomes for all students.
Ebony has taught as an adjunct professor at Mercy College, Pace University, and is currently serving at Bank Street College in New York City, and Fordham University where she teaches a course that examines the Impact of Prejudice.
DJs Chad Cisneros and David Reed are the halves of the Austin Texas-based music duo Tritonal. As they have released five studio albums, including their latest Coalesce earlier this year.
Chad and David host the show Tritonia on Sirius XM Electric Area, they were #65 on DJ Mag's Top 100 DJs of 2012, and one of MTV Clubland's "10 Artists to Watch in 2013"
Mike Braun is managing editor at WGCU working with our reporters to dig deeper and add context to stories affecting Southwest Florida. In his career in print media, he's been a general assignment reporter, copy editor, Sunday edition editor, designer, and chief of the design desk.
In 1985 he convinced the editors that he could fill a page weekly with news about hunting, fishing and conservation topics, and did just that as de facto outdoor editor for the next 20 years in addition to his regular duties.
Mike then moved to southwest Florida and joined The News-Press in 2005 as a front page designer and then moved back to reporting in 2011.
Jon Shain is a veteran singer-songwriter who combines improvised piedmont blues with bluegrass, swing, and ragtime, and is the 2019 winner of the International Blues Challenge in the solo/duo category. His most recent solo disc, Gettin’ Handy with the Blues: A Tribute to the Legacy of WC Handy, was released in 2018.
In 1989 he founded the Chapel Hill-based folk-rock group, Flyin’ Mice and their spin-off group, WAKE. They released four CDs and played up and down the East Coast until the late 90s.
He then went solo, and has since released ten albums of his own folk-blues compositions.
Jenny Lapham is a mental health advocate and sociology fangirl who leverages her personal and professional expertise to change how we talk about mental wellness. Jenny has led an unconventional life full of chaos, magic and education. Her idea of a good time is obsessing over romance novels, crafting, and missing the 90s.
Judd Cribbs was a writer, reporter and editor for 25 years before becoming a teacher. He's worked as a digital teletext news writer and editor at WKRC-TV in Cincinnati from 1985 to 1993. After a brief time as a freelance reporter for the Cincinnati Enquirer, he was an on-air television news reporter for WFTX-TV and WLWT-TV, also in Cincinnati, until 1998. Cribbs won a regional Emmy award in 1994 at WLWT.
He moved to Florida in 1998 to work as a feature reporter for WINK-TV, becoming the managing editor there in 2008. He taught TV Production at Cape Coral High School in 2011-2012 before starting at FGCU in 2012, where he is currently an assistant professor in the Journalism Program.
We sat down with Judd on September 9th…19 days before Hurricane Ian made landfall about 35 miles from our studio in south Fort Myers.
Cadence Bakker is musician and a senior at FGCU studying Management, Marketing, and Entrepreneurship. She's been writing since she was six years old, and self-taught for piano, guitar, and ukulele.
Mike Swindle is Superintendent of Hendry County Schools. A former teacher in Hendry County, Mike was instrumental in growing the Career and Technical Education program that gives opportunities for students and adults in the Hendry region.
He began his career as a public official in 2013 when was elected as a Hendry County Commissioner, and has been the schools Superintendent since 2020.
Jason Teeters is an Industrial Organizational Psychologist. He's worked with the United Nations, the U.S. Center for Disease Control, The Rockefeller Foundation, SecondMuse, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the NGO Movember, where he delivered the first ever mental health and wellness program for Black men.
Jason is currently Nurturing Lead at the Collaboratory in downtown Fort Myers, where he helps people overcome the emotional, psychological, and technical challenges to successful collaboration.
Sheldon Zoldan has been producing Song of the Day since about 2020. He describes it as part history, part trivia, and all music. In it, he tells a short story every day that ties into music history or historical events and features a song.
Born in Youngstown, Ohio, Sheldon graduated with a degree in journalism from Ohio State University. In the late 1970s he worked as an editor at Ohio Magazine, which was founded and operated by the infamous Larry Flynt, publisher of Hustler Magazine. Sheldon also worked at an experimental cable station called Qube that was kind of like interactive TV before its time.
He returned to print journalism and wound up at the News-Press as a business writer in 1986. He ended up a metro editor and retired from the paper in 2019.
Andy Spaulding is Southwest-Florida based drag entertainer who performs as Alyssa Lemay, the “comedic, Broadway belting, bingo calling alter ego” of Andy.
Originating from Canton, Ohio, Andy is a graduate of Ashland University, with a Bachelor of Music in Music Education.
His alter ego Alyssa has held many titles, including Miss Cape Coral Pride in 2020. Alyssa is frequently a guest judge for local competitions, both drag and non-drag events and often hired to emcee large fundraising events for area charities.
Brendan Rivers is the lead reporter for ADAPT, which is WJCT’s digital magazine exploring how Northeast Florida is adapting to sea level rise and other effects of climate change. He also hosts the ADAPT podcast.
Brendan originally planned to pursue a career as a composer, arranger, music producer and recording engineer, but he got an internship at WGCU and that convinced him he belongs in broadcasting and public media.
He’s been a Special Projects Producer at WJCT in Jacksonville since 2018. Prior to that he spent time as a reporter and then News Director at Southern Stone Communications, which owns and operates several radio stations in the Daytona Beach area.
Kiara Roman is a 17-year-old senior theatre major at Cypress Lake High School’s Center for the Arts in Fort Myers, Florida. In her free time Kiara says she loves to watch Marvel movies and tv shows, hang out with friends, including Mike's 17-year-old daughter Guinevere.
Mark Danni is the Founding Producing Artistic Director of TheatreZone, a professional Equity theatre company in Naples, Florida and he created and runs the theatre program at The Community School of Naples.
He’s been involved with many Broadway, Off-Broadway, and regional productions as a Director, Music Director, Conductor and Drummer/Percussionist including New York City directing credits for What Would Esther Williams Do In A Situation Like This?, Sea Fever, and Aggravation.
He has conducted National Tours of Les Miserables and Barnum, and as a Drummer/Percussionist, Mark’s Broadway credits include Chicago, Annie Get Your Gun, Les Mis, Miss Saigon, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and Grand Hotel.
And also he’s been a part of national Tours of The Phantom of the Opera, Fame, Hair, 42nd Street, Nunsense, and the European Tour of Evita; and is a member of The Society for Directors & Choreographers and the American Federation of Musicians.
Camryn Cole is the premier Secretary of Student Organization at FGCU called “Coalition of Collegiate Musicians of Color”, a member of CGO Music International’s Naples-based vocal group “VOYCES”, and is a Voice Major at FGCU. She also studies Music Theatre and Jazz vocal technique and is planning to get her masters in Vocal Pedagogy.
Jennifer and Amelia Ford are two-thirds of the Fort Myers-based family power trio, The Shytunas. Jennifer has been writing and recording her own songs since she learned how to press Record and Play at the same time. Her daughter, Amelia, will be a 5th grader this year.
Amelia’s a member of the National Elementary Honor Society, an award winning cross country star, wants to be an astronomer when she grows up.
Her father and Jennifer’s husband, Seth Ford, was our guest back in 2019 and he rounds out The Shytunas lineup.
Michaela Berres is a junior at FGCU studying music therapy. She has been studying as a musician since she was 13 years old, originally training in jazz, songwriting, and musical theatre. Earlier this year she came into the studio with a group of musicians studying under the FGCU Bower School of Music’s Director of Jazz Studies Brandon Robertson (Ep 93) to perform live on our radio show Gulf Coast Life Arts Edition with John Davis.
Radu Paponiu is the new Artistic and Music Director of the Southwest Florida Symphony Orchestra. He’s also Associate Conductor of the Naples Philharmonic, and Music Director of the Naples Philharmonic Youth Orchestra.
Since 2017, Radu has conducted the Naples Philharmonic in more than 100 different classical, education and pops programs. He’s been a guest conductor with orchestras around the world including the Transylvania State Philharmonic Orchestra, Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, Colorado Music Festival Orchestra, and the North Carolina Symphony.
He got his Master of Music degree in orchestral conducting at the New England Conservatory of Music. While in Boston, he was also conductor apprentice with the Handel and Haydn Society.
Randall Kenneth Jones is an author, podcaster, actor, and public speaker. Over the years he has interviewed more than 100 people of note, both for the Naples Daily News and for his podcast JONES.SHOW, which he produces with Susan C. Bennett (the original voice of Siri), including Erin Brockovich, Pat Benatar, Brian Boitano, Rita Rudner, Shirley Jones, Suze Orman, Vanessa Williams and many more.
His book, “Show Me: Celebrities, Business Tycoons, Rock Stars, Journalists, Humanitarians, Attack Bunnies & More!” was published in late 2016, and this fall, his first fiction book, “Ruby,” will be published by Mark Victor Hansen of “Chicken Soup for the Soul” fame.
Janine Zeitlin is an investigative and enterprise journalist for the USA TODAY Network-Florida. She has also written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, Vice and BBC. Her journalism has received more than 50 state and national awards. Her reporting on Florida farmworkers and migrant students during the pandemic was recently honored by the national Association of Health Care Journalists and the national Education Writers Association.
Juliana Morgan Alvarez is an actor, artist, and theatre-maker. Born and raised in Miami, FL, she began performing at a young age with the Miami Ballet and acting in various theatre productions. After graduating college, Juliana moved to Los Angeles and continued acting, performing with her improv group, the Knife Kids, and producing science documentaries.
Juliana has traveled throughout the United States working on different projects such as a feature film, The Veteran, and the performance art & installation piece, One Island produced by the Ghostbird Theatre Company.
Scott Miller comes from a radio background as his father was a DJ in Toledo when he was growing up. He spent 4 years in the United States Coast Guard, and has worked in radio for the last 29 years in both management and sales roles. For the past 9 years he’s been a resident of Southwest Florida and worked as a Sales Manager for iHeart Media before joining WGCU as Associate General Manager of business partnerships and corporate investments.
Fernando López Flores was one of the people responsible for the international initiative Musica para Respirar, or Music to Breathe 24/7 program, that provided more than 3,000 free virtual concerts for healthcare workers and COVID-19 patients in more than 55 countries.
Fernando is also co-founder of the Con Fuoco Bolivian Pianists Society and has been a member of the Bolivian Chamber Music Society since 2015, and is a former student of the San Ignacio de Moxos Baroque Music School, where he was selected to be the only protege of renowned Bolivian pianist Elizabeth Schwimmer.
He was also the creator and artistic director of the artistic installation, The Music Forest, at FGCU which merged the Bower School of Music & the Arts with the FGCU Food Forest, which is a student-run botanical garden on campus.
Stephen Cavitt teaches English and creative writing at FGCU and he’s led groups around the world, from the back trails of the Appalachians to the streets of Shanghai. Stephen has also taught for Duke University, the University of Tennessee, Georgia College, and Chattanooga State Community College.
Mike Walcher worked for 42 years as an anchor and reporter in radio and TV News, almost always as a hard and breaking news reporter, covering things like the police beat, courts, politics, and local government.
Mike retired from broadcasting at the end of 2016 and immediately started teaching journalism at Florida Gulf Coast University. He’s currently teaching the new Democracy Watch course and fellowships at FGCU and is working closely with us here at WGCU.
Pat Mitchell is a filmmaker and has made 4 films, including his latest, a feature called “Apples, Oranges, Lemons & Limes” which will be screened Saturday, May 21st, 2022 at the Fort Myers Film Festival in downtown Fort Myers. Other than films, Pat also produces music, mostly these days for his brother Freddie Forward who is a Southwest Florida-based hip hop artist.
Pat was born in the Bronx and raised in Yonkers, New York. He’s lived in Florida for about 15 years now. Pat says his current mindset is to grow and challenge himself more than ever, and that while he loves finishing a film his goal is always to make treasured memories along the way with his casts and crews.
Born in Venezuela, Samantha Romero immigrated to Miami, FL in to 2006, and is now a journalism student at FGCU. She’s also a reporter at WGCU, and produces Noticias de WGCU en Español – a weekly news round up produced at WGCU and aired on Radio Conciencia, a community radio station in Immokalee, FL. Sam also works at WINK News where she edits video, and does photography for FGCU.
Sam also produces music, documentary film, knits sweaters, and even breeds butterflies.
Apollo Fresh (or Jonathon Appolon) is a local nerdcore rapper who specializes in anime rap. As a second generation Haitian immigrant who grew up consuming hip-hop and anime, Apollo decided to combine his passions and before graduating, produced his first big hit single, Jojo Pose in 2020. Since then, he’s been creating solo and collaborative music and videos for YouTube, Tiktok, Spotify, and Instagram, with an upcoming EP, “Life is anime” set to release.
Apollo also holds a bachelors in Entrepreneurship and was selected for rapper IDK’s No Label Academy, at Harvard University.
Sabrina is the Editor-in-Chief of Eagle News and is one of WGCU’s Democracy Watch Fellows, covering news local to Southwest Florida with a focus on government. She’s also been a Next Generation Radio reporter for NPR.
Sabrina plans to graduate this semester, and will be working on her Masters in Journalism at NYU in the Fall.
Dr. Jake von Scherrer is creator and host of The Educational AD Podcast which showcases High School Athletic directors, coaches, and Olympic athletes from across the country and around the world. He’s also the author of The Athletic Director's Toolbox, and has served as President of the FIAAA, and several other state and national athletic associations.
Katie Fogarty is a junior Journalism major at FGCU. She's involved in Eagle News, the FGCU Odyssey Magazine, the Journalism department at FGCU, and WGCU as a News Reporting Intern. Over the summer, Katie plans to intern at the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting in Jackson, Mississippi.
Bob Morris is an American novelist who writes Caribbean-themed mysteries. He is also the author of several collections of nonfiction, including Gut Check, Short Road to Hell, The Man with the Fish on His Foot, All Over the Map, and The Whole Shebang.
He’s also president of Story Farm, which is a custom publishing company that creates books, magazines and other publications for a wide variety of clients. And he’s an adjunct professor at Rollins College where he teaches courses in food writing and crime fiction.
After graduating from the University of Florida, he worked at a number of newspapers, including the Florida Keys Free Press, the Fort Myers News-Press, the Orlando Sentinel, and the New York Times Regional Newspaper Group. He’s also been editor in chief of Caribbean Travel & Life magazine and Gulfshore Life magazine.
Patience Cole is the Digital Media editor for Razzle Dazzle, the Pop culture and video games podcast, which has had Mike, Richard, and Tara as guests. Go check it out! She's also a production intern at WINK News, a digital marketing intern at Celsius Marketing interactive a singer-songwriter, and an about-to-graduate English major at FGCU.
Amy Ginsburg is Executive Director of the Southwest Florida Symphony, a fully professional orchestra that’s based at the Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall in Fort Myers.
She graduated from Ft. Myers High and attended Edison State College and University of South Florida as a fine-arts major. She then attended the Gemological Institute of America. After a career in jewelry design and manufacture, she co-owned and operated a marketing and media production company called Waddy World Productions before beginning her career with the Southwest Florida Symphony in 2013.
Jim Hale graduated from Dartmouth in 1962, and from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1965. He served as a law clerk to Chief Justice Earl Warren at the Supreme Court in 1965-66 where he spent a significant amount of this time helping to draft the Miranda opinion.
After 13 years with the Minneapolis law firm of Faegre & Benson in 1979 Jim joined General Mills as head of its international acquisition team. He then joined Dayton Hudson Corp. in 1981, which was later renamed Target Corp., where he served as executive vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary until retiring in 2004.
Jim Hale and his late wife, Sharon, moved to Southwest Florida in 2007 after spending their working years in Minnesota. Jim is also chair of the WGCU Public Media Advisory Board - which is how we met him - but he's also a writer, a songwriter, and a blues harmonica player for the group Jim Hale and Friends.
Jim is chair of the WGCU Public Media Advisory Board - which is how we met him
Miles Mancini started playing piano at the age of five. He grew up amid musical excellence as his father, George Mancini, worked with the likes of jazz greats Toots Thielemans, Jaco Pastorias, Herbie Hancock, Henry Mancini and many others. As a child, he played piano in front of audiences in Frankfurt, Germany to Paris, France.
Miles was part of the inaugural class at FGCU and graduated in 2001 with a degree in communication and history. He joined the Communication faculty back in 2004 and in 2016-17 helped develop the new Integrated Studies program with Dr. Maria Roca. He is a current member of the Integrated Studies faculty.
Jerry Mitchell is an investigative reporter whose work has helped lead to convictions of Klansmen for the 1963 assassination of Medgar Evers, the 1963 bombing of a Birmingham church that killed four girls, and the 1964 slayings of three civil rights workers. His work also led to the 2016 conviction of Felix Vail — the oldest conviction in a serial killer case in U.S. history.
He was depicted in the film Ghosts of Mississippi which covered the events of the Medgar Evers, and while he wasn’t depicted in it, the film Mississippi Burning covered the FBI investigation of the Birmingham church bombing.
Jerry is also founder of the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting - a nonprofit news organization that reports on the criminal justice system, public corruption, political cronyism, and racial disparities to name a few things.
He’s also a MacArthur genius grant winner, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, and author of Race Against Time - his account of covering unsolved murders in the civil rights era.
David Brown is the Co-Founder and President of Family Initiative, a nonprofit organization which serves children and adults diagnosed on the autism spectrum, along with families engaged by the child welfare system.
David is also actively involved in leadership positions for multiple state agencies focusing on the empowerment of foster families. David has worked in the field of child welfare for over two decades, in foster care licensing, child protective investigations, as well as a training specialist prior to launching Family Initiative.
Grant Billings is cofounder of the Southwest Florida Steinway Piano Society's Young Artist Piano Competition and the president of the local Steinway Piano Society, in addition to owning the Steinway Piano Gallery. Born into a multigenerationally musical family - Grant made his instrument the turntables. He DJ’d for more than 25 years, starting all the way back in high school. Last year we offered a slot on the show as a silent auction item for fundraiser the Alliance for the Arts was doing, and Grant’s wife Colleen secretly won it and gave him the interview as a Christmas gift.
Jamie Kuser and his wife are the owners and operators of Happenings Magazine and Lee Family News magazine for the past 17 years. Jamie leverages his family's multi-generation history in journalism to cover the arts scene in Southwest Florida. As he puts it, "If you can’t find good art in our town, you’re looking in the wrong place - here’s a magazine!"
He’s also co-founder and co-chair of Fort Myers Artwalk, a monthly art and music festival in Fort Myers where local bands perform and artists of all mediums take over downtown.
Benjamin Murray is a filmmaker, director, cinematographer, and producer who has taken home best director and best cinematographer from festivals like the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival Awards, the Chain NYC Film Festival, UK Film Festival, UK, and the Independent Horror Movie Awards.
After an injury ended his baseball aspirations Ben took up making videos, and by the age of 16 he was dead set on a film program in NYC, and now owns his own production company while continuing to make films.
Jeff Cull is Florida Weekly’s executive editor and is responsible for all content and management for nine newspapers with a combined circulation of more than 90,000, and is co-founder and managing partner of Florida Media Group LLC, publishers of Florida Weekly.
He earned his bachelor’s degree from the U.S. Naval Academy. He flew the Navy’s carrier-based S-3 Viking and retired as a Commander.
Jeff began his journalism career in 2000 as a reporter at The News-Press and pursued public-service journalism as an investigative reporter.
Mariapia Malerba is a multidisciplinary artist who was born in Puglia , a region in Southern Italy. She has created textile designs Dolce Gabbana and Versace. She is now Senior textile designer for White House Black Market, and her work has been showcased in various galleries in all over Italy and America.
Marie Heisler leads PR and communication efforts at Mercola, a global brand that provides natural health information and biodynamic and organic supplements. Marie sits on the board of the Cape Coral Chapter of the FGCU Alumni Association and is active with the Southwest Florida Chapter of the Florida Public Relations Association.
Meg Favreau is a filmmaker, writer, and artist whos worked primarily on animated series for Netflix, Hulu, Warner Brothers Animation, Hasbro, and Mattel. In 2020, her short film Hot Dog Steering Wheel won Best Short Short at the Fort Myers Film Festival.
Meg has also worked in food writing, often focusing on weird and forgotten recipes. In 2011, she published the cookbook Little Old Lady Recipes: Comfort Food and Kitchen Table Wisdom.
Her essays have appeared in The New Yorker’s Shouts and Murmurs, Real Simple, Eating Well, McSweeney’s, and The American Bystander.
Buffalo “B.” Stille is a Grammy Nominated musician, and vocalist for the Nappy Roots, an American alternative Southern rap quartet, best known for their hit singles "Awnaw", "Roun' The Globe" and "Good Day". They were the best selling hip hop group of 2002.
In 2019, Stille completed his bachelor’s degree University of Louisville, and is sharing his back-to-college experience in hopes of inspiring others in Kentucky to further their education.
Dean Davis. Dean is Vice President of the Foundation Board of Directors, at the State University of New York College at Oneonta. He’s also a retired senior instructor at FGCU, and his early efforts at the university laid the foundations of the communication department.
Joseph Hall is a third year Journalism student at FGCU, and is “Joe the sound guy” on the Razzle Dazzle podcast (hosted by our own Jared "the Intern" Gonzalez) as well as the How To Cry Monster podcast.
Dr. Wilson Bradshaw served as FGCU’s third president for a decade beginning in 2007. During his tenure, the university’s student body grew from about 9000 in 2007 to about 15000 when he retired; and the faculty grew by 50% over that time.
Dr. Bradshaw also managed the transition to Division 1 athletics, and the FGCU Eagles have won 54 conference and tournament championships in eight years, including the meteoric rise to national visibility when the Men’s basketball team was the first #15 seed to make it to the Sweet 16 in NCAA history gaining the nickname ‘Dunk City’ because of their explosive success in the tournament.
Kyle McCurry is Assistant Vice President of Marketing and Communication at FGCU. He’s been a television journalist, a radio program director, and host of Classic Rock Insider, where he got to interview guests like Joe Perry, Mick Fleetwood, Huey Lewis, and Tommy James. He ended up becoming James’s publicity and media relation manager after their meeting.
Will Prather is the Executive Producer and Owner of Prather Productions - he operates Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre in Fort Myers, Florida; the Dutch Apple Dinner Theatre in Lancaster, Pennsylvania; along with Prather Touring and Apex Touring which are national touring companies that bring productions around the country and across the world. Prather Touring is currently producing Summer: The Donna Summer Musical.
He is past-president and current Advisory Board Member of the Lee County Alliance for the Arts, past secretary of the National Dinner Theatre Association, and past Chairman of the Lee County Democratic Party.
Andryanna Sheppard is the Consumer Reporter at WINK News in Fort Myers, where she’s been a reporter since February of 2020. Before moving to Southwest Florida, she was a nightside reporter at KDRV in Medford, Oregon, where she was also the go-to breaking news reporter.
Ryan Boland is Chief Business Office at Mercola Market, and was was recently named a 40 Under 40 honoree by Business Observer. Originally from New York, Ryan began his career in the food and restaurant industry selling ingredients to restaurants but later transitioned to natural health formulations, working for a supplement manufacturer.
Jack Massing formed The Art Guys in 1983 with Michael Galbreth - it was a conceptual art collaboration that ended after 37 years in 2019 when Michael passed. Their “direct to the public” methodology often circumvented the established art world and incorporated a wide range of not-so-conventional materials and activities in an effort to make art more accessible and to challenge notions about perceived divisions between art and life.
Jack is currently working on William WEGMAN & Jack MASSING: TWO CLEVER BY HALF – A Call & Response Project at the Bob Rauschenberg Gallery that will remain on display and will evolve until March of 2022.
Dr. Glenn Whitehouse has taught philosophy and religious studies at FGCU ever since it opened its doors in 1997. He's now the Associate Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, and director of PAGES, a career program for liberal arts students at FGCU.
Brian Weaver is a street artist and co-founder of Artsemble Underground which was created to help local businesses attract traffic with murals, sculptures, or art events. He owns a gallery of the same name with fellow artist Cesar Aguilara.
Artsemble Underground gallery is where the current “Battle of The Arts” is held, every second Saturday of the month. Brian and Cesar consider this event less of a battle and more of an opportunity for local artists to connect and network all while raising money for a different non-profit organization each month. At the end of the year all of the winners from each month will compete for the “SWFL’s World Cup of Art!”
Patrick Pereira is a student at FGCU majoring in Journalism with a minor in Creative Writing. He is a reporter for ENTV and Co-host of Razzle Dazzle. He also currently works as a production assistant at WINK News, a helping hand for his parents remodeling company, and a freelance model.
Doug Berman is Executive Producer of Car Talk; and Creator and Benevolent Overlord of Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!
A two-time Peabody Award-winning producer, Doug began his career in news while still in college, serving as a production assistant for NPR's All Things Considered and Morning Edition. It was at WBUR that Doug met and became friends with Tom & Ray Magliozzi brothers, who were doing a local call-in show. He produced a pilot for them, and that became the first episode of Car Talk.
In the late 90s after Car Talk proved there was an audience for such silliness on NPR, Doug was asked to create another show to pair with Car Talk and so Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! was born. These days he’s Wait Wait’s “Benevolent Overlord.”
Sean Milchan Channel Partner Program Executive at BlueCrest - he said that means he’s a salesman. He’s been many things through his life, a missionary, a carpet-store worker, and a mailing equipment salesman - that last one stuck. Sean went from almost being fired his first year, to being the number one salesman in the U.S. within 4 years with no college degree.
Mike Patella is the business director for Eagle Media on FGCU's campus, where one of his main jobs is creating the Eagle Radio Music Festival every year, an event that brings live local music to FGCU’s campus. He’s also a multi-instrumentalist who plays drums, guitar, bass, ukulele, and vocals.
Christin Collins is a former healthcare executive who thought that she was doing everything she could to live a vibrant and healthy life, but her health still struggled. She’s the author of Her Phoenix Rising: A Journey to Health & Healing, which explores her journey to uncover the root cause of her ailments.
Stacey Chen Cannington and her family moved to Kissimmee, Florida in 1971 - right before Disney World opened - and were the first (and at the time) only Chinese family in Kissimmee. She attended FSU and eventually went into broadcasting like her famous aunt, Connie Chung.
She’s been doing sales for more than 20 years - for WINK-TV, Gulfshore Life, California Closets, Simon Property Group and now Carter Pritchett Advertising.
Mike Cannington is a native Floridian who grew up in Tampa and graduated from USF with a degree in mass communication. He spent 14 years as a TV broadcaster, then he spent 14 years as the marketing director for a little chicken wing joint known as HOOTERS, a couple of years with the local Harley-Davidson dealership group, before joining Bowling Management Associates which owns HeadPinz, Bowland Centers and FastTrax here in Southwest Florida in 2009, where he’s been ever since.
Cesar Aguilera is the co-founder of Artsemble Underground, and Artsemble Underground Gallery, and the art curator of the Sidney and Berne Davis Art Center, known for his mixed media paintings, drawing, oil painting, sculpture, film, special effects, make-up, costume design, acting and performance art.
Bryn Goldsmith is a recent graduate of FGCU’s School of resort and hospitality management, as well as president of FOUR student organizations. She also created a survey to identify fellow students who found themselves struggling with food security during the pandemic, and partnered with faculty on getting food to them. She also makes and sells jam online, sending the proceeds to various social justice organizations.
Melinda Isley operates MCreativePR. Melinda’s work on behalf of the Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall, American Cancer Society, Bennett’s Fresh Roast, and Community Cooperative has been recognized with local and state awards. Her industry scope of work and experience ranges from nonprofits, healthcare, construction, finance, insurance, law, restaurants, automotive and real estate to performing arts, sports and government bodies.
Keyshawn Frazier is the current Eagle Radio Station manager and author of the short story “Carlton”. He’s also working on creating content that can also be heard, and watched.
Katie O’Connor is a Professor of Communication Studies at Florida SouthWestern State College, and a Ph.D. Candidate at Antioch University where she is earning her Doctorate in Leadership and Change. She was recently awarded “Teacher of the Year” through the Florida Communication Association.
Cath Branwood is a painter, digital and visual artist, photographer and spoken word poet. Her solo art exhibit titled “The Me You Them Exhibit” is on display through July 29th at the Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center in downtown Fort Myers.
Justin Paprocki is the student media adviser for Eagle Media and an adjunct instructor at FGCU. He's been in the news business since 1997, previously serving as an editor at Gulfshore Life and Gulfshore Business magazines.
Armando Llechu is Chief Officer of Hospital Operations and Women and Children’s Services at Lee Health in Fort Myers and he previously served as Chief Administrative Officer for Golisano Children’s Hospital of Southwest Florida.
He also led a team in collaboration with Lee Physicians Group in the development of a comprehensive pediatric mental and behavioral health program, including the addition of 12 mental health providers, resulting in a 1000% increase in available patient appointments.
Michael Von Cannon is co-creator and producer of the Ernest Hemingway-related show One True Podcast. He's also a teacher, writer, podcaster, and Instructor in the Department of Language and Literature at FGCU. Dr. Jordan Von Cannon is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Language and Literature at FGCU and is currently completing a manuscript called Idle Women which considers female resistance to U.S. industriousness in 19th-century narratives.
Jared Gonzalez is our show intern, and a Journalism major starting his senior year at FGCU. He’s a part of Eagle Radio and has his own podcast on it called Razzle Dazzle.
Dongjing Kang is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication and Philosophy at FGCU. Born and raised in Sichuan, China Dongjing grew up under the strictures of the Communist party at the time. Her current work focuses on language revitalization and cultural preservation in Tibet. She is also writing a book on U.S. and Chinese media representation of Tibet.
Join Mike, Tara, Declan, Guin, and Jared as they fight their way through Dungeon Master Richard's one-shot encounter: The Dragon Key
Declan Ireland is a 16 years old sophomore theatre major at Cypress Lake High’s Center for the Arts. He sprung immediately to mind as a possible test subject for our teen pilot episode.
Jim “Boots” Demarest is a distinguished graduate of the Air Force Fighter Weapons School (the USAF version of “Top Gun”) program and served in Desert Storm as an F-15 fighter pilot. He’s currently a Brigadier General in the Florida Air National Guard.
Dr. Brandon Jett is an award-winning scholar, writer, and teacher of American history and crime, violence, and criminal justice in the United States, He is the author of “Race, Crime, and Policing in the Jim Crow South” which comes out next month. Brandon is also a professor at Florida Southwestern State College.
Jade Dellinger is co-author of the book Are We Not Men? We are DEVO! and has organized major solo and two-person museum shows for artists including Yoko Ono, Ann Hamilton, James Franco, Robert Rauschenberg, Keith Haring, and Jack Kerouac. He is best known locally for his exhibition program Bob Rauschenberg Gallery.
Mary Walch is an Assistant professor in the Department of Communication and Philosophy at FGCU. Originally from the anthracite coal region in Eastern Pennsylvania, Mary has worked in public relations in New York, and met her husband (Episode 81 guest) Sam while working on her doctorate. She also taught us a Russian drinking song!
Ami is the Chief Financial Officer for the School District of Lee county FL, and has worked for the school district for the last 16 years. We talked about how history and music collide, what it feels like to not understand your kids' music, and how Hip Hop entered the mainstream.
Annabelle Tometich is a journalist and food writer for The News-Press, Naples Daily News and USA TODAY Network. For the last 15 years she hid behind the “Jean Le Boeuf” restaurant critic pseudonym.
Gwynetta S. Gittens was the first Black person, man or woman, ever to be elected to the school board in Lee County, in 2018 - a position she still holds today. She received her bachelors and masters degrees in psychology from University of Maryland and University of Indiana while living in Puerto Rico, and has a masters of education from Nova Southeastern University.
Molly Deckart has worked in the nonprofit arts world for the past 15 years, most recently as the new Executive Director at the Alliance for the Arts in Fort Myers. She also founded the Idaho Horror Film Festival.
Hugh Starnes is a retired Judge who stepped down last year, in order to speak out about what he sees as, “deep, serious flaws in our society” including systemic racism.
In his resignation letter to Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice, Charles Canady, Starnes wrote, “My value system will not allow me to sit silently by while our society struggles to deal with these flaws that tear at the very fabric of our society and democracy, and worse, while the upper echelon of our federal government appears to be aggravating these flaws rather than attempting to solve them. This presents an irreconcilable conflict with my position as a judge, bound by judicial ethics that require me to say nothing.”
Musical Artists in this episode: Sam Cooke Pink Martini Garth Brooks
Rose Eady Govan is currently Music Director at Friendship Baptist Church in Fort Myers, and had a 35-year career as a public school music teacher. She came up in episode 151 with Jarrett Eady.
Mike Kennedy is an instructor Florida Gulf Coast University and he plays bass, guitar, and sings with The Immokalee Road Band in Naples.
Ehren Gerhard is Gallery Director at the Alliance for the Arts and an Adjunct Professor of Art at FGCU, and has exhibited his work nationally and internationally.
Adam Molloy is the Coordinator for Community Engagement for the School District of Lee County. He's taught high school US History, is involved in development of a new student assignment plan, and researches demographic trends in post-unitary districts, and the history of desegregation in Lee County.
It's the show's anniversary again, and Mike, Richard, and Tara sit down in the studio to talk about how the year went, what we learned, and which songs from our guests are now part of our own musical histories.
Roger Stolle owns Cat Head Delta Blues & Folk Art store in Clarksdale, Mississippi. Roger has co-founded multiple festivals including the Juke Joint Festival, the Clarksdale Film & Music Festival, and the Clarksdale Caravan Music Fest. He writes for Twoj Blues in Poland and Blues Music Magazine here in the U.S., and he’s author of the books Hidden History of Mississippi Blues, and Mississippi Juke Joint Confidential. He’s also produced albums by Big George Brock, and co-produced several film projects like M for Mississippi, We Juke Up in Here, and Moonshine & Mojo Hands. He also president of the Visit Clarksdale Tourism Commission and occasionally tours Mississippi bluesmen overseas.
Dr. Clay Motley studies the culture of the American South, particularly its music, literature, and religion. Clay is Dean of the Honors College at FGCU, and he’s currently writing a book on the music history of Clarksdale, Mississippi.
Maria Collier is a Colombian-born abstract artist who has lived in SW Florida for more than 40 years. She uses music and dance as a guide in choosing her vibrant and lively color palette and says she often names her work after the songs or albums that inspire it because music is such an integral part of her process.
Her work has been placed in both public and private collections across the United States. She is currently showing her work in a year long exhibition in the Southwest Florida International Airport and in several galleries in Florida, including being represented by Sheldon Fine Art Gallery in Naples, Florida.
Michael Pinckney is a multimedia artist who was born in Brooklyn, New York during a pivotal era for the culture of the area. Michael relocated to Chicago in the late 80s, participating in the city's independent music scene, performing with musical outfits, such as Gypsi's Ritual and Anatomic.
He is the creator of PLEXIMEDIA, through which he works in several mediums including but not limited to; music, fashion, visual art, film and installation. His current musical venture is Singular Fashion, which recently released its Second Full length album called Vagabond Blasphemy.
Jarrett Eady Jarrett is a 4th generation native of Fort Myers and an alumni of FSU where he majored in Political Science with minors in History, Urban and Regional Planning, and Black Studies. He also served as Student Body President, was a member of the Florida State University Board of Trustees, and a member of the Florida Board of Governors.
Jarrett serves as Chairman of the City of Fort Myers Community Redevelopment Agency Advisory Board, he’s on the Alliance for the Arts Board of Directors, WGCU’s Content Committee, the Omicron Xi Lambda Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha, immediate past Chair of the Lee County Black History Society Board of Directors, and immediate Past President of the National PanHellenic Council of SW Florida.
Torrie Heathcoat (AKA Way too Tall Torrie) is a professional Stiltwalker and Balloon Artist. She's a graduate of the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in NYC and has been involved in the entertainment industry for over 25 years.
Her past work includes: Disney World, Universal Studios, the Boston Red Sox, Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville, the Fort Myers Miracle, Major League Baseball and NHL All-Star Games, and NCAA Final Four Hoop City.
Jon is an Emmy Award-winning singer/songwriter whose long career has included three albums, and many writing credits including for artists including Clint Black, Ray Herndon, Keith Urban, Tracy Lawrence, Ty Herndon and many more. He has performed with or opened for Michael McDonald, Paul Williams, B.J. Thomas, The Kingston Trio, John Sebastian, Bertie Higgins and Ronnie Cox.
He’s co-produced PBS shows and documentaries including Born To Explore with WGBH in Boston, Fathers In America with SCETV in South Carolina, Endless Feast with KCET in Los Angeles, Christina Cooks with WHYY in Philadelphia when he performed an original song for each episode plus the theme song, and Cyberwork and the American Dream with KCAL in Los Angeles for which he recently an Emmy Award.
Mark Massaro is a short story writer, a reader, book collector, and a concert addict. He's also is a Professor of English, teaching Composition, Literature, and Creative Writing. He was born and raised in Danvers, Massachusetts, a small, portside town just north of Boston, and he moved to Fort Myers in 2003, experiencing extreme culture shock. After working many retail and server jobs throughout his wayward twenties, he went back to school, enrolling in FGCU’s English program, eventually receiving his master’s degree.
Follow his literary journey on Instagram at @bostonmahk4
Captain Rob Modys is a US Coast Guard vet, former sound equipment salesman, former fishing guide and teacher, former host of Reel Talk Radio, and author. After retiring from guiding in 2015, he continued on the radio and teaching classes, and began working on 3 books, the first of which, called “What I Know about Fishing Southwest Florida” came out in November.
Danny Black, (AKA guitarist and songwriter Daniel Schwartz) is a member of the Philly-based indie folk trio Good Old War. He’s released two solo albums that were entirely instrumental, “Adventure Soundtrack” and “Themes” and his recently-released 3rd album, “Black Ryno,” is a shift in musical style because there are no instrumental pieces and he’s the lead singer.
Danny has toured extensively with Good Old War and as a solo artist, as well as Joshua Radin’s lead guitarist earlier this year on a tour that took them around Europe. He’s shared the stage with Alison Krauss & Union Station, Counting Crows, Josh Ritter, Guster, Gregory Alan Isakov and many more.
Shavon Chester is a native Floridian born and raised in Fort Myers and raised in the Dunbar community. She was named as one of Gulfshore Business’s “40 under 40” for her outstanding service to the SWFL community. Shavon says in her spare time she enjoys listening to Three Song Stories (she's our first Superfan!!), This American Life, Up First, and Here & Now.
Kinfay Moroti is an award-winning documentary visual journalist and creator of Hopeful Images — an initiative that helps nonprofit and community organizations tell their stories through compelling visuals and campaigns. Kinfay captured moments for The News-Press/USA Today Network from 2004-19 and during the Iraq War for The St. Petersburg Times — now Tampa Bay Times. His award-winning moments from the war, impoverished communities, mass shootings, and on social topics speak to life's beautiful struggles.
Dr. Jim Llorens is interim Provost and VP for Academic Affairs at FGCU. His academic positions over the years at Southern University and A&M College in Baton Rouge, Louisiana include Chancellor, Dean of Graduate Studies, and Chair in the Department of Political Science. He's also served as Assistant Chief Administrative Officer to the Mayor-President for the City of Baton Rouge and Parish of East Baton Rouge.
Dr. Llorens holds a B.A. in Psychology from Loyola University in New Orleans; an M.S. in Urban Affairs from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; and a Ph.D. in Political Science from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. And he served in the United States Army in various leadership positions at platoon, company and battalion levels.
Desiree DeMolina is an arts marketer and Communications Manager at the Alliance for the Arts in Fort Myers where she passionately works to connect people to each other and the arts not only as an economic driver but also a source of reform, healing, connection, and reflection.
Dillon Dailidonis is a music industry professional and boating & water sports enthusiast. He’s worked both in the music, tv, and film industries for multiple companies. He attended University of Central Florida where he studied Entertainment Management. He then moved to Nashville for about 2 years to work in the music industry, but right now is living here in Florida because of COVID-19. His most recent job, which he is currently furloughed from, was working for Creative Artists Agency where he assisted in the tour & festival booking process.
Deciymber Jade is founder of Set Life Pro, a multimedia platform that showcases the SWFL music and arts scene in ways that aim to help build an inclusive community to celebrate all things creative. Prior to her involvement with the music community, Deciymber had her hands in the local independent filmmakers community; from prop design and fx makeup to winning Best Actress at the 2019 Bonita Springs Film Festival for her first lead role in a short film, "A Related Matter.”
Andy Johnson lived on and ran a survey business from Sanibel Island from 2005 until 2017, when he sold it and now he works in Ft. Myers. He is also a djembe player, and contributed to the Gulf Coast Life theme song.
Les Stroud is a Canadian survival expert, filmmaker and musician. He’s best known as the one-man-band creator of the TV series Survivorman. He has also worked as a full-time wilderness guide, survival instructor, and he’s a musician.
As a musician Stroud has shared the stage with many names and bands at the top in the business. He has written all the theme songs for his TV shows and scored several independent films. Les has recorded six albums, including Bittern Lake in 2018, and most recently Mother Earth in 2019.
He’s also working on a new show for public television called Surviving Disasters with us here at WGCU.
Dan Philgreen has done film production in 34 countries, and spent 6 years as a college professor teaching video production before coming to Fort Myers to work at Shell Point Retirement Community to work on their daily, half-hour, in-house TV show, Shell Point Today, as a producer, writer, cameraman, editor, and on-camera host.
He's also a charter member of the Americana Community Music Association in Fort Myers. Dan is a singer-songwriter and has recorded dozens of original songs. He has gigged around Fort Myers sporadically over the last 10 years including a couple of seasons as half of the 70s duo, Windhorse.
Dustin Hapli is a former engineer, producer, and host for WGCU Public Media where we make this show. He co-created Gulf Coast Live with me and Ryan Warner (Ep. 116) in 2004. He's worked for WUSF, WMNF, iHeartMedia, and now serves as Director of Technical Operations for Entercom.
You can see a video of Dave Dave Dave (Cowan) performing this week's parting tune, as well as an extended shot of a cat, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_xuDTabOIk
Katie is a singer-songwriter from Southwest Florida who has spent time busking on the beaches, playing dive bars, and breweries. She says there’s really no one place that holds her, but Chattanooga currently does have a pretty tight grip. She’s been influenced by the sounds of Brandi Carlile, Miranda Lambert, and Kacey Musgraves, as well as George Strait, Chris Stapleton, & Jason Isbell.
Robert Bidney is a singer/songwriter, advertising professional, husband and father of two sons. He’s written songs that have been covered by recording artists around the world, and has songs under contract with publishers in Nashville, and he’s recorded two albums.
His work has been used in national radio and TV commercials for companies like The Sports Authority, Levitz Furniture, Michael's, PetSmart, and more. In the past he’s worked for Office Depot, Rexall Sundown, and large advertising agencies. He’s currently employed by Chico’s producing their print work.
Jesi Cason is a photographer who specializes in personal and commercial branding photography. Jesi has worked with several SWFL bands and musicians to create photos that help them connect with their fans. She is actively engaged in local and national politics, volunteering with nonprofits, and trying to help the world be less annoying.
Alexandra Figares is a recent journalism graduate from FGCU, and once interned for the WGCU radio newsroom. She was also editor-in-chief for the university newspaper Eagle News. Originally born in Arica, Chile, but grew up in Naples her entire life, she came to the U.S. when she was just one year old.
Ronin EarthClan is a hip hop musician and entertainer. He was born in Panama City, Panama, but raised in homestead, FL until about 2001 when he arrived in Fort Myers. You can find his music on most platforms, but you can find his most recent releases on Spotify
Chef Brooke Wagenheim is owner and operator of Chef Brooke's Natural Cafe, in Fort Myers. Born in Manhattan, Brooke has worked in the food industry since her teenage years, in kitchens from Minneapolis, Minnesota to Shibuya, Japan. She says she felt the significance of natural foods - and read and learned everything she could about organics, veganism, gluten free, macrobiotics, and alternative medicine - at a young age.
Spencer Elles is an artist, musician, and videographer who creates and performs Queer Rap under the pseudonym Duke Stamina. Under that name, he just got signed to Sweatband Records, and also recently became a twitch partner. He’s also getting ready to drop his debut album on September 6th. Spencer also runs a video production company called Dandy House, does digital illustration and design, and sells original fine art as a member of the DAAS CO-OP Art Gallery in Ft. Myers.
Originally from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Bruno Halpern graduated from FGCU last year with a degree in journalism and is starting a master's in Educational Leadership at FGCU this Fall. During his time at the university he worked as Opinion Editor and Entertainment Editor at the student-run paper Eagle News. He's also been a citizen-board member at The News-Press, a radio newsroom intern at WGCU, and an editor for ABC/NBC TV. Bruno also recently won the Florida Association of Broadcast Journalism Award for Best Sound.
Cody Smith is founder, composer, producer, and lead Cody of the band Cody & Co. - which is called Cody & Co. even when he appears solo. He’s a Fort Myers native who says he got started with music by throwing up at his first choir concert in kindergarten, which he thinks could be the highlight of his 18 years performing. Since forming Cody & Co. in 2019, he's released more than 6 EPs.
David Hintz is a Southwest Florida based singer/songwriter who has been actively writing and performing his own music and covers since high school. He’s a founding member of the Americana Community Music Association in Fort Myers, and has performed solo shows in Florida, up and down the East coast, and across the U.S. He describes his lyrics as being a reflection of real life experiences with everything from love won and lost, online dating, satire, religion, and politics. He says he loves to cover songs by his favorite writers and performers like Jerry Jeff Walker, John Prine, Randy Newman, Michael Nesmith, Steve Goodman, and Dolly Parton.
David has 3 CDs in print: 2013's Rode Hard and Put Away Wet, 2015's Out With A Bang, and Happy Today released in 2020.
C.J. McFarlane is the IT Administrator at Babcock Ranch Neighborhood School, the school in the first solar-powered town in America. C.J. designed and manages the technology systems used by the school, drawing on his education and 19-year employment at Florida Gulf Coast University where he also helped design and maintain many of the technology systems there.
C.J. McFarlane is the IT Administrator at Babcock Ranch Neighborhood School, the school in the first solar-powered town in America. C.J. designed and manages the technology systems used by the school, drawing on his education and 19-year employment at Florida Gulf Coast University where he also helped design and maintain many of the technology systems there.
Sara Comito is a poet, and author of the new poetry collection, "Bury Me in the Sky". She and her husband John work in the stone masonry company Elemental Stone and Waterworks, and run a small urban hobby farm raising bees, chickens, and hot peppers...and quite a bit other stuff. She is also a poetry editor for Bending Genres Journal, and her own writing has been published in many print and online magazines around the world.
Lindsey Granados is a criminal defense lawyer (who has also sat on the DA side of the court) in North Carolina, where Richard did this interview while he was on vacation, resulting in our first ever “on the road” 3 song stories. Lindsey Graduated magna cum laude from Oklahoma Baptist University, and got her Law degree from Stetson University before moving to North Carolina and beginning her practice.
John Davis is a host, reporter, and producer for WGCU - where we make this show. He is the local host for NPR’s Morning Edition and he’s a producer and host for WGCU’s radio talk program Gulf Coast Life.
Prior to joining WGCU, he reported at WDUQ-FM in Pittsburgh, PA. He studied journalism at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, before earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication from Florida Gulf Coast University.
Woody Hanson's family arrived in this part of Florida in 1866...that’s basically when Fort Myers came to be. His roots go back to Manuel A. Gonzalez - the first civilian resident here after the fort.
He owned and operated a real estate firm for 40 years before closing it a couple of years ago to move to Dublin, Ireland to get a PhD from Trinity College - which he’s still working toward.
He’s also maintained a close relationship with Florida’s Seminole and Miccosukee Indians - his family’s connection with the tribes dates back to his grandfather W. Stanley Hanson, who was known as “the White Medicine Man.”
Glenn Miller is a veteran journalist, President of the Southwest Florida Historical Society, a novelist, and he teaches News Literacy at FGCU.
Glenn has been in journalism in one way or another since 1972, and is also, "more than 70,000 words into his second novel", Grabmore, And More. It's a sequel to his first, Grabmore. He says they are "comic crime capers." You can read his blog at glennrmillerwrites.wordpress.com.
Doug Molloy is a criminal defense attorney in downtown Fort Myers, practicing in both the federal and state criminal justice systems. He was the Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney for Southwest Florida for 22 years, and has prosecuted or defended every kind of criminal case, from first degree murder, to Colombian drug lords, to mafia hit men, to public officials, etc. He’s continuing his work in the area of human trafficking, and has spoken on the topic in many cities in the U.S., as well as in places like Rio, Prague, Buenos Aires, and Moscow for the Department of Justice.
Andrea Perdomo is a reporter for WGCU (that's us!). She started her career in public radio as an intern for the Miami-based NPR station, WLRN. Andrea graduated from Florida International University, where she was a contributing writer for the student-run newspaper, The Panther Press, and was also a member of the university's Society of Professional Journalists chapter.
Chad Evers teaches Environmental Biology of SWFL Ecosystems at FGCU. He’s a member of the Sustainability and Resiliency Council where he works to reduce single use plastic on campus, as well as working to address the campuses’ glitter issues. And he works with the FGCU Campus Naturalists doing semesterly training and serving as a mentor.
He's also a pretty big comic book nerd - and cosplays as Batman each year at Tampa bay Comic con.
Ryan Warner is Senior Host of Colorado Matters, the flagship daily interview program on Colorado Public Radio. He’s also the founding host of our home station’s show Gulf Coast Life (then Gulf Coast Live). We finally get to interview him from the chair he sat in all those years ago.
This episode is supported in part by a City of Fort Myers Arts & Culture Grant.
Andrea Lynn is a journalist and a teacher. Andrea has seen journalism from many angles - these days she explores the fourth estate’s role in American society with her students at FGCU where she serves as an adjunct in the Department of Integrated Studies. She’s heading to The Arctic next year as a recipient of The Arctic Circle Expeditionary Residency.
Billy Kemp is a musician, songwriter, singer, composer and producer - best known for his guitar playing. He says his homemade songs and compositions are mostly roots music. Billy toured internationally with Tommy Overstreet, Terri Gibbs, and Bandana. He once performed on the Grand Ole Opry with Jeanne Pruett.
He’s in town to perform at the Americana Community Music Association in Fort Myers, so we’ve dragged him into the studio with his guitar, and here goes.
Max Hatt & Edda Glass are a musical duo who were awarded the Grand Prize at the International Mountain Stage / NewSong Competition. Their music is kinda hard to classify, but it’s kind of jazzy Bossa Nova folk that makes you stop and listen...or at least made me do so. Their first collaboration was a Bossa Nova party band, which took them everywhere from the Pacific Northwest to the Rocky Mountain states and as far south as Santa Fe, NM. They eventually wound up at the Lincoln Center in New York City in 2014.
Katy Weirich is a singer-songwriter, recording artist, and worship leader who lives in Estero, FL. She’s the owner of Melodic Expressions: The Professional Musician Collective, and Embella Brands Music Publishing. Katy is currently working with multi dove and grammy award winning producer Tedd T. on a debut EP, set to release later this year. She came across our radar on episode 89 as one of Barbara Fischer’s shout-outs, so here we are!
Here's a link to Katy's single, "Fear Not", free for download.
Christopher Phillips is the founder and executive director of Democracy Cafe, which he says is dedicated to making ours a more connected, understanding and participatory world in which one and all can be co-creators of a more liveable and loveable universe.
Christopher is author of works including the international bestsellers 'Socrates Cafe: A Fresh Taste of Philosophy,' 'Six Questions of Socrates: A Modern-Day Journey of Discovery through World Philosophy,' 'Constitution Cafe: Jefferson's Brew for a True Revolution,' and most recently, 'A Child at Heart: Unlocking Our Creativity, Curiosity and Reason at Every Age and Stage of Life.' He also wrote two children's books 'Day of Why,' and 'The Philosophers' Club.'
Elyse Maher is one the hosts of the super cleverly named podcast “Two Girls Scissoring,” where she and her best friend Amanda (who is a dog groomer) discuss the trials and tribulations of cutting hair. Elyse is a hair stylist, dog lover, trivia enthusiast. We met Elyse, and her dog Rue, at our post-Palace-podcast-recording trivia night when Lee Bretschneider was asking questions based on our podcast.
Larry Ford is a Grammy-winning gospel singer who’s found audiences all over the world because of his truly commanding voice. His bio says his facility with language has made it possible for him to carry his message in song to more than thirty countries in all. His passion for ministry abroad has led to his being described as “gospel music’s ambassador to the world.”
In 2003, he won a Grammy for Best Southern Gospel Recording. His arrival to the world stage was as a featured soloist on the Gaither Music Homecoming Series, which consistently ranks in the top of Billboard Magazine's music charts, and which we heard a song from in episode 75 with Seth Ford, Larry's son.
You may have also heard Larry sing the National Anthem for the Boston Red Sox or Tampa Bay Lightning.
Marty Bourgeois is a professor of psychology at FGCU, and owns a local record store called Beach Records. Besides FGCU he's taught and done research on social influence and group dynamics at FAU, the University of Rochester, and the University of Wyoming. He has two grown sons who are both musicians, and he lives and spends as much time as he can on Fort Myers Beach.
Ashleigh Droz is a formally trained and certified career counselor, coach, teacher, writer, and speaker, and she has her own private career coaching practice, Linnea Consulting.
She’s got a Master’s degree in Counseling & Guidance for Higher Education, and two Bachelor’s degrees in Psychology and Theatre Arts. At FGCU, she's the Internship Coordinator for the Department of Communication & Philosophy, Career Specialist for the PAGES Program, and as an adjunct instructor.
Sergio Munoz is an Emmy and Murrow award-winning videographer. He’s shot news, ads, live events, television, sports, and film, and has worked production for PBS, Dunkin Donuts, Publix, Wells Fargo, Fox Sports, Fox News, MTV, the Boston Red Sox, etc. etc. etc. He's also an accomplished drummer, guitarist, and vocalist - and while performing in local band Cadence Wednesday, he opened for national groups like Shinedown.
Chris Duffus is our executive producer, an experienced financial technology entrepreneur, and currently founder and CEO of Fonbnk, Inc. an emerging mobile technology company addressing financial inequity across the developing world by enabling anyone with a prepaid mobile phone to have a bank account.
Chris's first entrepreneurial venture was the Scholar's Club, an academic not-for-profit focused on developing a peer culture of accomplishment and academic excellence among disadvantaged and underserved students. It has become one of Southwest Florida's premier academic organizations having served nearly 100,000 students.
This episode is supported in part by a City of Fort Myers Arts & Culture Grant.
It's the show's anniversary again, and Mike, Richard, and Tara sit down in the studio to talk about how the year went, what we learned, and which songs from our guests are now part of our own musical histories.
Barbara German is the real name of WXNX's afternoon DJ, Sadie. She’s a music lover/nerd (she got a record player for her First Communion) and she wanted to be in the media. She’s been in radio professionally since 2002 and she also promotes animal fostering through "Sadie's Puppies" on 93X.
Ned and Ethan DuRant are a father and son duo that makes up the local band Dizygote. They play “heavy music, weaving elements of folklore, storytelling and observations of our world with pounding drums and heavy guitar riffs.”
Ned, the father of the duo, is originally from the Carolinas but now teaches high school and lives in Cape Coral. He's is a lifelong musician, and was once a member of Chatham County Line.
Ethan, 15, has been drumming since he could walk. He also has a sensory processing disorder, meaning he can’t stand loud noises, especially if they’re sudden, but uniquely, he loved the drums and could never stopped playing.
Nancy Stetson is an award-winning arts & entertainment writer and critic. She was a regular writer for the Chicago Tribune, where her beat included music, theater, books and pop culture. Here in Southwest Florida she’s been a Florida Weekly staff member since its inception, covering and reviewing the arts. And she was the first person who wrote a story about our podcast - in Florida Weekly.
David Mayfield is the front man of The David Mayfield Parade. He's played in Cadillac Sky, and alongside The Avett Brothers and Mumford and Sons. David grew up playing bass and touring in a bus with his family’s bluegrass band. He started collecting national awards while still a teen for his dexterity on guitar and mandolin. He has also appeared on “The Late Show with David Letterman.”
His fourth album Boy Howdy! is just out.
Jessi Lachut is a Fort Myers native who has been involved in the local DIY punk/activist scene since the 90s. She has put out zines, started a Women's health collective and was involved in feeding the homeless with the Fort Myers chapter of Food Not Bombs.
Joe Lachut is a Western New York native that moved to Naples in the early 90s, and then up to Fort Myers in 2001. He's been in a number of local bands including, Merkit, Panzram, Evil Existence, Jiyuna & currently plays in Plural Being. Recently Joe made the leap, quit his day job, and along with Jessi opened Graveyard Shift Screen Printing, he says to combine his love for the art form with the ethics he learned from his involvement with Do-It-Yourself culture.
Luc Flannery is the TV traffic coordinator at KPBS in San Diego, but his twitter bio is a better read on him: "Luc Flannery, NPR, PBS, BBQ, BJJ" Luc has done radio, television, live music, kitchen prep, mead and sake brewing, martial arts, competitive bbq, and vegan ice cream making at a shop he ran with Mike Cosden - out guest from Ep. 78. Luc’s one of those people that fills the spare time he has with whatever he’s passionate or curious about, and then dedicates himself to those things.
Alissa Roca is an opera singer who says she enjoys performing in a variety of styles ranging from Baroque to Contemporary and everything in between. She has worked as a soloist with a variety of symphonies, and has produced and performed numerous solo recitals.
She’s also known for her work in contemporary music, and frequently works with composers including Joseph Thalken, Dan Welcher, Jesper Koch, Michael Daugherty, and primarily with composer Jason Mulligan. She premiered his first vocal work in 2012 and the two have continued to collaborate on countless projects including a premiere as a part of the New American Voices series. She has premiered over sixteen pieces including a full length concert drama and set of songs of her own texts.
Lee Bretschneider is creator, producer, and co-host of the Know Nonsense Trivia Podcast. Lee is also a native son of Southwest Florida, where he spent much of his formative years attending local music shows, reading comic books, playing video games, and making funny videos with his friends. He briefly served as an adjunct professor of comics and animation at FSU, and today, Lee works as a multimedia artist under the moniker Breshnyda while moonlighting as a trivia quizmaster.
Rich Orloff is a playwright living in New York City. Rich’s full-length plays have had over 300 productions, and his short works have had over 1800 productions on six of the seven continents and a staged reading in Antarctica!
Before becoming a playwright, Rich wrote for newspapers, magazines, radio, TV, industrial films and educational videos. While in Kosovo in 2000, Rich wrote the children’s play Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Fight Tuberculosis for Doctors of the World.
Kat Epple is an Emmy Award-winning composer and musician who has released 36 albums, and has composed music for film and television including for National Geographic, PBS Nova, Carl Sagan, CNN, History Channel, MTV, NASA, and Apple Computers.
Kat has performed at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The United Nations, Guggenheim Museums, and in concerts all around the world. With her 1980s San Francisco-based Electronic Space Music duo, “Emerald Web”, she was a pioneer in Electronic Music, New Age Music, healing music, and music technology in general. For twenty years, her friend and legendary visual artist, Robert Rauschenberg, commissioned her to perform at his art openings.
She performs and records with Anthropology Band, the Heavy Metal band, Devin Townsend Project, and Sonic Combine.
Brandon Robertson’s an EMMY nominated Music Director, a notable Bassist who can be seen playing in downtown Fort Myers as part of the Dan Miller/Lew Del Gatto Quartet at the Barrel Room, and the Instructor of Jazz Studies & Director of the FGCU Basketball Band. He's also got a Master of Music in Jazz Performance from FSU.
He recently released his first album "Bass’d on A True Story" through Canadian label Slammin Media/Believe Distributions. It reached #16 on the iTunes Top 200 Jazz Releases.
This episode is supported in part by a City of Fort Myers Arts & Culture Grant.
Maestro Raffaele Ponti is Music Director of the Punta Gorda Symphony, and the Paducah Symphony Orchestra. His main goals are to raise the artistic level of the orchestras; achieve passionate and inspired performances; enrich lives through great orchestral experiences; and make the orchestra important and relevant to the community.
Maestro Ponti has worked with world class artists from all over the world. His reviews have dubbed him a “rising star”, “charismatic”, “electrifying”, and “empowering.” He was recently named a “Leader of Distinction” by the Florida Weekly.
This episode is supported in part by a City of Fort Myers Arts & Culture Grant.
Skyler Joseph Denison is a chef, drummer, and native to Southwest Florida. He grew up working in bars and restaurants and played music around the area and state for what he says “seemed like forever” in local bands like Crimson Fetch which was renamed to Drawing Maps.
When he’s not wrapped around the finger of his 5-year-old daughter, Locklyn Aver, you can find Skyler serving up some of the best veggies, fried chicken, and tacos in the area.
Our guest today is Mayor of my hometown, the City of Fort Myers, Randall or just “Randy” Henderson, Jr. Randy’s been mayor for about a decade -- he’s now in his third term. Mayor Randy is an active community volunteer, including currently being on the boards of Keiser University, the Edison Pageant of Lights, and The Salvation Army. He’s past president of the Greater Fort Myers Chamber of Commerce and Fort Myers Kiwanis Club. He was president of the Florida League of Mayors in 2015 and 2016.
We got Mayor Henderson on the agenda after episode 2 guest, Lydia Black, texted me a while back saying “Mayor Henderson wants to do Three Song Stories! Just confirmed him!” - thanks Lydia!
Barbara Fischer is a Southwest Florida harpist who has never known a home without a harp. Barbara’s had the opportunity to play under renowned composer, conductor, and clinician Dr. David R. Holsinger. She says she frequently adds musical ambiance to events like weddings, dinners, and church services. But she says her main love is arranging music for the harp: especially gospel and pop, which she shares on her youtube channel.
She says she loves the feeling of playing what she calls “unharpistic” pieces on an electric harp, and hopes to bring the harp off of the pedestal and into the real world. Barbara was awarded best musical performance in Ghostbird Theatre Company’s 2017 24-Hour Festival...and she participated in their 2019 festival alongside a chicken. Seriously.
This episode is supported in part by a City of Fort Myers Arts & Culture Grant.
Patton Dodd works for the H. E. Butt Foundation in San Antonio, Texas, where he's creating an initiative that tells multi-media stories about local inequity to try to change the narrative about why so much poverty exists and persists in San Antonio.
His writing on religion and American culture has been featured in the Post, the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Newsweek, TheAtlantic.com, CNN.com, and Christianity Today.
Patton holds a doctorate in religion and literature from Boston University, and he is the author of “The Prayer Wheel: A Daily Guide to Renewing Your Faith with a Rediscovered Spiritual Practice,” “The Tebow Mystique: The Faith and Fans of Football’s Most Polarizing Player,” and “My Faith So Far: A Story of Conversion and Confusion.”
This episode is supported in part by a City of Fort Myers Arts & Culture Grant.
Tim McBride is a former marijuana smuggler/pot hauler who had a hand in bringing millions of pounds of pot into the country via Everglades City from the late '70s until the late '80s.
His book “Saltwater Cowboy: The Rise and Fall of a Marijuana Empire”, which was published in 2015, details how he wound up smuggling weed in the Everglades, after leaving Wisconsin in 1979 to do some work as a crab fisherman.
He and his crew were middlemen between a Colombian marijuana cartel and their distributors in Miami. His team included fishermen, drivers, stock houses, and security - his book says seemingly all of Chokoloskee Island was in on the operation back then. Tons upon tons of marijuana would pass through his hands during that time...until he was busted in 1989, and spent four years in prison.
Put simply, Bob Hilliard is a local living legend. From the time at the end of World War II when he was instrumental in saving the lives of thousands of liberated Jews, to his years in theater, radio and television in New York City, to his decades in public service in Washington where he played a role in the foundation of public broadcasting, to his decades in academia as a college dean and professor. Bob has always stood up for those who need someone to stand up for them, and bravely spoken truth to power in a way we could all learn a lesson from. Needless to say, we are way more than honored to have him in the Three Song Stories chair, and hope you are as inspired by him and his stories as we are.
Shannon Arnold is Artistic Director of the Fort Myers Symphonic Mastersingers. She is also the music director at Good Shepherd United Methodist Church in North Fort Myers.
Prior to moving to Florida, Shannon received her Masters degree in Choral Conducting at Temple University with Paul Rardin, Mitos Andaya Hart, and Rollo Dilworth. She got her Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education from Penn State University where she studied piano with Dr. Steven H. Smith and conducting with Dr. Christopher Kiver.
This episode is supported in part by a City of Fort Myers Arts & Culture Grant.
Andy and his wife Alainna run HOWL Gallery/Tattoo, and Andy co-founded the Fort Myers Art Walk and founded the Fort Myers Music Walk events.
Andy published a yearly coffee table art book series entitled The Devils Reign, co-curated by Peter H. Gilmore and featuring world renowned tattoo artists, painters and illustrators.
This year, Andy started an original heavy metal band, their debut performance will happen this Winter at HOWL Gallery.
This episode is supported in part by a City of Fort Myers Arts & Culture Grant.
Fabiana Solano is a photographer for FGCU, Residential Conduct Committee Chair for FGCU Housing, and FGCU Office of Student Involvement Marketing Assistant. She's also an immigrant from Venezuela and current student at FGCU working on her master's degree. Oh, and she's got her own cardboard cutout in the University Welcome Center. She says she’s passionate about sustainability, and that her ultimate goal would be to work for an organization with an environmental mission in mind.
Kym Hudson is a Library Associate in Telephone Reference at the Lee County Library System. (If you have ever called the library, you've probably spoken with her). Telephone Reference is considered the central reference point for all Lee County libraries.
She is a multi-generational Cape Coral native and a second-generation adoptee with roots running all the way back to when Chiquita Boulevard was known as Molter Grade.
Sam Walch is Director of Florida Gulf Coast University’s Cannabis Career Initiative...yeah, we’ve got one of those here. Sam also teaches classes on comedy, cannabis, drug policy, and the Apocalypse.
A Ft. Myers native who grew up the road in Sarasota, Sam is married to fellow FGCU professor, Dr. Mary Walch, who still demands that he call her doctor. They have two wonderful children, Sam who is 17, and Anna who’s 14.
Lisa Sbuttoni is President and CEO of the Downtown Fort Myers River District Alliance, and is responsible for Fort Myers's Art Walk and Music Walk as well as a variety of other holiday events, like the New Years Eve Countdown, Freedom Fest and Downtown’s St. Patty’s Day Celebration.
Dick Spottswood has hosted The Dick Spottswood Show on WAMU-FM in Washington DC since 1967. He was a founder of Bluegrass Unlimited magazine a year before. We took the show on the road for his episode - driving down to Naples to the house his family has owned for decades. We sat down with him in his living room where he records his show.
Mike Cosden is the Executive Vice President at the Edison and Ford Winter Estates in Fort Myers, and has played with bands like the Anchorite Four, Table 9, Let's Go Exploring, Radar Mile, and currently he’s singing and playing guitar in Exploding Pages. Mike has worked tirelessly to record and preserve local history, and he also once ran a super awesome vegan ice cream shop and live music venue in Fort Myers called Cool Hand Luc’s.
This episode is supported in part by a City of Fort Myers Arts & Culture Grant.
Jessica Wisdom is Director of Development & Marketing, Alliance for the Arts. She’s passionate about connecting people to the causes they care about, and so was drawn to the world of fundraising and development. Jessica got a degree in Political Science at UCF and set out into the world to make a difference. She worked in political fundraising for years, including raising large sums of money for President Barrack Obama's 2008 and 2012 campaigns.
Dr. Peter Ndiang'ui was born and raised in a village called Mathakwaini in Central Kenya. For the first eight years of his life Kenya was under colonial rule, and during that time the local people, including his parents, were fighting for their freedom. He says his family was very poor, but there was so much love and laughter in the house, the word poor was unheard of.
He is President of the African Network of Southwest Florida, and a member of the Lee County Equity and Diversity Advisory Committee. He is also chair of the new Fort Myers Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Committee.
Seth Ford he comes from a long line of Florida Fords, going back seven generations in the state. His family has roots in Fort Myers dating back to the early 1910s. For the past 3 and a half years he’s worked for a company called True Tours, giving guided historical tours through downtown...that’s where I generally see Seth, and sometimes we give each other a nod as I drive past. He, his wife Jennifer, and their Daughter Amelia make up a band called The Shytunas that can be seen playing the streets of Fort Myers, and at other events like the Florida Folk festival.
This episode is supported in part by a City of Fort Myers Arts & Culture Grant.
Grant Maloy Smith is a Nashville Singer/Songwriter who blends country, bluegrass, folk, and pop music. He’s performed at Carnegie Hall, The Bitter End, The Clive Davis Theatre @ The Grammy Museum, The Troubadour, The National Sylvan Theatre, and The Bluebird Cafe in Nashville. He has appeared on Song of the Mountains, the official television show of the state of Virginia, as well as on Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour. The National Veterans Foundation recently selected his song "Man Of Steel" as their official theme song.
Neil Volz has done everything from janitor to Chief of Staff for a Member of Congress, to Church outreach, to truck driving. He’s the President of the Board of Directors for Be the Light, an anti-human trafficking organization, and he was part of the spearhead on the amendment to restore Felon Voting rights in Florida, which passed earlier this year.
If you’ve ever been to FGCU, Mr. Robert William Green, Jr. is the Campus Greeter who’s usually in the information booth who enthusiastically greets everyone who enters campus...and I do mean everyone. And if you ever stop to get a parking permit or directions, he is sure to tell you that you are his friend.
Mr. Green graduated from Green Oaks High School in Shreveport, Louisiana with a full football scholarship to Morris Brown College in Atlanta. He transferred and received a Bachelor’s degree in Religious Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a Master’s degree in Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary, in Pasadena. He came to Florida in 2003, and taught 7th grade World Geography at Bonita Springs Middle School before coming to Florida Gulf Coast University in 2005 as Parking Services Representative, and then Welcome Center Representative in 2011.
Claire Liparulo is a Southwest Florida-based singer, songwriter, guitarist and violinist - She’s the frontwoman for the band The Freecoasters, whose sound infuses American southern soul with reggae and rock rhythms. In her solo performances, she blends of a touch of their unique mix of Southern Soul and Reggae with her roots in acoustic Americana. She’s performed at Carnegie Hall, Supernova International Ska Festival, and has shared a stage with The Aggrolites, The Slackers, The Toasters, Eastern Standard Time, and will be touring Florida with Ska greats Mephiskapheles this summer.
The Freecoasters just wrapped up their 4th tour, and are about to release their second album, called A Different Kind of Heat, which was produced by Jesse Wagner of The Aggrolites, mixed and mastered by Roger Rivas, also of The Aggrolites, and recorded by Caleb Neff at Juniper Recording in Cape Coral.
This episode is supported in part by a City of Fort Myers Arts & Culture Grant.
Bob Goodwin grew up in Fort Myers, and lives in New York City. We grew up playing junior golf together, and being generally mild mannered hooligans in the 80s. And he’s lived an interesting life that’s included stints in the military, and in government (including time spent at the Pentagon and in the White House) and in the corporate world, as well as the nonprofit and non-governmental organization worlds, he’s literally worked all around the world. He’s recently started his own company that’s focusing on the problem of ocean plastics, from how to stem the tide of adding more, to what to do with what we can remove.
Rachel Iacovone is a reporter and the Morning Edition Host at Nashville Public Radio. She started off her career as an intern at WGCU and worked her way up to being the All Things Considered host.
Rachel got started in journalism as a food writer, is a rare born-and-raised Southwest Floridian, originally from Naples, and one of the first graduates of the journalism program at Florida Gulf Coast University.
Doug MacGregor's a cartoonist of more than 40 years. He got his professional start drawing editorial cartoons for the Norwich Bulletin in eastern Connecticut in 1980. He drew cartoons for the News Press in Fort Myers from 1988 to 2011. He’s also a graphic designer, a visual artist, and children’s book author and illustrator, and teaches cartooning. On top of all that, Doug's in a seven-piece band that plays mostly 60s and 70s tunes.
This episode is supported in part by a City of Fort Myers Arts & Culture Grant.
Tessa LeSage is the Director of Social Innovation and Sustainability at the Southwest Florida Community Foundation for the past five years or so - she works to establish partnerships with government and businesses to encourage collaboration, innovation, and measurable impact around this region’s most pressing issues.She also assisted with amendments to the Lee County Comprehensive Plan, earned several grants, and led the county’s effort to create a community-wide sustainability assessment, and a nationally recognized comprehensive and measurable sustainability plan.
David Newland is a writer, musician, speaker, and adventurer who these days lives in Cobourg, Ontario. He spends his summers travelling with Adventure Canada as a Zodiac driver, and crisscrosses Canada as a performer and speaker throughout the year. In 2015, he was named a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, a distinction that reflects a lifelong engagement with landscape and story. His musical presentation, Northbound: The Northwest Passage in Story and Song has been selling out venues across Canada throughout since 2016. His newest album Northbound, which based on his Arctic adventures, just came out.
This episode is supported in part by a City of Fort Myers Arts & Culture Grant.
Kyle Anne Duggan is a southwest Florida-based singer, songwriter, guitarist, composer and arranger. She's a “Berklee drop out with a penchant for hollow body guitars and writing songs about boys, and she says, "Pedal Steel makes me swoon. Please 'Like' my Facebook page and buy my music, I really want to quit my day job."
This episode is supported in part by a City of Fort Myers Arts & Culture Grant.
Dr. Sharon Isern is a Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at FGCU. She's a scientist, an educator, and an artist - her cool website is steampunkphage.com. Besides teaching Cell Biology, doing research, and making visual art, she recently turned to theater.
She earned her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the Johns Hopkins University, then worked in industry as an engineer for Exxon designing equipment for oil refineries, and a production manager making soap for Procter & Gamble.
Berry van Boekel is known for his ongoing annual Top 100 project that started in the Netherlands while he was still a teenager. In more than thirty-five years, he has charted millions of songs and painted thousands of musician's portraits.
He also teaches studio art and art history at Florida SouthWestern State College and has exhibited with the prestigious White Columns in New York; Skylab in Columbus; Reed Gallery at the University of Cincinnati; Country Club Projects in Cincinnati, Peel Gallery in Houston, and with the NADA Art Fair in Miami. Recently his work was shown at Tempus Projects in Tampa, curated by Jade Dellinger, director at the Bob Rauschenberg Gallery in Fort Myers.
Dr. Maria Roca is in a way the main reason I am here today, getting to make this show. I was an FGCU student several times, and it was she who dragged me back in after being distracted by life...twice. AND she's who hooked me up with an internship at WGCU.
Maria is the Chair of the Department of Integrated Studies at Florida Gulf Coast University. She got her Ph.D. in Media Ecology, and her M.A. in Performing Arts Management, she is a founding faculty member of FGCU. She's also the mother of one daughter, Alissa, who is a professional opera singer living in Dallas.
Tara Calligan is this show’s online content producer and primary in house cheerleader. Her day job at WGCU is social media and digital philanthropy manager - which basically translates to being the station’s Social & Digital Media Maven - she creates and curates all of our social and digital media content, of which there is much.
Tara calls herself a self-proclaimed audiophile, supernerd, Bob Ross Chia Pet aficionado, and Halloween enthusiast...which I can attest to simply from spending time in her office. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Florida Gulf Coast University with a bachelor's degree in journalism, and wound up at the station after doing an internship.
Jim Griffith is a musician and art center director. He got his M.M. degree from the Juilliard School in 1987, his undergraduate degree from the Manhattan School of Music, and attended Florida State University. He’s been a member of the Hudson String Quartet in New York and director of the New Arts Festival in Fort Myers. He formerly served as principal violist of the New York Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, and the New York Virtuosi, and he’s played with a bunch of other orchestras around the country over the years. He’s been with the Naples Philharmonic since 1989.
In 1997 he formed a nonprofit called Florida Arts, Inc. in order to create a home for the arts in downtown Fort Myers, and he managed the founding and development of the Sidney and Berne Davis Art Center.
Caleb Neff’s a producer, songwriter, and lead singer of the band Rosaline. He began performing at the age of 10 when his mom forced him to get guitar lessons. He’s worked on, and contributed to, hundreds of recordings over the years. He describes himself as a “Lifelong tone afficanado”, and says he loves weaving old recording equipment into his process. His home base is Juniper Recording in Cape Coral, but he also uses commercial facilities when needed, he says giving the artists he works with the best of both worlds in terms of sound, feel, and budget.
Marc Davis’s been a musician for 25 years - he’s spanned genres as diverse as rock, country, reggae and metal. Today, he plays drums, guitar, bass and horns in both original and cover bands, as well as doing some session recording work. Marc is also a trivia quizmaster, host of the trivia podcast Know Nonsense, and a manager in the food service industry...think pretzels. To me, Marc Davis is emblematic of the power of trusting friends' opinions, plus social media, to create a real kind of friendship from a distance. His last message to me as he agonized over his song choices was, “Mike, this has torn my world apart...ha ha ha.”
Shawna Caspi’s a Toronto-based singer-songwriter who’s doing a swing through Florida to play a few gigs. Tonight will be her first live performance after taking some time away from the road to write and attend the Banff Centre’s Singer-Songwriter Residency in Alberta. She says she loves the landscapes of her travels, weaving them into her songs, and that she also portrays them on canvases as a painter. Her fourth album “Forest Fire” is described as a collection of songs about burning things down and building them up again.
John Siddons was born in Switzerland, but lived most of his early life in the UK. He got his degree in French Language and Literature from University of Grenoble in France and served in the Royal Marine Force Voluntary Service from 1958 to 1961. At one point his bio says he “Introduced the King of Saudi Arabia to the concept of high value thematic gifts” in the mid 1970s. He says he was later responsible for equipping a number of palaces in the Middle East with banqueting items of glass, china, silver, and gold. His business dealings in that part of the world came crashing down when the Gulf War began in 1990...and that’s pretty much where we’re going to begin.
We came across John a while back when he was visiting the station - turns out he used to be All Things Considered host here at WGCU when the station was first built on the Florida Gulf Coast University campus - that’s when what used to be WSFP turned into WGCU. We got to talking and Richard and I gave each other a look that meant we knew John was eventually gonna join us in studio.
Maestro Nir Kabaretti is best known in our part of the world as the Music Director of the Southwest Florida Symphony, but he’s better known around the world as the Music Director of the Santa Barbara Symphony, which he has led since 2006 and he was recently appointed Music Director of the Israel Sinfonietta Be'er Sheva chamber orchestra. Maestro Kabaretti graduated from the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, and was then appointed Chorus Master of the Vienna State Opera and the Salzburg Festival, and since then he has done a whole lot - go check out his wikipedia page, for real.
NOTE: in the episode we refer to the Israel Sinfonetta Beer Sheva Festival in Israel. The festival is 3/26 - 4/1 and more info can be found here
Lieutenant Colonel Robin Maher is a winged Naval Aviator who has flown Presidents George W Bush and Barack Obama as part of the Presidential Helicopter Squadron. He moved to San Diego in 2011, was deployed again in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, and commanded Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 361 from 2014 to 2016. He now works for US Special Operations Command up in Tampa.
Robin has been married to his wife Aubrey for 20 years and they have three daughters 14 year old Clarinda, 12 year old Aslynn, and 10 year old Lily. He ends his bio with “I like to surf, run, and perfect my sarcasm.” Robin was two years behind me in school, and his sister Carrie was in my class and we hung with the same kids, and I worked with his mom Connie for several years back in the early 90s - so we go way back, but I haven’t seen him since then, when he he was...well, sort of a pipsqueak, which is I assure you he is no longer.
Our guest today is Joshua Johnson - a name most public radio listeners are probably quite familiar with by now. Joshua is host of the daily show 1A that’s produced out of WAMU in Washington, DC and distributed by NPR. Joshua was born and raised across the state in West Palm Beach, and he graduated from the University of Miami and got his start in public radio there in Miami.
He hosted the radio series Truth Be Told at KQED,and taught courses in podcasting at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.
In September 2016 he guest hosted The Diane Rehm Show for two days, and then in November she announced he would be taking over her time slot at the beginning of 2017. We are so, so honored that he agreed to do our little show.
Mike Kiniry is the co-creator and usual host of this show! Mike is as southwest FL native as it gets, and here in Ft Myers he has worked in Golf shops, tended bar, worked PR for the Alliance for the Arts, and of course, been a radio reporter and host. He has a 13-year-old daughter named Guinevere (who is awesome and has helped produce episodes of this podcast) and if you want to know more about him, START LISTENING!
Next week is the show's anniversary and we thought it might be fun for the three of us (Mike, Richard, and Tara) to sit down in the studio and talk about how the year went, what we learned, and which songs from our guests are now part of our own musical histories.
Lieutenant Commander David Baker retired in 2013 after nearly 44 years of continuous service in the Royal Australian Navy, which he joined as a 16-year-old junior recruit in 1970. Over those decades he served in many different roles and positions, including postings on at least 8 different ships. He's been to South-East Asia, South-West Pacific, the Indian Ocean, Hawaii, Africa, India, Antarctica and the Middle East. He also captained the Royal Australian Navy shooting team, and even once had lunch with the Queen.
We were sitting at a bar downtown one Monday night and I asked him how he had met his wife Marty, who is also a semi-regular film festival attendee, and his response started something like, “Well, I was in Iraq in one of Saddam Hussein’s palaces…”
Our guest today is Megan Kiniry...my little sister.
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Megan graduated from Fort Myers High two years behind me. She went to Lees-McRae college in North Carolina where she majored in musical theater, and minored in dance/choreography and music. Sshe’s worked in many theaters along the East Coast of the US, and she's worked on a cruise ship for two years as a singer-dancer and dance captain - circling the globe twice during her stint on the ship, visiting more than 40 countries.
She then moved to Los Angeles in 2000 and has lived there ever since, working in the film industry in one way or another. She lives in West Hollywood with her significant other Tony and their daughter Alessandra and Pomeranian Izzie. She’s still an actress, and is also a makeup artist for film and TV. She won best actress for a short film at the Idlewild international film festival in 2010.
Commissioner Frank Mann began his career in public service in 1974, when he served eight years in the Florida House of Representatives and four years in the Florida Senate. In 1986, he was his party's nominee for Lt. Governor of Florida.
He and his wife Mary Lee have been married for 58 years. They’ve got a couple of sons who are still local, and five grandkids his bio says he loves to spoil. If Frank Mann is the "dean of Lee County political figures", his mom Barbara B. was the queen of Lee County art figures. She left a whole lot more of a legacy in the local arts community that just her name on the performing arts hall at Florida Southwestern State College. Frank is an active member of Covenant Presbyterian Church, where he has been a member of the choir for more than 50 years.
Jim Gustafson holds a Master of Divinity from Garrett Theological Seminary at Northwestern University in his home town of Evanston, Illinois and an MFA from the University of Tampa. He is the author of Take Fun Seriously, Driving Home, Unassisted Living, and Friar Fred’s Diary - the first two of which are essays, and the second two books of poetry. Jim teaches at Florida Gulf Coast University. He and his wife Connie live in Fort Myers, where he reads, writes, and pulls weeds.
I first started getting to know Jim during my time at the Alliance for the Arts, where I worked for a while, through a project he spearheaded called Broadsides: Poetry off the Shelf, which combined works of art that were inspired by poems with the poems themselves, creating finished, printed broadsides.
Our guest today is musician Bill Metts. Bill started playing finger-style guitar during the Country Blues revival of the 1960s when he fell in love with the music of Taj Mahal, Mississippi John Hurt, Doc Watson and others of that ilk.
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He says just about everything that he’s done since then has been in that down home finger-picking style, which he is a master of I assure you. Bill says he began to understand the power inherent in music while playing at senior centers and nursing homes in Massachusetts. He began more seriously dabbling in the art of songwriting after moving to Florida in 2004. These days he says he mostly uses music for personal enjoyment and to make a little money, but his main focus is to use songs to better our community through the not for profit organization Hope by Song, which helps those whose stories of abuse, addiction, homelessness or PTSD have not yet been heard by inspiring them to tell their stories...the words of which are then used create songs of struggle and hope, which are then used to educate others who might be dealing with similar issues. It’s truly emblematic of the power of music...and just one of the reasons I’ve wanted to get Bill in our guest chair since launching this podcast.
Rob’s an airline pilot, with more than 25 years of experience in the sky. Predictably, he’s always on the move. I feel like every time I see him, he’s getting back from Chile, and on the way to Munich, or something like that. Also predictably, he makes the most of his time at home spending it with his family - that’s his wife Amy, and their kids Zach, Sydney, Noah, and Ava. He’s got one of the friendliest families I’m fortunate enough to know, and I’d understand if I only ever saw Rob in passing.
Charlie Whitehead was born in Ohio, but raised in Tennessee and Kentucky with three siblings and what he describes as first-class parents. He went to college in Kentucky and South Dakota, playing football and basketball. He never graduated, but says he knows a lot of uneducated folks who did. Charlie worked in the ag business in northern Colorado for a few years – everything from truck-driving to equipment operator to working the pickle docks.
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He later lived in Phoenix with his girlfriend Debbie working construction before moving to Fort Myers Beach in 1985 to take a job with then weekly newspaper Beach Bulletin. He married Debbie in 1989 – smartest thing he ever did, he says. Went to work for the Bonita Banner, then the Naples Daily News until the newspaper industry, “started circling the bowl” and his job was eliminated in 2010 when the paper stopped covering Lee County. After, “farting around with freelance and a couple of other publications” he went back into construction full-time. Charlie ran unsuccessfully for a Lee County commission seat in 2010 with no party affiliation. He’s got four grown kids, ranging from 40 to 21. And he’s been umpiring since he a middle teenager, and has been a Little League coach and was a high school softball coach when his daughters were in school. These days he says he’s laying low fixing his Irma-broken house.
Leila’s an Iranian-Colombian artist who was born in New York City, but raised in Tehran, Iran, before moving back to the U.S. after graduating from Tehran’s Islamic Azad University Law School in 2000. After moving to Florida in 2005 and practicing real estate for 9 years, she took a break from her business to take art classes, where she met artist and professor Dana Roes, and decided to academically pursue her long-time passion for the arts. In 2017, Leila joined the Rauschenberg Residency on Captiva Island as a full-time staff member.
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She’s in a band called Leila M. and Tired of Triangles. Her bio ends with this quote about herself: “As predictable as she thinks she is, no one can predict what her next work will be.”
Matt Keller is mostly known as the lead pastor of Next Level Church, but he’s also a writer, podcaster, leadership coach. Like a lot of people in southwest florida – Matt was born in the midwest – Indiana to be specific. He moved here in 2002 when he founded the church – they started in a cafe and then a movie theater – now there are 3 locations here in town. Matt lives with his wife Sarah, sons Will and Drew, and he’s in the exclusive club of people who were on the original guest list of the show.
Charles Runnells is reporter who covers arts and entertainment for The News-Press. If you look around at a local arts event in Ft. Myers, you can probably find him sitting in a corner scribbling notes for a review or standing near the stage shooting photos with his trusty Nikon. Charles was born in Alabama, but he grew up all over the place thanks to his Army father. He has a journalism degree from Auburn University and started working at The News-Press in 1998.
----more---- He’s obsessive about music (practically anything, but especially heavy metal), and that he also loves reading, video games, and movies. He lives in Cape Coral with his girlfriend and their six cats (that’s halfway to a Paula Poundstone level of cat).
Eric Riemenschneider is an artist who makes large-scale oil paintings and mixed media digital designs. His works have been exhibited in the Robert Rauschenberg Gallery, Space 39, Tincture Gallery, Selby Gallery, Alliance for the Arts, Big Arts, Howl Gallery, Franklin Gallery, Yabo, Cru, and a solo show at the Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center.
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He’s been named Southwest Florida’s Best Up and Coming Artist, won an Angels of the Arts Award, was named Best in Show in an All Florida exhibit at the Alliance for the Arts, was a Lee County Golden Apple Teacher and Lee County Arts Teacher of the Year, and he received a Robert Rauschenberg Scholarship.
Jesse Thorn is host and producer of the public radio show and podcast Bullseye. Listen to it if you haven’t yet. He’s also host of the podcast Jordan, Jesse, Go!, and the co-host and producer of the podcast Judge John Hodgman. He’s also the proprietor of the podcast production outfit MaximumFun.org, which currently produces and distributes 39 podcasts if Wikipedia is up to date. From the number of times I’ve already used the word podcast you can probably tell Jesse might be the closest thing we’ve got in this world to a podcast mogul.
Karen Feldman grew up in the Jersey suburbs of Philly. After getting her bachelor’s in English from Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, she headed to Manhattan and the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, where she earned her master’s degree, and came to the realization that northern winters were not for her.
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So she headed south and got her first full time job as a cub reporter at the News Press. She went on to become a senior writer and editor in the Lifestyles department, as well as the paper’s pseudonymous mystery diner whose name I’ve never said out loud so this is just a guess: Jean Le Boeuf. After 28 years, she came to FGCU to create the university’s magazine and has worked in University Marketing for 12 years now. She lives in North Fort Myers with her husband, Jim McCracken, who’s an IT pro with Lee County, and their menagerie of 7 rescued dogs and 6 cats. She continues to review restaurants for Florida Weekly to this very day.
We were invited to do our show live on stage at the super awesome Sanibel Island Writers Conference with three renowned poets. Our guestS Major Jackson, January Gill O’Neil, and Annemarie Ní Churreáin.
----more----Major was born and raised in Philadelphia, and is author of four books of poetry, including Roll Deep, Holding Company, Hoops and Leaving Saturn, which won the Cave Canem Poetry Prize for a first book of poems. He lives in South Burlington, Vermont, where he is the Richard Dennis Green and Gold University Distinguished Professor at the University of Vermont.
January was born in Norfolk, Virginia and she is the author of Misery Islands – winner of a 2015 Paterson Award for Literary Excellence, and Underlife. She lives in Beverly, Massachusetts.
Annemarie is a poet and writer from Donegal, Ireland. Her debut collection Bloodroot was shortlisted for the Shine Strong Award for best first collection in Ireland, and for the 2018 Julie Suk Award in the U.S. She lives in Dublin.
A native of Detroit, Al started his musical career in classical music with his principal instrument being the Violincello. Al’s played in many orchestras including the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, The Highland Park Chamber Orchestra, and The Windsor Symphony. Then, he decided to try something different, so chose the keyboards as his new major instrument, which led him to join the show band, “Attraction” in 1970. He also spent many years touring with the Platters as an acclaimed vocalist and keyboard player.
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These days he lives in southwest Florida. I’ve gotten to watch Al interact with the world from up in the booth during the Fort Myers Film Festival’s TGIM Monday events for the past 7 years, during which he regularly shows of his powers of perception, compassion, and humor.
Jen Ray is a New York artist whose work has been exhibited primarily throughout the U.S. and Germany, where she used to live. Her art includes drawing, painting, performances, and sound works that celebrate female power and self-determination. She’s in town for a show called Blind Date at the Wasmer Art Gallery here at FGCU featuring both her work, and the work of artist Neil Bender.
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I came across a great quote from a review of a 2013 show of hers in Berlin that I thought did a good job of describing her work: “Her large-format colored drawings impress with their obsessively meticulous execution and are characterized by motifs from a variety of pop-culture sources. Women are the center of attention, whose power, beauty and cruelty are presented in the midst of an apocalyptic fantasy world.”
Neil Bender was born in New Jersey, and currently lives and works in Florida. His artwork has been shown nationally and internationally. Neil received the Joan Mitchell Foundation MFA Grant after getting his degree from the University of Georgia, attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, the ‘Painting’s Edge’ residency in Idyllwild, CA, and the Vermont Studio Center.
----more---- He shows with Tempus Projects, and is co-founder of the artist collective and gallery QUAID in Tampa, where he is Associate Professor of Painting and Drawing at the University of South Florida. He’s in town for an exhibit at the Wasmer Art Gallery here at FGCU featuring both his work, and the work of artist Jen Ray, for an exhibit called Blind Date.
Robert Macomber is an award-winning and internationally recognized Florida author, lecturer, and TV commentator, best known for his Honor Series, which are naval thrillers which start during the Civil War and run into the early 1900s. He’s also been a consultant for the U.S. Department of Defense, specializing in strategic vision and planning by using historical analogies of what works.
----more----Macomber grew up on the waters along the coast of Southwest Florida, and was an offshore racing skipper starting when he was just 17 years old, racing the next three decades in Florida, Mexico, and the Bahamas. When not traveling the world for research, lecture tours and book signings, Robert lives on Pine Island, where he still sails, and enjoys cooking the exotic cuisines found throughout his novels.
Stephen Brittain first came to our attention during our interview with Megan Kissinger – she mentioned a friend with pipe organ BUILT INTO HIS HOUSE. Stephen says a chance meeting in his early 20s with retired banker and theatre organ enthusiast began his love affair WITH the theatre pipe organ. Now his house is home to a 25 rank Wurlitzer theatre pipe organ that was once installed in Chicago and later San Francisco. He also owns 5 grand pianos, and an eclectic mix of antiques and historical items including things like early phonographs, a jukebox, old clocks, and a cat named Opus.
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Stephen’s been in southwest Florida since the early 60s when he moved here with his mom and siblings. He’s worked in the tech world since the mid 70s, including stints with the company that founded Lehigh Acres, the Florida Department of Health, and these days the Lee County Elections Office. Introduced to church music at an early age, Stephen became a choir director for the first time when he was just 19 years old. Over the years he’s served as choir director and organist for Baptist, Unitarian, MCC, and Episcopal congregations.
Milton “Milty” Evans lives in San Antonio with his wife Kelly, and their three freaking adorable daughters Clara, Sadie and Mimi. He works at a job out there – something related to finance, management systems, and eyewear. Anyway, what he does isn’t why I’ve got him here, it’s who he is and the role he’s played in my life.
----more---- Milt grew up in Fort Myers with me. We graduated from Fort Myers High together, and spent time together at what was then Edison Community College before he moved away for a while. Then he came back and we had plenty more good times, including a brief stint as roommates, before he and the family moved to San Antonio a few years ago. They’re back in town for a family vacation, so I couldn’t resist the chance to apply this musical memory engine to SMOOTH MILTY.
Dr. Mike Martin (who just so happens to be President of FGCU where we make this show) has been president here for almost a year and a half. Before FGCU, he served as chancellor, or president, or vice president, or as a faculty member at a number of universities, including Colorado State, LSU, UF, and University of Minnesota – it would be correct to say he’s had a long career in higher education.
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A Minnesota native, Dr. Martin got his bachelor’s degree in business and economics, and a master’s in economics at Mankato State College and he got is his Ph.D. in applied economics from the University of Minnesota.
He and his wife, Jan, have two children they adopted from Korea – the northern half of which Martin visited in the ’90s as part of a delegation sent over by then-President George W. Bush.
Mike is creative services manager here at WGCU, where we make this show. That pretty much means he’s the station’s graphic designer – although I’m pretty sure he’s got more on his plate than just design. Formerly a newsroom graphics editor for Gannett newspapers in Florida and California, Mike also teaches visual storytelling in Florida Gulf Coast University’s journalism program.
----more----He’s a native of Southern California, is married to Lee County Visitor and Convention Bureau Communications Director, Francesca Donlan, and has a son in college and a daughter in her senior year in high school. I’ve got to know Mike a bit around the station and like his laid back vibe (which resonates with mine) and I hear he does quite the robot German accent for the D&D game he’s in with Richard.
Jim Brock has been teaching poetry, literature, and writing at Florida Gulf Coast University since 1998, after having been something of an academic Kelly Girl before that, teaching at universities in Indiana, Tennessee, Idaho, Pennsylvania, and Miami, before landing in Fort Myers. Btw I had to google ‘kelly girl’ and you might need to, too.
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A nationally-award-winning poet, Jim’s now retired from the poetry-writing gig to pursue life on the stage. His current projects involve playwriting and performing…he’s a founding member of Ghostbird Theatre Company in Fort Myers. From my experience, if Jim’s involved with something you can rest assured it’s cool.
Megan Kissinger is an acrylic painter and artist who is interested in conservation and ecology. She grew up on Perdido Bay in the Florida Panhandle, and says she’s always been close to nature. Her background in scientific illustration informs her artwork, and she says drives her try to “make viewers aware of how everything in the world is connected in some way.”
----more---- She loves to find and portray wild places, and the beauty and magic they contain, and her compositions reveal her fascination with light and line.She’s also Museum Conservator at the Edison and Ford Winter Estates in Fort Myers.
John Loscuito has been director of the FGCU Art Galleries since 2014. Before that he was Registrar of the Haggerty Museum of Art at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Over the years he’s taught art and design, curated art exhibits, reviewed exhibits and theatre productions, and juried exhibits (that’s the person who picks which pieces wind up in group shows), and he worked at Theatre X in Milwaukee for about a year.
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He’s also an artist himself and has had a number of solo exhibits, and participated in many group exhibits over the years. The fact that this intro has the word exhibit in it so many times is definitely indicative of John’s career – he is immersed in the world of art, and the support of it both personally and institutionally.
My guest today is Stick Martin, who with Dave Dave Dave created this show’s theme song. He was raised in the backwoods of Pennsylvania and toured the country as a young kid with his parents who worked as food vendors on the carnival circuit. At some point he started fiddling around with drum machines and acoustic guitars and at age 15 started writing songs and recording them onto an old tape recorder, and he started seeking out places to play his music live and that took him to places like Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Cleveland and eventually Florida, where he found his (semi) permanent home in St. Petersburg.
Luc Century is a self-taught artist got into etching while working at a resort engraving people’s names on snow skis, then a window washing job in the 70s led to a 4 year exploration of how how to transfer images and color onto glass, which resulted in an innovative photographic process for creating stencils that could be used in sand-blast engraving, which he has applied extensively and prolifically over the years.
----more----He might be best known for being the person who engraved the more than 58,000 names into the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, DC. He’s lived on Sanibel for nearly 30 years now with his illustrator wife, Dee, cranking out the art and living the island life.
Since the the ways music connects to memories is right in Angel Duncan’s wheelhouse we asked her to stick around for a bit after we wrapped up the 3SS session to dig in a little deeper. Just a reminder, Angel is self-professed brain nerd who is also Director of Education and a clinician at the Neuropsychiatric Research Center of Southwest Florida; Executive Arts Director at the Cognitive Dynamics Foundation; and she’s on the Research Council Committee at the American Art Therapy Association.
Angel Duncan is Director of Education and a clinician at the Neuropsychiatric Research Center of Southwest Florida; Executive Arts Director at the Cognitive Dynamics Foundation; and she’s on the Research Council Committee at the American Art Therapy Association. She’s a widely published author and peer reviewer.
----more----In her spare time Angel enjoys acting in theatre, which she has been doing since the age of five; she’s involved in the improve troupe Harry’s Senior Moments. She loves to travel, do yoga, engage in the arts and sciences, and spend time with her husband Dr. Joseph Kramp, who is at Florida Southwestern State College.
Thomas Allen Harris is a many-media artist who explores family and identity in what he calls a “participatory model of filmmaking” that he’s been pioneering for nearly three decades now. He’s an accomplished filmmaker and public television producer. His documentary Through a Lens Darkly premiered on Independent Lens on PBS a few years ago, and was nominated for a National Emmy.
----more----Born in the Bronx and raised in New York City and Tanzania, Thomas is a graduate of Harvard College and the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Independent Study Program. He’s made a number of other feature and short films in his life, and he lectures and teaches widely on media arts and other topics including an upcoming course around Family Pictures USA as a Senior Lecturer at Yale University. Oh, and by the way he’s the host and creator of Family Pictures USA – a new public tv show that explores lives through the lens of the family photo album.
My guest today is a relatively new voice on the southwest Florida music scene, but one that’s pretty much taken it by storm. Born and raised in a small town called Lititz, Pennsylvania, about and hour and a half outside of Philadelphia, Kate has a bachelor’s degree in theatre arts from Kutztown University, which is in a tiny farming town about an hour down the road.
----more----She went on to live in Philly for a few years after graduating, working in theatres, before moving to Florida in 2015. She started pursuing a career in music full time in the summer of 2017 and released her first EP called Ready For Me in April of this year…and she’s been writing new tunes and hopes to be back in the studio before the end of the year. I met Kate recently when she performed on Gulf Coast Live, the making of which is my day job.
My guests today are TWO names well known to local readers and lovers of storytelling: Amy Bennett Williams AND Roger Williams. That’s right, we’re trying out our first twofer today on 3 Song Stories, so hang in there, here we go.
----more----The beginning of Amy Bennett Williams’ short bio reads like the storyteller she is: she “came to The News-Press in 1988 as an ashtray-emptying, obituary-writing clerk-slash-reporter, then moved through a series of assignments at the paper, covering everything from cake contests to tuberculosis outbreaks.”
Amy left the paper for a while to edit Gulfshore Life Magazine before returning as its Lifestyles editor in 1998. These days she’s a feature writer and columnist. Her current job titles are watchdog and storyteller.
Amy lives in Alva with her writer husband, Roger, two sons and an ever-changing and well-documented menagerie.
And speaking of Roger, his short bio, unsurprisingly, also begins with a writer’s flourish: “Roger Williams was born long ago and far away west of the mighty ‘Mississippi’ River, an Indian name with fewer English letters (only 11) than the colossal ‘Caloosahatchee’ River, which contains 14.”
Roger moved to Florida in 1994 to work almost four years happily for The News- Press – especially happily after Amy agreed to marry him. (paraphrasing the bio now) He got an undergraduate degree from the University of Kansas, and a master’s from the Columbia University School of Journalism. These days he writes a column and feature stories for Florida Weekly.
My guest today is Dr. Ernesto Lasso de la Vega. He’s a local biologist who was born in Panama, but is now a US citizen. He’s worked at the Lee County Hyacinth Control District for more than 25 years, where he works to minimize aquatic weeds in public waters, and educate the public to that effect as well.
----more----Ernesto got a Bachelor in Science in biology from the University of Panama, a Master in Science in aquaculture from Auburn University, and an Educational Doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction from University of Central Florida.
He serves as a member of the Citizen Advisory Committee of the Charlotte Harbor National Estuary Program, and Advisory Board of the Florida Sea Grant. And he’s been teaching environmental science, biology and microbiology at area universities since the early 90s.
On his own time (although it sounds like there’s not a ton of it) he’s been translating books, newsletters, and news articles to Spanish, and doing more biology stuff via international courses.
My guest today is a name you might recognize if this is not your first time ‘round with us – Dave Dave Dave, otherwise known as Dave Cowan, is the co-creator of our totally awesome theme song. “Triple D” was born in Chicago, where he grew up in the burbs and started playing side drum for the Chicago Highlanders Bagpipe Band when he was 13.
----more----He ran away from home when he was 17 and formed a band called Clear Eyes. He then put together the Wayfarin’ Strangers, which was a 5 piece acoustic college band in Wisconsin. He then moved onto solo singer-songwriting about 25 years ago…the dude is a human jukebox…and still plays to this day. He’s also made a bunch of Youtube music videos over the years if you wanna check them out.
If you asked Sanelli what his job is, he’ll probably say he’s a jeweler out of Naples,FL. But if you ask him, “what do you do”, you’ll find out he’s a sound guy. A REALLY good one too. He’s worked and lived all over the east coast, and has run sound from small venues to recording studios, to mega-churches. Rare is person that can run a soundboard, craft a diamond bracelet, and build a chicken coop, but that’s Sanelli.
----more---- He hangs his hat here in southwest FL with his wife, three kids, two dogs, and assorted chickens and ducks, and I knew I wanted to have him on as soon as we started making the show.
My guest today is Valerie Alker, a name local listeners to WGCU will remember, because she was a longtime reporter and host on our airwaves. Val got started in radio in 1983 as a DJ at WPAS AM 1600 in Zephyrhills. From there she moved onto WMNF Community Radio in Tampa where she often hosted the Women’s Show.
----more----She then moved over to WUSF, where she was a reporter and newsreader, before moving down this way to work at WSFP after spending a year or so as a boat bum. Then, once Florida Gulf Coast University was built in the late 90s WSFP became WGCU and Val was part of the team that launched it. I had the pleasure of working with her starting in 2003 when I started as an intern, all the way through when I left radio for a while in 2011. She lives in Punta Gorda with her super cool husband Coop. From what I can tell via Facebook they pretty much spend their time birding and paddling and traveling to neat places…living the pleasantly retired life. It’s quite surreal to be sitting down in the studio with Val again.
Jeff McCullers (fifth generation Estero, Floridaian) grew up around citrus farming, fishing, construction, and well drilling. I love the fact that his three sentence bio includes his ten years as 4-H club member. He wrote two small books on local history while still in high school. A teacher and school administrator for 34 years, he’s taught English, drama, journalism, stagecraft, and humanities.
----more---- He’s also an amateur poet, photographer, and painter. While I’ve known Jeff, mostly via Facebook, for the past decade or so, I knew him by reputation all the way back to my high school years in the late 80’s. I never knew him then, but all my friends who were doing theatre there spoke of him like he was a living legend, now that I’ve gotten to know him years later, they were not joking.
My guest today is Justin Anderson. He’s the son of the late and Honorable Judge Isaac Anderson Jr. and Audrea Anderson, who played a key role in the foundation and formation of Florida Gulf Coast University, where we record this show. Justin graduated Fort Myers High School in 1996, he then earned English Literature and Women & Gender Studies degrees at Princeton University.
----more----He also got a degree in American Studies from Florida State University, and his law degree from University of Florida. He spent the first 15 years of his career in secondary education as an English teacher, administrator, and coach.Justin has lived all over the US, as well as South Africa, and most recently China. He’s currently living back in Fort Myers running a consulting business. I didn’t know Justin in school but I, too went to Fort Myers High. Justin came highly recommended as a 3 Song Stories guest from one of previous victims, Amy Ware…after her episode she was like, you gotta get Justin Anderson on the show!
To call my guest today a woman about town would be an understatement. She is probably the very definition of that phrase in Fort Myers. Stephanie Davis – better known as the Downtown Diva – has been a fixture on the southwest Florida social scene since the 90s.
----more----Her Diva Diaries is featured weekly in Florida Weekly, but it dates back further than that. She’s written for many other publications over the years, including the News Press and Gulfshore Life. If you’ve ever picked up a Florida Weekly you’ve seen countless photographs she’s taken with her iPhone. She’s also been a radio personality dating all the way back to the early 90s.
Let’s just say the Diva gets around, and I’m proud to say she’s been one of my friends since we first crossed path at a 99X remote in downtown Fort Myers sometime around 1996.
My guest today is Tom DeMarchi, he’s a writing professor at Florida Gulf Coast University and Director of the Sanibel Island Writers Conference, which marks its 13th year in November. We don’t normally use our guests official bio statements because they tend to be rather…drab. But not Tom’s!
----more----Here we go: “When not writing short stories, restaurant reviews and essays, teaching, sleeping, or cataloguing his CDs, you’ll find Tom reading biographies of jazz musicians and dead presidents, bouncing up and down on an elliptical glider, or meeting with colleagues to discuss the Sanibel Writers Conference, which he directs. Because of his haircut and monochromatic fashion sense, he is often mistaken for a police officer.”
I don’t know Tom super-well, but via our Facebook connection I have a strong sense that music plays a fundamental role in his life and approach to, well probably just about everything, so here we go down the path of musical memories
My guest this episode is Katie Haas. She’s Vice President and head of Florida Business Operations for the Boston Red Sox. That means she’s the big boss for all Red Sox business operations here in Southwest Florida. She’s also active in the local business and nonprofit communities. Katie lives in Fort Myers with her husband Danny, and their two young kids. And, while she’s one of my best friends’ best friends, and I’ve picked my kid up at her house more than once, we’ve never really talked.
My guest this episode is Tom Eberhardt – Tommy to me. He’s a colonel with the Lee Country Sheriff’s Office, and has been serving there for 25 years. He lives here in Ft. Myers, FL with his wife, Lori. They have 2 Daughters, Rhyan and Taelor, and 2 grandkids – He LOVES his grandkids. I’ve known Tommy for about 15 years and it’s fair to say he’s forgotten more about playing guitar than I’ll ever learn, and I’ve been playing more than half my life.
----more---- We shared a stage at Next Level Church for years and honestly if I list the people I know that I would consider “into music”, Tommy would be right there at the top, so I figured this show would be right up his alley.
My guest this episode is Cole Peacock. Cole’s lived in Ft. Myers since the early 80’s. His family is Fifth generation Floridians. His better half is Rachel, and they have three children: Sterling, Hannah, and Jackson, two of which are all grown up, and Jackson’s getting there fast. Over the years Cole’s worn lots of different hats.
----more----He’s been a corporate executive and consultant, he’s co-founder of Game Nation Theme Parks, and he spent many years in the world of politics, from running campaigns for other candidates to being one himself when he ran for state house a few years back. If I tried to list all the business and organizations Cole’s been involved with I’d be here all day…like I said, LOTS of different hats. But, besides all of that he and his wife Rachel, and their whole family, are my old friends from waaaay back.
My guest this episode is Nathan Hill. He’s a writer, and author of the 2016 bestselling novel The Nix. He’s moved to Naples in 2006 from New York City to take a job as a professor at FGCU, did that until 2012, moved away for a couple of years, then got his book deal so moved back to Naples to focus on his writing.
----more---- Nathan grew up all over the Midwest, where his grandparents had worked as farmers. His family moved constantly when he was growing up as his father worked his way up through management at Kmart. When he agreed to do this show it delighted me because I couldn’t wait to see how a novelist (a literal professional teller of stories!) would respond to this “3 Songs Concept”.
My guest this episode is Amy Ware: it’s weird to say her name out loud with just two parts, because in my head she’s been Amy Wilkinson Ware since we reconnected via Facebook whenever it started becoming a thing. Amy grew up in Fort Myers with me so we’ve known each other since…back in the day.
----more---- She’s in town for a bit from the great white north so I thought I’d bring her in and submit her to the pain of having to whittle the songlist down, because I strongly suspect it was as difficult for her as any of my guests thus far.
My guest this episode is kind of a big deal in the world of public media…as a matter of fact he’s making us feel like we’re getting pretty darn fancy around here at Three Song Stories. David Brancaccio host of the Marketplace Morning report, heard on most public radio stations, including here on WGCU at 6:50 and 8:50 every weekday morning…he’s the former host of the PBS newsmagazine Now…and has worked in public media one way or another for nearly 30 years.
My guest today is Eric Raddatz. He’s a man of many…things, known by many people around southwest Florida. He’s probably most publicly known as the man behind the Fort Myers Film Festival, which he founded in 2010. He also founded the Naples International Film Festival the year before. But, when it comes to his work, Eric Raddatz is definitely best known, whether people know it or not, for his work as Presentation Editor at Florida Weekly.
----more----He’s one of the main forces behind the papers’ visual aesthetic. He’s also a regular contributor on NBC2 News in Fort Myers, the Creative Director at Florida Southwestern State College, and the Presentation Editor at the Babcock Ranch Telegraph. And last but not least, Eric has won the ‘most likely to wear a sport coat with sneakers’ award at least five years running, I’ve lost count…that last part isn’t true..
My guest this episode is Angela Page: she’s frontwoman for the punk/post punk band, The Young Dead, and founder of the feminist arts collective “Love Your Rebellion” which works to empower marginalized populations through social education, community service and arts diversity. Angela is also the Marketing and Studio manager for the Sidney and Berne Davis Art Center in downtown Fort Myers.
My guest this episode is Lynn Millner. She’s the author of “The Allure of Immortality: An American Cult, a Florida Swamp, and a Renegade Prophet,” it’s a narrative nonfiction book about the Koreshans of Estero. And she’s an associate professor of journalism at Florida Gulf Coast University.
My guest this episode is Lydia Black. I would say she’s a self-described “nonprofit junkie,” because that’s what her bio says, but in the interest of full disclosure I know her well enough to write her bio without notes…as a matter of fact, for quite a few years, part of my job was to help her write her bios.
----more----Lydia Black is the Executive Director of the Alliance for the Arts in Fort Myers, where I once worked. She’s one of the most dedicated people I know when it comes to working to make the world around her better…and one of the most motivating people I know when it comes to getting others to help with that cause. She lives in Fort Myers with her far better half Chris, and their super cool daughter Emerson who is a sixth grader at Paul Lawrence Jr. Dunbar Middle School, and who is also my daughter’s best friend
My guest this episode is Bob Grissinger – known best by many as the man behind Bennett’s Fresh Roast in downtown Fort Myers which, arguably, makes the best darn donuts on the planet. He’s also known by many listeners across southwest Florida as C. David Bennett, one of half of Bennett & Birch on Wink 96.9 FM.
----more---- The two of them were heard weekday mornings for more than 14 years. Bob has a deep history with radio and music and so I figure he must have had just a heck of a time getting down to just three songs.
A Fort Myers local, Richard Chin Quee has been working in audio for most of his life. While finishing a Computer Science degree at FGCU in 2006, he leveraged his music and sound experience to get a job at WGCU, and has been working in news radio ever since. He’s currently the director of programming at the station, the director of WGCU’s daily talk show Gulf Coast Live, and the producer/director/co-creator of the show.