Juneteenth was declared a federal holiday in 2021 when President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law. The State of Florida actually recognized Juneteenth back in 1991 under Governor Lawton Chiles, and some Florida municipalities focus their historical Emancipation celebrations on May 20 instead, because that’s the date the Emancipation Proclamation was announced in Tallahassee in 1865. This weekend the Lee County Black History Society is leading the celebrations locally, so we talk with three people directly involved to learn more.

In early 2023, a small group of southwest Floridians met to discuss what they saw as autocratic trends unfolding in Florida and beyond. Not long after that first meeting just over three years ago, they formed a nonpartisan nonprofit called Floridians for Democracy. On Tuesday, June 16 at 7pm they’re presenting a program called “Guardians of Democracy: Speaking Truth to Power." They will also presenting Dr. Robert Hilliard with a Lifetime Achievement award. Dr. Hilliard is a humanitarian, author, educator and former professor and Dean at Emerson College. He is also a veteran of WWII and was Chief of Public Broadcasting at the FCC when the Public Broadcasting Act was signed in 1967.

Catherine Price is co-author ofT he Amazing Generation: Your Guide to Fun and Freedom in a Screen-filled World. It’s aimed at kids and tweens, to help them choose a life not dominated by screens.

Narratives of public education in the early United States generally describe the building of a public system designed to allow people to gain knowledge and access to advancement in their lives. But, what’s often left out is the role race has always played at the root of education in America. The new book, “America Grammar: Race, Education, and the Building of a Nation” makes the case that the exploitation of Black and Indigenous people played an essential role in building American education systems all the way back to this country’s founding. We talk with its author to dig into this aspect of American history.

While the term “Underground Railroad” is probably most associated with enslaved people fleeing to free northern states and Canada in the 19th century, there was actually a less formal southern-bound route and destination centuries earlier. We learn about this overlooked aspect of North American history with a woman who gives talks through the Florida Humanities Speakers Bureau. She'll be giving a talk on this topic on Thursday, June 18 in Fort Lauderdale.

The Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum and Aquarium on Sanibel has been a fixture on the island since it opened in 1995. Its story began in the 1980s when a local shell collector named Charlene McMurphy provided some seed funding, and then a nonprofit was formed to begin raising funds and attention. In 1989, three local brothers deeded eight acres on Sanibel Captiva Road to the Museum to memorialize their parents, Frank P. Bailey and Annie Mead Matthews and the Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum officially opened to the public in 1995. A year later, Dr. Jose Leal came onboard as Executive Director — he held that role for 17 years before becoming Science Director and Curator. He plans to retire, so we invited him in to chat about his career and the work he does.

Back in the 1990s, as the southwest Florida population grew, it became apparent that local water bodies and waterways were being impacted — and impaired — by nutrient pollution. So, in the late 2000s several local governments began implementing ordinances that prohibited the application of lawn fertilizer during the rainy season, which generally speaking runs from June first through September or so. We learn about Lee County’s ordinance, and the importance of complying with these rules to benefit our waters and ecosystems.

The GUIDE program provides respite, care coordination, and other services at no cost to Medicare beneficiaries with dementia.

ChatGPT and the other Large Language Models (LLMs) that have followed started off as chatbots that were pretty good at writing. But it quickly became apparent that that kind of use was just the tip of the iceberg. The nonprofit Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg has been training journalists, newsroom leaders, and media executives since the mid 1970s. They offer seminars and coaching on the craft of reporting, as well as ethics, leadership, and digital adaptation — which of course now includes the use of Generative AI. We talk with a longtime journalist who is now a faculty member at Poynter to get some context on the nexus between Generative AI and journalism.

Diane Devereuax grew up in Michigan and has been growing and preserving food since she was a kid. She’s known as ‘The Canning Diva’ and is author of seven cookbooks, and she’s an internationally recognized food preservation expert, television presenter, and instructor. Ms. Devereaux recently transplanted to Southwest Florida, so we invited her into the studio to talk about her latest book, “From Seed to Table: a comprehensive guide to gardening, preserving, and cooking for sustainable living.”