Lung health specialists at Sarasota Memorial Health System have discovered a detection program that can catch lung cancer early – at Stage I or Stage II --when patients have the best chance of survival from the disease.

Active Parenting education programs have been around since the early 1980s. They are evidence-based, meaning they use research-backed curriculum that teach techniques and approaches that have been studied and shown to provide benefits including lowering household conflict and improving child behavior. We learn about a new series of free Active Parenting courses that begin soon through the David Lawrence Centers for Behavioral Health in Collier County from Jasmine Pagano, Wellness Program Supervisor at the DLC Wellness Institute.

Since 2008, more than 100 cities have officially declared that they are "Compassionate Communities" which affirm the Charter for Compassion. In Florida, St. Augustine signed on in 2013 and St. Petersburg did as well in 2018. One year ago, a group of southwest Floridians held their first ‘shaping a compassionate Fort Myers’ event to start building momentum toward imbedding compassion into our local community. Compassionate Southwest Florida is holding its 12th Community Conversation on Saturday, July 25 and we get a preview.

The Burroughs Home & Gardens in downtown Fort Myers was constructed in 1901 so is celebrating its 125th birthday this year, with the help of the Uncommon Friends Foundation — part of their mission is preserving the historic home. Alongside historic preservation, the Uncommon Friends Foundation’s mission also includes promoting good character and ethics, and providing scholarships to local students. We get an update on what the foundation is up to, and get a bit of history on the Burroughs Home and the namesake 'uncommon friends'.

The League of Women Voters of Lee County, in partnership with WGCU and the News-Press held a forum, July 9, with Lee County School Board candidates. Six of the 11 qualified candidates participated including Carl Baxter, Crystal Johnson, Debbie Jordan, Jenn McDaigle, India Palencia, and Carline Saintilus. We will listen back to a condensed version of the 90-minute forum in a special hour-long episode of Gulf Coast Life.

Data Centers are all over the news lately because AI companies are building them, apparently as fast as they can manage. They take up huge amounts of resources, including electricity and water and hardware and all of the things building huge facilities requires. But what exactly is a data center, and why do we need so many of them? And why do they consume so much electricity and water and other resources? What are they doing? Are they all doing the same thing or are there different kinds? We discuss these questions, and some of the ways we all use data centers every day even if we don't use Generative AI — and some of the benefits we all receive without realizing there's a data center on the other end of the service.

Dr. Grace Farris is a practicing physician in Austin, Texas. Her graphic memoir, See One, Do One, Teach One: The Art of Becoming a Doctor traces her path through medical school and residency with very candid and funny comics.

The New World Screwworm has been in the news lately because it turned up in southern Texas in early June. These parasites are endemic to central and south America these days, but they were once present in the southern United States but were eradicated in the mid 1960s. The parasite is actually a fly whose larvae burrow into and feed on the living flesh of warm-blooded animals, cattle primarily in the Texas cases but also sheep. Unchecked, screwworm outbreaks can be economically devastating for cattle and other livestock farmers. Because a screwworm outbreak is potentially a big deal for the entire United States, including here in Florida, we talk with an expert from University of Florida.

During the Covid pandemic, retired U.S. Army Lt. Colonel Michael Troop got into audio production and that led to him pitching an idea to Bryce Alexander from the Naples Players to recreate, from the ground up with professional and amateur actors, and full sound design, old-time narrative radio shows from the 1930s, 40s, and 50s and the Repertoire Radio Theatre podcast was born and is now off and running.

Most people are by now familiar with the term genome — it's essentially a blueprint each person is born with. The exposome is the dynamic, lifelong ledger of every non-genetic exposure a person encounters. It includes thinks like air pollution and pesticides, dietary choices, lifestyle, and chronic stress. We talk with ethnobotanist, Dr. Paul Cox, from the Brain Chemistry Labs in Jackson, Wyoming to learn more about this emerging notion of ‘the exposome’.