Wait Five Minutes

Four-hundred and sixty years ago yesterday, the French first landed in Florida. Guided by a man named Jean Ribault, they tried over the course of several years to establish Florida as a French colony - only to fail over and over again. Get your WFM Merch at  Cast & Clay Co.  on Etsy! Go to the  Wait Five Minutes website  for more!   Plan your visit to the Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve!...

Some spring cleaning for this season: the state wildflower, an invasive plant, the croak of a frog, and Crazy Nick the Manatee. Get your WFM Merch at  Cast & Clay Co.  on Etsy! Go to the  Wait Five Minutes website  for more!   Thank you to Lilly Anderson-Messec ! Follow the Florida Native Plant Society! Thank you to Stacey Matrazzo! Learn more about the Florida Wildflower Foundation here! Thank yo...

Fifty years ago today, three man were on their way to the moon. The years that brought them to that flight are filed with chaos and near tragedy, until they eventually arrived to the lunar surface. Get your WFM Merch at  Cast & Clay Co.  on Etsy! Go to the  Wait Five Minutes website  for more!   Want to hear more space episodes about space travel? Listen here! John Young and Apollo 10 The Artemis...

CORRECTION: The Florida Wildflower Foundation does NOT give land grants. The Foundation grant programs provide funding for native plantings on public lands. --- First Lady Lady Bird Johnson believed in beautifying America. What came from the project she helped create now allows the wildflowers of Florida to flourish - especially along our roadways. Get your WFM Merch at  Cast & Clay Co.  on Etsy!...

In the spring of 1927, Thomas Edison visited the Philadelphia Athletics at their spring training facility. What followed created a story that has been repeated and changed over the following century. Get your WFM Merch at  Cast & Clay Co.  on Etsy! Go to the  Wait Five Minutes website  for more!   Listen to the previous episode about baseball, about the Havana Sugar Kings!   All of the music was o...

Donate to the Trevor Project here Before the railroads came to the Atlantic Coast of Florida, the only way to get mail down to Miami was on foot. It was a dangerous walk made weekly by a select few: the Barefoot Mailmen. Get your WFM Merch at  Cast & Clay Co.  on Etsy! Go to the  Wait Five Minutes website  for more!   Thank you to Rose Guerrero for her help! Check out more from the Historical Soci...

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Donate to the Trevor Project here The Florida State Legislature has just passed a bill that has been widely dubbed by critics as homophobic and baseless. It is the next chapter in a repeated story of anti-gay movements in Florida's history. Get your WFM Merch at  Cast & Clay Co.  on Etsy! Go to the  Wait Five Minutes website  for more!   Thank you to Brian Fehler for his permission to reuse our in...

This week, Lilly Anderson-Messec, the Director of North Florida Programs for the Florida Native Plant Society, takes us on a hike through the North Florida woods. We're looking for the Florida Torreya, a functionally extinct tree in need of our help. Get your WFM Merch at  Cast & Clay Co.  on Etsy! Go to the  Wait Five Minutes website  for more!   Read more about the TorreyaKeepers here! Follow Li...

In 1992, a man named Chuck Faulkner discovered almost two hundred paintings by a relatively unknown Florida painter named Harry Sonntag. That was just the beginning of an adventure still unfolding today.  Get your WFM Merch at  Cast & Clay Co.  on Etsy! Go to the  Wait Five Minutes website  for more!   Thank you to Chuck Faulkner for all of his assistance in retelling this story for the episode! R...

In her book, Mules and Men, Zora Neale Hurston catalogues the folk stories, songs, ritual and practices of Black Americans in the 1920s. How she wrote the book - her travels, her partners, and her failings - layer in the story to detail a fascinating chapter in the author's life. Get your WFM Merch at  Cast & Clay Co.  on Etsy! Go to the  Wait Five Minutes website  for more!   Read more from Zora...

On the morning of Valentine's Day, 1929, seven mobsters were murdered in the streets of Chicago. Al Capone, the man who coordinated the massacre was in the town he had called his vacation home: Miami, Florida.  Get your WFM Merch at  Cast & Clay Co.  on Etsy! Go to the  Wait Five Minutes website  for more!   Thank you so much to Geoff Schumacher from the Mob Museum for all of your assistance! Chec...

127 years ago to the day, the sun set in Florida and so did the temperature. A freeze swept over the state, devastating the citrus industry for the second time in six weeks. Florida would never be the same. Get your WFM Merch at  Cast & Clay Co.  on Etsy! Go to the  Wait Five Minutes website  for more!   Thank you so much to Brigitte Stephenson and the Sanford Museum for all of their help!  Check...

In our second annual Wait Five Minutes Holiday Special, we are joined by past guests to share tales of ornaments, beach trees, manatees, spoonbills and the unusual qualities of the holidays in Florida. Get your WFM Merch at  Cast & Clay Co.  on Etsy! Go to the  Wait Five Minutes website  for more!   Check out more from our guests this week! Read more work from Laura Albritton here! Keep up on the...

For the finale of the Conservation Season, we go for a long walk in the woods, through the Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park, searching for wild horses and bison and stories to tell.  Get your WFM Merch at  Cast & Clay Co.  on Etsy! Go to the  Wait Five Minutes website  for more!   Read more about the near extinction of the American bison in Michelle Nijhuis' book, Beloved Beasts   All of the mus...

The Florida Native Plant Society works every day to preserve the native species of flora in our state. But in the case of the Florida Torreya, a functionally extinct tree, they're trying to save whatever is left.  Get your WFM Merch at  Cast & Clay Co.  on Etsy! Go to the  Wait Five Minutes website  for more!   Thank you to Valerie Anderson and Lilly Anderson-Messec for your help in this episode!...

Visitors to Florida often pick up shells when they visit our beaches. What many people forget is that those shells -- all of them -- were created by animals that once lived within. This week, we chat with Cynthia Barnett, author of THE SOUND OF THE SEA , about seashells, inside and out.  Get your WFM Merch at  Cast & Clay Co.  on Etsy! Go to the  Wait Five Minutes website  for more!   Hear more ab...

I sat down with non-fiction author (and one of my favorites) Mary Roach to talk about her new book FUZZ: WHEN NATURE BREAKS THE LAW as well as how she got her start as a writer, the ways she finds interesting people to chat with, and the animals of Florida that dazzle us both.

The lines between human and animal spaces are constantly blurred. That's exactly what the new book, FUZZ: WHEN NATURE BREAKS THE LAW by Mary Roach, is all about. Our guest this week is Mary Roach as we discuss pests, invasive species, and the complicated ways we manage our animals. Get your WFM Merch at  Cast & Clay Co.  on Etsy! Go to the  Wait Five Minutes website  for more!   Read more about th...

It's suspected that nearly a thousand manatees will have died in Florida by the end of this year. That is already the largest number of manatees deaths in a year in Florida history. This week, we chat with Max Chesnes of the TCPalm about the manatees, the Indian River Lagoon, and the fight to protect our seagrass.  Get your WFM Merch at  Cast & Clay Co.  on Etsy! Go to the  Wait Five Minutes websi...

In the early days of East Florida, the new British governor and his lieutenant were set the task to create a public road for those living along the east coast. Fighting back Florida's nature proved a task no one was ready to face. Get your WFM Merch at  Cast & Clay Co.  on Etsy! Go to the  Wait Five Minutes website  for more!   Read more about the King's Road right here!   Listen to more about 18t...

In the 1930s, as part of the New Deal, Franklin Roosevelt started a program called the Civilian Conservation Corps. It brought new jobs to young working men, but also changed the way Americans looked at the nature around them.  Get your WFM Merch at  Cast & Clay Co.  on Etsy! Go to the  Wait Five Minutes website  for more!   Thank you to Neil Maher for his assistance in the creation of this episod...

Along the Chipola River in northern Florida, a spectral bride wanders the swamps. She is part of a grand tradition of ghost stories, one that stretches around the world, one that can tell us a lot about our histories. Get your WFM Merch at  Cast & Clay Co.  on Etsy! Go to the  Wait Five Minutes website  for more!   Thank you Elizabeth Randall for taking the time to chat. Check out her book about t...

The Carolina Parakeet was on the brink of extinction when the father of ornithology went hunting for them in Florida.   This week, we chat with Michelle Nijhuis, author of Beloved Beasts , about conservation through history, the complexity of those leading the cause, and how we carry the ideas from the past into our future. Get your WFM Merch at  Cast & Clay Co.  on Etsy! Go to the  Wait Five Minu...

Today, to kick off our Conservation Season, we chat with Toni Westland, Supervisory Refuge Ranger for J.N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel Island. We discuss birds, manatees, viewfinders, Aldo Leopold, duck stamps, cute rats and the importance of getting out in nature.  Get your WFM Merch at  Cast & Clay Co.  on Etsy! Go to the  Wait Five Minutes website  for more!   Plan your v...