Welcome to Florida

This episode tackles one of the most confusing eras in Florida history, a critically important series of events, but one little acknowledged or studied: the Seminole Wars. There were three Seminole Wars, the first in the 18-teens and the final in the 1850s. Our guest is Joe Knetsch, historian and author of numerous Florida history books with an emphasis on the Seminole Wars.

A treat today as Miami born, bred and based documentary filmmakers Billy Corben and Alfred Spellman join the show. Corben is the director and Spellman the producer for Rakontur, their company which has produced such favorites as "Cocaine Cowboys" and "The U." Their latest project, "God Forbid" begins with a pool boy at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach and ends w...

This episode begins with a rare conservation win in Florida against development. Savor the flavor.  Our guest is author, historian and professor emeritus in anthropology at Florida A&M University John Foster. Foster has written numerous books on early Florida tourism and Harriet Beecher Stowe's role in it. We discussed Harriet Beecher Stowe at the Mandarin Museum .

This episode of "Welcome to Florida" begins in Stuart . Our guest this week is author and historian Gary Mormino. Gary's most recent book, published in 2022, is titled "Dreams in the New Century: Instant Cities, Shattered Hopes and Florida's Turning Point."   The book covers Florida in the first decade of the new millennium where an extraordinary sequence of stories f...

The governor is touting his environmental record again, to which Craig Pittman cries foul.  Follow Chadd Scott's travel writing at "My Favorite Florida." Our guest this week is Marshall Jon Fisher, author of "Seventeen and Oh: Miami, 1972 and the NFL's Only Perfect Season." Fisher was a 9-year-old living in Miami in 1972 following the Dolphins success week-by-week wit...

Craig's dad died recently and he shares a story about his father's work which would eventually dovetail into his own. Our guest this week is author and historian Jim Clark whose book "Red Pepper and Gorgeous George: Claude Pepper's Epic Defeat in the 1950 Democratic Primary" introduces us to a giant of 20th century Florida history. State rep, U.S. Senator and House member,...

"Welcome to Florida" Season 4 begins with an extraordinary Florida adventure! Warren Richey paddled a sea kayak around Florida .

On January 1, 1923, dubious claims of a sexual assault from a white woman against an unidentified Black man in the small community of Rosewood between Gainesville and Cedar Key set off a sequence of events that would leave untold numbers of people killed and Rosewood burned to the ground. The event was completely forgotten and erased, except by those who experienced it and lingering myths and rumo...

Our episode begins with a trip to Warm Mineral Springs . Our guest is Kathryn Ziewitz, co-author of "Green Empire: The St. Joe Company and the Remaking of Florida's Panhandle."  The St. Joe Company, a legacy of the Dupont empire, at one point possessed 5% of all the land in Florida along with banks and railroads. It was run from Jacksonville with an iron fist by a true Florida villa...

Craig Pittman is ON YOUR SIDE! Our guest is Florida Times-Union columnist Mark Woods. Find Mark's book, "Lassoing the Sun: A Year in America's National Parks." In the episode we discuss: Jacksonville consolidation Axe Handle Saturday Norman Studios Mandarin Museum

One of America's worst polluters resides in Escambia County in the Panhandle. Florida has a rich tradition of surfing which we're focusing on in this episode with Tom Warnke, a longtime Florida surfer and founding member of the Surfing Florida Museum.    "Welcome to Florida" is presented by WindstormProducts.com the world's leading online retailer of hurricane hardware. No...

Looking for (more) undeniable proof of climate change and how Florida's current approach to "resiliency" is inadequate? Look to sea turtles . Our guest this week is the former longtime food critic at the Miami Herald, 1st generation Cuban and now host at WLRN radio in South Florida, Carlos Frias. Our subject: croquetas. 

This episode's subject is Trapper Nelson, the Wildman of the Loxahatchee, the Tarzan of Florida. Our guest is historian and author James Snyder who lives on the Loxahatchee River not far from where Trapper Nelson did.  Snyder wrote a book about Nelson, "Life and Death on the Loxahatchee," which he describes as "part biography, part murder mystery." "Welcome to Florida...

What environmental problems would Craig Pittman like to see Ron DeSantis address in his second term as governor? These ones . Craig's not holding his breath. Our guest this week is Clay Henderson. His new book, "Forces of Nature: A History of Florida Land Conservation" details the century-plus effort to conserve land in Florida for nature, recreation and human health. Another hurric...

This week's episode publishes on election day so if it takes you a while to get around to listening, we understand. Founded in 1947, Everglades National Park celebrates its 75th anniversary this year. Our guest this episode, James Kushlan , is a former Everglades researcher and author of the book, "Everglades National Park." He's also written books about birdwatching in South F...

You can't see it, but you can smell it, and the problem is becoming worse with each successive storm in Florida: wastewater and sewage discharges . Our guest this week was born in Russia and currently lives in Miami Beach. Anastasia Samoylova is  a photographer who traveled the state recording what she saw and has shared those images in a new book titled: Floridas: Anastasia Samoylova & W...

Craig Pittman was recently invited by the New York Times to write an opinion column regarding Ron DeSantis' approach to combating climate change. It's a topic he has covered regularly at the Florida Phoenix . While better known for their connections to Macon, Georgia, the Allman Brothers were a Florida band, with brothers Duane and Gregg growing up in Daytona Beach and the band forming i...

When it comes to homeowners in Florida and hurricane damage, it's buyer beware . Our guest is Ralph Krugler, historian at the Hillsboro Inlet Lighthouse and Florida barefoot mailman historian. The Barefoot Mailmen operated in the late 19th century walking the mail to residents along the Florida frontier on the east and west coasts of the state. Here's a great Sunshine State "did you...

A vote for Ron DeSantis is a vote for more Hurricane Ian's. Craig explains . This episode's guest is Samantha Chapman , a professor of biology at Villanova University and a researcher of mangroves around the world, but particularly in Florida. Craig relied on her expertise in a previous story he wrote about how climate change is increasingly allowing mangroves to migrate into areas they...

Developers and road builders want to plow through a state forest in the Panhandle to bring more people to the Gulf Coast. Patrick Smith wrote "A Land Remembered" in 1984. The historical fiction novel followed a Florida cracker family as it entered the state in the 1850s and successive generations went on to build a fortune here through ranching, citrus and land development. Countless peo...

How do land developers almost always get what they want in Florida even if state law or local residents don't support them? Bribes . Our guest this episode is David Sloan, Key Lime pie researcher , author , baker and founder of the Key Lime festival in Key West . David's newest Key Lime book, "Key Lime Pie: An Intriguing History of Key West's Native Desert," was released t...

County officials in Sarasota have amended their COMP plan to allow for greater development into rural areas. Our guest is historian and Miami native and resident Paul S. George. George wrote the definitive account of the wild environment of land speculation which took place in Miami during the early 1920s, resulting in the first of many Florida land "busts." George leads a variety of bus...

Florida's history of racial violence is examined in this episode. Our guest is Tameka Hobbs, Executive Director of the A. Philip Randolph Institute at Edward Waters University. She authored the book "Democracy Abroad, Lynching at Home: Racial Violence in Florida" and lectures on this topic through the Florida Humanities . Among the numerous critical discussion points you may want mo...

Twelve years of work attempting to find common ground between developers and conservationists in southwest Florida goes down the drain because the developers cheaped out. Our gest this week is Moni Basu who visited the Spiritualist community in Cassadaga and wrote about her experience for Flamingo Magazine . What Basu found differs greatly from advertisements popularizing Cassadaga as the "Ps...

The Gas and Oil Party (GOP), wants Floridians to believe that it's possible to both promote drilling in the Gulf of Mexico AND protect Florida beaches from the inevitability of oil spills which is, of course, ridiculous . This week's guest is Jamin Wells a professor and researcher at the University of West Florida in Pensacola. Wells is helping lead a project analyzing the deep involveme...