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The Nature of Florida is the premiere podcast in the Sunshine state dedicated exclusively to environmental topics. Journalist and Filmmaker Oscar Corral hosts the podcast, which features a different interview every episode with someone who is passionate and knowledgeable about an environmental issue. Mermaids, surfers, journalists, scientists, leaders, advocates: Oscar selects people from a wide variety of backgrounds to talk about Florida's globally unique environment, its challenges and so ...
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Jim Gross explains the history of the Ocklawaha River, one of Florida's most fixable environmental tragedies
38:44
The Ocklawaha River remains one of Florida’s greatest environmental blunders, choked off by a dam built in the 1960s to build the cross-Florida barge canal. The canal never happened, but the dam remains. More than 10,000 acres of forest and at least 20 springs were drowned by the lake that was created. Now the dam is aging, made of mostly sand, and…
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Miami-Dade District 7 Commissioner Raquel Regalado talks about balancing a fast-growing city with the environment
37:26
Miami Dade District 7 Commissioner Raquel Regalado talks about balancing the wants of developers with the needs of wild areas around Miami such as Biscayne Bay and the everglades. “Are we doing everything we can do to have that balance?” she asks. As a sitting elected leader in Florida’s most populous county, Raquel explains how policy at the local…
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Florida Springs Institute Director Robert Knight talks about the problems at Florida's springs and what can be done to save them
42:08
Robert "Bob" Knight is the director of the Florida Springs Institute. He has also authored numerous books about the springs, their unique nature and how they are being degraded in Florida. In this episode, he talks about how Florida's system of granting permits to pump water is enabling corporations and business interests to pump water for almost n…
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A boat ride on Florida bay with Orvis President Simon Perkins reveals devastation from an algae bloom
26:54
I was recently invited to take a boat trip out to Florida Bay by Orvis, the apparel and outdoor gear company, Captains for Clean Water and the Everglades Foundation. We met at Angler House near mike marker 80 in Islamorada and headed out to the bay from there. Steve Davis, the chief science officer from the Everglades Foundation, came with us to in…
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Suzanne Schreiber is focusing her organization, Dream Green Volusia, on saving what's left of her county's natural places
34:23
She launched her own non profit grassroots environmental organization in Volusia county, Dream Green Volusia when she started seeing large tracts of undeveloped lands containing forests and wildlife be razed for development across her county. Despite being an underdog against deep pockets from special interests, she has had an impact on saving her …
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Richard Kern, co-founder of the environmental education series Encounters In Excellence, talks about his work
33:18
Richard Kern grew up with environmental filmmakers as parents and has taken the baton of Odyssey Earth and Encounters in Excellence, two environmental storytelling platforms that are used to teach children in classrooms around Florida about environmental issues.由Oscar Corral
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Fran Mainella, the former director of the U.S. National Parks Service and Florida's state park system, talks about the possibility of a national park in Florida for springs.
39:22
Frank Mainella, the first woman in the United States to direct the US National Parks Service and the Florida State Parks system, talks about the value of parks and the possibility of designating a new Florida Springs National Park. Is the concept of a “Great Florida Springs and Rivers National Park” a pipe dream, or is it possible to get the nation…
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Florida State Rep. Anna V. Eskamani talks about her fierce environmental advocacy in the face of long odds in Florida
41:10
State Rep. Anna Eskamani, a young rising star in Florida’s Democratic Party and an outspoken advocate of better environmental policies, talks about her optimism despite her party being mostly locked out of power in Florida’s government. Her fierce criticism of Tallahassee’s catering to special interest groups at the expense of voters and everyday p…
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Louis Wolfson III, a major developer of affordable housing in America, talks about his fight to protect the everglades and springs of Florida.
34:44
Louis Wolfson III; Learn how old-school Key West piracy played a role in the origins of the Wolfson family, whose descendant, fifth-generation Floridian Louis Wolfson III, has become an environmental leader in Florida through philanthropy. Today he leads one of the largest affordable housing development companies in the United States. But his love …
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Jeff Brower, Volusia County Chairman, often votes against the grain of endless growth in a state that thrives on it
39:01
Volusia County Chairman Jeff Brower is not your average politician. The owner of a farm with nine children, he ran for office because he wanted to stand up to developers constantly clear- cutting the forests of north Florida to make way for new developments, putting precious springs and rivers at risk. He talks about the courage of being a lone dis…
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Miami Herald Environmental Journalist Curtis Morgan talks Biscayne Bay, fishing and the consequences of dumping our sewage near our beaches
37:27
In this episode, Oscar interviews Miami Herald editor Curtis Morgan. Curtis is one of the best known environmental journalists in Florida. He has been a reporter or editor directing environmental coverage for close to 30 years. He’a also an avie fisherman that grew up fishing the sea grass flats around South Florida, often taking a 14-foot boat whe…
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Stel Bailey: Florida's own Erin Brockovich-style citizen scientist documents manatee deaths and water quality
35:56
Stel Bailey is a citizen scientist and cancer cluster survivor who spent the last year documenting the unprecedented starvation deaths of a record number of manatees around the state of Florida. She describes the heartbreaking experience of watching manatee carcasses get disposed of as simple trash, and the fight to stop the massive pollution of Fl…
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Lauren L. Hill, world famous pro surfer, mom and eco-feminist, talks about how she fell in love with surfing while growing up in Florida and her fight for the environment
42:18
The first time Lauren L. Hill protested for an environmental cause, she was 17, and a woman spat at her. But instead of stopping her, it encouraged her to keep speaking out for the natural world. Today's she uses her platform as a famous surfer to bring attention to environmental issues. Here's an excerpt from Lauren Hill's website: "Lauren L. Hill…
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Jim Durocher, one of the leaders of Florida's Rights of Nature movement, talks about trying to get a constitutional amendment on Florida's 2024 ballot
28:23
Jim Durocher is one of the leaders of a statewide campaign to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot in Florida in 2024 to grant rights to nature. The Rights of Nature movement is just getting started around the United States, and in 2020, Florida took a leading role when Orange County, home of Orlando, became the largest municipality to gran…
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Stephen Davis: The Everglades Foundation's Chief Science Officer explains how the everglades works, what's wrong with it and its ongoing restoration
36:13
From the first time Stephen Davis visited the everglades, he has been drawn by the unique beauty of its wetlands landscape. As the Chief Science Officer of The Everglades Foundation, he has pursued the restoration of the everglades and expanded on the science and knowledge that guides that complex task.…
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Lawyer Rachael Curran gives listeners a glimpse behind the curtain of phosphate mining in Florida, one of the most secretive and environmentally destructive industries in the state
40:14
Florida is the epicenter of phosphate mining in the United States, and one of the largest in the world. The practice of phosphate mining is to create fertilizer for crops. But it is also one of the most destructive environmental practices in Florida, which has about half a million acres that have either been mined, or identified for mining. Environ…
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Environmental Journalist Craig Pittman talks about panthers, Florida springs and why there's so much poop in our waters
33:04
Author and environmental journalist Craig Pittman, with his usual sense of wit and satire, talks about Florida's ongoing environmental struggles and the political backdrop that perpetuates them. It seems there is broad and strong public support across all political stripes to fix Florida's environmental problems. But political leaders generally ign…
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Jennifer Diaz Runs The Everglades Foundation's Environmental Education Program and Charts a Course for Schools Around the State to Follow
36:47
Jennifer Diaz runs The Everglades Foundation's educational program, which helps schools with curriculum and materials to teach kids about the Everglades. The foundation's pioneering work in education has created a loose model that schools and organizations around the state can follow to help bring important information about environmental issues to…
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Michelle Colson "Mermaid Michi" Has a Huge Social Media Following And Is A Powerful Voice for Florida's Springs
29:16
Michelle Colson, also known as Mermaid Michi, has amassed a million social media followers on TikTok and Instagram. They flock to her posts to see her lip sync and dance underwater in crystal clear Florida springs. She leverages her fame to bring awareness to the degradation of Florida's unique fresh water springs, and in the process spreads awaren…
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Fishing Guide Captain Benny Blanco Fights Tarpon Out on the Water and Environmental Destruction When on Land
40:45
Captain Benny Blanco grew up in the land-locked Miami suburb of Kendall. But that didn't stop him from biking to Miami's coast often when he was a boy. Today, he is a fishing captain with his own television show, and one of the leaders of clean water advocacy organization Captains for Clean Water. Does he reveal the best fishing spots in South Flor…
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Biologist & Python Hunter Joe Wasilewski Survived Venemous Snake Bites and Killer Constrictors
35:43
Joe Wasilewski started his "herping" when he was a young soldier guarding a secret military base in the everglades. After that he worked at the Miami Serpentarium with owner Bill Haast, who injected himself with cobra venom regularly to build up immunity to snake bites. Today, he is an internationally renowned invasive species expert and master pyt…
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