Simple questions: What is a love bug? And why do they give their lives for a little smooch with our car grilles? We have someone on “Florida Matters: Live & Local” with the facts.
No love lost
(0:00) Drive anywhere in Florida right now, and your car is probably dotted with squashed lovebugs. Not great for your car’s paintwork. On “Florida Matters: Live & Local,” an insect expert talks about why these critters are so corrosive to vehicles, where they come from and why they’re more than just a nuisance.
GUEST:
- Deby Cassill, USF Department of Integrative Biology associate professor
Voices from Everglades history
(11:40) The Everglades takes center stage in the WUSF “Your Florida” podcast series, “Defenders of the Everglades,” which revisits the historic fight against a proposed airport in the 1960s and the activists who helped stop it. Archival interviews feature the late Joe Browder and Nathaniel Reed — key figures in the environmental movement alongside Marjory Stoneman Douglas — as they reflect on political battles that reshaped protections for the region.
Borrowed art, new stories
(20:40) The Sarasota Art Museum is showcasing a new hyperlocal exhibit called “Something Borrowed, Something New,” featuring works from more than 60 contemporary and modern artists drawn from private collections across Southwest Florida. Here’s a closer look at how deeply valued art is within the community.
GUEST:
- Virginia Shearer, Sarasota Art Museum executive director
- Becca Boyd, Sarasota Museum of Art marketing director
Baseball connection
(34:50) A new essay collection explores how baseball became a lifeline through grief, loss and family trauma. St. Petersburg’s Jessica Rios’ book, “Grief, Hope, Baseball,” blends memoir and reflection, drawing on experiences from a childhood in New York to adulthood in Florida.
GUEST:
- Jessica Rios, author of “Grief, Hope, Baseball”
