Florida Spectacular
Take a weekly trip across Florida with authors Cathy Salustri and Rick Kilby and discover a side of Florida you never knew existed. From the scallops in Panhandle bays to the Hemingway cats in Key West, every week's a Florida adventure. Get more Florida goodness with greatfloridaroadtrip.com and rickkilby.com.
Episodes
Send us your Florida questions!
Haley Moody, the director of the Florida Springs Institute, joins the podcast to talk about the idea of creating a National Springs Heritage Area in Florida.
About Haley
Haley’s passion for the springs began during her first visit to the Ichetucknee River. Her love of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) was born during her time at the University of Florida, where she graduated with honors in Landscape ...
Send us your Florida questions!
Florida nature photographer Matt Keene talks about how he uses large-format film cameras to create his portraits. Matt has an exhibit at the Lightner Museum in St. Augustine (through Jan. 18, 2026), and this episode offers a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at how much work, forethought, and effort goes into this extraordinary body of work.
Links We Mentioned
Send us your Florida questions!
Brandy Carlisle, a tour guide at St. Augustine's Fountain of Youth Park, is fascinated with the woman who bought the land that is now the park. So much so she's published a book about her: Luella. The trio talks about Luella, prostitution, and the Fountain of Youth.
Links We Mentioned
Fountain of Youth Park in St. Augustine
Find out more about Brandy — and her fascinating hobbies — on her...
Send us your Florida questions!
Rick and Cathy talk about Rick's trip to St. Augustine, then answer a letter from a listener about whether or not moving to Florida is a good idea.
Things To Do in St. Augustine
St. Augustine's Fountain of Youth (visit with a critical eye!)
The San Marco shops in St. Augustine, including Duddington's
Columbia Restaurant in the St. Augustine Historic District
Send us your Florida questions!
Mikita Brottman, author of Guilty Creatures, joins the podcast to talk about the Tallahassee murder that scandalized the town when Denise Williams and Brian Winchester plotted and executed the murder of Denise's husband, Mike.
Mikita Brottman is a writer and psychoanalyst. Her latest book Guilty Creatures was published by Simon and Schuster in 2024. She has a D. Phil from Oxford University and is ...
Send us your Florida questions!
The face behind the super-popular Florida's Folk History Instagram account joins the podcast this week. Aubrey Naulin talks about her art, her hopes for Florida's future, and Florida's Indians.
Links We Mentioned
Florida Folk History on Instagram
Islands of Cedars by Shana Smith
Submerged Stories: Florida's Other Histories on Facebook
Send us your Florida questions!
Mark Barrow grew up around gators — both the real one and a certain Florida college that pays homage to them. Now, he's written a book about alligators, and he joins Rick and Cathy to talk about why alligators deserve respect, not fear. The trio also talks about the gator's place in Florida's culture, roadside Florida gator attractions, and why gators are amazing creatures.
Links We Ment...
Send us your Florida questions!
This week Rick and Cathy talk about Punta Gorda
Links We Mentioned
Royal Order of Ponce de Leon Conquistadors
Radioactive Fountain of Youth in Punta Gorda
Revisiting Warm Mineral Springs
Old World Meets New Age at Warm Mineral Springs
(Image via Google Maps/Fair...
Send us your Florida questions!
Florida icon Lars Andersen joins the podcast to talk about his passion: Florida waterways.
Links We Mentioned
Payne's Prairie: A History of the Great Savanna by Lars Anderson
Book a river tour with Lars at Adventure Outpost or email him.
Lost Springs in one minute with Margaret Tolbert
Photo: Canon Springs during drawdown.
Que...
Send us your Florida questions!
Michael Grunwald talks about cattle ranching and why Floridians — and everyone — should eat more plants. He, Cathy, and Rick also talk about meat grown in a lab, why Grunwald thinks Michael Pollan gets things wrong, and Michael's new book, We Are Eating the Earth: The Race To Fix Our Food System and Save Our Climate.
Links We Mentioned
Send us your Florida questions!
Anna Cooke, editor-in-chief at The New Barker magazine, jons the podcast to talk about rescue work in Florida; the long-gone Florida roadside attraction, Dogland; and a few famous Florida dogs.
Links We Mentioned
Dave the Wonder Dog (Annie Oakley was a snowbird) (bonus link)
Brownie the town dog of Daytona Beach
Coonhound Cemetery in Alabama
Send us your Florida questions!
The Ocklawaha River in Central Florida has been dammed for decades. Now, there's a chance to tear down the dam and reunite the rivers. That's good news for bass, anglers, environmentalists, and the local economy. Margaret Spontak comes on the podcast to talk about why, and she encourages people to call their state legislators and ask them to support restoration of the Ocklawaha and reuniting...
Send us your Florida questions!
Ryan Worthington joins the podcast to talk about a new initiative he and Cathy are working on — a podcast to document and discuss history in Florida that doesn't get taught in schools. Submerged Stories is the name of the forthcoming podcast, and the Facebook group they've created to crowdsource information. Check out the link below, join the group, and share it with your like-minded friends...
Send us your Florida questions!
With Cathy traveling through what she calls "historic West Florida", she and Rick talk about forgotten parts of Florida's history — and geography, the War of 1812, and some less savory parts of the early history of the United States and why they get left out of history classes.
Links We Mentioned
Map showing Florida and a "contested" area "sold" to the US by France
Send us your Florida questions!
Did you know cattle ranchers were the "first intentional conservationists" in Florida? Annie Muscato does. She wrote her doctoral dissertation on it, and this week she joins the podcast to talk — passionately! — about research into how some Florida cattle ranchers are working to protect wild Florida, why Florida cattle ranching isn't nearly as cruel as it is in the rest of the country, ...
Send us your Florida questions!
Andrea Conover of Azalea City Brewing and Palatka Mayor Robbie Correa join us this week to help roadtrippers find Palatka's best-kept secrets.
Links We Mentioned
Send us your Florida questions!
Rick serves on the board of the Winter Park History Museum, and Cathy lived there for a time in the '90s (and loves to go back). That's why the book written by this episode's guest, Kim Michalak, was so appealing to both of them. Kim shares how she selected her 100 things for her book 100 Things To Do in Winter Park Before You Die.
Links We Mentioned
Send us your Florida questions!
Dan Reiter joins the podcast to talk about his career surfing Florida and writing about the same. The trio talks about everything from the best place to surf in Florida to why surfers shouldn't be scared of sharks. Check out Dan's book about surfing (link below).
Links We Mentioned
On a Rising Swell: Surf Stories From Florida's Space Coast (and a link to buy the book)
Send us your Florida questions!
"Nature isn't just more complex than we know, it's more complex than we can know."
There's a sadly great chance that the State of Florida is going to build a toll road through the last remaining wild growth of a pretty — and pretty endangered — plant. Here's what's happening, where it's happening, and what you can do about it.
Links We Mentioned
Send us your Florida questions!
Historian Holly Baker joins the podcast to talk about her work in preservation in St. Augustine, Vero Beach, and throughout Florida. The trio also talks about what makes a building historic, preserving historic evidence of Jim Crow, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Links We Mentioned
St. Augustine
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in St. Augustine
Popular Podcasts
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Listen to 'The Bobby Bones Show' by downloading the daily full replay.