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
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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 ...
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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
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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
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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
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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...
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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...
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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
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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, ...
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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
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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)
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"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
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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
Send us your Florida questions!
Florida author and naturalist Andrew Furman returns to the podcast to talk about his latest book, Of Slash Pine and Manatees: A Highly Selective Guide to My Suburban Wilderness.
Links We Mentioned
Bitten: My Unexpected Love Affair With Florida
Bidens pilosa (aka beggartick, etc., etc.) and its medicinal uses
Frogfruit (aka hatpin)
Photo by Andrew ...
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How Bowers of the Retro WDW podcast joins Rick and Cathy to talk about the not-so-secret-after-all Florida Project, the origins of Disney Springs, and what Cypress Gardens had to do with Walt Disney deciding Florida would be a great place for a theme park.
Links We Mentioned
Lake Buena Vista Historical Society
Question or comment? Email us at cathy@floridaspectacular.com.
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Orlando historian Rachel Williams joins the podcast to talk about Colonial Plaza Mall (now a shadow of its former self and called Colonial Marketplace), and from there the conversation moves to caves in Ocala, coffee roasters we love, and the importance of the shopping mall in Florida culture.
Links We Mentioned
Ocala Caverns (and what's the difference between a cave and a cavern, anyway?)
Send us your Florida questions!
TJ Fridrich, with the Save the Manatee Club, joins the podcast to talk about what listeners need to know about when manatee can be dangerous (seriously!), what their mating behavior might look like, and where you can see some excellent documentaries about manatee and their ilk.
Links We Mentioned
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