Flu Season
This is the time of year that flu season begins. Dr. Tim Hendrix, Medical Director of AdventHealth Centra Care, joins Engage to talk about trends happening in Central Florida, how the virus is evolving, and his advice to get through this flu season.
Florida Constitutional Amendments 1 and 6
Several constitutional amendments are on the ballot in Florida. Amendment 1 would require school board candidates to run with a party affiliation. Currently, school board elections are non-partisan in the state. Amendment 6 proposes repealing the public campaign financing requirement for statewide candidates. Patrick Rickert, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Rollins College, joins Engage to explain these ballot amendments.
Flying into Hurricane Milton
In its weather outlook released this morning, the National Hurricane Center said it is monitoring the possibility of tropical development in the Caribbean. While the system is not a threat to Florida, it is a reminder that we are still in the Atlantic Hurricane season. Josh Wadler is an Assistant Professor of Meteorology at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University who flies with hurricane hunters to use cutting edge technology to advance science. Their observations that go to the Hurricane Center can improve forecasting and understanding of the storms. He joins Engage to talk about his experience in the middle of Hurricane Milton.
COVID Dystopia
For more than a decade, Thomas Thorspecken was an animator with Disney working on such high-profile films as The Lion King, Mulan and Lilo and Stitch. He had relocated to Orlando to work with the studio and in 2009, he came up with a bold project. He was going to paint one watercolor a day documenting the arts and culture of his new home of Central Florida. Thorspecken was committed to this project and produced art every day for more than a decade. In 2020, the COVID pandemic hit, and life for every American changed drastically. But it was the reaction by politicians and the corporate communities that had Thorspecken vexed. That was when the painting-a-day project took a dark turn.
Thorspecken began to paint pictures of his interpretation of the response to COVID often melding popular settings with images of medical personnel struggling to treat patients or mass gatherings of people despite warnings against it from medical personnel. The paintings accumulated until Thorspecken realized he had enough content to generate an animated short. He collaborated with Orlando-based musician Andy Matchett to create the animated short, “COVID Dystopia.” The film will be shown at the Orlando Film Festival, which kicks off on Thursday and runs through November 7th. Thomas Thorspecken joins Engage to talk about his film.
