Episode 116: Cassadaga Spiritualists

Twelve years of work attempting to find common ground between developers and conservationists in southwest Florida goes down the drain because the developers cheaped out.Our gest this week is Moni Basu who visited the Spiritualist community in Cassadaga and wrote about her experience for Flamingo Magazine. What Basu found differs greatly from advertisements popularizing Cassadaga as the "Psychic Capital of the World."Now is the time to visit the James Museum of Western and Wildlife Art in St. Pete to see it's latest temporary exhibition, "Black Pioneers: Legacy in the American West." On view through January 8, 2023, "Black Pioneers" explores the path of Black history in the West with a timeline of original pictorial quilts. The timeline begins in 1528, which marks the arrival of Africans in the American West, and continues through the Civil Rights Movement. Dispelling the myth that Black people in the old West were mostly cowboys, the exhibition shows rich diversity in their occupations and achievements in society, religion, education, and the arts. Choosing quilts as the visual medium for this exhibition accentuates the intersections of African Americans in the Western Frontier while informing others about the art form and its important role in African American history."Welcome to Florida" is also presented by Windstormproducts.com, a Florida company which has grown to become the largest online supplier of hurricane hardware in the world. Beyond the hardware needed to protect your home or business from hurricane wind damage, Windstormproducts.com also sells the amazing Quick Dam water activated flood barrier, an inexpensive, easy to install, lightweight product which does the work of dozens of sandbags. If you've ever had to fill sandbags, you know what a pain in the neck that is. Never again. Check out how the Quick Dam water activated flood barrier works.As always, "Welcome to Florida" is presented by Visit Sarasota which features its own distillery! At Siesta Key Rum in Sarasota, you can take a distillery tour, enjoy tastings and purchase your own bottle of its toasted coconut, coffee and spiced rums.