The Florida Roundup - Education, expression and empathy with Brad Meltzer

Episode Date: January 16, 2026

This week on The Florida Roundup, best-selling author and Florida resident Brad Meltzer joins us to talk about free expression in the Sunshine State, what the escalating cost of living means for families hoping for a new start in Florida, and finding empathy in an increasingly polarized and politicized world (00:00). Plus, a review of the first week of the 2026 Florida Legislative Session with Douglas Soule, “Your Florida” state government reporter (08:50). And we also fact-checked the 2026 State of the State address with PolitiFact’s Samantha Putterman (12:40).

Support for Florida Roundup comes from the Everglades Foundation, working to restore and protect Florida's $1 trillion asset that helps to bring clean water to Floridians. Learn more at Everglades Foundation.org. This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. It is terrific to have you along here as we're live on this Friday. Now, today's program is going to be a little different. We're mixing it up a bit. Yeah, we're going to talk about some of the big news of the week, certainly,

like the legislative session getting underway. We will be talking about education. expression and empathy as well. Best-selling author Brad Meltzer is with us for our entire hour. Now, I asked Brad to be the guest because he's involved in so many things that touch upon contemporary issues that we talk about each week here on our program. Brad, you may know, first came to prominence as a novelist writing conspiratorial thrillers. He's hosted programs on the History Channel. Then he started writing biographies of famous people in history for kids.

That led to a PBS Kids television program. He's written about real-life conspiracies to assassinate U.S. presidents. He's even helped find the American flag that flew over Ground Zero in the weeks after the 9-11 terrorist attacks. And Brad is a Floridian. He moved to the Sunshine State when he was a teenager. His family was not pursuing a business opportunity at the time. It was a move out of economic necessity at a time when the Sunshine State was a lot more affordable. So if you're eating lunch right now, take a long lunch, call the boss, crack the window in the car,

down for the next hour, pull up a chair to the radio in the kitchen, stick with us here. This is going to be a little bit of a different Florida roundup this week, and you can join our conversation. Maybe you read Brad's novels, maybe you give his children's books to your kids or your grandkids

or your God kids. Well, join the conversation, 305-995-1800. 305-9-9-8100. You can send us a quick email. The inbox is open. We are monitoring it live. The address is Radio at the Florida Roundup.org. Radio at the Florida Roundup.org. Brad Meltzer's latest novel is called The Viper. It's a fictional thriller that includes mental health challenges faced by military veterans, the witness protection program, and long-buried secrets of very bad behavior.

Brad, affordability. Welcome to the program, first of all, Brad. Thanks for spending the whole hour with us. Thank you, Tom. Great to be here. It is wonderful to be here. And congratulations on yet another thriller, sure to be a bestseller, if not already. We'll talk about all that, but I want to talk about affordability, because this is the place where your Florida experience began several decades ago. Affordability, we know today here in 2026 is the number one issue among Floridians. What role did economics play when your family moved to Florida when you were a teenager? Yeah, I came to Florida because of an affordability crisis that we were facing.

My dad, we grew up in Brooklyn, and my dad lost his job, and he was never great with money. He had $1,200 left to his name. He was never good at saving, and my grandmother lived in Florida. So we moved down. I'll never forget coming down to Florida, and we couldn't even, my parents didn't even have enough money for that, not people call it the down payment, but, you know, the money you give to just, to rent the apartment. The deposit. That safety deposit, right?

That alone we didn't have the money for. So we couldn't even get an apartment because you needed first month last month and the security deposit. And so we moved in with my grandparents. There were six of us. It was myself, my sister, my mom, and my dad, plus two grandparents, six of us in a one-bedroom apartment. And because it was Florida and because it's the condo commandos always, and it's the condo

commandos always. they started immediately complaining you can't have six people in an apartment you can't have six people in one place and and truthfully looking back and i don't blame them it's a lot of people to have but they were all trying to evict us and as a kid it was terrifying that we were going to be evicted and i remember this one woman who lived across the hall for my grandmother saw what was happening to us and she said you know what i'm going to move out and go and and with my own son and live with him for a couple weeks, why don't you take my apartment so your family can find some peace,

so you won't be evicted? To this day, Tom, the nicest thing that anyone's probably ever done for my family. And I remember her name was Mircy, but as a kid, I always heard her name as mercy. And make no mistake, mercy and empathy is what she showed us. I'll never forget that move down here. Yeah, unbelievable. You've got three kids now, late teens to early 20s. How do they think about their futures in Florida?

And what role does affordability play as they think about maybe creating a life here in their home state? Listen, I think that their home state is sadly no different than what everyone in America is feeling right now. It is a time of struggle. And listen, my kids obviously have privileges I never had. I could barely get through college. I worked one, I had to lie when I worked in Florida. I used to work at the Hagenas in the Aventura Mall. And before that I worked on Hollywood Beach, I gave a fake, fake birth date.

So I could work when I was just 14 years old, because I think back then you had to be 15. And I just, whatever, we came down here, and that's what I had to do. My family needed the money. And that money went. It wasn't for me to go buy video games. It was that was money I knew we needed to live on. I remember taking and telling my dad that I would, you know, hey, I, Can we please move to this really beautiful place that he was looking at?

That was not a beautiful place. But I remember saying, I'll work for it. I'll do whatever we need. My kids, listen, anyone who has kids who are graduating college or graduating high school right now, know it's one of the toughest job markets around. And so, of course, that's what my kids are worried about. Yeah. You've been traveling around the country over the past couple of weeks promoting your new novel, The Viper.

What are you picking up from your readers about their pocketbooks? It's interesting. it's not just their pocketbooks right now, but there are things that we all agree on politically, despite what you want to see on cable news, right? And put aside the extreme sides of the right and the left, who, of course, love to fight, and that's the argument. But I've gone to 12 cities in 11 days, and the one thing that I'm seeing over and over again is there are things that we agree on.

You know, the average American just wants their family to be safe, their kids to be safe, to love and be loved. We're very simple people. But what I'm seeing politically is fascinating, because it feels like right now that there's an attack on the general values. Well, you know, Democrats and Republicans will always disagree about policy, but it feels like now there's an attack on just the values we live by. And you can't legislate kindness. You can't legislate decency. And what it feels like is an attack on the American dream, because there There are things we agree on, you know, we can disagree with someone politically and not attack them personally.

That when someone dies, you don't dance on their grave. And you certainly don't put your name on public buildings like you own them, especially when you're putting your name above JFKs. And I'm hearing that from Republicans and Democrats. They're like, I may have signed up for what we have, but I didn't sign up for this. And that attack, you know, for me, the American dream is not about. making money or power. That's nonsense to me. The American dream is about the idea that when you see someone being picked on, you use your voice and you say enough, enough already. And my mother,

may she rest in peace, taught me, you always make the best of yourself, but not by ripping apart other people or kicking them when they're down. And I think the average American, what I'm saying, they've had enough of that already. It's about what that neighbor showed you and your family back when you're a teenager, six people stuffed into that Florida condominium trying to create a life here in the Sunshine State. Brad Meltzer is our guest for the whole hour, author, executive producer of a PBS Kids program, hosted programs on the History Channel. We're going to be talking about writing free expression, education in Florida.

305-995-1800. 305-9-8100 is the phone number to call. Affordability, of course, is one of the big issues that lawmakers say they're interested in tackling over the next couple of months during their law writing session. It kicked off Wednesday in Tallahassee. Douglas Soll is with this. He covers state government for the your Florida reporting project with their partner station WUSF. Douglas, get us caught up real quick. What were the basic themes from the governor and legislative leaders as they began their work in earnest this week? You know, we got some mixed messages from them in his final state of the state address.

Governor Ronda Stantis spent most of his time looking back over his last two terms, but he did also post for an AI builder rights and a reduction of the property tax, but a notable moment actually came before the governor's speech when he shook the hand of the Senate president, but not the House Speaker, who he's been loudly feuding with over the last year. Speaker Daniel Perez and Leader Gorn to call that move petulant, which signifies we could have yet more division in the next two months. Perez also expressed frustrations with Senate President bin Auburn earlier this week. they've not been on the same page for significant issues, and he says there's been lost opportunity as a result.

All Britain on his end is giving the same cautionary messaging about moving too fast on big policy that he's given over the last year. He repeats the saying a lot, which is let's measure three times and cut once. Yeah, yeah. We had the Senate President on last week's program as well. The House, I think a House committee did pass one of what expected to be many property tax bills. The governor's made no secret, Douglas, about his intention to reduce or eliminate most state, most local property taxes. What does the property tax bill that came out of committee this week aim to do?

Yeah, an important thing to point out at this stage is there's a lot of proposals making their way through the House right now in this area. One of them did indeed pass out of a committee even yesterday. This one would phase out a chunk of the property tax residents pay and it would phase it out over a number of years, though it wouldn't phase out. the what they pay in the property tax as it relates to the funding for schools right it's also important to point out the governor desantis says he thinks there should be a special session on property tax sometime in the spring so we really don't know if lawmakers are going to come to a consensus in the next two months and we don't know what that consensus might look like one of the first bills that came out of the full house was a gun bill that rolls back some of the provisions put in place after the

Parkland tragedy, the shooting of 17 people who died in that shooting in Marjorie Stomond Douglas High School. What is this legislation aimed to do? Yeah, so after the Parkland massacre, the state raised the age to buy long guns like rifles and shotguns. It went from 18 to 21. The House yesterday voted on a measure that would bring it back down to 18. The House has actually done this over the last several years, but the effort's been no-go on the Senate side. Will it be the different this year? We don't know yet, but this is certainly one of the things to watch. I also want to watch some legislation introduced that aims to further crackdown on people in Florida without legal status. Immigration has been a big issue in the

last year, of course. What would this new legislation do? Yeah, another bill that the House passed yesterday. There's a whole slew of them actually. He's been all day in the House chamber. This bill would require that all businesses in Florida use E-Verify, which checks whether they can, whether employees can legally work in the United States. Right now in the state, Florida businesses with at least 25 employees have to do so. So this expands it to not only bigger businesses, but from small shops to big chains. Yeah. Certainly it would expand that E-Verify program if passed.

Douglas Sol watching the state government for the your Florida reporting project and our partner, WUSF. Thank you, Douglas. Sam Putterman is with us now. The Florida reporter for a partner Politifact, we want to fact check some of these statements here, Sam, that we heard a lot of claims and self-congratulations as the legislative session got underway this week in Tallahassee. Governor Rond DeSantis made this claim in his state of the state address. Florida represents about six and a half percent of the U.S. population yet since 2020, our economy has accounted for more than 14 percent of all new jobs. produce throughout America. So lots of statistics there, Sam. Did DeSantis get his math right?

Yeah. So this is close to accurate. You know, since January 2020, Florida has added around 970,000 jobs, which is almost 13% of the nearly 7.5 million jobs added in the U.S. during that period. But the calculation varies depending on the start date. So starting the count in January 2021, which is another read for what he said since 2020, shows a gain of 1.4 million jobs in Florida. almost 17 million nationally. So for that time frame, Florida share is about 8.3%. So it does depend on, you know, the time frame. The starting point. Yeah, exactly. You know, statistics like bathing suits, they show what we want them to show hopefully. Right. Right. Yeah. Cost of living, as we've been mentioning and talking about with author Brad Meltzer, a big issue for voters and legislators. The governor

trumpeted his effort to raise teacher pay. Florida now has the highest average minimum teacher salary in the Southeast region. All told, we have provided a record of almost $6 billion towards this effort to better compensate our teachers. Sam, what do teacher paychecks in Florida say about this claim? Right. So this is accurate, but it does need context. So DeSantis signed legislation in 2020 that mandated a 47,400 minimum starting salary for public school teachers to boost recruitment. So that does put Florida in the lead for the metric in the southeast, as he said. But because funding was primarily directed to the minimum starting pay, veteran Florida's teachers

have seen little growth, giving the state the lowest overall average teacher pay in the region around 54,000. For instance, George's overall average by comparison is more than $10,000 higher despite its lower starting pay. Yeah, important context there. Sam, Putterman, Politifact with our news partner. Sam, thanks so much for fact-checking with us each and every week. You can send us a claim you'd like Sam to fact-check by emailing radio at the Florida Roundup.org. Back with Brad Meltzer, author of The Viper, The Thriller. has written children's books. Brad, you're a product of Florida public schools. You have had a book challenged by a parent in Florida.

I am Billy Jean King. This is what you told me back in 2023 about that experience. There should not be a conservative versus a liberal side in book bans. What it should be is let's show the sensibility of this, educate people on what we're really talking about, and hopefully get to a better spot. But just getting people angry is going to get us nowhere. What do you, Brad, make of the atmosphere today over school library books in Florida?

I'm embarrassed. It's disgusting to me that we are still, that there are people cheering as books are being pulled off shelves. I am Billy Jean King as a kid's book is on the list, according to Penn America, of the top ten most banned kids books of last year. You want to why? Because it has the word gay in it. That's it. Nothing, and it's a fact, and she'll tell you, and that's what it is. But you have one person who says, I'm offended, and suddenly we have to take that book off the shelf.

There has to, thanks to the Florida laws that have been enacted, there has to be a whole process. And now you get each side picks a representative, and then some school principal plays judge. And all these resources are spent on this silly fight. We wound up winning. Every time it gets banned, we win. We won. Billy Jing King's back on the shelf. Let me squeeze in a caller.

Philip in Jacksonville's been very patient. Go ahead, Philip. You're on the radio. Yes, it's hard for me to understand why Brad's book is banned when the Holy Bible that contains incest and rape is allowed. Could you please comment on that statement? Brad, what do you make of that? Yeah, listen, that's someone who knows how to find a good loophole, right? That's the thing is if you want to play that game, then people can challenge the Bible.

Liberals can go do that and say, well, if you're going to do that, we're going to do this. But, you know, it's just to me absurd that this is what we're fighting over. You know, I looked back historically to see what the first book in the United States, what the first book ban was. And I'm talking about, you know, they were all individually done. But if you look at the first book that was banned across the country, it was. It was Harriet Beatrice Stowe's classic Uncle Tom's Cabin. Now, why was it banned? It was banned because it showed slavery and enslaved people as something that was happening that was bad.

And people in power did not like that happening. And that's what every book ban is about. It's about power and a group of people who are worried they're about to lose it. Brad, I know we had one caller kind of pushing back a little bit on calling the book banned versus removed. Is this a linguistic loophole, or is there a significant difference between those two actions? I think that person is, again, trying to split hairs, but if you take the book off the shelf and you say we have to have a hearing on it, okay, it's not banned yet, but it's not on the shelf. So to me, that's a ban. If a kid walks into that library and can't get it, that's the wrong thing.

So fine, if you want to call it Frozen instead of banned, if that makes you happier, great. But you're still the one cheering and still the one that seems to be happy that a book is not there and available for a child. So fine, use the word frozen. Use whatever word you want. But I promise you this, that if you're cheering when books are being pulled off the shelf, you will eventually be revealed as the bad guy in the story every single time. Brad Meltzer, stick with us. He's going to be with us for the whole hour.

We've got a lot more to talk about when it comes to education. when it comes to veterans affairs, certainly when it comes to writing conspiratorial thrillers in the age of QAnon here. You can join the conversation by calling 305-995-800. Support for Florida Roundup comes from the Everglades Foundation, working to restore and protect Florida's $1 trillion asset that helps to bring clean water to Floridians.

Learn more at Everglades Foundation.org. This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Next week on our program, immigration in the Sunshine State. It's been one year since Donald Trump was sworn back into office and began his immigration enforcement policy. Thousands have been detained in Florida in that year. The state has opened two detention centers.

Hundreds of thousands of Floridians have lost their immigration protections with the cancellation of various federal immigration programs like temporary protected status. So what do you make of how immigration enforcement has been carried out over the past year here in Florida? How is your neighborhood, your community, your school, your home, your business. How has it all been affected by this? Email us, radio at the Florida Roundup.org.

Radio at the Florida roundup.org. Immigration in Florida is next week on our program. Today it's author Brad Meltzer. He's with us for the full hour, thriller, novelist, whose newest book is entitled The Viper. He's also a children's book author and the executive producer of a program on PBS Kids. Ready for adventure?

Who's that kid who can travel through time? It's Xavier Riddle and the Seventh. Museum. There it is. Xavier Riddle. Brad is still with us here. 305-995-1800 is the phone number if you'd like to join the conversation. Brad is Xavier impacted by the elimination of the federal government funding of public media? Of course it is. Everything on PBS Kids is, you know, I talk to them and I'm someone who grew up. And when I was five years old, a guy named Jim Henson and a guy named Mr. Rogers taught me that I could use my creativity to put good into the world.

and right now what you're seeing go look for the new season of Xavier Riddle you're not going to find it you're not going to find the new season of just about any show that's on there because everyone is trying to figure out how we're going to keep the lights on and figure this all out together and you know it's really sad to me that of all the things that we're attacking it's Sesame Street right it's it's Daniel Tiger's neighbor I don't care Xavier Riddle like I listen I'd love having my show but I would fight this fight whether we had a show or not. And the one thing that's staggering to me that I don't think people realize is when you look at the stats of what PBS kids and its viewers are now, is where a lot of people are used to having lots of channels and lots of cable on lots of choices.

But it's kids in the inner city who actually watch it more than anyone else. It's kids who don't have the funding to have cable television, where they're literally still sitting with the old antenna and they're old. old, you know, they have four stations, ABC and NBC and CBS, and they get PBS kids. And that's who you're hurting. And these kids who need it most, these kids who are seeing that there's a bigger world out there. For me, that's who I was. I was that kid that didn't have the funding.

Sesame Street looked like my street. It was, you know, it looked like a city street. And I was the first of my immediate family to go to a four-year college. I didn't know what college was. I saw that on television. And I think it's just terrible. what's happening right now. Talking with author Brad Meltzer, Brad, earlier in the program, you were making the point about divisions in the country, and empathy is a theme of a lot of

your writing. A listener in Jacksonville sent us this email, have to respectfully disagree with Brad somewhat on his interpretation of why the country is so divided. The listener writes, these divisions are not rooted in politics or ideology, but rather core values, honor, integrity, decency, and the acceptance of fundamentally basic truths and facts. What do you make of that take on feeding some of the divisions that all of us are aware of in the United States these days? That was my point. That's what I said.

I said it's absolutely the divisions are not political anymore. They are a difference in values. Our values are feeling attacked right now. And I think right now, listen, I said this, you can rewind the tape. There are always politically things that Democrats and Republicans will disagree on. But I think right now it's just beyond. It is our core values that look like they're being attacked. And I do think, and maybe this is where that listener is, I think it's crazy to think that just Democrats own empathy or just Republicans own a value.

You know, if we do, you've ceded half the country and said that you're somehow better than the other half. I think that's the problem. We have to realize we're all in it together. Add patriotism, I would say, to that list. I firmly believe you, you know, the other side, the Republican side doesn't own patriotism. We should be just as patriarch, just as proud of this country. It may not be proud of it in every moment. You may not be proud of it to see what's happening with ICE, of course, but it doesn't mean we can't be proud of our country.

And I think as a core value, you know, cruelty and venom and harshly judging those we disagree with, it's become sport in our culture. And cruelty and venom are on signs of strength. It's signs of weakness. and petty insecurity. What takes strength is kindness. What takes strength is empathy. And I said those words a year and a half ago when I delivered the University of Michigan commencement address.

And when I said the words, 70,000 people were in the stadium when I was speaking. I was focused on one, my son. And as I said those words about empathy, I could hear 70,000 people started clapping, applauding. And I kept thinking to myself in the moment, why are they stopping here? Why now on this moment?

And my wife later said to me, you tapped a vein you didn't know was there. And it struck me that so many people were, we were starving for empathy, starving for kindness. That wasn't a Democrat or Republican value. It was something that we were all feeling. And all these people started sharing that section of the speech. It was, you know, Katie Couric did it and Maria Shriver. I don't know these people. But, you know, that's why we made a book about it called Make Magic.

But the point of it was that it was something that is happening in the culture right now. We become a cruel culture. And it's not hard to figure out why. To me, the biggest disaster that's happening out of the White House right now is what I'm going to call that bulldozer effect. We saw that East Wing get bulldozed. And I think that's going to make the cover of someone's book one day. But it is a metaphor on display. And there are a lot of people.

Democrats and Republicans were like, I may have signed up for some of this, but I didn't sign up for that. And we're seeing a bulldozing, a bulldozing effect on empathy, on kindness, on decency. And that's where I feel like that's a long-lasting problem. We've got one phone number regardless of your political persuasion, Republican Democrat, NPA, something else. It's 305-995-1800. Speaking with author Brad Meltzer here on the Florida Roundup this week, a little bit different of a program for us. Give it a shot.

but Keith in Gainesville has been listening to the conversation about book removals and book bans. Keith, thanks for your patience. We're glad you're here. You're on the radio now. Good. Hey, thanks for taking my call. Yeah, I was just concerned about, and I certainly understand and agree with a lot of things have been said, but the word banning a book is just not appropriate language.

It's either intentionally made to mislead or unintentionally either way it's wrong. There's no books. The word banning means the book is not a bad. available or to anybody that's where at least what I get the definition of banning so I think it's I think it's wrong that we we use words again either intentionally or not I'm not sure what yeah so can I ask you a question sir here's here's my question for sure and I'm and I mean this sincerely like and so I've had three of my books let's you want to call them if you want to say they're frozen if you want to if I call them banned and I know you think that that

book is available somewhere. But I was a kid who grew up with no books in my house. I know it's available to you. You can go into a bookstore and buy that band, so you think that book's available, correct? Yeah, well, but the word it means it's not banned. So you're talking about it. No, no, what the word means is, what the word means to me is that you can't get it. And I can tell you, as a kid who only got their books from the library, I couldn't afford

books in a bookstore. I couldn't afford to download something from Amazon had it existed back then. My books came from the library. And if you froze my book and pulled I am Billaging King off the shelf, then I can't have it. And if that's not a ban, I don't know what is. That's not, still, that's not the word ban. You're an author. So Keith, Keith, Keith, let me interject here a little bit as an editor here, Keith. You know, when we talk about Brad's books being banned, they're banned by a school district in a certain school district library. That's where they're banned or removed from, not from the entire marketplace, but banned from a certain location as an action was taken or an action was proposed to be taken by a school district.

That's a more accurate, I suppose, description of the ban or the removal. They're banned from a specific place, but to provide's point, not from the entire marketplace. And I think, Keith, That's kind of your point of view as well, as they are available, but perhaps not in that particular location in that particular library. I think the point also is these are government-run institutions, and somebody has to make a decision. So we don't have physics books in kindergarten classes, correct? What do we have a physics books in there? No, listen, here's, I guess, the real point is you're the guy who's cheering when the books are being pulled. That's fine. It's good. Have your say. Have your weight. I know where you stand now.

now that's fine by me I know where you stand you're the guy who's like you know we should have people pulling books off shelves that's fine you picked your side I picked mine respect to you but what will will toward you if you what give you what gives you the right to decide what books get up are appropriate what gives me that I it's not the right it's a children's book right and and and to me I listen I'm the first one to say I'll be the first one to say you should only give appropriate books that are age appropriate I don't disagree with you.

I think that's absolutely right. I won't give pornography to kids. I won't give it. Keith, let me, let me. Don't we live in a republic democracy where we elect people to decide for us certain things like that? What gives you the right over elected officials to make that decision? Keith, I appreciate the question.

I don't think I have any right. I'm going to let Brad go ahead and answer it. And we take some other callers here. Keith, I appreciate you stimulating the conversation. I appreciate Keith because, listen, I believe in free speech. and I believe in his right to make that argument. And I certainly believe that we should be reading the books before we give them the kids. But you know what? I don't believe.

I don't believe that someone should let their venomous hatred of gay people or brown people or black people come in and let one person who is offended decide what the entire community reads. And that's what Keith is, you know, Keith is making a very, actually, I think, accurate a point that it's not up to me, right? And he's exactly right. It shouldn't be up to one person. But what you should also do is make sure that we make these books available but they're appropriately age for kids, which we are doing. And you don't let any parent who's offended decide what the entire community reads. We've got plenty of other call us here.

So I just think we're wasting lots of resources on it. And again, if that's your side, Keith, enjoy it. I got a different side, respectfully. Anne has been patient in Panama City. Anne, we appreciate you listening. You are on the radio now. develop their appropriately aged for kids. Anne, you're running on a delay there, if you would be so kind as to turn your radio down

and join our conversation here on the telephone. We are waiting to hear from you. Okay. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm hearing other voices on there. Go ahead, Ann, you're on the radio. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah.

My name is Anne Sterner for Panama City. I just wanted to say it was back to the PBS stuff with Sesame Street. My daughters, they're now growing women, literally learned how to read and write. I'm not right, but reading account from Sesame Street and so many, so many programs, other programs as well, reading Rainbow, things like that. And then I was also, I'm concerned about the kids of today losing that, but also I'm concerned about losing the radio show that I'm listening to you right now from all the cuts for the public broadcasting station.

So also just discovered your writer and I'm going to be checking out. I'm really talking with the conversation right now. Thank you so much. Anne, we're so great to hear from you from Panama City. I can tell you that we are in strong stead at the Florida Roundup, and I have no plans to go anywhere anytime soon, and I don't think our program and our production partners either as well with your support, Anna, we do appreciate it.

Sheila, in Tampa, it is your turn. We want to hear from you. Go ahead, Sheila. You're on the radio now. Wow, first time. My mother would be so proud. We are all proud of you. Wonderful.

You made it. She turned us on all the whole family. NPR. But Mr. Brad, my son turned me on to your book, The First Conspiracy, and fascinated, never heard about it. I have passed it on as a waitress. I'll see somebody reading. I said, here's the book. This is a book, and I really, I'm one of those people that reads, and then I don't read again for a week, so I reread the first and second chapter over and over, and people, if you want to feel patriotic, that's where it started. It didn't have anything to do with this party or that party

George Washington with something else. That's what America is about choice. You know, we have choices. If somebody, if I'm trying to write books, like I want somebody they don't have to read the book, but if it's there, it would be nice somebody could read the book.

The possibility of. People in my family that are gay, my kids transgender, it's not contagious. It's not a choice, but you don't have to sleep with them. You know, you don't have to even engage with them. Just let B. It's all about choice in America, but read the damn book. I bought it for people and giving it to them. It's fascinating.

Sheila, thank you very much. Thank you very much for making the choice to listen to public radio and supporting it and calling in. We really do appreciate that. Carrie is perhaps one of your neighbors there in Tampa. Carrie, we want to hear from you. Go ahead. You're on the radio. Hi, good afternoon. Thank you for having me. I just want to commend the author on his stance and his ability to see the big picture and the understanding that knowledge is power, ignorance is bliss. And as a Florida public educator,

he is absolutely right that the majority of our children do not have access to the literature that those in wealthier, more affluent areas have. And to ban a book selection from a school library is to the day. detriment of the entire community because there are a multitude of unique learners in our school.

And there is not one right way if we do not allow for the opportunity for knowledge to come through literature. You know, our students not only need to learn to read, but they need to learn how to navigate and question and determine. determine their eventual viewpoints as they mature through a wide variety of pets. Carrie, thank you so much for adding your voice to the conversation. Sean in Miami, we do want to hear from you. You've been very patient.

Thank you. You are on the radio now. Hello, good afternoon. Hi, Sean, you're on the radio. Go ahead. Hey, I just wanted to hear Mr. Meltzer's stance on trans and sports. Trans and sports. Brad, would you like to offer your opinion?

Yeah, you know, it's a tricky one. This is a one where I went to my friend Billy Jean King. And I was at her house. I mean, sorry, I was with, I asked Billy Jean King about it. I also asked Martina Navratilova about it. And it's fascinating. Billy Jean King and Martina Navratil over, too, the most amazing female athletes have opposite views on it.

And it's really interesting. And this is one of those ones where we want to kind of like use that That's the perfect wedge issue, right? It's like it gets half the people mad. And I understand that if I had a daughter who I felt like was beat by someone who had the, you know, was actually a man who now, you know, transitioned, like I understand why that would make you mad. I also understand when it feels like it's, you know, really sad to me that you think because someone wants to be a different version of themselves or sees themselves in other gender that somehow they're excluded from everything that they want. this is one of those hard issues and I think what we have to do in life

you know it's like I keep thinking of I got about 20 seconds Brad sorry I didn't yeah I just keep thinking of the caller I just think that you know I think it's more important to say this is a complex issue than saying what's your stance and now I'm going to judge you on it draw the line as opposed to listen to me

and the same way with that book band that caller who I'm still thinking about you know I think he and I agree more than you realize but I think we have to find the agreement rather than the disagreement We're going to talk a little bit more about just that with Brad Meltzer 305-995-1800 here on the Florida Roundup. Support for Florida Roundup comes from the Everglades Foundation, working to restore and protect Florida's $1 trillion asset that helps to bring clean water to Floridians. Learn more at Everglades Foundation.org.

We're back here on the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Great to have you along. It's a bit of a different program here this week on the Florida Roundup. We are speaking with author Brad Melrose. And Brad, let's talk about empathy here. This is a theme that is woven throughout your writing. Brad is a Floridian. He's a best-selling author of children's books and thrillers.

His newest book is entitled The Viper. Now, Brad, I want to tackle empathy through sports, okay? Not through politics or anything like that or books. Sports is usually apolitical. It's a pastime for so many of us. It can be a social glue that we experience an event together, right, as a community. So let's go to the things. the Jacksonville Jaguars. The football season came to an inglorious end on Sunday. They were playing

the Buffalo Bills in a wildcard playoff game in front of their hometown fans. The Jaggs are down by three. They just got the ball back. They've got three quarters of the field to go to score a touchdown to win. There's one minute left in the game. You can see the yardage line to get to is at the 50. That would match his career long as 68 yard. The game is over as Cole Bishop Gets it off the rebound. The Jags season is over, a season where the team was not expected to be all that great under head coach Liam Cohen. And the bills come down to Jacksonville and break a lot of hearts. After all, it was his first year as an NFL head coach.

In the press conference after the loss, you face the usual questions. Yeah, Liam, just take us through that the last couple of series there. and what your thoughts are and how it ended. On the run game, it seemed like you guys got away from it a little bit in the first half. And then the microphone was handed to Lynn Jones. How you doing today? Lynn Jones, Jacksonville, Free Press News. I just want to tell you, congratulations on your success, young man.

Now, this is not how NFL reporters usually start a post-game question, especially to a losing coach whose season is over. You hold your head up, all right? You guys have had a most magnificent season. Thank you. He did a great job out there today. Appreciate it. your head up, okay?

A shy smile was growing across the coach's face as Jones kept talking. Ladies and gentlemen, Duvall, you the one, all right? You keep it going, we got another season, okay? I appreciate it. Take care and much continued success to you and the entire team. Thank you, ma'am. It was a 22-second exchange. She didn't ask a question about some decision the coach made on the sidelines or a player's

performance in the field. It was simple, it was authentic, an expression of thanks. From one person who lives and works in Jacksonville, thanks for a great football season that the city could take pride in. It just flowed through me, man. It just flowed because it could see the weight on them. And this man here came to Jacksonville in one year. We're 13 and 5.

We are AFC champions. This town, listen, we've won heart, one town. We may be a small town market, but we have big heart. I called Jones this week because in some sports, circles, especially on social media, her pep talk to the coach in a press conference ruffled some people complaining that that's not the role of a sports reporter. They shouldn't be expressing their fandom in a team's media room. Here you are. You praising a man, a coach.

Well, you know, we're recognizing him and, hey, giving him his accolades in a way that is motivating, it's inspiring. Yes. You know what? I'm not, we're not going to Super Bowl, But that's all right. We're going to keep our head up and we will move forward and wait for next year. I'm going to keep our head up, move forward, and wait until next year. Brad, what do you make of this show of empathy just outside a sports locker room? I think that woman was reading a human being on the other side of that table, right? I don't think she, for one, she just was ready to ask her question and that's what you're supposed to do.

And then she saw that weight of like, here's the moment you're going to replay in your head for the next 60 years of your life and I'm supposed to ask you what it was like I'm going to show some empathy and to me that's a beautiful thing I think it's what is getting lost I mean I think you know it's I've been so fun to be on on the side of all these calls but what you see coming through right is like anyone who disagrees with me comes on looking for the fight they want to fight I don't want to fight anybody like I understand you have a different point of view than me but I respect that you have a different point of view. It means you're thinking.

It means you're judging. And I think what we do now is our society is designed to fight. There's a reason why politicians want you mad. There's a reason why cable news wants you mad. There's a reason why your social media feed wants you mad. Because angry people vote and angry people, boy, they listen. They're great for ratings. And you know what angry people do?

They scroll. And if we were just happy with each other and, you know, And your social media feed showed you like, you know, things you like and love all the time, you might go outside and enjoy your life. And instead, what we do is we just fight and fight. And to me, I think we need to do better than that with each other. It's the only way out of this whole work currently in as a culture. You've called your own ideas about empathy and kindness naive.

Yeah, you know, my main character, my book, two of them, one of them believes if you're a good person and you put good into the world, you make the world a better. better place. That's a beautiful idea. That's Zig, right? Zig is a male character. And that's a beautiful idea. It's a completely naive idea, but it's an idea worth fighting for. And Nola, my female character, she's like my girl with the dragon tattoo. If you like the girl with the dragon tattoo, you'll love the viper. And she believes the exact opposite. She believes, you know what, if you want the world to make sense, you grab it by the throat and you force it to make sense, especially when you see injustice. You fight harder than you've ever fought before. And I

used to think, Tom, that in my books, I was trying to just figure out, you know, which version of me is right, because I certainly am Zig. I believe you should put good into the world. And I'm also Nola, right? If you think injustice, you'll hear my anger go up. You'll see, you've got to fight harder than you've ever fought before when someone's being picked on, right? And I thought I was just trying to choose, which one's right, Zigger Nola. But there's this line in the Viper that really got to me. It's a word I never heard of before. It's called Pentamento. And pentamenta was a word, it's a painting term. For when old paint dries and becomes so brittle that you can start, it becomes transparent, and you can see through it.

And what you can do is you can see the pencil lines that the painter made on the canvas before they put the paint down, the rough draft. The mistakes they have there, the regrets they have there, you know, because a tree that's faced in one way they change their mind, it's now facing the other. and I finally realized while writing the Viper is that we're all rough drafts. We all have mistakes. We all have regrets. But you can't make a masterpiece without them. And I think for me, what you have to do is love yourself for who you are, right? Every person listening, even those that have disagreed with me today, we're all Ziganola.

We're all kind, and all of us are also full of fight. And you don't have to choose. What you do have to do is just listen to each other. Brad, our final 60 seconds as we listen to each other, you are a proud graduate of a Big Ten University, the University of Michigan. There's a Big Ten college plane in the big national championship, Indiana University. You're a Floridian. There's a Florida school plane against Indiana, the University of Miami, in this big game on Monday. So Hoosier or Hurricane, Brad Meltzer?

That's a good question. You know what? I have ties to both. I grew up in Miami, so obviously in the 89 when we were winning, it was great. But here's what I'd rather take the last seconds with. This is an important one. is I'll tell you this, is years ago I was in an airport bathroom, not the most glamorous place. And this guy I saw walking out and he said to the janitor, thanks for keeping it clean.

And it struck me. I never talked to the janitor, much less, you know, said a word to him. And I started saying that. In any bathroom, I go into a public restroom, I always see the janitor say, thanks for keeping it clean. But what I love about that story is that that man who inspired me, he doesn't know who I am, I don't know who he is, But for 20 years now, I've been saying thank you for keeping it clean. And what I love even more is my son says it now, not because he heard me or I made him, but he just overheard it once and now does it.

And to me, that's what we have to do with each other. Life's like a boomerang. You throw it out there and that kindness comes back. So everyone that called in today, I hear you. Even the ones I disagree with, I appreciate you. Brad, thank you so much. A artful way to avoid Hoosier or Hurricane, but an important one, nonetheless, Brad Meltzer, author of The Viper.

Brad, thank you so much for spending your time with us here on the Florida Ronda. Much appreciated it. Finally, in the roundup this week, the state is experiencing our first big chill of the air. Temperatures near freezing across the Panhandle, 40s in central Florida, down to the 60s in the Keys. That's certainly cold, but it's nothing like what happened 49 years ago. I remember it like it was yesterday because it was such an extraordinary day. That's Joseph Schwartz. He had moved to Florida just six months earlier.

He was 18 years old back then. It was January 19th, 1977. And he left his apartment in Broward County. getting off to a college class. It was early. It was at 7.30, 8 o'clock in the morning. And first thing I noticed is how cold it was. It was really cold.

And then I walked to my car and I see snow flurries. Snow flurries. Yeah, yeah, snow flurries. It was snowing in South Florida. I was driving to school with the snow hitting my windshield. It was just flurries, but it didn't matter. It didn't matter.

It was snowing. And it was an extraordinary experience. It was snowing in South Florida. Snowing in Miami. Now folks in the panhandle, they may say, sure, we had almost a foot of snow last year. Not all that impressive here. Yes, that is true. That is absolutely true.

But on January 19th, 1977, 49 years ago, this coming Monday, this was the only recorded snowfall in Miami. And by the way, it's a date that's easy to remember for Joseph. The other thing that happened later that day, my nephew was born. My nephew, Richie, was born. It's the same day, yeah, January 19th, 1977. Yeah, so how cool is that? Happy Snow Day birthday, Richie. Oh, and, well, believe it or not,

there's a small chance of what the National Weather Service calls snow showers Saturday night here in Florida, in Pensacola, at least. So that is our program for today. I know we didn't get to all the callers, and we do appreciate you, participating or trying to participate in our conversation, our inbox is always open for you. We never run out of time there. You can send us your thoughts, radio at the florida roundup.org.

Our program is produced by WLRN public media in Miami and WSF in Tampa by Bridger O'Brien and Denise Royal. WLRN's vice president of radio is Peter Maers, the program's technical director is M.J. Engineering help each and every week from Doug Peterson, Harvey Bessard, and Ernesto J. Our theme music from Miami jazz guitarist, Aaron Libos, at Aaron Leibos.com. Thanks again for listening, calling, emailing, and supporting public media here in Florida. I'm Tom Hudson. Have a terrific weekend. Support for Florida Roundup comes from the Everglades Foundation, working to restore and protect Florida's $1 trillion asset that helps to bring clean water to Floridians. Learn more at

at evergladesfoundation.org.org.