University of Florida Homepage

The Bob Graham Center for Public Service provides a wide variety of programs for students and the larger public on topics related to public service, public leadership and civic engagement.

Loading Events

« All Events

  • This event has passed.

Craig Pittman: Oh, Florida!

September 26, 2016

Tampa Bay Times reporter Craig Pittman is a native Floridian. He graduated from Troy State University in Alabama, where his muckraking work for the student paper prompted an agitated dean to label him “the most destructive force on campus.” Since then he has covered a variety of newspaper beats and quite a few natural disasters, including hurricanes, wildfires and the Florida Legislature.

Pittman discussed his new book, “Oh, Florida! How America’s Weirdest State Influences the Rest of the Country,” which was published in July 2016. According to its publisher, the book explores the contradictions that make up Florida and “shows how they fit together to make this the most interesting state. It is the first book to explore the reasons why Florida is so wild and weird — and why that’s okay. Florida couldn’t be Florida without that sense of the unpredictable, unexpected, and unusual lurking behind every palm tree. But there is far more to Florida than its sideshow freakiness. Oh, Florida! explains how Florida secretly, subtly influences all the other states in the Union, both for good and for ill.”

Since 1998 he has reported on environmental issues for the Times. He is a four-time winner of the Waldo Proffitt Award for Distinguished Environmental Journalism in Florida and a series of stories on Florida’s vanishing wetlands that he wrote with Matthew Waite won the top investigative reporting award in both 2006 and 2007 from the Society of Environmental Journalists. He is the author of three other books: “The Scent of Scandal: Greed, Betrayal, and the World’s Most Beautiful Orchid” (2012); “Manatee Insanity: Inside the War Over Florida’s Most Famous Endangered Species,” (2010); and, co-written with Waite, “Paving Paradise: Florida’s Vanishing Wetlands and the Failure of No Net Loss,” (2009). He lives in St. Petersburg with his wife and two children.

The event was sponsored by the College of Journalism and Communications and the Bob Graham Center for Public Service.

Image Gallery

Videos

Details

Date:
September 26, 2016
Event Category: