Welcome to the Sunshine State.

Shadows in the Sunshine State

Full Episode

Welcome to the Sunshine State.

Diane Macdonald / Alamy Stock Photo

Fiction, fantasy and reality in the Sunshine State. Lauren Groff talks about writing — and surviving — in Florida. The writer Carl Hiaasen tells Kurt Andersen how he turns sleaze into sunshine noir. In Celebration, Florida, fantasy meets reality. How the Florida wilderness helped create Jeff VanderMeer’s apocalyptic landscape. And Judy Blume tours her old stomping grounds in Miami Beach.

In This Episode

Lauren Groff and the cover of her new book, “Florida.”
Unexpected gains in Gainesville
Special Coverage
Carl Hiaasen
Carl Hiaasen’s sunshine noir
Special Coverage
Shops, offices and apartments on Market Street in Celebration, Florida.
The town that Disney built
Special Coverage
Judy Blume and her younger self pose in front of her childhood apartment building in Miami Beach.
Are you there, Florida? It’s me, Margaret.
Special Coverage
The book cover and a movie still from “Annihilation.”
In a remote corner of Florida, an apocalypse blooms
Special Coverage