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USF launches news podcast in partnership with Tampa Bay Times

In each episode, a USF professor and Times reporter will discuss one of Florida’s biggest news stories. ORACLE PHOTO/JUSTIN SEECHARAN

The Tampa Bay Times launched a new podcast titled “Florida in Depth” on Friday in partnership with USF.

Each episode will air semi-regularly and feature USF St. Pete journalism and digital communications professor Elliot Wiser interviewing a Times reporter on a big story they recently reported on.

Each episode will also be produced by a USF student. Thus far, the series producers include journalism and digital communications majors Kelsey Foresta, Jordan Kalajian and Alexander Logue.

The podcast’s goal is to spotlight Florida’s key issues and newsmakers in a digestible format, according to Mark Katches, editor and vice president of the Times.

“Florida in Depth will be another way that the state’s most essential and largest news organization can reach a broader audience with our most consequential journalism,” Katches said.

The first episode featured weather and breaking news reporter Michaela Mulligan discussing the Gulf of Mexico’s increasing water temperatures and how they intensify hurricanes that threaten Florida’s coast. This is the first of a three-part series focused on climate change and its effects on Florida.

The second episode will air on Oct. 16 and feature Pinellas County reporter Jack Evans explaining how climate change accelerates the erosion of Florida’s beaches, and what’s being done to restore them.