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Many people know Matt Morgan for his days as a wrestler taking on opponents like Ric Flair.
Morgan said Flair stepped out of retirement to help him launch his career to the next level.
Following his wrestling career, Morgan has stepped into a new arena. He is now the Deputy Mayor of Longwood and is using his position to help people with autism find the resources they need.
During a recording of Florida’s Fourth Estate, Morgan told Matt Austin and Ginger Gadsden his son Jackson has helped spur his passion.
“He was diagnosed as non-verbal autistic,” Morgan said. “He pushes and nudges us in the direction of things that he wants.”
He said his son and others on the spectrum experience the world differently. As Morgan and his wife have worked to provide Jackson with the resources he needs he said they found many great things worth sharing.
So the couple is bringing those resources together this weekend during the Second Annual Longwood Walk for Autism and Inclusion.
He said not only will families have the opportunity to come out and enjoy therapy pets and cartoon characters, but they will also be connected with more than 50 Central Florida vendors that cater to people who are neurodiverse.
The event is free.
It will be held Saturday, April 27 from 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. at Reiter Park in Longwood.
You can learn more about the event and Morgan’s career as a wrestler on Florida’s Fourth Estate.
You can download the podcast from wherever you listen to podcasts or watch anytime on News 6+.
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Michelle Armogida loves spending time outdoors tending to her farm in Brevard County, but she never imagined she would be spending three weeks outside with a complete stranger.
Armogida said it all started when she and her husband were watching their favorite TV show.
“Every time we would watch he would say, ‘Oh my gosh babe, you are so much better than these people. Why don’t you sign up?’ And at first I was like, ‘Ha ha very funny,’ but after he had said it multiple times, I finally went, ‘Well he’s not wrong.’ So then I was like, ‘You know what? I’m going to sign up.’ It was a super quick, five-minute, I didn’t even fill out the entire application. I submitted it just to get him off my back. Had no hopes of ever being contacted.”
Then she said the producers from “Naked and Afraid” actually reached out.
“They sent me an email and I thought it was a scam, I thought it was like fake,” said Armogida.
She figured out, it was legit and soon after she was dropped off in South Africa with a stranger, sans clothes. The new duo was left to create their own shelter, hunt for food and survive for 21 days.
Armogida told Matt Austin and Ginger Gadsden on Florida’s Fourth Estate her unique upbringing prepared her for the opportunity.
“I grew up in Western Washington on a small homestead where we grew our own food and we were just backed up to the forest where my brothers and sisters and I would go out into the forest barefoot all day every day and we’d build forts and we would find food to eat that, who knows, didn’t kill me, I’m still here today. And we would just live as like wild forest children. So, I’m very comfortable in that environment,” Armogida said.
She also told Matt and Ginger she was a hiker for many years and knows how to identify food in the wild.
“I have a long extensive background in wild edible identification and foraging, mushrooming as well. I am also a huntress,” Armogida said.
Since her interview on Florida’s Fourth Estate, Armogida announced her next big challenge to premiere on Discovery Channel will be on Naked and Afraid XL. That show will be available on May 12 on Discovery Channel. Her previous show can also be streamed on Max and Discovery+.
Learn more about Armogida’s military service, farm in Mims, and what it was like to survive in South Africa for three weeks on Florida’s Fourth Estate. The podcast is available from wherever you listen to podcasts and anytime on News 6+.
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When people think about hopping on a cruise ship they think about driving to the coast, boarding a boat, and setting sail, but, now you can enjoy the water while staying inland by hopping aboard the Barbara Lee.
It is a 1986 river ship that takes people through Lake Monroe and into the St. John’s River.
It can fit up to 300 people and if you come out on a Friday night, the new owner said you can enjoy the experience for as little as $25.
Michelle Wyatt recently purchased the St. Johns Rivership Co. with the goal of letting more people know about the hidden gem. She said it has been in operation for 40 years, but only started offering tickets online since she purchased it.
Wyatt told Matt Austin and Ginger Gadsden on Florida’s Fourth Estate owning a piece of Florida history is a point of pride for her.
“Steamboats, riverships have been in Sanford for over 100 years now and the fact that we are the last one really speaks to me,” Wyatt said.
She also enjoys the fact that people visit her to celebrate life’s biggest milestones.
“We have had a number of people married on the boat that come back year after year to celebrate their anniversary,” Wyatt said.
She said birthday celebrations are also popular aboard the Barbara Lee.
“We had three centenarians on the same cruise, celebrating their Birthday, it was 100, 102, and 105,” Wyatt said.
Cruises range from two to four hours and if you are lucky you may even spot some unique wildlife.
“We actually have bull sharks in this river. They suspect that they come in to give birth and then they head back out to the ocean, but yes there are bullsharks in this water especially if they have young,” Wyatt said,
Wyatt said guests also enjoy seeing manatee and osprey. She is renovating the ship but said she is also holding on to the history that attracted her to it in the first place.
“The words we are going for is ‘historical elegance.’ You know that old Florida feel which is encompassed by the paddle wheels and obviously the decoration throughout it, and the lighting.”
You can get your ticket to hop onboard the Barbara Lee here.
You can also learn more about the boat, how you can get behind the wheel and the woman who left a tech career to run this unique operation on Florida’s Fourth Estate. You can download the podcast from wherever you listen to podcasts or watch anytime on News 6+.
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Sanford is charming and inviting. It boasts a growing craft beer scene and enough restaurants and small shops to keep you engaged all weekend long.
But, the original plans for the city were much larger.
Brigitte Stephenson is the museum curator at the Sanford Museum. She talked to Matt Austin and Ginger Gadsden on Florida’s Fourth Estate about what almost was.
“Henry Sanford originally came down here in Florida and realized after the American Civil War that Florida was probably going to be a place that’s going to rebound, mainly because of citrus,” she said.
Sanford had a wealth of knowledge about the citrus industry and was even inducted into the Citrus Hall of Fame for his experimental gardens and groves.
So when he came to the area that is now named in his honor, he thought it was the perfect spot to design a city because it was the end of the line for riverboats on the St. John’s River.
“We were going to become the gateway city. The idea was that we would be the gateway to South Florida,” Stephenson said.
For a while, Stephenson said Sanford was the major Central Florida town in the area thanks in part to investors in the United Kingdom pouring into Henry Sanford’s Florida Land and Colonization Company.
But she said, “There are several different factors for why we didn’t become what Orlando is today.”
One reason is people who were focused on agriculture didn’t want to grow.
She said another is because, “We had a mayor on the eve of the great recession, turns out he was embezzling money.”
The fact that Henry Flagler built a railroad system to the Keys also cut into the plan of establishing Sanford as the gateway to the South.
Still, the town continued to establish itself as a citrus hub, despite controversy within the workforce.
“Henry Sanford tries originally hiring the local population, he does not think they do a good job and fires them. Then he tries bringing in people who were formerly enslaved, that were Black from Monticello, Florida in this area. Now, most of the people he fired before were white and very upset that they viewed these people were taking their jobs and tried to conduct a series of basically intimidation and murder to drive out these workers in the area,” Stephenson said.
She pointed out, “That’s the reason we have Georgetown, which is a historically Black community that was recently inducted in the National Register.”
To help overcome this issue, Henry Sanford brought in Swedish workers.
“Underneath the contract labor law, he is able to bring in Swedes and they have to work for him for five years and that would pay for their room, and boarding, and passage and they would eventually get a little bit of property in what is the area that we call New Upsala.”
After overcoming the heat, Stephenson said those families quickly assimilated and pointed out you will still meet a lot of people with Swedish last names in the area.
“But unfortunately, we had a freeze in 1895 and 1896 that destroyed our citrus industry and instead of being like, ‘Welp, I give up,’ the people of Sanford decided to do another luxury crop and they chose celery,” Stephenson said.
You wouldn’t know it, based on prices today, but Stephenson said, “It used to be considered one of the most expensive vegetables” and that “You can actually look at old hotel menus, like The Waldorf, and it’s like blanched celery is as much as like filet mignon or something like that, it’s wild.”
However, the celery gold mine also fizzled out after Stephenson said farmers over-inflated the industry to the point celery was no longer considered a unique commodity.
Despite the fact Sanford didn’t become everything Henry Sanford planned for it to become, Stephenson said it’s still a great place to call home.
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Dr. Joseph Dituri’s story of spending 100 days underwater gained worldwide attention back in June when he resurfaced from the Jules’ Undersea Lodge in Key Largo, shattering former record attempts.
Now we are learning more about the health benefits that came along with that study.
The retired Navy diver and Executive Director of the International Board of Undersea Medicine said being underwater for so long was like being in a hyperbaric chamber.
He told Matt Austin and Ginger Gadsden on the Florida’s Fourth Estate podcast that being nestled about 30 feet under the lagoon for more than three months, reversed the age of his DNA.
“I’m 56 now. My extrinsic age was 44. When I got out of the water my extrinsic age was 34. So my telomeres lengthened, I actually got younger when I was under the water,” Dituri said.
To better explain how it works, Dituri explained, “On the end of your chromosome, you have these little extensions.... and every time you replicate this, the telomere shrinks, shrinks, shrinks, shrinks, shrinks... let’s just say you get one-thousand replications. That’s all you get. When the telomeres are gone, you have no more ability to replicate, that’s called cell death... so that is truly the world-class definition of aging. But, if you can make that telomere longer you can actually extend life.”
He said 9 months later his telomeres are still longer than they otherwise would be.
Those aren’t the only benefits.
Dituri said he also had 17 times the number of stem cells as usual and a reduction in pain which was likely associated with the fact that his inflamatory markers were reduced by 50%.
He said these kinds of results are promising but not altogether surprising.
He said hyperbaric treatment has been used for hundreds of years and is currently being used to treat people with brain injuries and PTSD because of its ability to help with cognitive issues.
However, the treatment is not open to everyone.
He said people interested in getting it do need a prescription from a doctor and treatments can start at $250 per hour.
You can learn more about the results of Dituri’s time underwater for 100 days and the following research that took him into weightlessness on Florida’s Fourth Estate. You can download the podcast from wherever you listen to podcasts or watch anytime on News 6+.
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Some of the most recognizable names in golf used to walk the greens at Rio Pinar Golf.
Now the new owners are hoping they will inspire the next golf greats to get their start in East Orange County with their family at their side.
Gregor Tilch-Jensen and his wife recently bought Rio Pinar Golf and the duo isn’t wasting any time breathing new life into the historic golf course.
If the walls could talk they would probably tell you all about the Florida Citrus Open.
“It was a great event they hosted here with an unbelievable winner’s list, from Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino, Hale Irwin, Julius Boros, all Hall of Famers and people who tried to win here and never did, Sam Sneade, Jack Nicklaus, they were here, couldn’t do it.”
But, the walls would also tell you about the new owners’ plans to go beyond that history.
Tilch-Jensen stood on the green telling the hosts of Florida’s Fourth Estate that he sees this location as less “members only” and more community.
“We want to be a destination for families,” Tilch-Jensen said.
He said he is bringing new technology to his hitting bays, building a pickleball court and re-furbishing one of his tennis courts.
The amateur golfer turned instructor, turned golf course owner told hosts Matt Austin and Ginger Gadsden that creating a space where parents and kids can play together is near and dear to his heart.
“My kids love golf as well. My wife and I met on a golf course. It’s just part of our life, it always has been,” Tilch-Jensen said.
He admitted it’s not as popular of a sport in his home country of Germany, but once he got a hold of a golf club, he fell in love and wanted to introduce that passion to the next generation of golf enthusiasts.
To do that he said he has developed a long-term plan, which involves moving his wife and their children to Central Florida. He said he is committed to making Rio Pinar Golf a success again.
“You want to make it work and you don’t want to let down the people you love the most,” he said.
His wife is fully onboard and has focused on helping to redesign the interior of the golf course’s clubhouse.
“It’s not really like a golf club, it’s really loungy-modern, which is located at a golf course. Leaving the former Champions’ Room, which is now the Oak Room, just modernize that a little bit, which you still have the history part of it and still have the trophy from Arnold Palmer in it, but that’s a separate space, so now again, everyone feels comfortable,” he said.
To learn more about Tilch-Jensen’s plans for Rio Pinar Golf check out Florida’s Fourth Estate. You can download the podcast from wherever you listen to podcasts and watch it anytime on News 6+.
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