Nadine Smith at the Equality Florida gala in St. Petersburg, Florida in May 2022. Credit: Nick Cardello / Creative Loafing Tampa Bay
Life in Florida feels like a trainwreck if you’re even remotely progressive, but there are still a bunch of folks out there taking the fight seriously.

One of them is Nadine Smith, longtime Executive Director of Equality Florida and host of WMNF Tampa’s public affairs radio show Wide Awake America. Smith is the first guest when Tampa Tribune alum and Florida Trident contributing editor Tom Scherberger hosts “Wavemakers Live” a new, in-person series borne of the WMNF show of the same name.

The name of the talk—”Frontline Florida: Blueprint for Resistance”—says it all.

Tickets to Wavemakers Live happening Thursday, Aug. 21 at The Commodore in Ybor City are still available and start at $10. Readers are invited to submit their own events to Creative Loafing Tampa Bay’s things to do calendar.

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This article appears in Aug 14-20, 2025.

Read his 2016 intro letter and disclosures from 2022 and 2021. Ray Roa started freelancing for Creative Loafing Tampa in January 2011 and was hired as music editor in August 2016. He became Editor-In-Chief...