Happy Hour with the Historian – Criminal Underworld of Santo Trafficante, Jr.

In 1894, Dr. Cyrus Teed led 200 followers out of Chicago into the mosquito-ridden swamps of Estero, Florida, to build a utopian, socialist commune. The commune was highly industrious and entirely self-sustaining. At its peak between 1903 and 1908, it housed over 250 residents. They cleared the land to build a complex infrastructure featuring a printing press, a bakery, a machine shop, a general store, their own regional power plant, and extensive botanical gardens.

Author and journalist Lyn Millner takes us down the complex path of Dr. Cyrus Teed. He convinced his followers of “cellular cosmogony”—the belief that humanity lives on the inside crust of a hollow planet, with the entire universe contained within it and promised his followers that if they practiced strict celibacy and devoted their love entirely to him, they would achieve physical immortality.Millner’s book The Allure of Immortality is a must-read for unique Florida history fans. Founder of the journalism program at Florida Gulf Coast University, Millner’s work has appeared in the the New York Times, USA Today, Oxford American and on NPR’s Morning Edition.

Doors: 6:00 PM | Program begins: 6:30 PM

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