Talks

Find upcoming talks!

Bring Eliot to your group! To schedule a talk email Eliot with a full inquiry.

Select from one of the following topics (talks with *asterisk are eligible for Florida Humanities Council grants):

Boom and Bottle: Florida in the Roaring Twenties — Florida and South Florida have gone through wild times. It can be argued that none was as wild as the Roaring Twenties. Boomtown Florida was a free-for-all of real estate development. Property values soared and speculators grew rich as people bought, often unseen, land that at times turned out to be swamp. At the same time, Prohibition was the law in America, but in South Florida, it was a joke. Suppliers became folk heroes and the lawman the villain. That combination drew not just the swells and the high-rollers, but also predatory land agents, shady gamblers, pimps, bank robbers, and, of course, murderers. And when everything crashed, it crashed hard.  The wild decade is the setting for The Adventures of Nate Moran, a series featuring the memorable Miami police detective. Hypocrite's Row came out in 2026 and The Treasure of Indian Key is set for release in 2027.

Peace River: Florida in the Civil War: Florida might be the most "northern" southern state now, but it played a far more strategic role than most history books let on. Learn how it inspred Eliot’s historical novel Peace River.

Hypocrite’s Row: Prohibition in Florida –In Florida, the “Noble Experiment” was a joke. Here was a thirsty tourist trade, local officials vulnerable to corruption, miles of open beaches and coves, a vast Everglades to hide stills, and a smuggling pipeline from nearby islands. All Prohibition did was hand South Florida's lucrative alcohol business to criminals. Learn about the wild time that inspired Hypocrite’s Row, the first of Eliot’s “Adventures of Nate Moran” novels.

*Weird Florida!: From the book that started it all in 1998: Cows in the Intracoastal Waterway to haunted airliners to celebrity sex scandals: it all happens in Florida. Is there a weirder state? Eliot's comedic delivery and multimedia displays leave audiences roaring.

*War in Paradise: World War II in Florida: From U-Boat sinkings right off Florida's coast to sprawling military bases, hear how a war a world away — and up close and personal — changed a small corner of America to one of its most populous states.

*Hurricane!: How these amazing but devastating weather machines work and how they affected Florida, focusing on the great 1928 storm, subject of Eliot's award-winning Black Cloud.

Jim Crow in Florida: Florida now is the most “northern” of the southern states. But in the late 1800s and early 1900s, it still was fiercely Southern. And like much of the South, to its shame, it deeply embraced Jim Crow. It wasn’t just separate water fountains and restrooms. Florida also was the site of lynchings, massacres and innumerable miscarriages of justice. In the 1950s and 1960s, leaders were concerned resistance to the civil rights movement would harm Florida’s critical tourist-friendly image, so it could have been uglier. But it was ugly enough.

Florida's Amazing History and Why You Should Care: A whirlwind tour of 500 years of Florida history, capped with a strong argument that Florida's biggest challenge is encouraging its transplants to become Floridians.

Discovering Florida: Eliot’s guide to Florida sites, the Historical Traveler’s Guide to Florida, is dripping with history and remains popular with tourists, snowbirds, newcomers and even longtime Floridians. Hear him list his favorite spots and tell you why they’re special.

Best of “Florida Time:” In 2019, Eliot began a column on Florida history that ran in some two dozen newspapers. Hear him recount his favorite segments.

Best of “Post Time:” Palm Beach County residents will recall the original local history column that ran for some two decades in The Palm Beach Post. Hear Eliot describe his favorite local people, places and events.

“Something Went Horribly Wrong!:" Very few of you will write for a living. But all of you need to know how to write. Fact errors, mistakes, redundancies, and clichés aren’t good for business, or anything else. Learn how to do it the right way. And see hilarious examples of folks who got it wrong.