How Florida’s Swampland Became America’s Dream
Our American Stories
iHeartPodcasts
4.6 • 817 Ratings
🗓️ 15 August 2025
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this episode of Our American Stories, before the beaches, theme parks, and high-rises, Florida was mostly swampland. In the 1950s, a wave of entrepreneurs arrived with a different vision. Jason Vuic, author of The Swamp Peddlers, explains how these ambitious salesmen helped reshape the state into one of the fastest-growing places in the country. With oversized promises and aggressive pitches, they turned mosquito-ridden plots into retirement gold.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an IHeart podcast. |
| 0:04.5 | Adventure should never come with a pause button. |
| 0:07.1 | Remember Movie Pass? |
| 0:08.4 | All the movies you wanted for just nine bucks? |
| 0:11.1 | I'm Bridget Todd, host of There Are No Girls on the Internet. |
| 0:13.9 | And this season, I'm digging into the tech stories we weren't told. |
| 0:17.4 | Starting with Stacey Spikes, the black founder of movie pass who got pushed out of the company |
| 0:21.6 | he built. |
| 0:22.8 | Everybody's trying to knock you down and it's not going to work and no one's going to like it. |
| 0:27.3 | And then boom, it's everywhere. |
| 0:29.3 | And that was that moment. |
| 0:30.7 | Listen to there are no girls on the internet on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. |
| 0:46.3 | Music or wherever you get your podcast. This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories, the show where America is the star |
| 0:52.7 | and the American people. |
| 0:54.8 | To search for the Al American Stories podcast, go to the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 1:03.5 | Our country is filled with many different kinds of states, filled with different kinds of people. |
| 1:08.4 | Some of our states are filled with people from other states. |
| 1:12.2 | Here to tell the story of who sold Florida is Jason Vueck, author of The Swamp Peders. |
| 1:20.0 | Take it away, Jason. |
| 1:22.8 | So when I was growing up, people would go, hey, ah, Florida boy, you know. |
| 1:26.8 | What was the beach like grown up? |
| 1:28.3 | And I'm like, I didn't grow up near the beach. |
... |
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