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Carl Hiaasen is a best-selling, award-winning novelist, a columnist for the Miami Herald, and our pre-eminent articulator of all things Florida — that most confounding and fascinating of states, both politically and culturally. His new young adult novel "Chomp" focuses on Wahoo Cray, who lives in a zoo and whose animal wrangler father gets a job on the survivalist reality TV show "Expedition Survival!," hosted by an overzealous and incompetent danger-seeker.

Initially scheduled for March, Florida fought to have its primary moved up to January this year — and lost 50 delegates in the process. With a record number of voters turning up to the polls, it's clear that the sunshine state wants to assert itself as a political kingmaker alongside Iowa and New Hampshire.

Author Carl Hiaasen is not afraid to call a spade a "phony with a $134 haircut" — even when the man in question is the Senator-elect from Florida, Marco Rubio. Hiaasen is a Miami Herald columnist and novelist, has been praised for writing with "wit, style and an abiding sense of justice," and he brings that sensibility to tracking Florida's Senate and gubernatorial races.

We take a look at Florida's Senate and gubernatorial results with Hiaasen.

Best selling author Carl Hiaasen has made a living shamelessly stealing outrageous stories from the headlines of Florida's newspapers. He rips them from the headlines because their real flavor lends a sense of realism to his satire. Hiaasen's latest novel, "Star Island," is no exception.

Novelist Carl Hiaasen came on The Leonard Lopate Show to discuss some of his favorite picks.

Journalist, columnist, and novelist Carl Hiaasen discusses his latest novel, Star Island, about a 22-year-old pop star about to attempt a comeback from her latest drug-and-alcohol disaster, and her “undercover stunt double,” who is kidnapped from a South Beach hotel by an obsessed paparazzo. He’ll also talk about the weekly column he’s been writing in the Miami Herald and his take on the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

It may be a swing state, but Miami Herald columnist and author Carl Hiaasen says that if the nation's politics follow the same path as his home state of Florida, we all might as well move to the Bahamas. It's hard to argue against the assertion that Florida's political climate is getting weird — just this week, Governor Charlie Crist took a swipe at his competitor for senate Marco Rubio by accusing him of back-waxing. Hiaasen explains why Florida is on the cutting edge of political innovation when it comes to gall, graft and gripes.