Maine Currents 11/13/25: MAKA – Make America Kind Again

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

Deborah “Dee” Tonken and Elaine Parke, founders of MAKA – the “Make America Kind Again” movement

About the Host:
Amy Browne started out at WERU as a volunteer news & public affairs producer in 2000, co-hosting/co-producing RadioActive with Meredith DeFrancesco. She joined the team of Voices producers a few years later, and has been WERU’s News & Public Affairs Manager since January, 2006. In addition to RadioActive, Voices and Maine Currents, she also produced and hosted the WERU News Report for several years. She has produced segments for national programs including Free Speech Radio News, This Way Out, Making Contact, Workers Independent News, Pacifica PeaceWatch, and Live Wire News, and has contributed to Democracy Now and the WBAI News Report. She is the recipient of the 2014 Excellence in Environmental Journalism Award from the Sierra Club of Maine, and the First Place 2017 Radio News Award from the Maine Association of Broadcasters.

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Maine Currents 10/23/25: U.S./El Salvador Sister Cities- Strong Connections & Shared Threats to Human Rights

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

The relationships forged between local Mainers and folks in El Salvador have been strengthened over the decades, built on mutual respect and learning from each other. In addition to the PICA/Bangor Sister City relationship with the town of Carasque, WERU has a Sister Station, Radio Sumpul, and MOFGA has built connections with farming organizations there. Today both countries seem to be on the same path to authoritarianism, justified in both places as a crack down on crime. Long-time volunteers and staff from U.S./El Salvador Sister Cities weigh in on where we may be headed.

Guests: Kelly Calles, Jon Falk, Olivia Petipas, Zulma Tobar, and Karen Volckhausen

About the Host:
Amy Browne started out at WERU as a volunteer news & public affairs producer in 2000, co-hosting/co-producing RadioActive with Meredith DeFrancesco. She joined the team of Voices producers a few years later, and has been WERU’s News & Public Affairs Manager since January, 2006. In addition to RadioActive, Voices and Maine Currents, she also produced and hosted the WERU News Report for several years. She has produced segments for national programs including Free Speech Radio News, This Way Out, Making Contact, Workers Independent News, Pacifica PeaceWatch, and Live Wire News, and has contributed to Democracy Now and the WBAI News Report. She is the recipient of the 2014 Excellence in Environmental Journalism Award from the Sierra Club of Maine, and the First Place 2017 Radio News Award from the Maine Association of Broadcasters.

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Maine Currents 7/8/25: “In the Shadow of the Eagle” at the Abbe Museum

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

A new exhibition at the Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor is named for Donna Loring’s 2008 book, “In the Shadow of the Eagle: A Tribal Representative in Maine”, and curated by Donna (who also hosts Wabanaki Windows here on WERU) and her regular contributor Professor Darren Ranco, among others. A group of folks involved with the exhibition sat down recently to talk about what went into putting it together, the connections with Donna’s book, and how decolonization efforts at the museum are going. Click on the links below for more information about each of the guests.

Guests:
Donna Loring, former tribal representative to the Maine legislature, Veteran, author/researcher, and award-winning host of Wabanaki Windows on WERU-FM

Betsy Richards, Executive Director, Abbe Museum

Dr. Aaron Miller, Luce Curator of Exhibits, Abbe Museum

Dr. Darren Ranco, Professor of Anthropology and Coordinator of Native American Research and co-curator of the exhibition

James Francis, Penobscot Nation’s Director of Cultural and Historic Preservation, Tribal Historian, Chair of Penobscot Tribal Rights and Resource Protection Board, and artist whose work is part of the exhibition

Wabanaki Windows archives

About the Host:
Amy Browne started out at WERU as a volunteer news & public affairs producer in 2000, co-hosting/co-producing RadioActive with Meredith DeFrancesco. She joined the team of Voices producers a few years later, and has been WERU’s News & Public Affairs Manager since January, 2006. In addition to RadioActive, Voices and Maine Currents, she also produced and hosted the WERU News Report for several years. She has produced segments for national programs including Free Speech Radio News, This Way Out, Making Contact, Workers Independent News, Pacifica PeaceWatch, and Live Wire News, and has contributed to Democracy Now and the WBAI News Report. She is the recipient of the 2014 Excellence in Environmental Journalism Award from the Sierra Club of Maine, and the First Place 2017 Radio News Award from the Maine Association of Broadcasters.

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Maine Currents 5/28/25: Sears Island Update

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

Chris Buchanan, David Italiander, Donna Gold and Jill Howell, residents of Searsport and neighboring towns, have been working on efforts to protect Sears Island permanently. They’re here today with an update

FMI:

Campaign to Protect Sears Island / Wahsumkik
Sears Island Stories
Friends of Sears Island

About the Host:
Amy Browne started out at WERU as a volunteer news & public affairs producer in 2000, co-hosting/co-producing RadioActive with Meredith DeFrancesco. She joined the team of Voices producers a few years later, and has been WERU’s News & Public Affairs Manager since January, 2006. In addition to RadioActive, Voices and Maine Currents, she also produced and hosted the WERU News Report for several years. She has produced segments for national programs including Free Speech Radio News, This Way Out, Making Contact, Workers Independent News, Pacifica PeaceWatch, and Live Wire News, and has contributed to Democracy Now and the WBAI News Report. She is the recipient of the 2014 Excellence in Environmental Journalism Award from the Sierra Club of Maine, and the First Place 2017 Radio News Award from the Maine Association of Broadcasters.

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Maine Currents 4/9/25: Coverage of “Hands Off” rallies in Augusta and Belfast, Maine on 4/5/25

Producer/Host: Amy Browne
Other credits: Matt Murphy – Augusta rally

Coverage of the April 5th, 2025 “Hands Off” rallies in Augusta and Belfast, Maine

FMI: www.handsoff2025.com

About the Host:
Amy Browne started out at WERU as a volunteer news & public affairs producer in 2000, co-hosting/co-producing RadioActive with Meredith DeFrancesco. She joined the team of Voices producers a few years later, and has been WERU’s News & Public Affairs Manager since January, 2006. In addition to RadioActive, Voices and Maine Currents, she also produced and hosted the WERU News Report for several years. She has produced segments for national programs including Free Speech Radio News, This Way Out, Making Contact, Workers Independent News, Pacifica PeaceWatch, and Live Wire News, and has contributed to Democracy Now and the WBAI News Report. She is the recipient of the 2014 Excellence in Environmental Journalism Award from the Sierra Club of Maine, and the First Place 2017 Radio News Award from the Maine Association of Broadcasters.

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Maine Currents 5/29/24: Checking in with our sisters in El Salvador

Producer/Host: Amy Browne
Other credits: Audio segment contributed by John and Katie Greenman.

This part of Maine has strong connections with El Salvador dating back several decades.  Bangor has a sister city there, Carasque; MOFGA has a sister farming community organization, CCR; and WERU has a sister station, Radio Sumpul in El Salvador. Many people from this area have traveled to El Salvador on delegations coordinated by Sister Cities, PICA and MOFGA over the years, including today’s guests (and the host). Members of the most recent delegation talk about what they witnessed earlier this year, and the shift in the country under an authoritarian president.

Guests:
Karen and Paul Volkhausen, Katie Greenman and Willie Marquart

FMI:

Sister Cities: www.elsalvadorsolidarity.org/

PICA:  www.pica.ws/  or www.facebook.com/PICAinMaine

Maine Organic Farmers and Gardener’s Sister Organizations:  Association of Communities for the Development of Chalatenango (CCR), and the Foundation for Cooperation and Development (CORDES). These organizations foster a unique relationship, exchanging information and methods of farming, in addition to facilitating conversations about agricultural globalization and fair trade: www.mofga.org/mofgas-el-salvador-sistering-committee/

WERU’s Sister Station Radio Sumpul:

www.facebook.com/asociacion.Acopsumpul

radiosumpul.org/

weru.org/about/radio-sumpul-werus-sister-station-in-el-salvador/

Organizations working in/with El Salvador:

www.elsalvadorsolidarity.org/cripdes/

www.equipomaiz.org.sv/

Legal support organization, human rights violations including arbitrary arrests, inhumane treatment in detention centers: www.tutelalegalmariajh.org.sv/

Museo de La Palabra y Imagen (Museum of the Word and Image)  for the preservation of historic memory: www.museo.com.sv

Online Resources News Media   (Latin America):

www.wola.org/

elfaro.net/en/202405/el_salvador/27420/us-tries-not-to-offend-bukele-in-annual-human-rights-report

reportfortheworld.org/

gatoencerrado.news/

Books recommended by today’s guests:
robertolovato.com/unforgetting/

uwpress.wisc.edu/books/5754.htm#pk

 

About the Host:

Amy Browne started out at WERU as a volunteer news & public affairs producer in 2000, co-hosting/co-producing RadioActive with Meredith DeFrancesco. She joined the team of Voices producers a few years later, and has been WERU’s News & Public Affairs Manager since January, 2006. In addition to RadioActive, Voices and Maine Currents, she also produced and hosted the WERU News Report for several years. She has produced segments for national programs including Free Speech Radio News, This Way Out, Making Contact, Workers Independent News, Pacifica PeaceWatch, and Live Wire News, and has contributed to Democracy Now and the WBAI News Report. She is the recipient of the 2014 Excellence in Environmental Journalism Award from the Sierra Club of Maine, and the First Place 2017 Radio News Award from the Maine Association of Broadcasters.

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Maine Currents Special 3/29/24: Sears Island, Part 2 of 2

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

A discussion between reps from local environmental groups that are often on the same side on issues.  On the topic of industrializing Sears Island, a 940-acre undeveloped island in Searsport, the groups are split.
Today they sit down together and explain their positions, and learn where they agree — and where they don’t.

Guests:
Francis Eanes, Maine Labor Climate Council
Steve Miller, Islesboro Islands Trust
Jack Shapiro, NRCM
Rolf Olsen, Friends of Sears Island

Links and events that were mentioned by guests or callers:

About the Host:

Amy Browne started out at WERU as a volunteer news & public affairs producer in 2000, co-hosting/co-producing RadioActive with Meredith DeFrancesco. She joined the team of Voices producers a few years later, and has been WERU’s News & Public Affairs Manager since January, 2006. In addition to RadioActive, Voices and Maine Currents, she also produced and hosted the WERU News Report for several years. She has produced segments for national programs including Free Speech Radio News, This Way Out, Making Contact, Workers Independent News, Pacifica PeaceWatch, and Live Wire News, and has contributed to Democracy Now and the WBAI News Report. She is the recipient of the 2014 Excellence in Environmental Journalism Award from the Sierra Club of Maine, and the First Place 2017 Radio News Award from the Maine Association of Broadcasters.

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Maine Currents Special 3/28/24: Sears Island, Part 1 of 2

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

A discussion of Governor Mills’ recent announcement that undeveloped Sears Island in Searsport  is the state’s preferred location to build an offshore wind terminal.
What do people who have worked to protect the island from threats in the past think about this proposal?
For the guests who were part of the planning process, what are your feelings about that?
If not Sears Island, where?

Guests:
Steve Miller, Islesboro Islands Trust
Jack Shapiro, NRCM
Francis Eanes, Maine Labor Climate Council
Becky Bartovics, Maine Chapter of the Sierra Club
Rolf Olsen, Friends of Sears Island
Chris Buchanan, Searsport resident

Links and events that were mentioned by guests or callers:

About the Host:

Amy Browne started out at WERU as a volunteer news & public affairs producer in 2000, co-hosting/co-producing RadioActive with Meredith DeFrancesco. She joined the team of Voices producers a few years later, and has been WERU’s News & Public Affairs Manager since January, 2006. In addition to RadioActive, Voices and Maine Currents, she also produced and hosted the WERU News Report for several years. She has produced segments for national programs including Free Speech Radio News, This Way Out, Making Contact, Workers Independent News, Pacifica PeaceWatch, and Live Wire News, and has contributed to Democracy Now and the WBAI News Report. She is the recipient of the 2014 Excellence in Environmental Journalism Award from the Sierra Club of Maine, and the First Place 2017 Radio News Award from the Maine Association of Broadcasters.

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