Talk of the Towns 10/25/13

Producer/Host: Ron Beard
Studio Engineer: Amy Browne

Issue: Community concerns and opportunities

Program Topic: Slow Money Maine: Connecting Farmers & Food Entrepreneurs to Financing

Key Discussion Points:
A) a) Describe Slow Money Maine, and its connection to the Slow Money “movement” fostered by Woody Tasch (author of Inquiries into the Nature of Slow Money), and to the broader Slow Foods movement
B) How did Slow Money Maine get started and what are some of the highlights of your story?
C) Your work is guided by some basic principles… some framing questions… describe these and how they are used in setting the direction of the organization and making decisions
D) What is the role of the coordinator, Bonnie Rukin and what is the role of the steering committee?
E) Who are your partners and what are the various ways that partners participate? (MOFGA, Crown of Maine, CEI, Maine Farmland Trust, others?)
F) How does Slow Money Maine connect local entrepreneurs and those
“investors” willing to invest via the principles of slow money?
G) Profiles of MOOMilk (Bill) and Cobscook Bay Resource Center (Will)
•Background, mission, how you are organized and governed, connection with Slow Money Maine, how the investments are helping, and your overall relationship?
•What are the challenges of financing projects like yours, and has Slow Money Maine helped re-set the assumptions about financing for other investors to learn from?
•Imagine that we visit your operations in 3-5 years time… what would you hope to show us?
•What have you learned as a result of your partnership with Slow Money Maine?

Guests:
a) Eleanor Kinney, steering committee member, Slow Money Maine
b) Bill Eldridge, MOO Milk
c) Will Hopkins, Cobscook Fisheries Resource Center, Eastport
d) Harold Clossey, Sunrise County Economic Council, Machias

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Talk of the Towns 9/27/13

Producer/Host: Ron Beard
Studio Engineer: Amy Browne

Program Topic: Schoodic Community Fund – Investments in the Future

Key Discussion Points:
a) Describe the assets and the challenges of the Schoodic Peninsula… (history, economy, natural resources, people, organizations, etc)
b)Other examples of community members working to solve problems, take advantage of opportunities?
c)What is the Schoodic Community Fund? What gave rise to the Schoodic Community Fund? What inspired you, who helped translate the underlying concept into reality?
d)Review your most recent round of grants and rationale for those investments How do the mechanics of the fund work… how do you raise money, application process, criteria for funding decisions?
Examples of success/progress from past grants?
What were the early reactions to creation of the fund, how have they changed?
What have you learned so far?
e)Phone interview with Micheal Eastman
Describe the history of the Peninsula School, present opportunities and challenges
What difference has the Schoodic Community Fund made in the life of students and faculty at the Peninsula School?
f)Phone interview with Hope Buckner
What is the focus of the Winter Harbor Library and its programs? How has the Schoodic Community Fund benefitted the library? Why do you donate to the Schoodic Community Fund?
g) Advice for other communities interested in the concept; contact info for Schoodic Community Fund

Guests:
A) Roger Bowen, Chair, Schoodic Community Fund
B)Dick Gilchrist, Vice Chair, Schoodic Community Fund
C)Hope Buckner, board member Winter Harbor Library
D)Micheal Eastman, Principal, Peninsula School

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Talk of the Towns 9/13/13

Producer/Host: Ron Beard
Studio Engineer: Amy Browne

Issue: Community concerns and opportunities

Program Topic: Saving Special Community Spaces

Key Discussion Points:
a) What motivates people to save special places (land, buildings, scenic views, trails) in their communities?
b)What benefits stem from “place saving” efforts and campaigns, including the obvious benefit from saving the “place”?
c)All such place saving efforts have differences, but what are the common elements to a successful effort?
d)Who can help with these sorts of efforts, and what kinds of criteria do they ‘apply’? What motivates people to get involved with “place saving”?
e) Are there any trends you see, as communities identify and act to protect or save special places? What are the challenges, and what gives you hope?

Guests:
A)Jim Dow, Executive Director, Blue Hill Heritage Trust
B)Tom Boutureira, Downeast Coastal Conservancy
C)Dylan Howard, Caterpillar Hill Initiative
D)Mary Laury, Schoodic Arts for All

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Talk of the Towns 8/23/13

Producer/Host: Ron Beard
Studio Engineer: Amy Browne

Program Topic: Maine as Muse: Inspiration for Science Writers

Key Discussion Points:
a) In response to questions from Ron, each guest shares some background about their work and their writing… then each shares a published piece (saving the second piece to close to the end of the show) and shares “lightly”, any context and source of inspiration for this piece…
b) After this first go-round, we have a broader conversation about Maine as a source of inspiration for you and other writers (feel free here, to turn listeners on to those you admire)…
c) Does Maine have a distinct “sense of place” in terms of science and how would you describe its essence… (e.g. coastal or Gulf of Maine bio-regions , edge between northern clime/ecology/species and what lies to our south, edge between fresh and salt water ecology…) Is Maine a good place to be a science writer (aside from serving as source of inspiration)?
d)Move towards conclusion with the second round of readings, and depending on time available, share any public events, publications you will be involved in later in late summer/ fall.
e) What other science writers inspire you and why?
f) Where do you see science “heading” in Maine… trends, potential breakthroughs?

Guests:
A) Catherine Schmitt, Science writer, UM Sea Grant, author of The Coastal Companion, published by Tilbury House, 2008
B) Tom Groening, editor, Working Waterfront News, Island Institute, formerly with the Republican Journal and Bangor Daily News
C) Murray Carpenter, Freelance Journalist, NPR, New York Times Author of forthcoming book, Caffeinated, How our daily habit helps, hurts and hooks us, Hudson Street Press, due out in March of 2014

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Talk of the Towns 8/9/13

Producer/Host: Ron Beard
Studio Engineer: Amy Browne

Program Topic: Maine as Muse for historians

Key Discussion Points:
a) Each guest provides brief background on themselves and what led to their interest in writing about Maine, using historical lenses…
b)Each guest offers a short reading from their own published work, a page or a passage that you are proud of, that invites readers to share your passion for Maine and history
c)What, for you, is so compelling about Maine’s story? How is Maine your muse as a historian?
d)What is your research like… how do you go about it?
e)A recent historical biographer spoke of sources of primary historical data, among them, the public record (official documents), newspaper accounts, and personal archives (letters, diaries, journals) … how have you used these kinds of sources… what surprises have you uncovered?
f)What successful techniques have you found to engage readers in the lives and events of the past? Where are the lines between history and historical fiction… are the lives of real people as compelling as fictional characters?
g)If listeners are interested in Maine history, who else should they be reading… who are your “go to” historians where Maine is concerned?
h)All history is not “formal”… we see interest on the part of local historical groups and others to collect “oral histories” … what do you see in this trend?
i)What other trends do you see ahead (digital archives, family history/geneology…?)

Guests:
A) Tim Garrity, Executive Director, Mount Desert Island Historical Society
B) Nancy Alexander, Isleboro, UM doctoral thesis “’Keeping House’”: the Hidden Economy of Maine Coastal Women 1850-1900”.

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Talk of the Towns 7/26/13

Producer/Host: Ron Beard, University of Maine Cooperative Extension
Engineer: Amy Browne

Program Topic: Conversation with Roxana Robinson about her new novel Sparta, telling the story of a young Iraq War marine veteran and his “homecoming”
Key Discussion Points (list at least 3):
a) Your new novel reflects on both the sending forth and the homecoming we provide for our young soldiers, invoking parallels to the historical Sparta… what inspired you to take up this story?
b) Sparta is told through the experience of Conrad Farrell, and his family—his mother, Lydia, Marshall, his father, his younger siblings, Jenny and Oliver… introduce us to this middle class, white, college-educated family, and the community where they live.
c)When Conrad is a senior in college, he comes home one weekend in the Spring of 2001 and announces he is joining the Marines… his mother, who grew up during the Vietnam War, has assumed that our national memory would prevent us from future entanglements…
d)Conrad serves two tours of duty in Iraq, as an officer. He unit is deployed in Ramadi and Haditha. His training serves him well. He looks out for his men… he writes to the parents of those who are killed… one of his men, Anderson, saves his life… in April 2004, while traveling the east west road in Ramadi, an IED explodes under their HUMVEE… Conrad cradles Olivera in his arms but can’t save him. As members of a Quick Reaction Force, he and his men search a roadside house and encounter a family killed by another Marine patrol, in retaliation for an exploded IED on the passing road.
What in his training allows him to cope, relatively well, as a Marine, and as an officer?
e)Conrad reflects on the importance of mail
f)He is discharged, and lives in a new, bifurcated world: Conrad is living on two planes, the world of blood and sand, in Iraq, and the green normalcy of his home… it proves very difficult to keep these from spinning out of control… how did these various worlds and planes reveal themselves in the interviews you did with Marines and others?
g)Through Conrad’s experiences and thoughts, we discover some of what all soldiers encounter when they return home. As you researched the book, what did you discover about how unprepared soldiers are for their homecoming and how unprepared we are to welcome them home…
h)What other parallels struck you between historic Sparta and our own world, both the culture Marines and the culture that sends them in to battle?
i)What happens to our national memory about going to war? The echos of our national memory about World War II seem to be different than for Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan… what might account for these differences?
j)Sparta tracks the arc of the war in Iraq… what did you learn ( as historian) about our execution of that war that wasn’t obvious from encountering it in nightly headlines?
k) Sparta opens with an epigraph from Simone Weil… would you describe how you came across that line, why it resonates, …The man who does not wear the armour of the lie cannot
experience force without being touched by it to the very soul.

Guest: Roxana Robinson, author of Sparta, published by Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2013 ISBN 978-0-374-26770-4

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Talk of the Towns 7/12/13

Producer/Host: Ron Beard, University of Maine Cooperative Extension
Engineer: Amy Browne

Program Topic: Maine as Muse: inspiration for writers

Key Discussion Points:
a) In response to questions from Ron, each guest shares some background about their work and their writing… then each shares a published piece (saving the second piece to close to the end of the show) and shares “lightly”, any context and source of inspiration for this piece…
b)After this first go-round, we have a broader conversation about Maine as a source of inspiration for you and other writers (feel free here, to turn listeners on to those you admire)…
d) Does Maine have a distinct “sense of place” and how would you describe its essence… draw from the works/descriptions of others, if that is appropriate
e) Is that “sense of place” in any way endangered… if so, how? Is there anything to be done it? (as we teach and nurture our young people, as we support community institutions, etc)
f)Is Maine a good place to be a writer (aside from serving as source of inspiration)?
g) Move towards conclusion with the second round of readings, and depending on time available, share any public events, readings you will be involved in later in summer or fall.

Guests:

A. Kim Ridley, contributing editor, Downeast Magazine, writer, author of the forthcoming children’s book, The Secret Pool, about vernal pools, from Tilbury House this fall
B. Carl Little, poet, author of Ocean Drinker and other works, including Art of Maine’s Islands
C. Candice Stover, poet, author of Poems from the Pond and other works

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Talk of the Towns 6/28/13

Producer/Host: Ron Beard, University of Maine Cooperative Extension
Engineer: Amy Browne

Issue: Community concerns and opportunities

Program Topic: The role of sustainability science in helping us weather the storms

Key Discussion Points:
a) What do we know about the effect of increased numbers and intensity of rain storms on Maine cities and towns and their businesses and residents? What is the scope of the problem, overall and specifically in Ellsworth?
b) In general, how do towns handle stormwater? (civil engineering exercise: water runs downhill, towns channel stormwater in ditches and through culverts, trying to prevent erosion, damage to roads and the problems of flooding)
c) How does Ellsworth budget for repairs to roads, culverts, etc… how many years are you looking ahead to try to plan for managing storm water… how do City Council members and voters respond to your plans to invest in “infrastructure” in hopes of preventing future damage due to storm water?
d) We suspect that these sorts of storms are part of a trend related to climate change… in simple terms, what is happening in the climate that would result in greater numbers of storms and storms of greater intensity?
e) Science has always had two kind of results: advancing basic knowledge and solving problems… the University’s Sustainability Solutions Initiative helps focus science on the latter… give an overview of this effort and what inspired you to link research and municipalities to better adapt to increases in storm water.
f) How is the project working out in Ellsworth… who is involved, what are the various components of the project, what are you learning, what have you tried so far, what shows promise for the future?
g) What are messages for other towns and municipalities? How do listeners learn more?

Guests:
Esperanza Stancioff, Extension Professor, UM Cooperative Extension and Sea Grant
Michelle Gagnon, Planner, City of Ellsworth
Michelle Beal, City Manager, City of Ellsworth (by phone??)
Shaleen Jain Associate Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering Cooperating Associate Professor, Climate Change Institute

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