Maine: The Way Life Could Be — DEBUT! 2/1/22

Producers/Hosts: Jim Campbell and Amy Browne
With assistance from: Ann Luther, Matt Murphy, Scott Byrd and Pepin Mittelhauser

This new series is made possible in part by a grant from the Maine Arts Commission:

Travelers entering Maine on the Maine Turnpike from the south are greeted by a sign that says Maine: The Way Life Should Be. Assuming for a moment that is true today, we wondered what would make it true in the future.

There are a lot of challenges – and perhaps opportunities – that will affect what life is like in Maine in the not too distant future, the future that people listening right now will probably see in their lifetimes. We decided to take a look at some of those challenges and opportunities, and get some ideas about what Life Could Be in Maine in the future – hence the name of the program series.

Of course, that bought up the question of just what are the most important challenges facing Maine now that will extend into the future. We had some ideas but we needed to find out what ideas others had about that question to enable us to identify topics for the programs in the series. So we asked.

Regular WERU listeners may recall recently hearing an invitation on the WERU airwaves to attend a video conference call, and to share their ideas about important challenges facing our state that will affect our common future – and that will help us to know what topics future programs in the series should include.

More than 25 people joined that videoconference, and many offered their ideas and concerns about important issues we will need to address if we want Maine to remain a place where we want to live in the future. We’ll hear from some of those who shared their ideas during that video conference first. Later in the program, we’ll hear from three people in our listening area working in local government– whose job it is to not only take care of today’s local needs, but also to plan to deal with the needs of tomorrow. We’ll get some of their ideas about what issues we will have to address going forward.

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