World Ocean Radio 5/28/25: Circulation

Host: Peter Neill
Producer: Trisha Badger

ABOUT THIS EPISODE
We live in a world of invisible circulation. It is in us and around us at all times, transporting and exchanging all things good and bad, some natural, some man-made. This week we’re discussing the ocean-fresh water system–the full global circulation of which all life depends.

WORLD OCEAN RADIO
5-minute weekly insights dive into ocean science, advocacy and education hosted by Peter Neill, lifelong ocean advocate and maritime expert. A catalog of more than 730 episodes offering perspectives on global ocean issues and solutions, and celebrating exemplary projects. Available for RSS feed and broadcast by college and community radio stations worldwide via Exchange.prx.org and Audioport.org. Visit WorldOceanObservatory.org for the full catalog, searchable by theme.

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RadioActive 5/27/25: Efforts to Stop Cooperation with ICE in Maine : Bills in Legislature

Producer/Host: Meredith DeFrancesco
A grassroots environmental and social justice news journal, collaboration of WERU and Sunlight Media Collective. Learn more at sunlightmediacollective.org.

As stops, arrests and detentions of immigrant residents within Maine have escalated, including those with work permits, green cards or in legal process of seeking asylum, the Maine legislature is currently considering two bills that would curtail the state’s complicity.

LD 1259 would prohibit state and local law enforcement from doing the work of federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) through so called 287g contracts.
A second bill, LD 1971, would prohibit state and local law enforcement from stopping, arresting or detaining a person solely for immigration enforcement reasons.

The Trump administration’s national strategy of unfettered mass deportations and campai gn of fear, includes enlisting the cooperation of state and local police forces and use of county jails throughout the country.

Both proposed bills had a public hearing on May 19, with massive public attendance opposing ICE operations. The work session on the bills is Wednesday, May 28th at 1pm.
The Judiciary Committee is still accepting written public comments.

Guests:
Representative Ambureen Rana from Bangor.
Crystal Cron, Presente Maine founding director.
Anahita Sotoohi, Maine ACLU staff attorney.
Lisa Parisio, Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project (ILAP).
Attendees of demonstration at Augusta Statehouse.
Members of the public at Cumberland County Commision meeting in Portland.

FMI:
www.presentemaine.org/
ilapmaine.org/
www.aclumaine.org/
www.mainelegislature.org/legis/bills/getPDF.asp?paper=HP0834&item=1&snum=132
legislature.maine.gov/bills/getPDF.asp?paper=HP1315&item=1&snum=132

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Wabanaki Windows 5/27/25: Vermont Recognized Tribes

Producer/Host: Donna Loring
Other credits: Technical assistance for the show was provided by Joel Mann of WERU, and Jessica Lockhart of WMPG.
Music by Ralph Richter, a track called little eagles from his CD Dream Walk.

Wabanaki Windows is a monthly show featuring topics of interest from a Wabanaki perspective.

This month: The creation of Tribes by the State and what the process is for recognition and how groups of people who have no ancestral history of being Native becoming recognized as Tribes can be harmful to those Tribes who do have a ancestral history and are recognized by other Tribes and the Federal government.

Guest/s:
Prof Darren Ranco, a member of the Penobscot Nation, Professor of Anthropology and Chair of Native American Studies at the University of Maine.

Mali Obomsawin, is Abenaki and a citizen of the Odanak Nation. She is an internationally renowned musician recently nominated for her work in the film Sugar Cane. Mali is also a Social Justice Activist who is working to bring to light issues that stem from the State Recognition of five Tribes in Vermont

Prof. Harald Prins, Emeritus Kansas State University.

About the host:
Donna M Loring is a Penobscot Indian Nation Tribal Elder, and former Council Member. She represented the Penobscot Nation in the State Legislature for over a decade. She is a former Senior Advisor on Tribal Affairs to Governor Mills. She is the author of “In The Shadow of The Eagle A Tribal Representative In Maine”. Donna has an Annual lecture series in her name at the University of New England that addresses Social Justice and Human Rights issues. In 2017 She received an Honorary Doctoral Degree in Humane Letters from the University of Maine Orono and was given the Alumni Service Award. It is the most prestigious recognition given by the University of Maine Alumni Association. It is presented Annually to a University of Maine graduate whose life’s work is marked by outstanding achievements in professional, business, civic and/or Public service areas. Donna received a second Honorary Doctorate from Thomas College in May of 2022

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Outside the Box 5/27/25: “Trust in Land, Land in Trust”

Producer/Host: Larry Dansinger

About the host:
Larry Dansinger (no pronouns) of Bangor came to Maine in 1974 and has been here ever since. Some of Larry’s activities since then: Done community organizing on numerous issues through INVERT and then Resources for Organizing and Social Change (ROSC), committed civil disobedience several times, grown a garden yearly since 1977, joined various food cooperatives and two men’s groups, refused to pay federal income taxes for war, lived on a community land trust for 23 years, and met a wonderful partner whom Larry has loved for over 40 years. Larry has produced Outside the Box features on WERU since 2007 and continues to look for unique ways of seeing almost any problem or situation.

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Blue Hill Mountain Stories 5/27/25: Megan Granger

Producer/Host: Rosy Landrum
Interviewer: Myles Montgomery & Charlotte Snow
Project Leader: Phelan Gallagher
Technical Assistance: Pepin Mittelhauser
Music: Foreside Date by David Renda (copyright/royalty free)

The Blue Hill Mountain Stories feature interviews from local residents, conducted by the George Steven’s Academy audio production class. Each interviewee reflects upon their time on the Blue Hill peninsula, particularly surrounding the mountain itself. This series was produced for WERU by Rosy Landrum.

About the Host: Rosy Landrum is a George Stevens Academy student, WERU DJ, and Blue Hill peninsula resident. You can find her on Midnight Train from 10-12 pm Wednesdays.

 

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A Word in Edgewise 5/26/25: Of Decoration Day, Doxycycline, & Alan Dugan . . .

Producer/Host: R.W. Estela

Hi, I’m RW Estela: Since 1991, I’ve been presenting A Word in Edgewise, WERU’s longest-running short feature, a veritable almanac of worldly and heavenly happenings, a confluence of 21st-century life in its myriad manifestations, international and domestic, cosmopolitan and rural, often revealing, as the French say, the more things change, the more they stay the same — though not always! Sometimes in addressing issues affecting our day-to-day lives, in this age of vagary and ambiguity, when chronological time is punctuated elliptically, things can quickly turn edgy and controversial, as we search for understanding amid our dialectic. Tune in Monday mornings at 7:30 a.m. for an exciting journey through space and time with a few notable birthdays thrown in for good measure during A Word in Edgewise . . .

About the host:
RW Estela was raised as a first-generation American in Colorado by a German mother and a Corsican-Basque father who would become a three-war veteran for the US Army, so RW was naturally a military brat and later engaged in various Vietnam-era civil-service adventures before paying his way through college by skiing for the University of Colorado, playing Boulder coffeehouses, and teaching. He has climbed all of Colorado’s Fourteeners; found work as an FAA-certificated commercial pilot, a California-licensed building contractor, a publishing editor, a practitioner of Aikido, and a college professor of English; among his many interdisciplinary pursuits are the design and building of Terrell Residence Library (recently renamed the Terrell House Permaculture Living & Learning Center at the University of Maine), writing Building It In Two Languages (a bilingual dictionary of construction terminology), aerial photo documentation of two dam removals (Great Works and Veazie) on the Penobscot River, and once a week since 1991 drafting an installment of A Word In Edgewise, his essay series addressing issues affecting our day-to-day lives — and WERU’s oldest continuous short feature. When pandemics do not interfere, he does the Triple Crown of Maine open-water ocean swims (Peaks to Portland, Islesboro Crossing, and Nubble Light Challenge) and the Whitewater Downriver Point Series of the Maine Canoe and Kayak Racing Organization. RW is the father of two and the grandfather of three and lives with his partner Kathleen of 37 years and their two Maine Coons in Orono.

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Nature Notes: A Maine Naturalist Afield 5/25/25: Shark Alley

Host: Logan Parker
Producer: Glen Mittelhauser

Logan Parker explores the evolving presence of sharks in the Gulf of Maine, from childhood memories of touch-tank dogfish to the modern realities of Great White Sharks along Maine’s coast. This episode examines shifting shark populations, seal recovery, and how modern tracking research is reshaping our understanding of these apex predators.

More information about Maine Natural History can be found at mainenaturalhistory.org.

About the hosts:
Glen Mittelhauser founded Maine Natural History Observatory (MNHO) in 2003 to fill the need for an organization that specializes in collecting, interpreting, and maintaining datasets for understanding changes in Maine’s plant and wildlife populations.  Glen received his Bachelor’s in Human Ecology from College of the Atlantic in 1989 with a focus in the biological sciences and received his Master of Science degree in Zoology (with a focus on ornithology and statistics) from the University of Maine in 2000. Glen was the Managing Editor for Northeastern Naturalist and Southeastern Naturalist for 18 years and has served as external graduate faculty for 3 graduate student committees at the University of Maine.  Glen currently serves on the Baxter State Park Research Committee.

Logan Parker is an Ecologist residing in Waldo County, Maine. Logan started the Maine Nightjar Monitoring Project in 2017 and brought the project (and his passion for bird conservation) to MNHO when he joined the team in 2018. Logan is heavily involved in the ongoing Maine Bird Atlas where he both coordinates and participates in the project’s special species surveys. When “off the clock”, Logan enjoys birding, writing, gardening, and working alongside his wife, Hallee, on their off-grid home in the Maine woods. Logan is also a wildlife photographer and shares photos and field notes through his project, Here In The Wild.

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What’s the Word on Maine Street? 5/24/25

What’s the Word on Maine Street?, hosted by Sarah Pebworth, is a weekly short feature Saturdays at 9:30am looking at local literary and visual arts events and offerings!

About the host:
Sarah Pebworth leads the steering committee for Word—a Blue Hill Literary Arts Festival, founded in 2017 and held each October. She serves on the boards of the Cultural Alliance of Maine and Lawrence Family Fitness Center YMCA. Since February 2023 Sarah has written “Shared Seas and Common Grounds,” a column published in the Penobscot Bay Press’s Weekly Packet. She and her wife Julie Jo Fehrle live in Blue Hill.

Theme music: Ross Gallagher is a bassist who grew up in East Blue Hill, ME, and currently lives between Bath, ME and Brooklyn, NY, where he works with a wide variety of musical artists. Infinite Blues is a cut from his recently released neon night, an excursion into an ambient/electronic musical world built around rhythmic bass ostinatos, clouds of processed looping electronic atmospheres, and melody. By turns both subtle and unapologetically noisy, the songs are a collection of luminous constellations, roved between by a band of texturally minded instrumental improvisers.

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