Coastal Conversations 3/22/24: Changing Acadia

Producer/Host: Catherine Devine

Coastal Conversations: Conversations with people who live, work, and play on the Maine coast, hosted by the University of Maine Sea Grant Program.

This month:
Acadia is changing, and quickly. While its beauty endures, its forests, lakes and coasts are being altered by people through land uses, pollution, tourism, invasive species, and climate change. In this episode we’ll take an in depth look at two of the ways in which Acadia may change over the course of the next few decades. First we’ll talk to Caroline Kanaskie about her research on the southern pine beetle and how its northern progression threatens Acadia’s pitch pine trees. Then, we’ll talk to Jay Wason about how extreme heat might change the composition of Maine’s forests.

Guest/s:

Jay Wason III, Assistant Professor of Forest Ecosystem Physiology at UMaine

Caroline Kanaskie,  Natural Resources & Earth Systems Science Ph.D. Candidate at UNH

About the hosts:

Natalie Springuel has hosted Coastal Conversation’s since 2015, with support from the University of Maine Sea Grant where she has served as a marine extension associate for 20 years. In 2019, Springuel received an award for Public Affairs programming from the Maine Association of Broadcasters for the Coastal Conversations show called “Portland’s Working Waterfront.” Springuel is passionate about translating science, sharing stories, and offering a platform for multiple voices to weigh in on complex coastal and ocean issues. She has recently enrolled in audio production training at Maine Media Workshop to dive deeper into making great community radio.

Catherine Devine is the recipient of the 2023-2024 Cathy and Jim Gero Acadia Early Career Fellowship in Science Communication at Schoodic Institute. She is the producer of season 2 of Schoodic’s Sea to Trees podcast and a graduate of New York University.

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Around Town 3/22/24: Local News, Culture and Events

Host/Producer: Amy Browne

Guest: Harald Bredeson,  Program Director at Grow Smart Maine.  The Creating Community: Farming and Housing webinar will be held on Tuesday the 26th from 4:30 – 6pm.  For more information or to register: growsmartmaine.org/blog/forums/webinar-creating-community-farming-and-housing/
And tune in to Coastal Conversations today at 4!

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, Maine Currents and Maine: The Way Life Could Be, Amy 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 Maine Association of Broadcasters awards for her work in 2017 and 2021.

Theme music: BreakBeat Chemists I, 2015
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International License

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Around Town 3/21/24: Local News, Culture and Events

Host/Producer: Amy Browne

Maine Earth First! event this weekend in Belfast, and a 2-part special Maine Currents next week on the Sears Island issue.  Also, 25 years ago today in Maine news.

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, Maine Currents and Maine: The Way Life Could Be, Amy 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 Maine Association of Broadcasters awards for her work in 2017 and 2021.

Theme music: BreakBeat Chemists I, 2015
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International License

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Climate & Community 3/20/24: Food Security & Climate – Local Initiatives

Host: Brianna Cunliffe
 
Description: Climate & Community continues a conversation with Emily Shanahan from the Bar Harbor Food Pantry about the intersections between food security and community resilience, focusing on ways to get involved locally. Learn more about the Downeast Gleaning initiative at healthyacadia.org/hffa-degi  and about the Hancock County Food Drive at www.hcfooddrive.org/hcfd.
 
Johannah, Brianna, Tanvi, Gus, Corey, and Beth are the team at A Climate to Thrive, a nonprofit working to build a model of community-driven, solutions-focused climate action. Since its origins around a potluck table as concerned neighbors gathered to take action on climate change, A Climate to Thrive, or ACTT, has been supporting solutions on Mount Desert Island and beyond since 2016. Learn more at www.aclimatetothrive.org.

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Around Town 3/20/24: Local News, Culture and Events

Host/Producer: Amy Browne

Haley Blake, Manager of Community Engagement and Museum Experience at the Wilson Museum in Castine joins us with information about some new community program offerings, and Monday’s public hearing on the Governor’s bill that would remove protections for sand dunes– but only on Sears Island and only in order to build an offshore wind terminal there.
 
FMI: 

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, Maine Currents and Maine: The Way Life Could Be, Amy 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 Maine Association of Broadcasters awards for her work in 2017 and 2021.

Theme music: BreakBeat Chemists I, 2015
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International License

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Relationship Rewind 3/19/24: Checking out Superstore

Host: Carrie Clark, Youth Educator and Advocate at NextStep Domestic Violence Project. NextStep 24/7 Helpline: 1(800) 315-5579
Music credit: Megan Light and Nathan Spears, local musicians, donated theme music for the show.

Relationship Rewind: Rewinding relationships in popular media and breaking down behaviors based in power, control, and abuse.

This episode:

Discussing unhealthy behaviors in relationships shown in the tv show Superstore.
Discussing how media normalizes these behaviors.
Discussing the impacts of these messages about relationships on young people.

Guest/s: Molly, local middle school student.

About the hosts:
Alli Williamson is the youth educator and advocate for NextStep Domestic Violence Project based in Hancock and Washington County, ME. She teaches young people from Kindergarten to College about what power and control looks like in friendships and relationships, what resources are available to support those experiencing this, and how we can work to make our schools and communities safer and more equal spaces where abuse may be less likely to happen.

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Outside the Box 3/19/24: “Courting Agreements”

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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Around Town 3/19/24: Local News, Culture and Events

Host/Producer: Amy Browne

LD2266- The Governor’s bill that proposes removing sand dune protections for Sears Island, for the purposes of building a wind terminal

And Rural LGBTQ+ Power and Belonging Fellowship Applications are Open. Grace from Out in the Open joins us with details.
 
FMI:

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, Maine Currents and Maine: The Way Life Could Be, Amy 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 Maine Association of Broadcasters awards for her work in 2017 and 2021.

Theme music: BreakBeat Chemists I, 2015
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International License

Podcast: Play in new window | Download