Let’s Talk About It 10/13/23: Two-Parter On Military, LBGTQ Situations

Producer/Host: Patrisha McLean
Production Assistance:
Tammy Oropesa
Music:
Jackie Lee McLean

Let’s Talk About It: Conversations with Survivors of Domestic Abuse

Guests:
Ashley and Dezarae

Topics include: 
How the military turned a partner mean, same-sex abuse, emotional abuse, impact on children.

About the host:
Patrisha McLean is the founder/president of Finding Our Voices, the grass roots survivor-powered non profit organization breaking the silence of domestic abuse one conversation and community at a time all across Maine.

Around Town 10/13/23: Local News, Culture and Events

Host/Producer: Amy Browne

Guest: C.J. Walke, MOFGA
FMI: MOFGA’s “Great Maine Apple Day” this Sunday, 10/15: www.mofga.org/news/great-maine-apple-day/

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

Justice Radio 10/12/23: Are Prisons the Answer? – Restorative Justice

Host/s: Leo Hylton
Production Coordinator: Daria Cullen
Other credits: TECHNICAL SUPPORT – Lucas Brown | MUSIC – Samuel James
Justice Radio is a WMPG production

Justice Radio: Tackling the hard questions about our criminal legal system in Maine.

This week: Join Leo Hylton and special guests Marlee Liss, a Somatic Educator, Restorative Justice Advocate and Speaker, and Jasmyn Story, an international Restorative Justice Facilitator, Doula, and the founder of Honeycomb Justice and Freedom Farm Azul, as they talk about Restorative Justice, what it is and what it isn’t.

Guest/s:
Marlee Liss, a Somatic Educator, Restorative Justice Advocate & Speaker
Jasmyn Story, an international Restorative Justice Facilitator, Doula, and the founder of Honeycomb Justice and Freedom Farm Azul

FMI:
www.marleeliss.com/
www.jasmynstory.com/bio-1
www.honeycombjusticeconsulting.com/
www.freedomfarmazul.com/

About the hosts:
The Justice Radio team includes:

Leo Hylton is currently incarcerated at Maine State Prison, yet is a recent Master’s graduate, a columnist with The Bollard, a restorative and transformative justice advocate and activist, a prison abolitionist, and a Visiting Instructor at Colby College’s Anthropology Department, co-teaching AY346 – Carcerality and Abolition.

Catherine Besteman is an abolitionist educator at Colby College. Her research and practice engage the public humanities to explore abolitionist possibilities in Maine. In addition to coordinating Freedom & Captivity, she has researched and published on security, militarism, displacement, and community-based activism with a focus on Somalia, post-apartheid South Africa, and the U.S. She has published nine books, contributed to the International Panel on Exiting Violence, and received recent fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies and the Guggenheim and Rockefeller Foundations.

MacKenzie Kelley is a formerly incarcerated woman in long term recovery. She is a teachers assistant for inside-out courses through MIT. MacKenzie works at the Maine Prisoner Reentry Center as a reentry specialist, peer support and recovery coach. She is the program director for Reentry Sisters, a program designed to assist women reentering the community from prison.

Zoe Brokos (she/her) is the executive director of the Church of Safe Injection, a comprehensive harm reduction program that operates in Southern and Central Maine. Zoe is a person who uses drugs, a mom, a wife, and has led harm reduction programs in Maine for 15 years. She is part of the Maine Drug Policy Coalition, sits on the board of Decriminalize Maine and joined Justice Radio to promote compassionate conversations and drug user-led advocacy efforts that focus on evidence-based, public health responses to the housing and overdose crises in Maine.

Marion Anderson: Before joining The National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls in January of 2022, Marion worked as a harm reductionist, housing navigator, certified intentional peer support specialist, CCAR recovery coach, and a re-entry coach for a diverse range of non-profit organizations.

Charlotte Warren is a former State Representative. She served on the Legislature’s Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee for eight years – six as the house chair. Warren previously served on the Judiciary Committee and as the house chair of Maine’s Mental Health Working Group and the house chair of the Commission to Examine Reestablishing Parole. Previous to her time in the legislature, Charlotte served as Mayor of the city of Hallowell.

Linda Small is the founder and executive director of Reentry Sisters, a reentry support organization specializing in a gender-responsive and trauma-informed approach for women, serving Maine and beyond. She is a Project Coordinator for the Maine Prisoner Advocacy Coalition. Linda serves on the Maine Prison Education Partnership board at UMA and the New England Commission for the Future of Higher Education in Prison through The Educational Justice Institute at MIT.

Common Ground Radio 10/12/23: Natural Dyeing with Plants

Host: Holli Cederholm
Editor: Clare Boland

Common Ground Radio is an hour-long discussion of local food and organic agriculture with people here in the state of Maine and beyond.

This month:

The episode of MOFGA’s Common Ground Radio explores natural dyeing of fibers and textiles with plants and minerals with two Maine artists. With Jude Hsiang, a knitter, weaver and former shepherd, we talk about how to dye plant and animal fibers using plants, many of which she grows in her dye garden or forages for in the local landscape. Later in the show, we are joined by Samantha Verrone, an artist focused on regenerative design. Verrone discusses bundle dyeing, sustainability and experimenting with iron and rust in the dye pot.

Guest/s:
Jude Hsiang
Samantha Verrone

FMI Links:
Versicolor, Jude Hsiang’s Facebook page with events and workshops
Samantha Verrone Textiles
“How to Bundle Dye Using Plant Materials” by Samantha Verrone

About the hosts:
Holli Cederholm has been involved in organic agriculture since 2005 when she first apprenticed on a small farm. She has worked on organic farms in Maine, Vermont, Connecticut, Scotland and Italy and, in 2010, founded a small farm focused on celebrating open-pollinated and heirloom vegetables. As the former manager of a national nonprofit dedicated to organic seed growers, she authored a peer-reviewed handbook on GMO avoidance strategies for seed growers. Holli has also been a steward at Forest Farm, the iconic homestead of “The Good Life” authors Helen and Scott Nearing; a host of “The Farm Report” on Heritage Radio Network; and a long-time contributor for The Maine Organic Farmer & Gardener, which she now edits in her role as content creator and editor at MOFGA.

Caitlyn Barker has worked in education and organic agriculture on and off for the last 17 years. She has worked on an organic vegetable farm, served on the Maine Farm to School network, worked in early childhood education and taught elementary school. She currently serves as the community engagement coordinator for MOFGA.

Around Town 10/12/23: Local News, Culture and Events

Host/Producer: Amy Browne

FMI: 

 
LD 1977, An Act to Create the Data Privacy and Protection Act (Rep. O’Neil) – see bill text here 
LD 1705, An Act to Give Consumers Control over Sensitive Personal Data by Requiring Consumer Consent Prior to Collection of Data (Rep. O’Neil) – see bill text here
LD 1902, An Act to Protect Personal Health Data (Rep. O’Neil) – see bill text here
LD 1973, An Act to Enact the Maine Consumer Privacy Act (Sen. Keim) – see bill text here

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

Talk of the Towns 10/11/23: Hometown Careers and Apprenticeships Linking Mainers with Jobs in Public Service

Producer/Hosts: Ron Beard and Liz Graves
Theme music for Talk of the Towns Theme music for Talk of the Towns is a medley from Coronach, on a Balnain House Highland Music recording.

Talk of the Towns: Local Community concerns and opportunities

This month:
– Background on the work of Maine Municipal Association and the apprenticeship program of Maine Department of Labor
– With Maine municipalities facing a wave of retirements, what opportunities are there for folks new to the workforce and those with experience who might want to change careers?
– What is the range of jobs and careers within municipal government?
– What are some of the more traditional pathways into careers in municipal service?
– How does the Maine Apprenticeship Program work? Can you actually get paid while apprenticing in a job in your town government? What are the other advantages to participating in apprenticeships?

Guest/s:
Peter Osborne, Director of Educational Services, Maine Municipal Association
Rebecca Dansereau, Career Center Consultant, Maine Apprenticeship Program, Maine Department of Labor

FMI: 
www.mainehometowncareers.org
www.mainehometowncareers.org/videos.php
www.maine.gov/labor/jobs_training/apprenticeship/

About the hosts:

Ron Beard is producer and host of Talk of the Towns, which first aired on WERU in 1993 as part of his community building work as an Extension professor with University of Maine Cooperative Extension and Sea Grant. He took all the journalism courses he could fit in while an undergraduate student in wildlife management and served as an intern with Maine Public Television nightly newscast in the early 1970s. Ron is an adjunct faculty member at College of the Atlantic, teaching courses on community development. Ron served on the Bar Harbor Town Council for six years and is currently board chair for the Jesup Memorial Library in Bar Harbor, where he has lived since 1975. Look for him on the Allagash River in June, and whenever he can get away, in the highlands of Scotland where he was fortunate to spend two sabbaticals.

Liz Graves joined Talk of the Towns as co-producer and co-host in July 2022, having long admired public affairs programming on WERU and dreamed of getting involved in community radio. She works as the Town Clerk for the Town of Bar Harbor, and is a former editor of the Mount Desert Islander weekly newspaper. Liz grew up in California and came to Maine as a schooner sailor.

Around Town 10/11/23: Local News, Culture and Events

Host/Producer: Amy Browne

Guest: Kathy Young, Executive Director, Woodlawn in Ellsworth
 
FMI: www.woodlawnellsworth.org/upcoming-events

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

Around Town 10/10/23: Local News, Culture and Events

Host/Producer: Amy Browne

Guest:
Ann Luther, LWVME and hosts of the Democracy Forum on WERU, 3rd Friday of every month, 4-5pm.  
Send questions for next week’s show (by Friday, 10/13) to [email protected].  Please put “Democracy Forum” in the subject line

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