The Essential Rhythm 8/6/23: Meet Mola Mola, the Ocean Sunfish

Producer/Host: Sarah O’Malley

This episodes describes the unique ocean going fish Mola mola. It includes a physical description, behavioral characteristics and how to differentiate the fin of a Mola mola from that of a shark. 

About the host:
Sarah O’Malley is an ecologist, naturalist and science communicator passionate about deepening her listeners’ experiences with the natural world. She teaches biology and sustainability at Maine Maritime Academy and is currently collaborating on a guide book to the intertidal zone in the Gulf of Maine.

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The Nature of Phenology 8/5/23: Bog Plants

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn
Host: Hazel Stark

This is the perfect time to notice how the living things in these unique environments adapt not only to the constantly challenging conditions there, but also to the transition to a new season coming soon.

Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thenatureofphenology.wordpress.com.

About the host/writers:
Joe Horn lives in Gouldsboro, is Co-Founder of Maine Outdoor School, L3C, and is a Registered Maine Guide and Carpenter. He is passionate about fishing, cooking, and making things with his hands. He has both an MBA in Sustainability and an MS focused in Environmental Education. Joe can be reached by emailing [email protected]

Hazel Stark lives in Gouldsboro, is Co-Founder and Naturalist Educator at Maine Outdoor School, L3C, and is a Registered Maine Guide. She loves taking a closer look at nature through the lens of her camera, napping in beds of moss, and taking hikes to high points to see what being tall is all about. She has an MS in Resource Management and Conservation and is a lifelong Maine outdoorswoman. Hazel can be reached by emailing [email protected]

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Earthwise 8/5/23: The Dragon

Producer/Host: Anu Dudley

About the host:

Rev. Dr. Anu Dudley is an ordained Pagan minister and a retired history professor. She continues to teach classes, including the three-year ordination curriculum at the Temple of the Feminine Divine, and others such as History of the Goddess, Paganism 101, Ethical Magic, and Introduction to the Runes. Currently she is writing a book about how to cast the runes using their original Goddess meanings. She lives in the woods off-grid in a small homesteading community in Central Maine.

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The Cosmic Curator 8/5/23: Cry When You Have To, Dance When You Can…

Good Morning, People! This is your cosmic curator, Tom Yaroschuk, with a look at the stars for today Saturday, August 5th and the week ahead. Well folks, here’s hoping the emotions and tides are settling down after Tuesday’s super full moon…

About the Host:
Tom Yaroschuk is a Vedic Astrologer. His intention is to help people understand their karma and the issues they may confront to cultivate more fulfilling lives. Tom is writing a memoir of the spiritual lessons derived from his work in a Homeless Day Center in between a career as an award winning television and documentary producer.

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Justice Radio 8/3/23: Ending the War on Drugs in Maine – Legislative Updates

Host/s: Charlotte Warren and Zoe Brokos
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 hosts Charlotte Warren and Zoe Brokos as they talk about the current legislative session and discuss where do we go from here?

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.

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Around Town 8/3/23: Station Manager Matt Murphy joins us with an update

Host/Producer: Amy Browne

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.

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Healthy Options 8/2/23: Maine Family Planning after the overturning of Roe Vs. Wade

Host/Producer: Rhonda Feiman
Co-Producer: Petra Hall

Healthy Options: For Well-being & Being Well

This month:

What legislation has been proposed or passed in Maine to protect & strengthen reproductive health?
How has Maine been affected by the reversal of Roe v. Wade?
Maine is not considered a “safety state” due to its distance to other states, but have we seen an increase in out-of-state clients, due to restrictions elsewhere?
What are reproductive rights, and what is reproductive justice?
What other health resources are provided at clinics, aside from reproductive health?
How are the overall health services negatively affected, when reproductive choice & abortion services are curtailed or eliminated? When clinics shut down, how does this directly impact clients?
What are the risks and dangers which can & do arise from restricting medical services for clients (of any gender)?
What are various methods of family planning which are used in clinics?
What are the issues relating to “late-term” abortions? What is a medication abortion? How does this work, and how effective is it? How is this method being opposed now by those who favored the overturning of Roe Vs. Wade?

Guest/s:

Lindsey Piper is a nurse practitioner specializing in sexual and reproductive health, and is the Lead Clinician for the Center for Reproductive Health at Maine Family Planning, providing direct abortion services as well as guidance & training, for health care providers.
Lindsey also sees clients in her Belfast, Maine clinic for gynecologic visits, gender-affirming hormone treatment, abortions, and vasectomy. She has been in this field for over 20 years, working for independent, feminist health care clinics, and Planned Parenthood.

Mareisa Weil is Maine Family Planning’s Vice President for Development & Community Engagement. She has a Master’s degree in Policy, Planning and Management from the Muskie School of Public Service at the University of Southern Maine, and has worked with Colby College, the Maine Hospice Council and Center for End-of-Life Care, and the Homeless Services Center in Santa Cruz, California.

FMI: mainefamilyplanning.org

About the host:
Rhonda Feiman is a nationally-certified, licensed acupuncturist practicing in Belfast, Maine since 1993. She primarily practices Toyohari Japanese acupuncture, using gentle and powerful non-insertion needle techniques, and also utilizes Chinese acupuncture and herbology. In addition, Rhonda is a practitioner of Qi Gong and an instructor of Tai Chi Chuan in the Yang Family tradition.

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