Around Town 12/22/22: Atheist Group Reacts to Bucksport’s Nativity Scene

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

This week:
One of the things people are talking about around town this holiday season is the controversy around a nativity scene in Bucksport. A Penobscot resident made a report to the Freedom from Religion Foundation‘s Maine Chapter about the town sponsored religious display, and the chapter responded by asking to add a small sign nearby, celebrating the solstice and the Bill of Rights. Tom Waddell, columnist for the Kennebec Journal, and the President of Maine Chapter of the Freedom from Religion Foundation explains why they got involved.

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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Notes from the Electronic Cottage 12/22/22: AI Books

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

There are three very big challenges that humans will have to deal with in the near future: Climate Change, Genetic Engineering, and Artificial Intelligence or AI. Today, we briefly look at some sources to check for those interested in the first two challenges, and then turn our attention to sources for those interested in what AI means for us today, and will mean for humans in the near future and beyond.

On genetic engineering, a good book for an overview, written very clearly for non-specialists, is The Code Breaker by Walter Isaacson.

A book from 1950 that has had a big impact on the development of what we now call Artificial Intelligence is The Human Use of Human Beings by Norbert Wiener.

About the host:
Jim Campbell has a longstanding interest in the intersection of digital technology, law, and public policy and how they affect our daily lives in our increasingly digital world. He has banged around non-commercial radio for decades and, in the little known facts department (that should probably stay that way), he was one of the readers voicing Richard Nixon’s words when NPR broadcast the entire transcript of the Watergate tapes. Like several other current WERU volunteers, he was at the station’s sign-on party on May 1, 1988 and has been a volunteer ever since doing an early stint as a Morning Maine host, and later producing WERU program series including Northern Lights, Conversations on Science and Society, Sound Portrait of the Artist, Selections from the Camden Conference, others that will probably come to him after this is is posted, and, of course, Notes from the Electronic Cottage.

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Relationship Rewind 12/20/22: Grey’s Anatomy – Meredith and Derek

Host: Alli Williamson, Youth Educator and Advocate at NextStep Domestic Violence Project
Helpline: 1(800) 315-5579
Music credit: Brandon Nelson, local musician 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: The relationship between Meredith Grey and Derek Shepard in the TV show Grey’s Anatomy.
-Unhealthy behaviors in relationships
-How media normalizes these behaviors
-The impacts of these messages about relationships on young people

Guest/s: Lydia, local college student

About the host:
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 12/20/22: “Blame the Christians”

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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The Essential Rhythm 12/18/22: How Science Happens

Producer/Host: Sarah O’Malley

This episode describes the scientific process, as executed by a group of first year college students surveying the intertidal zone in Maine. Findings include a generally positive relationship between the distance from the high tide line and biodiversity, as well as an unexpected pattern of periwinkle abundance relative to time of day.

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 12/17/22: Mergansers and tomcod

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn
Host: Hazel Stark

This time of year I look to the muddy, winding estuaries of our area for clues about when the tomcod are running around the solstice: common merganser ducks.

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 12/17/22: The Star

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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