The Cosmic Curator 12/17/22

This is your Cosmic Curator, Tom Yaroschuk with a look at the stars for Saturday December 17th. and the week ahead.

The day begins with the moon in Virgo. And a very energized Virgo moon with aspects from Mars retrograde in taurus and Saturn in Capricorn. That’s a trine to all three earth signs and the moon, our sensitive source of moods and feelings may express itself in a varirty of various virgo tasks – from organizing a sock draw to putting those gum drops o the ginger bread house. Grandmothers love this energy for getting a lot of holiday cheer up and running! The rest of us have to watch out for being too critical and knit picky…

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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Around Town 12/15/22: Energy Efficiency Career Opportunities Downeast

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

This week:
Earlier this month Governor Mills announced that her administration is dedicating $5.4 million dollars to address climate change and create clean energy jobs here in Maine— and a chunk of that funding is coming to Hancock and Washington Counties. If you or someone you know is looking for a paid internship for a career in an energy efficiency job, here are some of the details from Sharon Catus at Downeast Community Partners

For more information, call Derek at (207) 610-5917

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 12/15/22: December 2022 Headlines

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

It is the season of Ho Ho Ho! While we do not enjoy being Grinches, we still feel it’s important to look at some current tech headlines as well as cheery holiday gift hints. So, for better or worse, here are a few things of import that might have gotten lost in the the holiday media punch bowl.

Here is a link to the article from The Markup mentioned in today’s program

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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Talk of the Towns 12/14/22: Teaching History

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:
We ask two experienced teachers about their experience of teaching history and what they want students to take away from their studies of history and social studies.
What is history… what makes it different than reporting the news and current events? How are history and social studies related?
What is the role of textbooks in your history classes? How do you connect students to history and historians outside of textbooks?
What are the roles of the state legislature (law), state Department of Education (state policy and standards), and local school boards (local policy) in shaping what will be taught and how? What does a curriculum coordinator do?
How do State Standards approach the teaching of history and social studies? Students should be able to “distinguish between primary and secondary sources,” “evaluate and verify the credibility of the information found in print and non-print sources.” and “Equally important is that students use additional sources to resolve contradictory information.”
How do you think about what students will use their knowledge and abilities in history and social studies? What do you want them to know and be able to do?
What should citizens and policymakers to keep in mind when it comes to the teaching of history in public schools?

Guest/s:
Mark Puglisi, History Teacher, MDI High School
Julie Keblinsky, Director of Teaching and Learning, MDI Regional School System

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.

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BoatTalk 12/13/22

Producers/Hosts: Alan Sprague, Jon Johansen

BoatTalk is the call-in show for people contemplating things naval

This month:
1.boatyard report
2.updates on the golden globe race and tom robinson rowing across the pacific
3.in depth discussion of whale entanglements

Guest/s:
Amy Knowlton New England Aquarium
Shelia Dassatt Downeast Lobstermen’s Association
Sean Todd Allied Whale
Zachary Klyver Blue Planet Strategies

Thanks also to Peter Stein Scientific Solutions, Portland, Maine and Jeff Nichols Maine DMR

About the hosts:

Alan Sprague is a retired boat carpenter and a volunteer at WERU for over thirty years. He and the late Mike Joyce started Boattalk in 2003 and Alan carries on.

Jon Johansen is the editor and roving reporter for the Maine Coastal News. He is Chairman of the Board of the Penobscot Marine Museum, President of Maine Built Boats, President of Maine Lobster Boat Racing, and Director of the International Maritime Library in his spare time.

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Outside the Box 12/13/22: “Nones”

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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