Earthwise 12/27/25: The Cedar Tree

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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Coastal Conversations 12/26/25: Innovations in Energy

Host: Galen Koch
Editorial Help: Camden Hunt, Olivia Jolley, and Keegan Claunch
Most of the music in this episode is by Cue Shop

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

Forms of sustainable energy.
Resilience in Island communities.
Economics and infrastructure of sustainable energy.

Guest/s:

Bruce Fernald – Lobsterman from Islesford
Jamie Cook, Lia Morris – Senior Community Development officers, Island Institute
Danny Fernald – Bruce’s Brother, Year round Islesford resident

FMI:

To view Versant’s connectivity maps, go to vpcapmap.cliffhanger-solutions.com/
For more information about the lobster co-op, go to littlecranberrylobster.com/
From the Sea Up is made possible by the Fund for Maine Islands through a partnership between Island Institute, College of the Atlantic, Maine Sea Grant, and the First Coast. To hear past episodes and for more information visit www.islandinstitute.org/podcast

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.

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Wabanaki Windows 12/25/25: Tribute to Charles Norman Shay – Part 2

Host: Donna Loring
Other credits: Technical assistance for the show was provided by Joel Mann of WERU, and Jessica Lockhart.
Music by Ralph Richter, a track called little eagles from his CD Dream Walk.

Wabanaki Windows is a monthly show featuring topics of interest from a Wabanaki perspective.

This month: Charles’ early life and the importance of his story as a hero and survivor of D Day in WWII.

Guest/s: 
Harald Prins & Bunny McBride – Bunny Mcbride is an award-winning author and journalist whose work has focused on Indigenous peoples around the world. Harald Prins is a cultural anthropologist and longtime scholar of Wabanaki history. He and Bunny worked closely with Charles over many years. They helped place Charles’s life story within its broader historical and moral context. They shared a close personal and professional relationship with Charles Shay and helped bring his story to the world.

Jennifer Neptune is a member of the Penobscot Nation, is the Director of the Penobscot Nation Museum on Indian Island. A master basketmaker and cultural educator, she knew Charles as an elder and carries forward his memory through her craftmanship and storytelling.

James Francis is a member of the Penobscot Nation and serves as Tribal Historian and Director of the Penobscot Nation Cultural and Historical Department. He worked closely with Charles Shay and has helped preserve and share Penobscot history and memory for future generations.

Timothy P. Shay is the nephew of Charles Norman Shay. He offers a family perspective on Charles’s life, speaking to who Charles was beyond the uniform—as an uncle, a relative, and a deeply loved member of his family.

Darren Ranco is a member of the Penobscot Nation and a scholar of Native American studies. He knew Charles as an elder and community leader and has worked to ensure that Charles’s story is understood within the larger context of Indigenous service, sovereignty, and survival.

About the host:
Donna M Loring is a Penobscot Indian Nation Tribal Elder, and former Council Member. She represented the Penobscot Nation in the State Legislature for over a decade. She is a former Senior Advisor on Tribal Affairs to Governor Mills. She is the author of “In The Shadow of The Eagle A Tribal Representative In Maine”. Donna has an Annual lecture series in her name at the University of New England that addresses Social Justice and Human Rights issues. In 2017 She received an Honorary Doctoral Degree in Humane Letters from the University of Maine Orono and was given the Alumni Service Award. It is the most prestigious recognition given by the University of Maine Alumni Association. It is presented Annually to a University of Maine graduate whose life’s work is marked by outstanding achievements in professional, business, civic and/or Public service areas. Donna received a second Honorary Doctorate from Thomas College in May of 2022.

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Wabanaki Windows 12/24/25: Tribute to Charles Norman Shay – Part 1

Host: Donna Loring
Other credits: Technical assistance for the show was provided by Joel Mann of WERU, and Jessica Lockhart.
Music by Ralph Richter, a track called little eagles from his CD Dream Walk.

Wabanaki Windows is a monthly show featuring topics of interest from a Wabanaki perspective.

This month: Charles’ early life and the importance of his story as a hero and survivor of D Day in WWII.

Guest/s: 
Harald Prins & Bunny McBride – Bunny Mcbride is an award-winning author and journalist whose work has focused on Indigenous peoples around the world. Harald Prins is a cultural anthropologist and longtime scholar of Wabanaki history. He and Bunny worked closely with Charles over many years. They helped place Charles’s life story within its broader historical and moral context. They shared a close personal and professional relationship with Charles Shay and helped bring his story to the world.

Jennifer Neptune is a member of the Penobscot Nation, is the Director of the Penobscot Nation Museum on Indian Island. A master basketmaker and cultural educator, she knew Charles as an elder and carries forward his memory through her craftmanship and storytelling.

James Francis is a member of the Penobscot Nation and serves as Tribal Historian and Director of the Penobscot Nation Cultural and Historical Department. He worked closely with Charles Shay and has helped preserve and share Penobscot history and memory for future generations.

Timothy P. Shay is the nephew of Charles Norman Shay. He offers a family perspective on Charles’s life, speaking to who Charles was beyond the uniform—as an uncle, a relative, and a deeply loved member of his family.

Darren Ranco is a member of the Penobscot Nation and a scholar of Native American studies. He knew Charles as an elder and community leader and has worked to ensure that Charles’s story is understood within the larger context of Indigenous service, sovereignty, and survival.

About the host:
Donna M Loring is a Penobscot Indian Nation Tribal Elder, and former Council Member. She represented the Penobscot Nation in the State Legislature for over a decade. She is a former Senior Advisor on Tribal Affairs to Governor Mills. She is the author of “In The Shadow of The Eagle A Tribal Representative In Maine”. Donna has an Annual lecture series in her name at the University of New England that addresses Social Justice and Human Rights issues. In 2017 She received an Honorary Doctoral Degree in Humane Letters from the University of Maine Orono and was given the Alumni Service Award. It is the most prestigious recognition given by the University of Maine Alumni Association. It is presented Annually to a University of Maine graduate whose life’s work is marked by outstanding achievements in professional, business, civic and/or Public service areas. Donna received a second Honorary Doctorate from Thomas College in May of 2022.

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World Ocean Radio 12/24/25: Christmas at Sea

Host: Peter Neill
Producer: Trisha Badger

ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Each year at the holidays we like to share a special reading of “Christmas at Sea”, an evocative poem written by Robert Louis Stevenson in 1883. Stevenson, the son of a lighthouse engineer, had intimate, first-hand knowledge of storms, weather, and life on and by the sea. Read for you by World Ocean Radio host Peter Neill. Happy Holidays!

WORLD OCEAN RADIO
5-minute weekly insights dive into ocean science, advocacy and education hosted by Peter Neill, lifelong ocean advocate and maritime expert. A catalog of more than 730 episodes offering perspectives on global ocean issues and solutions, and celebrating exemplary projects. Available for RSS feed and broadcast by college and community radio stations worldwide via Exchange.prx.org and Audioport.org. Visit WorldOceanObservatory.org for the full catalog, searchable by theme.

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Outside the Box 12/23/25: “Welcome Oligarchs”

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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A Word in Edgewise 12/22/25: The Solstice, Christmas, Rexroth, & the Ursids . . .

Producer/Host: R.W. Estela

Hi, I’m RW Estela: Since 1991, I’ve been presenting A Word in Edgewise, WERU’s longest-running short feature, a veritable almanac of worldly and heavenly happenings, a confluence of 21st-century life in its myriad manifestations, international and domestic, cosmopolitan and rural, often revealing, as the French say, the more things change, the more they stay the same — though not always! Sometimes in addressing issues affecting our day-to-day lives, in this age of vagary and ambiguity, when chronological time is punctuated elliptically, things can quickly turn edgy and controversial, as we search for understanding amid our dialectic. Tune in Monday mornings at 7:30 a.m. for an exciting journey through space and time with a few notable birthdays thrown in for good measure during A Word in Edgewise . . .

About the host:
RW Estela was raised as a first-generation American in Colorado by a German mother and a Corsican-Basque father who would become a three-war veteran for the US Army, so RW was naturally a military brat and later engaged in various Vietnam-era civil-service adventures before paying his way through college by skiing for the University of Colorado, playing Boulder coffeehouses, and teaching. He has climbed all of Colorado’s Fourteeners; found work as an FAA-certificated commercial pilot, a California-licensed building contractor, a publishing editor, a practitioner of Aikido, and a college professor of English; among his many interdisciplinary pursuits are the design and building of Terrell Residence Library (recently renamed the Terrell House Permaculture Living & Learning Center at the University of Maine), writing Building It In Two Languages (a bilingual dictionary of construction terminology), aerial photo documentation of two dam removals (Great Works and Veazie) on the Penobscot River, and once a week since 1991 drafting an installment of A Word In Edgewise, his essay series addressing issues affecting our day-to-day lives — and WERU’s oldest continuous short feature. When pandemics do not interfere, he does the Triple Crown of Maine open-water ocean swims (Peaks to Portland, Islesboro Crossing, and Nubble Light Challenge) and the Whitewater Downriver Point Series of the Maine Canoe and Kayak Racing Organization. RW is the father of two and the grandfather of three and lives with his partner Kathleen of 37 years and their two Maine Coons in Orono.

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Nature Notes: A Maine Naturalist Afield 12/21/25: A Conversation with Seabird Researchers, 2025

Host/Producer: Glen Mittelhauser

This episode features a discussion with Coco and Tracey Faber, Alison Ballard, and Peyton Caylor, seabird researchers who worked on Maine’s offshore colonies this summer. Together they reflect on the role of these islands beyond nesting seabirds, describing their importance as stopovers for migrating shorebirds and staging areas for gulls. They share observations of sandpipers, plovers, Ruddy Turnstones, and other migrants, and note how islands like Eastern Egg Rock can host large flocks during peak migration.

More information about Maine Natural History can be found at mainenaturalhistory.org.

About the hosts:
Glen Mittelhauser founded Maine Natural History Observatory (MNHO) in 2003 to fill the need for an organization that specializes in collecting, interpreting, and maintaining datasets for understanding changes in Maine’s plant and wildlife populations.  Glen received his Bachelor’s in Human Ecology from College of the Atlantic in 1989 with a focus in the biological sciences and received his Master of Science degree in Zoology (with a focus on ornithology and statistics) from the University of Maine in 2000. Glen was the Managing Editor for Northeastern Naturalist and Southeastern Naturalist for 18 years and has served as external graduate faculty for 3 graduate student committees at the University of Maine.  Glen currently serves on the Baxter State Park Research Committee.

Logan Parker is an Ecologist residing in Waldo County, Maine. Logan started the Maine Nightjar Monitoring Project in 2017 and brought the project (and his passion for bird conservation) to MNHO when he joined the team in 2018. Logan is heavily involved in the ongoing Maine Bird Atlas where he both coordinates and participates in the project’s special species surveys. When “off the clock”, Logan enjoys birding, writing, gardening, and working alongside his wife, Hallee, on their off-grid home in the Maine woods. Logan is also a wildlife photographer and shares photos and field notes through his project, Here In The Wild.

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