The Cosmic Curator 11/19/22

This is your Cosmic Curator, Tom Yaroschuk, with a look at the stars for today, Saturday November 19th and the week ahead.

The day begins with the Moon at 4 degrees in sidereal Virgo, the mutable mental earth signed ruled by Mercury. Moon’s matter. They can usher in an array of feelings and to influence the mood of the day. By the way, the word mood is derived from the word moon.

But I digress…

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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Earthwise 11/19/22: The Blue Jay

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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Democracy Forum 11/18/22: Election Reflections: What Just Happened Here?

Host: Ann Luther, League of Women Voters of Maine

The mostly volunteer team at the League of Women Voters – Downeast who plan and coordinate this series includes: Martha Dickinson, Starr Gilmartin, Maggie Harling, Lisa Leaverton, Ann Luther, Judith Lyles, Wendilee O’Brien, Lane Sturtevant, Leah Taylor, Linda Washburn

Democracy Forum: Participatory Democracy, encouraging citizens to take an active role in government and politics

This month: Election Reflections: What Just Happened Here?
-A conversation about the election.
-Less about how the parties and the candidates performed; more about how democracy performed.
-How did the election machinery hold up?
-How did our voters and our instituions hold up?
-Have our citizens embraced or rejected the legitimacy of the outcomes?
-What does it all mean in the context of a bigger conversation about the future of western democracy?

Guest/s:
Maya Eichorn, Liberal Studies Student York County Community College, and fellow with Maine Students Vote, and affiliate of the League of Women Voters of Maine
Elaine Kamarck, Founding Director at the Center for Effective Public Management and Senior Fellow in Governance Studies at Brookings
Steve Mistler, Chief Political Correspondent and State House Bureau Chief, Maine Public

To learn more about this topic:
Turnout among young voters was the second highest for a midterm in past 30 years | NPR, November 2022
LePage’s loss leaves Maine Republicans at a crossroads – Portland Press Herald, November 2022
Midterms pose fresh test for American democracy after two years under fire | Washington Post, November 2022
‘We’re watching you’: incidents of voter intimidation rise as midterm elections near | The Guardian, November 2022
Gen Z voter turnout will show just how influential influencers really are | Washington Post, November 2022
State courts are fielding sky-high numbers of lawsuits ahead of the midterms – including challenges to voting restrictions and to how elections are run | The Conversation, October 2022
The end of the debate? Republicans draw the curtain on political theater | US politics | The Guardian, September, 2022
Can the abortion issue save Democrats in the 2022 midterm elections? | Brookings, Elaine Kamarck, August 2022

About the host:
Ann currently serves as Treasurer of the League of Women Voters of Maine and leads the LWVME Advocacy Team. She served as President of LWVME from 2003 to 2007 and as co-president from 2007-2009. In her work for the League, Ann has worked for greater public understanding of public policy issues and for the League’s priority issues in Clean Elections & Campaign Finance Reform, Voting Rights, Ethics in Government, Ranked Choice Voting, and Repeal of Term Limits. Representing LWVME at Maine Citizens for Clean Elections, she served that coalition as co-president from 2006 to 2011. She remains on the board of MCCE and serves as Treasurer. She is active in the LWV-Downeast and hosts their monthly radio show, The Democracy Forum, on WERU FM Community Radio -which started out in 2004 as an recurring special, and became a regular monthly program in 2012. She was the 2013 recipient of the Baldwin Award from the ACLU of Maine for her work on voting rights and elections. She joined the League in 1998 when she retired as Senior Vice President at SEI Investments. Ann was a founder of the MDI Restorative Justice Program, 1999 – 2000, and served on its Executive Board.

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Dawnland Signals 11/17/22: Decolonizing Museums – The Abbe and Wilson Museums

Producers/Hosts: Maria Girouard, Esther Anne
Jeffrey Hotchkiss, Zoom recording technician

Dawnland Signals highlights indigenous topics not immediately represented in mainstream media and is meant to share, inspire, and inform. Join co-hosts Maria Girouard and Esther Anne as they engage in critical conversations of truth, healing, and change in the Dawnland.

This month:
Our guests this month are Wabanaki REACH Board member Nolan Altvater, Passamaquoddy of Sipayik who serves as Curator of Education for the Abbe Museum, and Julia Gray, Executive Director, Wilson Museum, Castine, and Abbe Museum Trustee. You won’t want to miss this conversation about decolonizing museums and its challenges, transformations, and impact on Wabanaki communities.

Guest/s:
Nolan Altvater, Passamaquoddy of Sipayik who serves as Curator of Education for the Abbe Museum
Julia Gray, Executive Director, Wilson Museum, Castine, and Abbe Museum Trustee

About the hosts:
Esther Anne, is a Passamaquoddy from Sipayik who lives on Indian Island and serves on the Wabanaki REACH Board of Directors.

Maria Girouard, Penobscot from Indian Island, is Executive Director of Wabanaki REACH, a statewide organization working toward truth, healing, and change in the Dawnland. Maria is a tribal historian with a Master’s Degree in History from the University of Maine and a special interest in the Maine Indian Land Claims. Maria has devoted years to community organizing, environmental stewardship and activism, and growing food in tribal communities.

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Around Town 11/17/22: Democracy Forum Election Reflections: What Just Happened Here?

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

This week: Democracy Forum host Ann Luther of the League of Women Voters of Maine, joins us to invite listeners to tune in to Friday’s show (4pm). Friday’s show “will be less about how the parties and the candidates performed; more about how democracy performed. How did the election machinery hold up? How have our citizens embraced or rejected the legitimacy of the outcomes? Did women voters play a pivotal role in Maine or in other states? What about young voters? What does it all mean in the context of a bigger conversation about the future of western democracy?”

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 11/17/22: Some Old Things, Some New Things

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Technology developments – and what they may mean – can sometimes seem confusing as we try to sort out reports and headlines. Here are a few illustrations, as well as news about the inauguration of Democracy’s Library

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 11/15/22: The TV Show “13 Reasons Why”

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: We’ll be discussing the tv show “13 Reasons Why”
-Unhealthy behaviors in relationships
-How media normalizes these behaviors
-The impacts of these messages about relationships on young people

Guest/s: Grace, local middle school 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 11/15/22: “Pandora Papers”

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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