The Cosmic Curator 11/5/22: Shocks and More Shocks

This is your Cosmic Curator, Tom Yaroschuk, with a look at the stars for November 5th and the week beyond.

Well folks welcome to November where the best way to sum up this month’s energy is shock, more shock… and even more shock.

Here’s why, the astrological community is abuzz with the significance of the November 8th lunar eclipse which is tangles up with Rahu, the demon shadow planet and Uranus, the planet known as the Great Awakener, the revolutionary, the disrupter of the status quo. Let’s start with the lunar eclipse…

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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Conversations from the Pointed Firs 11/4/22: Maine Arts Commission

Host:Peter Neill
Producer: Trisha Badger
Music by Casey Neill

Conversations from the Pointed Firs is a monthly audio series with Maine-connected authors and artists discussing new books and creative projects that invoke the spirit of Maine, its history, its ecology, its culture, and its contribution to community and quality of life.

This month:

Our guests this month on Conversations from the Pointed Firs are David Hopkins and David Greenham of the Maine Arts Commission.

Guest/s:

DAVID GREENHAM is the executive director of the Maine Arts Commission. Prior to stepping to that post, he was the Associate Director of the Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine, where he developed educational outreach programs, curated exhibits, and presented various HHRC programs to schools and communities throughout the state. In addition to his work at the Maine Arts Commission, David is an adjunct lecturer in drama at the University of Maine at Augusta and is a frequent contributor to the online Boston-based arts magazine The ArtsFuse. David is a member the boards of the New England Foundation for the Arts, the Cultural Alliance of Maine, the Friends of the Blaine House, and Ladder to the Moon/Amjambo Africa.

DAVID HOPKINS has served on boards for the Farnsworth Museum, Waterman’s Community Center on North Haven, and the North Haven Historical Society. He also served as commissioner of the Maine State Museum. In March of 2021 Governor Janet Mills appointed Hopkins chair of the Maine Arts Commission board. Born in Bangor, Maine, David grew up on North Haven Island then spent 30 years of his career at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He now owns and operates Hopkins Wharf Gallery on the island of North Haven in midcoast Maine, where he lives.

About the host:
Peter Neill is founder and director of the World Ocean Observatory, a web-based place of exchange for information and educational services about the health of the ocean. In 1972, he founded Leete’s Island Books, a small publishing house specializing in literary reprints, the essay, photography, the environment, and profiles of indigenous healers and practitioners of complimentary medicine around the world. He holds a profound interest in Maine, its history, its people, its culture, and its contribution to community and quality of life.

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Awanadjo Almanack 11/4/22: “Nature Heals”

Producer/Host: Rob McCall
Production Assistance: Rebecca McCall

About the host:

Rob McCall: Born in the Black Hills of South Dakota, grew up in Oregon and Illinois. Father was a Scots-Irish preacher, mother a Yankee Congregationalist tracing her ancestry back to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Father taught him about Scripture, mother taught him about Nature.

Bachelor of arts in philosophy, bachelor of divinity in American religious history, graduate studies in education, doctor of ministry in congregational studies, certified in elementary education, tree fruits and entomology.

Worked as an elementary school teacher, tree and landscape contractor, church sexton, orchard manager, chimney sweep, ambulance driver, musician. Began second career as a preacher at age 40. Served as minister of the First Congregational Church of Blue Hill, Maine 1986 – 2014. He is currently chaplain of the Brooklin Fire Department.

Since 1992 has published the weekly Awanadjo Almanack which is broadcast to midcoast Maine and on the web at WERU-FM and appears in a number of publications. His writing has also appeared in Yankee, Down East, Maine Boats, Homes & Harbors, Island Journal and elsewhere.

His first book, Small Misty Mountain, was published in 2006 by Pushcart Press and distributed by W.W. Norton. Publisher’s Weekly called it “by turns inspiring and infuriating.” His second book, Great Speckled Bird, followed in 2012. His third book, Some Glad Morning, was released in October 2020.

Passions include wild plants and animals, and traditional fiddle tunes. Married for 53 years to Rebecca Haley, artist and singer. Father of two, grandfather of two.

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Around Town 11/3/22: PICA’s Annual Auction – This Weekend in Bangor

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

This week: If you’re making plans for the weekend, the folks at PICA (Power in Community Alliances) would like to invite you to their annual auction, which will be held at the UU Church in Bangor this coming Saturday from 3-6pm. PICA’s Ed Rudnicki has all the details

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 11/3/22: No Tech

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Looking for tech info? Today’s episode has none but we hope you will like it anyway.

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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Healthy Options 11/2/22: Non-Violent Communication

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

Healthy Options: For Well-being & Being Well

This month:
How might we communicate with more awareness, compassion, and empathy, and how can our nervous system play a vital role in our being calm in ourselves, and in our interactions with others? Rhonda Feiman speaks with Peggy Smith, co-founder of the Maine Non-Violent Communication Network, & certified trainer with the International Center for Non-Violent Communication.

-What is Non-Violent Communication?
-What are some techniques to help calm strong emotions?
-What is empathy? What is “self empathy”? Can you learn how to be empathetic?
-What do we mean when we speak of “warm accompaniment”?
-What do we mean when we say that struggle and conflict can be about the perception of needs being met, or not met?
-What is the amygdala and what does it have to do with our emotions and our nervous system?
-What does it mean to self-regulate the nervous system and emotions?
-What role does our nervous system play in Non-Violent Communication? What are techniques that can be used to help our own nervous system and strong emotions as we communicate with others?
-What is “shoulding” and why “should” we stop doing that :-)?
-Non-Violent Communication is more than just learning a script; what is the thought process behind Non-Violent Communication?

Guest/s:
Peggy Smith, co-founder of the Maine Non-Violent Communication Network & certified trainer with the International Center for Nonviolent Communication. She is also a certified trainer with the International Center for Nonviolent Communication, and has worked both in Maine and internationally, with the Seeds of Peace International Camp, sharing Non-Violent Communication skills with educators from the Middle East and South Asia.
A student of Mindfulness since 1991, Peggy Smith was ordained as a teacher by Zen Master and peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh, and has incorporated Mindfulness practice in the teaching of Non-Violent Communication. She holds a Master’s degree in Literacy and Language Arts from the University of Pennsylvania, and taught in public and alternative schools for 32 years before devoting herself full time, to Non-Violent Communication training.

Nonviolent Communication, (NVC), is based on the principles of nonviolence– the natural state of compassion when no violence is present in the heart. NVC begins by assuming that we are all compassionate by nature and that violent strategies—whether verbal or physical—are learned behaviors taught and supported by the prevailing culture.
NVC also assumes that we all share the same, basic human needs, and that all actions are a strategy to meet one or more of these needs. People who practice NVC have found greater authenticity in their communication, Increased understanding, deepening connection and conflict resolution. The NVC community is active in over 65 countries around the globe.

Websites of Interest:
The Center for Nonviolent Communication
Clarity Services, Open Communication at Work

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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Maine: The Way Life Could Be 11/1/22: Mainers Under 40

Producers/Hosts: Jim Campbell and Amy Browne
This series is made possible in part by a grant from the Maine Arts Commission

Maine: The Way Life Could Be, a series in which we look at challenges and opportunities facing Maine in the lifetimes of people alive today.

This episode:
As this series winds down, we circle back to some of the younger members of our community. In this program, we’ll hear from four people under 40 who live in our broadcast area. They are working or looking for work, maybe thinking about starting families, and facing challenges today and in the near future as they fully take their places in Maine life. They talk about how they see some of the challenges identified at the beginning of this series, and identify others that are important in their lives.

Guests:
Derek Cole, Sophie Davis, Pepin Mittelhauser, Eileen Moscoso

About the hosts:

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.

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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Outside the Box 11/1/22: “Gunless, not Gutless”

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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