Donate to WERU Today!CJ Kenna | Producer + Writer/Reader
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What’s the Word on Maine Street? 12/20/25
What’s the Word on Maine Street?, hosted by Sarah Pebworth, is a weekly short feature Saturdays at 9:30am looking at local literary and visual arts events and offerings!
About the host:
Sarah Pebworth leads the steering committee for Word—a Blue Hill Literary Arts Festival, founded in 2017 and held each October. She serves on the boards of the Cultural Alliance of Maine and Lawrence Family Fitness Center YMCA. Since February 2023 Sarah has written “Shared Seas and Common Grounds,” a column published in the Penobscot Bay Press’s Weekly Packet. She and her wife Julie Jo Fehrle live in Blue Hill.
Theme music: Ross Gallagher is a bassist who grew up in East Blue Hill, ME, and currently lives between Bath, ME and Brooklyn, NY, where he works with a wide variety of musical artists. Infinite Blues is a cut from his recently released neon night, an excursion into an ambient/electronic musical world built around rhythmic bass ostinatos, clouds of processed looping electronic atmospheres, and melody. By turns both subtle and unapologetically noisy, the songs are a collection of luminous constellations, roved between by a band of texturally minded instrumental improvisers.
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Around Town 12/19/25: Local News, Culture and Events
Host/Producer: Amy Browne
Andy O’Brien, Maine AFL-CIO, with news of successful organizing efforts with University of Maine graduate workers.
NOTE: Around Town will be away next week. We’ll return on 12/29/25
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.
Theme music: BreakBeat Chemists I, 2015
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-
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Creative Maine 12/18/25: Crafting for Good
Producer/host: Adina Salmansohn
Other credits: Theme music written and performed by Ariel Chapman.
Other credits: Theme music written and performed by Ariel Chapman.
A monthly show exploring Maine‘s culture, art and crafts that enrich our lives and bring us joy.
Listeners will learn about Mainers who use their crafting skills to do good in their communities.
Guest/s:
Rosa Moore, Executive Director and Jackie Perkins, Arts and Activities Director, HOME Inc. homeemmaususa.org
Heidi O’Donnell, Art Teacher at Belfast Area High School, rsu71 [email protected]
Sara Brand-New [email protected]
Jillian Liversidge [email protected]
About the Host:
Adina Salmansohn started learning to play the trombone at the age of 8. Her undergraduate years were at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she studied with Robert F. Boyd of the Cleveland Orchestra. After returning to her native New York, she played freelance in the NY Metro area, including multiple orchestras, big bands, and a 17 year stint with The Soundview Brass Quintet, which she founded in 1980. In addition, she had a busy career as an arts administrator, directing and teaching in Community Arts schools, light opera companies, and season programming for other non-profit organizations. Adina founded the Hudson School of Creative Arts in inner-city Yonkers, NY.
After her second child was born, she returned to school, and earned a degree in Culinary Arts from the Culinary Institute of America. Her family then moved to the Chicagoland area, where she became Principal Trombone of the Skokie Valley Symphony Orchestra, and also served as a board member and Personnel Manager for many years. In that time, she also taught Culinary Arts in high school. She earned a Graduate Certificate in Museum Studies from Northern Illinois University in 2018. Upon retirement, she and her husband moved to Orland, Maine; she came out of retirement to teach in the JMG program. She performs with the Bangor Band, where she has been a Board Member at Large for four years, and is a member of a trombone quartet based at The University of Maine, The Bear Bones.
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Around Town 12/18/25: Local News, Culture and Events
Host/Producer: Amy Browne
Ed Spencer with an update on the Juniper Ridge Landfill – area residents are petitioning the DEP for a public hearing on the planned expansion
FMI:
Don’t Waste ME
Maine Department of Environmental Protection – Juniper Ridge
State of Maine Bureau of General Services – Maine’s State-Owned Landfills
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.
Theme music: BreakBeat Chemists I, 2015
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-
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World Ocean Radio 12/17/25: Hydromancy
Host: Peter Neill
Producer: Trisha Badger
ABOUT THIS EPISODE
This week on a new 5-minute episode of World Ocean Radio we’re discussing the word “Hydromancy”, its meaning and signs, water in its many forms, and its implication for our future. Hydromancy is an ancient form of divination, an invitation to explore the depths of still water and its ability of reveal hidden truths.
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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Around Town 12/17/25: Local News, Culture and Events
Host/Producer: Amy Browne
US vs Shenna Bellows – updates on the DOJ’s lawsuit against Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows. The League of Women Voters of Maine were recently granted intervenor status in the case
And Opera House Arts’ series of festive events continues this week at the Stonington Opera House.
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.
Theme music: BreakBeat Chemists I, 2015
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-
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Relationship Rewind 12/16/25: A Harmless Prank
Host: Carrie Clark and Alli Williamson at NextStep Domestic Violence Project. NextStep 24/7 Helpline: 1(800) 315-5579
Theme Music for the show donated by local musicians Megan Light and Nathan Spears.
Relationship Rewind: Rewinding relationships in popular media and breaking down behaviors based in power, control, and abuse.
This episode:
1. Discussing unhealthy behaviors in online prank videos posted by influencers.
2. Discussing what an actual prank entails and how these types of videos portray relationships.
3. Discussing the impacts of these messages about these relationships and people, on young people.
FMI:
www.nextstepdvproject.org
About the hosts:
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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