The Nature of Phenology 8/6/22: Hermit Thrushes on their Nests

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn
Host: Hazel Stark

Hermit thrushes in the east are ground-nesting birds who tend to make their nests under shrubs or in a dense thicket. You might find a nest in a forest near you if you’re a careful observer.

Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thenatureofphenology.wordpress.com

About the host/writers:
Joe Horn lives in Gouldsboro, is Co-Founder of Maine Outdoor School, L3C, and is a Registered Maine Guide and Carpenter. He is passionate about fishing, cooking, and making things with his hands. He has both an MBA in Sustainability and an MS focused in Environmental Education. Joe can be reached by emailing [email protected]

Hazel Stark lives in Gouldsboro, is Co-Founder and Naturalist Educator at Maine Outdoor School, L3C, and is a Registered Maine Guide. She loves taking a closer look at nature through the lens of her camera, napping in beds of moss, and taking hikes to high points to see what being tall is all about. She has an MS in Resource Management and Conservation and is a lifelong Maine outdoorswoman. Hazel can be reached by emailing [email protected]

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The Cosmic Curator 8/6/22: Beliefs & Commitments

This is your Cosmic Curator Tom Yaroschuk with a look at the stars for today Saturday August 6th.

The days begins with the moon is Scorpio. That could add a surge in the more darker emotions today. Those Scorpio moons are like that. They usher in the big questions in life – and a dose of passion to boot! It’s a family show, so we’ll leave the juicy bits out…

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 8/5/22: A talk with author Kimberly Ridley

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

Conversations from the Pointed Firs is a monthly interview-style podcast wherein Peter Neill talks with authors and artists who live in Maine, work in Maine, or otherwise derive their creativity from the essence of Maine.

Host Peter Neill’s guest this month is Kimberly Ridley, science writer, essayist, and award-winning author, and resident of Brooklin, Maine. Her books for children include The Secret Pool and The Secret Bay, both illustrated by Rebekah Raye, Extreme Survivors: Animals That Time Forgot, and published this year, a new book of essays and historical renderings of natural things: Wild Designs: Nature’s Architects. Kim is an elegant writer, teacher and communicator of her affinity and sense of wonder of things observed in her own backyard in Maine. In this episode Kim and Peter discuss Kim’s many books, nature writing in general, the power of unstructured time for children, and the power present in close observations of our natural world.

-Nature Writing
-Children’s books
-Biomimicry
-Maine plants and animals
-Science

Guest:
Kimberly Ridley is a science writer, essayist, editor and children’s book author who has been writing about nature, science, health and the environment for more than 25 years. Her passion is “inciting wonder” by sharing her love of nature and science with children and adults. She does numerous author visits and has taught nonfiction-writing workshops in dozens of elementary schools in Maine and the northeast based on her books. In addition, she teaches nature writing workshops for families and adults and presents special talks and programs at libraries and other public venues around Maine.

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 8/5/22: “Dog Days”

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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Change Agents 8/4/22: ACLU of Maine

Producer/Host: Steve Wessler

Change Agents, human right and social justice advocates on WERU FM

This month: Recent decisions by the US Supreme Court indicate a significant move to the right on civil rights issues.
-How to protect civil rights in Maine
-Bringing civil rights cases in State court may lead to different rules between the Supreme Court and state courts
-What is difficult about litigating civil rights cases for clients and for lawyers

Guests:
Zach Heiden and Carol Garvan, are respectively the Chief Counsel and Legal Director at the ACLU of Maine. Zack and Carol discussed their current work to protect the civil rights of all people in Maine. They discussed strategies for strengthening those at the State level.

About the host:
Steve Wessler will soon will be starting his 28th year of working on human right issues. He founded the Civil Rights Unit in the Maine Attorney’s Office in 1992 and led the Unit for 7 years. In 1999 he left the formal practice of law and founded the Center for the Prevention of Hate. The Center worked in Maine and across the USA. He and his colleagues worked to reduce bias and harassment in schools, in communities, in health care organization through workshops and conflict resolution. The Center closed in 2011 and Steve began a consulting on human rights issues. For the next 5 years much of his work was in Europe, developing and implementing training curricular for police, working in communities to reduce the risk of hate crimes, conflict resolution between police and youth. He has worked in over 20 countries. In late 2016 he began to work more in Maine, with a focus on reducing anti-immigrant bias. He continues to work in schools to reduce bias and harassment. Wessler teaches courses on human rights issues at the College of the Atlantic, the University of Maine at Augusta and at the School of Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University in northern Virginia.

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Notes from the Electronic Cottage 8/4/22: Summer Encore 9: Computing & Climate Change

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Digital technology can be a wonderful thing in our daily lives. It can also be a major source of carbon emissions and, hence, global warming. Here’s why, according to the Association for Computing Machinery.

Here is a link to the report quoted today

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 8/3/22: How are local clinics here dealing with the overturning of Roe V. Wade?

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

Healthy Options: For Well-being & Being Well

Host Rhonda Feiman speaks with Lindsey Piper and Mareisa Weil from Maine Family Planning to discuss the evolving situation in Maine- and what striking down this law means for reproductive rights here and nationally.

1. What has changed in Maine since Roe versus Wade has been overturned?
2. What is safe reproductive health care?
3. What is the difference between the morning after pill and a medication abortion using pills?
4. Is using the medication in a medical abortion safe and effective?
5. What is the timeframe for a safe medical abortion?
6. What is an ectopic pregnancy? Can an ectopic pregnancy be life-threatening?
7. What is the difference between early pregnancy loss, and a miscarriage?
8. How have restrictive laws affected medical personnels’ ability to treat and save the lives of women experiencing ectopic pregnancy or miscarriages?
9. What is the federal Emergency Medical Treatment & Labor Act (EMTALA)? How does that law protect providers?
10. What is age-appropriate sex education? How is MFP working with young people?
11. How has the overturning of Roe versus Wade affected reproductive health care and access to medical care?
12. What is a typical day in the life of a Maine Family Planning practitioner? What has changed since restrictive laws are being enacted in many states in the US?

Websites of Interest:

Maine Family Planning
SAFE MAINE
Emergency Medical Treatment & Labor Act (EMTALA)
National Network of Abortion Funds
Plan C Pills
SCIENCE NEWS: 5 misunderstandings of pregnancy biology that cloud the abortion debate

Guest/s: At Maine Family Planning, Lindsey Piper is a nurse practitioner specializing in sexual and reproductive health and Mareisa Weil is Vice President for Development & Community Engagement.

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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