Let’s Talk About It 5/13/22: When Your Abuser is Famous

Producer/Host: Patrisha McLean
Production assistance: Tammy Oropesa
Music: Jackie Lee McLean

Let’s Talk About It: Conversations with Survivors of Domestic Abuse

Guest:
Donna Kaz. In Donna’s memoir Unmasked: Memoir of a Guerilla Girl on Tour she relates being terrorized by the serial domestic abuser William Hurt.

Topics include:
What is it like when your abuser is an artist admired around the world for his sensitivity, emotional abuse, the power of fame, being robbed of yourself and coming into yourself.

About the host:
Patrisha McLean is the founder/president of Finding Our Voices, the grassrroots survivor-powered non-profit organization breaking the silence of domestic abuse community by community all across Maine.

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Awanadjo Almanack 5/13/22: “Post and Beam”

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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Common Ground Radio 5/12/22: Homesteading in Maine

Producers/Hosts: Caitlyn Barker, Holli Cederholm
Editing: Clare Boland

Common Ground Radio: A monthly hour-long discussion of local food and organic agriculture with people here in the state of Maine and beyond.

The May 2022 episode of Common Ground Radio explores homesteading in Maine in conversation with homesteaders of varying levels and lengths of experience. Host Caitlyn Barker spoke with Sikwani and Nathan Dana of The Dana Homestead about living off the land in Solon, Maine, and how they use social media to share their homesteading journey. Later in the show, Barker is joined by Angela DeRosa who has been homesteading for decades in Wellington, Maine.

-Homesteading in Maine
-TikTok
-Beginning homesteading experiences

Guests:
Sikwani Dana, The Dana Homestead, Solon, ME
Nathan Dana, The Dana Homestead, Solon, ME
The Dana Homestead TikTok
Angela DeRosa, homesteader, Wellington, ME

FMI
Down East article about The Dana Homestead

About the hosts:

Holli Cederholm has been involved in organic agriculture since 2005 when she first apprenticed on a small farm. She has worked on organic farms in Maine, Vermont, Connecticut, Scotland and Italy and, in 2010, founded a small farm focused on celebrating open-pollinated and heirloom vegetables. As the former manager of a national nonprofit dedicated to organic seed growers, she authored a peer-reviewed handbook on GMO avoidance strategies for seed growers. Holli has also been a steward at Forest Farm, the iconic homestead of “The Good Life” authors Helen and Scott Nearing; a host of “The Farm Report” on Heritage Radio Network; and a long-time contributor for The Maine Organic Farmer & Gardener, which she now edits in her role as content creator and editor at MOFGA.

Caitlyn Barker has worked in education and organic agriculture on and off for the last 17 years. She has worked on an organic vegetable farm, served on the Maine Farm to School network, worked in early childhood education and taught elementary school. She currently serves as the community engagement coordinator for MOFGA.

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Notes from the Electronic Cottage 5/12/22: Digital Currency 2

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

More thoughts on digital cash for the US: what might its characteristics be, why is it worth thinking about in the first place, are we likely to see such a thing any time soon, how would it be different from paper money – or would it?

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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Talk of the Towns 5/11/22: The Changing Media Landscape in Maine and Elsewhere

Producer/Host: Ron Beard

Talk of the Towns: Local Community concerns and opportunities

We know the media landscape is changing, here in Maine, as elsewhere. Where do we get? our? news and information, and how do we test it for accuracy? And how does today’s media intersect with making decisions in a democracy?

Ron Beard, host of Talk of the Towns, talks with guests Kate Cough, reporter for the Maine Monitor, Faith DeAmbrose, editor of the Mount Desert Islander newspaper, Michael Socolow, Journalism Professor from University of Maine and WERU’s ?own ?News and Public Affairs Manager, Amy Browne.? They share perceptions about Maine’s changing media landscape and what it means for democracy and citizen discourse.?

Guests:
Kate Cough, Reporter, The Maine Monitor
Faith DeAmbrose, Managing Editor, The Mount Desert Islander
Michael Socolow, Media historian and Associate Professor of Communication and Journalism, University of Maine
Amy Browne, News and Public Affairs Manager, WERU Community Radio

About the host:
Ron Beard is producer and host of Talk of the Towns, which first aired on WERU in 1993 as part of his community building work as an Extension professor with University of Maine Cooperative Extension and Sea Grant. He took all the journalism courses he could fit in while an undergraduate student in wildlife management and served as an intern with Maine Public Television nightly newscast in the early 1970s. Ron is an adjunct faculty member at College of the Atlantic, teaching courses on community development. Ron served on the Bar Harbor Town Council for six years and is currently board chair for the Jesup Memorial Library in Bar Harbor, where he has lived since 1975. Look for him on the Allagash River in June, and whenever he can get away, in the highlands of Scotland where he was fortunate to spend two sabbaticals.

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Outside the Box 5/10/22: “End Consumerism”

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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The Essential Rhythm 5/8/22: Sand fleas are smarter than you think

Producer/Host: Sarah O’Malley

This episode describes the water retaining properties of the exoskeleton of sand fleas as well as research into their unexpectedly complex navigational systems. Together these allow them to forage in the intertidal zone, breaking down organic matter and recycling nutrients.

About the host:
Sarah O’Malley is an ecologist, naturalist and science communicator passionate about deepening her listeners’ experiences with the natural world. She teaches biology and sustainability at Maine Maritime Academy and is currently collaborating on a guide book to the intertidal zone in the Gulf of Maine.

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