Notes from the Electronic Cottage 9/30/21: 20 Years After 9/11

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

In the midst of our remembering 9-11-01 in many different ways 20 years later, a group of headlines from September, 2021 suggest that some big changes in surveillance have occurred in this country in the past 20 years, which in turn have helped to affect the way people today perceive the job the government is doing in protecting basic rights.

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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Community Wellness Watch 9/29/21: Local housing resources for children & families during pandemic

Producer/Host: Emma Weiss, WERU intern

Each month, WERU intern Emma Weiss sits down with local healthcare providers to talk about how they have adjusted their practices throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and how they continue to keep our communities healthy and safe.

Program Topic: Local providers offering housing for children and families in need throughout the COVID-19 pandemic
-Learning about housing children and families in need throughout the pandemic from a number of different perspectives
-Discussion of changes and adjustments made to practices housing children in families in homeless shelters, foster care, and private homes during the pandemic
-Challenges and triumphs from clients and staff throughout the pandemic
-Learning how listeners can access these services or become volunteers

Guests :
Travis Bryant, Executive Director
Foster Families of Maine Inc. & The Kinship Program in Bangor and Saco
[email protected]
207-827-2331

Robin Chamberlain, Director
Safe Families for Children throughout Maine
[email protected]
207-713-0523

Tracey Hair, Executive Director
H.O.M.E. Inc. in Orland
[email protected]
(207) 469.7961

About the host:
Originally from Hamden, CT, Emma Weiss has always called Maine her second home. After earning her bachelor’s degree in psychology and education at Oberlin College, she moved to MDI full time and began hosting “Moose Juice, Jellies & Jams; Tales and Tunes for Kids of All Ages” twice monthly on Saturdays at 11am during WERU’s Family Radio Hour. Emma joined the WERU team in April and has been working on our NextWave Radio initiative as well as the Community Wellness Watch programs. She now resides in Philadelphia and will work for WERU remotely for the next few months.

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Tough Island, Maine, Episode 7 9/28/21: Island Life on Matinicus

Producer/Host: Crash Barry

This week on Tough Island, Maine, Crash realizes he can’t pass the Able-Bodied Seaman’s drug test, Mary-Margaret gets in trouble and so does Captain Donald.

About the host:
Writer Crash Barry lives near a cannabis grove in the foothills of western Maine. Thirty years ago, he moved to Matinicus, Maine’s most remote inhabited island, to live and work as a sternman aboard a lobster boat. In Tough Island, Maine, Crash retells his misadventures using dramatic storytelling and unique sound design.

For over 25 years, Crash has worked as print, radio and on-line journalist, reporting on the intersection of politics and culture. He’s the author of the rollicking novel Sex, Drugs and Blueberries, a gritty memoir Tough Island and the true story of Marijuana Valley. Crash is also a filmmaker and wrote and directed the screen adaptation of Sex, Drugs and Blueberries.

Crash’s podcast Devils and Dirtbags is an ongoing investigation of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield, Massachusetts and a true tale of deceit, homicide, molestations and cover ups. The actions of evil Bishops and their unholy henchmen play out like a Hollywood movie, rife with death, destruction and disgrace, all framed by a murder mystery that haunted Springfield until an ex-priest made a deathbed confession. Crash tracked down both the murderer and another former priest, a serial child rapist that served as pastor of Crash’s childhood parish, to see if they felt guilt for their sins and crimes.

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Outside the Box 9/28/21: “Dull the Pain”

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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Poetry Express 9/26/21: “Comfort Measure”

“Comfort Measure” by Cait Vaughan read by the poet

About the host:
Jan Bindas-Tenney is a trans non-binary and queer writer, reader, fighter, lover, friend and parent living on unceded Abenaki land. They hold an MFA in nonfiction from University of Arizona. Their writing has appeared in the opinion pages of Maine newspapers, in legislative testimony, as well as in Orion, Guernica, Gulf Coast, Arts & Letters, CutBank, the Maine Review, among other places. They work at the Maine Humanities Council where they curate a weekly poetry feature on WERU Community Radio called Poetry Express.

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The Nature of Phenology 9/25/21: Mild Coastal Climate

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn
Host: Hazel Stark

Any New Englander worth their beans knows that coastal communities get long luxurious autumns and get less snow come winter, but why? This is all thanks to the strange properties of water and how it interacts with the atmosphere compared to land.

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

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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