DEBUT! Community Wellness Watch 8/31/21: Senior Care

Producer/Host: Emma Weiss, WERU intern

Community Wellness Watch is a program about public health. Hosted and produced by WERU intern Emma Weiss, the first full-length program for this project is focused on Senior Care. Each month, Emma 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. This is not meant to serve as professional medical advice, but rather we hope to inform listeners of healthcare resources in the area and give a huge thank you to these providers for their very important work. Support for Community Wellness Watch comes from the Maine Community Foundation.

Guests and contact information:
Anne Schroth, Co-director and Healthy-aging Program Coordinator
Healthy Peninsula in Blue Hill
[email protected]
207-374-3257

René Colson Hudson, Executive Director
Healthy Island Project in Deer Isle-Stonington
[email protected]
207-367-6332

Jo Cooper, Executive Director
Friends in Action in Ellsworth [email protected]
207-664-6016

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 3 8/31/21

Producer/Host: Crash Barry

This week on Tough Island, Maine, Knox County Sheriff’s Deputy Jerold Day gets run off the island and Crash almost crashes Captain Donald’s boat. Plus, an underwater graveyard and how to dispose of an old washing machine, island-style.

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 trackeddown 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 8/31/21: “All in This Together”

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 8/29/21: “Maine Morning”

“Maine Morning” by Celia Thaxter read by Hannah Patterson

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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Pet Sounds 8/29/21: Ways Herbs Are Given To Animals

Producer/Host: Dr. John Hunt

About the host:

My Sunday morning short has been running for about 11 years. I’ve cover a wide range of animal related topics from COVID to porcupines.

After graduating from Michigan State University Veterinary School in 1982 I practiced at three different veterinary hospitals in the Hartford, Conn area for 5 years. Then I bought a small part time clinic in Bucksport and turned it into a full time small animal surgery and medicine hospital. From 1987 to 2014 I enjoyed serving the Bucksport-Orland area pet owners. My kids grew up in Bucksport. I was a Boy Scoutmaster for a few years, and coached cross country and track in the Bucksport school system for 20 years. I’ve written three books working on a fourth.

I sold my practice and retired from practicing medicine in 2014. Since “retiring” I’ve continued Pet Sounds and my monthly Lets Talk Animals show on WERU. I’ve been teaching at local community colleges, officiating at high school track meets, writing and started a blog on line.

I enjoy hiking, reading, writing and anticipate spending more time with my first grandchild.

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The Nature of Phenology 8/28/21: Grasshoppers

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn
Host: Hazel Stark

Grasshoppers seem cute and unintimidating until the variables that cause a locust swarm occur.

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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