The Nature of Phenology 6/19/21: Labrador Tea

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn
Host: Hazel Stark

Tough Labrador tea shrubs are blooming in challenging places with thin, nutrient-poor soils.

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

About the producers and host:

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 6/19/21: Weekly Astrology Outlook

Good Morning People!
This is your Cosmic Curator, Tom Yaroschuk, With the astrological lowdown for the week of Saturday June 19th. It’s a big week in the sky with lots of energy patterns shifting.
The watch words are re-think, re-do, re-structure and re-imagine….

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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Democracy Forum 6/18/21: Protest: Good Citizenship at Work?

Host: Ann Luther, League of Women Voters of Maine

Protest: Good Citizenship at Work?

We talk about whether protests are a legitimate, if not necessary, form of civic participation.
Are protests good citizenship or are they civil disorder?
Is protesting effective in changing public policy?
Are nonviolent actions more effective than those that involve violence?
When do protest movements succeed?

Guests:
Douglas Allen, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Maine
Erica Chenoweth, Frank Stanton Professor of the First Amendment at the Harvard Kennedy SchooL and a Susan S. and Kenneth L. Wallach Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study

To learn more about this topic:
“What Anti-Protest Bills Reveal About The State Of U.S. Democracy,” OnPoint, WBUR, April, 2021

Civil Resistance: What Everyone Needs to Know, Erica Chenoweth, March, 2021

“The Myth of the Silent Majority: Americans have learned the wrong lessons about the political consequences of protest,” Daniel Gillian, The Atlantic, September, 2020.

“Protesting is as important as voting,” Andre M. Perry and Carl Romer, Brookings, August, 2020

“The Future of Nonviolent Resistance,” Erica Chenoweth, Journal of Democracy, July, 2020.

“Why protests matter in American democracy,” Daniel Gillion, Princeton University Press, June, 2020

Gandhi after 9/11: Creative Nonviolence and Sustainability, Douglas Allen, April, 2019

Prerecorded on 6/16 using Zoom technology.

The mostly volunteer team at the League of Women Voters – Downeast who plan and coordinate this series includes: Martha Dickinson, Starr Gilmartin, Maggie Harling, Ann Luther
Judith Lyles, Wendilee O’Brien, Maryann Ogonowski, Pam Person, Lane Sturtevant, Leah Taylor, Linda Washburn

About the host:
Ann currently serves as Treasurer of the League of Women Voters of Maine and leads the LWVME Advocacy Team. She served as President of LWVME from 2003 to 2007 and as co-president from 2007-2009. In her work for the League, Ann has worked for greater public understanding of public policy issues and for the League’s priority issues in Clean Elections & Campaign Finance Reform, Voting Rights, Ethics in Government, Ranked Choice Voting, and Repeal of Term Limits. Representing LWVME at Maine Citizens for Clean Elections, she served that coalition as co-president from 2006 to 2011. She remains on the board of MCCE and serves as Treasurer. She is active in the LWV-Downeast and hosts their monthly radio show, The Democracy Forum, on WERU FM Community Radio -which started out in 2004 as an recurring special, and became a regular monthly program in 2012. She was the 2013 recipient of the Baldwin Award from the ACLU of Maine for her work on voting rights and elections. She joined the League in 1998 when she retired as Senior Vice President at SEI Investments. Ann was a founder of the MDI Restorative Justice Program, 1999 – 2000, and served on its Executive Board.

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Awanadjo Almanack 6/18/21: “White Pine”

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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Dawnland Signals 6/17/21: Reclamation of Wabanaki culture and language

Producers/Hosts: Maria Girouard, Esther Anne
Engineer: Jeffrey Hotchkiss

Critical conversations of truth, healing, and change in the Dawnland: Return to the Teachings 3

Return to the Teachings 3: Reclamation of Wabanaki culture and language

-Natives were legally prohibited from practicing their culture
-There are many ways to preserve and reclaim culture
-The beauty and brilliance of Wabanaki languages

Guest: John Dennis, Miqmaw, Cultural Coordinator and Cultural and Historical Preservation Officer for the Mi’kmaq Nation.

About the hosts:

Esther Anne, is a Passamaquoddy from Sipayik who lives on Indian Island and serves on the Wabanaki REACH Board of Directors.

Maria Girouard, Penobscot from Indian Island, is Executive Director of Maine-Wabanaki REACH, a statewide organization working toward truth, healing, and change in the Dawnland. Maria is a tribal historian with a Master’s Degree in History from the University of Maine and a special interest in the Maine Indian Land Claims. Maria has devoted years to community organizing, environmental stewardship and activism, and growing food in tribal communities.

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Essential Rhythm 6/17/21: I found a snail! Its a littorine!

Producer/Host: Sarah O’Malley

This episode describes the three common species of littorine snails (aka periwinkles) found in the northern Gulf of Maine. Common, rough and smooth periwinkles are described in terms of habitat and reproductive strategy.

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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Notes from the Electronic Cottage 6/17/21: June Odds & Ends 1

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Today, a follow-up on Britain’s National Health Service’s plan to collect medical records of every patient of every General Practitioner in the country and assemble them into one giant database for research and other purposes. That plan has been delayed – here’s why.

And a look at some of the additional automation of work that has accelerated during, and will continue after, the Covid 19 pandemic.

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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