Serving Midcoast,
Downeast & Central Maine
A Voice of Many Voices!
News & Public Affairs Archive
Producer/Host: Tom Yaroschuk
The watchword for the week is sudden and unexpected change…
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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Producer/Host: Patrisha McLean
Production assistance: Tammy Oropesa
Music: Jackie Lee McLean
Let’s Talk About It: Conversations with Survivors of Domestic Abuse
Guests:
Elizabeth Garber and Sue Garrett of with readings by poets Linda Buckmaster, Ellen Sander, Marjorie Arnett, Kathleen Robinson and Karin Spitfire. All from Belfast, Maine
About the host:
Patrisha McLean is the founder/president of Finding Our Voices, the grass roots survivor-powered non profit organization breaking the silence of domestic abuse one conversation and community at a time all across Maine.
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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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Producer/Host: C.J. Walke, MOFGA
Organic Food and Farming in Maine: Homesteading in Maine
-Growing your own food
-Homesteading in urban areas
-Homestead community building
Guests\:
Karen Marysdaughter, Bangor, ME
Rhonda Welcome, Lubec, ME
About the host:
C.J. Walke, host of Common Ground Radio, has been involved in Maine agriculture for over 20 years and has worked in numerous capacities for the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA) starting in 2006. Since 2012, C.J. has worked as farm manager for College of the Atlantic’s Peggy Rockefeller Farms in Bar Harbor, Maine, where he works with students to grow organic fruits, vegetables and livestock products. He holds degrees in park management/environment education and library science. Common Ground Radio debuted in June of 2010 and C.J. has been the show’s host since 2014.
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Producer/Host: Sarah O’Malley
This episode describes basic snail anatomy in the context of the phylum Mollusca. It is a the first in a series about common sea shore creatures one might encounter in the summer at the beach.
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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Producer/Host: Jim Campbell
There is a big difference between “opt-in” and “opt-out” in the digital world. Tens of millions of people in the US and in the UK are finding that out in June of 2021 whether they know it or not. In the US, owners of Amazon Echo or Amazon Ring devices are included in a new Amazon mesh network call Sidewalk, unless they take steps to “opt-out.”
For those folks who do not want to be sharing their wifi and Internet connections with their neighbors, here are instructions of how to “opt-out” by turning Sidewalk off on their devices.
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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Producer/Host: Ron Beard
Pine Tree Power—the rationale for a consumer-owned electric utility for Maine
]
-What led to consideration of a consumer- owned non-profit electric utility for the State of Maine? What is the history of this approach?
-What are the main advantages to this approach?
-What would have to change to make a consumer-owned electric utility possible?
-How is electricity generated and distributed in Maine today? What is the history of investor- owned electric utilities?
-What is the experience for Maine’s consumers of electricity? How do the two major privately owned utilities compare in reliability of service and rates to other rural states?
-The current bill is supported by members of both major political parties… What are the primary reasons for their support?
-In terms of energy conservation and use of renewables to produce electricity, how would a consumer-owned utility be different than the current model?
Guests:
Rep. Nicole Grohoski (Ellsworth/Trenton) and also on Energy Utilities, Technology Committee
Emily Rochford, Unity College, core member Maine Youth for Climate Justice
Louise Chaplin, University of Maine, Executive Board, Coastal Youth Climate Coalition
John Brautigam, Maine Attorney and Public Policy Consultant
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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Join Teresa Carey as she breaks down the latest news on the technology that is solving the world’s biggest problems. In today’s show, Teresa covers virus-catching “nanotraps,” how to track wildfire smoke, and genetically modified grasses.
To learn more about the topics:
These “Nanotraps” Capture SARS-CoV-2 for the Immune System to Kill
How Wonky Cell Phone Signals Help Track Wildfire Smoke
This Genetically Modified Grass Can Clean Up Toxic Pollution
About the host:
Teresa Carey is a senior staff writer at Freethink.com, where she covers genetics and the environment. She is also a US Coast Guard licensed captain and a NatGeo Explorer. In addition to Freethink her work can be found in BuzzFeed, Scientific American, PBS NewsHour, NPR Weekend Edition, Smithsonian and more. @teresa_carey
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