Donate to WERU Today!Host/Producer: Amy Browne
An update on the special Bangor City Council Workshop last Friday where the discussion of the homeless encampment behind Penobscot Plaza continued.
About the host:
Amy Browne started out at WERU as a volunteer news & public affairs producer in 2000, co-hosting/co-producing RadioActive with Meredith DeFrancesco. She joined the team of Voices producers a few years later, and has been WERU’s News & Public Affairs Manager since January, 2006. In addition to RadioActive, Voices, Maine Currents and Maine: The Way Life Could Be, Amy also produced and hosted the WERU News Report for several years. She has produced segments for national programs including Free Speech Radio News, This Way Out, Making Contact, Workers Independent News, Pacifica PeaceWatch, and Live Wire News, and has contributed to Democracy Now and the WBAI News Report. She is the recipient of the 2014 Excellence in Environmental Journalism Award from the Sierra Club of Maine, and Maine Association of Broadcasters awards for her work in 2017 and 2021.
Theme music: BreakBeat Chemists I, 2015
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-
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A Word in Edgewise 12/15/25: Voltaire, Arthur Sze, Sitting Bull, & Hattie McDaniel . . .
Producer/Host: R.W. Estela
Hi, I’m RW Estela: Since 1991, I’ve been presenting A Word in Edgewise, WERU’s longest-running short feature, a veritable almanac of worldly and heavenly happenings, a confluence of 21st-century life in its myriad manifestations, international and domestic, cosmopolitan and rural, often revealing, as the French say, the more things change, the more they stay the same — though not always! Sometimes in addressing issues affecting our day-to-day lives, in this age of vagary and ambiguity, when chronological time is punctuated elliptically, things can quickly turn edgy and controversial, as we search for understanding amid our dialectic. Tune in Monday mornings at 7:30 a.m. for an exciting journey through space and time with a few notable birthdays thrown in for good measure during A Word in Edgewise . . .
About the host:
RW Estela was raised as a first-generation American in Colorado by a German mother and a Corsican-Basque father who would become a three-war veteran for the US Army, so RW was naturally a military brat and later engaged in various Vietnam-era civil-service adventures before paying his way through college by skiing for the University of Colorado, playing Boulder coffeehouses, and teaching. He has climbed all of Colorado’s Fourteeners; found work as an FAA-certificated commercial pilot, a California-licensed building contractor, a publishing editor, a practitioner of Aikido, and a college professor of English; among his many interdisciplinary pursuits are the design and building of Terrell Residence Library (recently renamed the Terrell House Permaculture Living & Learning Center at the University of Maine), writing Building It In Two Languages (a bilingual dictionary of construction terminology), aerial photo documentation of two dam removals (Great Works and Veazie) on the Penobscot River, and once a week since 1991 drafting an installment of A Word In Edgewise, his essay series addressing issues affecting our day-to-day lives — and WERU’s oldest continuous short feature. When pandemics do not interfere, he does the Triple Crown of Maine open-water ocean swims (Peaks to Portland, Islesboro Crossing, and Nubble Light Challenge) and the Whitewater Downriver Point Series of the Maine Canoe and Kayak Racing Organization. RW is the father of two and the grandfather of three and lives with his partner Kathleen of 37 years and their two Maine Coons in Orono.
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Nature Notes: A Maine Naturalist Afield 12/14/25: A Conversation with Peyton Caylor and Colleagues, 2025
Host/Producer: Glen Mittelhauser
This episode begins with an interview with Peyton Caylor about her work on Matinicus Rock, comparing seabird research there with her season on the Farallon Islands. The conversation expands to include Coco and Tracey Faber from Seal Island and Matinicus Rock, and Alison Ballard from Eastern Egg Rock, as they discuss seabird dynamics across colonies, unusual visitors like the Tufted Puffin, and the parallels and contrasts between Atlantic and Pacific seabird systems.
More information about Maine Natural History can be found at mainenaturalhistory.org.
About the hosts:
Glen Mittelhauser founded Maine Natural History Observatory (MNHO) in 2003 to fill the need for an organization that specializes in collecting, interpreting, and maintaining datasets for understanding changes in Maine’s plant and wildlife populations. Glen received his Bachelor’s in Human Ecology from College of the Atlantic in 1989 with a focus in the biological sciences and received his Master of Science degree in Zoology (with a focus on ornithology and statistics) from the University of Maine in 2000. Glen was the Managing Editor for Northeastern Naturalist and Southeastern Naturalist for 18 years and has served as external graduate faculty for 3 graduate student committees at the University of Maine. Glen currently serves on the Baxter State Park Research Committee.
Logan Parker is an Ecologist residing in Waldo County, Maine. Logan started the Maine Nightjar Monitoring Project in 2017 and brought the project (and his passion for bird conservation) to MNHO when he joined the team in 2018. Logan is heavily involved in the ongoing Maine Bird Atlas where he both coordinates and participates in the project’s special species surveys. When “off the clock”, Logan enjoys birding, writing, gardening, and working alongside his wife, Hallee, on their off-grid home in the Maine woods. Logan is also a wildlife photographer and shares photos and field notes through his project, Here In The Wild.
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Esoterica 12/14/25: A Merry Little Christmas
What’s the Word on Maine Street? 12/13/25
What’s the Word on Maine Street?, hosted by Sarah Pebworth, is a weekly short feature Saturdays at 9:30am looking at local literary and visual arts events and offerings!
About the host:
Sarah Pebworth leads the steering committee for Word—a Blue Hill Literary Arts Festival, founded in 2017 and held each October. She serves on the boards of the Cultural Alliance of Maine and Lawrence Family Fitness Center YMCA. Since February 2023 Sarah has written “Shared Seas and Common Grounds,” a column published in the Penobscot Bay Press’s Weekly Packet. She and her wife Julie Jo Fehrle live in Blue Hill.
Theme music: Ross Gallagher is a bassist who grew up in East Blue Hill, ME, and currently lives between Bath, ME and Brooklyn, NY, where he works with a wide variety of musical artists. Infinite Blues is a cut from his recently released neon night, an excursion into an ambient/electronic musical world built around rhythmic bass ostinatos, clouds of processed looping electronic atmospheres, and melody. By turns both subtle and unapologetically noisy, the songs are a collection of luminous constellations, roved between by a band of texturally minded instrumental improvisers.
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Earthwise 12/13/25: The Holly and the Mistletoe
Producer/Host: Anu Dudley
About the host: Rev. Dr. Anu Dudley is an ordained Pagan minister and a retired history professor. She continues to teach classes, including the three-year ordination curriculum at the Temple of the Feminine Divine, and others such as History of the Goddess, Paganism 101, Ethical Magic, and Introduction to the Runes. Currently she is writing a book about how to cast the runes using their original Goddess meanings. She lives in the woods off-grid in a small homesteading community in Central Maine.
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Around Town 12/12/25: Local News, Culture and Events
Host/Producer: Amy Browne
A special City Council Workshop will be held this Friday, Dec. 12, beginning at 9 a.m. in Council Chambers at City Hall for the purpose of continuing discussions about the homeless encampment along the rail lines near Penobscot Plaza. (Source: City of Bangor) Today we hear from a resident of the encampment who spoke at a Bangor City Council meeting earlier this week.
About the host:
Amy Browne started out at WERU as a volunteer news & public affairs producer in 2000, co-hosting/co-producing RadioActive with Meredith DeFrancesco. She joined the team of Voices producers a few years later, and has been WERU’s News & Public Affairs Manager since January, 2006. In addition to RadioActive, Voices, Maine Currents and Maine: The Way Life Could Be, Amy also produced and hosted the WERU News Report for several years. She has produced segments for national programs including Free Speech Radio News, This Way Out, Making Contact, Workers Independent News, Pacifica PeaceWatch, and Live Wire News, and has contributed to Democracy Now and the WBAI News Report. She is the recipient of the 2014 Excellence in Environmental Journalism Award from the Sierra Club of Maine, and Maine Association of Broadcasters awards for her work in 2017 and 2021.
Theme music: BreakBeat Chemists I, 2015
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-
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Common Ground Radio 12/11/25: Gardener to Gardener
Host: Holli Cederholm
Common Ground Radio is an hour-long discussion of local food and organic agriculture with people here in the state of Maine and beyond.
This month:
This episode of Common Ground Radio goes behind the scenes of Gardener to Gardener, a new conference for gardeners to learn from one another. Hosted by the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, the inaugural event will take place on February 8 in Portland, Maine. It is an exciting opportunity for gardeners of all experience levels to connect with other growers, as well as university faculty, agricultural scientists, and service providers around a range of gardening topics. We also dive a bit deeper into two topics that will be covered at the conference, Planning & Mapping Your Garden, and Soil Health 101.
List of subjects:
– MOFGA’s Gardener to Gardener Conference
– Gardening
– Resources for organic gardening
– Planning and mapping your garden
– Soil health 101
Guest/s:
Madi Whaley, MOFGA’s educational programs coordinator.
Rebecca Long, coordinator of Horticulture Training Programs for the University of Maine Cooperative Extension.
Ivonne Vazquez, the owner/grower at Bas Rouge Farm & Forge, a native plant nursery.
FMI-
– Gardener to Gardener — mofga.org/event-calendar/gardener-to-gardener-2026
– Climate Change & the Garden: Resources — mofga.org/trainings/gardening/climate-change-gardening-resources
– Beginning Gardener Resources — mofga.org/trainings/gardening/beginning-gardener-resources
– Bas Rouge Farm & Forge Gardening Classes — basrougefarm.com/gardening-classes
– Understanding Astronomy — physics.weber.edu/schroeder/ua/sunandseasons.html
– Maine Home Garden News — extension.umaine.edu/gardening/maine-home-garden-news
– Cooperative Extension Garden & Yard — extension.umaine.edu/gardening
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 lo0ng-time contributor for The Maine Organic Farmer & Gardener, which she now edits in her role as content creator and editor at MOFGA.
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