The Nature of Phenology 9/19/20: Yellow Jackets

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn
Host: Hazel Stark

“Yellow jacket” is the name for a group of stinging insects that includes many different species and a couple genera in North America. With food sources decreasing as the growing season winds down matched with yellow jacket colonies at the peak of their annual populations, we are left with lots of stinging insects desperate for food. A perceived threat to yellow jacket nests can quickly inspire the residents to come out with their stingers blazing.

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

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Democracy Forum 9/18/20: Who Votes, Who Can’t, and Who Won’t?

Host: Ann Luther, League of Women Voters of Maine

Who Votes, Who Can’t, and Who Won’t?

We talk about voter participation in marginalized communities
Structural/ systemic/ institutional barriers to voting, and motivational barriers to voting.

Guests:
Maulian Dana, Penobscot Nation Ambassador

Michael Kebede, Policy Counsel, ACLU of Maine

Chryl Laird, Assistant Professor of Government at Bowdoin College

To learn more about this topic:

How Shelby County v. Holder Broke America, Vann R. Newkirk II, The Atlantic, July 2018
America’s Relentless Suppression of Black Voters, Lawrence Goldstone, The New Republic, October 2018.
Young Black Americans not sold on Biden, the Democrats or voting, David C. Barker and Sam Fulwood III, The Conversation, August 2020
Systematic Inequality and American Democracy, Danyelle Solomon, Connor Maxwell, and Abril Castro, Center for American Progress, August 2019
Why So Many Black Voters Are Democrats, Even When They Aren’t Liberal, Cheryl N. Laird, Ismail K. White, FiveThirtyEight, February 2020
Steadfast Democrats: How Social Forces Shape Black Political Behavior, Cheryl N. Laird, Ismail K. White, February 2020
Maine: State of our Democracy, a report from the League of Women Voters of Maine, April 2020.
FRRC is one of several nonprofits that are raising money to help returning citizens pay fines and fees in Florida, as mentioned on the show.
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, Matthew Desmond, 2016

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, Maryann Ogonowski, Pam Person, Lane Sturdevant, 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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Dawnland Signals 9/17/20: Indigenous Knowledge of Love

Producers/Hosts: Maria Girouard, Esther Anne
Production assistance: Jeffrey Hotchkiss

Critical conversations of truth, healing, and change in the Dawnland: Indigenous Knowledge of Love

This unique talk show highlights indigenous topics not immediately represented in mainstream media, and features guests involved in various aspects of decolonization work. This month we will be talking about Indigenous Love with special guest and dear friend Dr. Rebecca Sockbeson of the Penobscot Indian Nation.

A political activist and scholar, Rebecca graduated from Harvard University with a master’s degree in education. Her research focus is Indigenous knowledge, Aboriginal healing through language and culture, anti-racism and decolonization. Her doctoral study engages with how Indigenous ways of knowing and being can inform policy development. Rebecca is an Associate Professor for the Indigenous Peoples Education Program at the University of Alberta.

Also, a powerful and expressive writer, Rebecca’s poem, “Hear me in this concrete beating on my drum,” was a winning entry in the Word on the Street Poetry Project in 2018 and is sandblasted on a downtown Edmonton sidewalk as part of a permanent public art installation. Rebecca recently served as Libra visiting scholar for the University of Maine College of Education to support their efforts to educate Maine pre-service teachers toward compliance with Maine Wabanaki studies law.

Dawnland Signals holds space for critical conversations of Truth, Healing, and Change in the Dawnland. This is a conversation you don’t want to miss!

Guest: Dr. Rebecca Sockbeson, Penobscot

About the hosts:

Esther Anne, Passamaquoddy from Sipayik, joined the Muskie School of Public Service in 2003 where she works on projects that engage and benefit tribal communities including facilitating the Maine tribal-state Indian Child Welfare Act workgroup and creating child welfare resources with the Capacity Building Center for Tribes. She had a primary role in the creation and establishment of the Maine Wabanaki-State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission and Maine-Wabanaki REACH. Esther now serves as secretary for the REACH Board of Directors and on the REACH Communications Committee. Esther lives on Indian Island and her family includes adult children and a grandbaby.

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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Notes from the Electronic Cottage 9/17/20: Some Surprises & an Unsurprise

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

A few tech topics for today. First, what was the biggest selling physical format of music was in the first half of 2020? Second. what did IBM tell the US Department of Commerce about the export of facial recognition technology software? Third, why did a group of German researchers entitle a recent paper examining smart watches for children STALK? Curious? Listen up.

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