Notes from the Electronic Cottage 9/3/20: Computerized Cars- What We Don’t Know

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Many of us that drive daily have little idea of what our cars are doing. We don’t mean how the engine or transmission works: we mean how all the information about how we drive and where we drive that is being collected, some of which is being sent through a cellular connection that we don’t even know exists to companies that we similarly don’t know exist for purposes that we don’t know anything about and haven’t agreed to, at least consciously. Might be worthwhile to know a bit more about the data that is being collected about our driving without our knowledge and monetized by others, so lend an ear here.

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Maine Currents 9/1/20: Confronting Racial Bias in Maine Schools

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

Today we bring you another presentation organized by the Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine, on the topic of bias and racism. The presentation “Students Speak: Confronting Bias in Maine Schools” was taped via zoom on August 13 before a live audience filled with teachers.

The featured speakers, Sophia Williams, Alexa Allen, Jamaica Ford and Isaiah Reid talked about their experiences as Black students in Maine schools and their hopes and efforts for change. Shenna Bellows- who in addition to being a Maine State Senator, is also the Executive Director of the center, is the moderator

Sophia Williams’ “Open letter to the American Ghetto and its disenfranchised” can be found here

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 and Maine Currents, she 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 the First Place 2017 Radio News Award from the Maine Association of Broadcasters.

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