The Nature of Phenology 7/11/20: Evening Primrose

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn
Host: Hazel Stark

Because evening primrose grows in places we usually associate with non-native weeds, it is a plant that is often overlooked. But this native biennial is one of our many local treasures that should be appreciated wherever you find it.

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

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Notes from the Electronic Cottage 7/9/20: Facial Recognition Update and Broadband Expansion

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Two different but very important topics today: one, recommendations on suspending the use of facial recognition software from the largest association of computing professionals in the world, and a reminder that there is a very important question on the ballot in Maine’s upcoming election about the expansion of hi-speed Internet access in the state.

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Talk of the Towns 7/8/20: Project Launch and Deer Isle-Stonington High School

Producer/Host: Ron Beard

Project Launch and Deer Isle-Stonington High School—supporting high school graduates and their families with the transition to post-secondary education and the world of work

What led to the creation of Project Launch in 2012?

The transition from high school to post-secondary education can be challenging… what were you observing about the differences and similarities of those challenges to students of Deer Isle-Stonington High School and their peers in other parts of Maine?

What were the key elements of Project Launch originally and how is it set up now?
Support to students planning for post-secondary education, transition and ongoing support
Support for students not immediately planning to attend college or technical schools, seeking local employment, internships, apprenticeships

What is the perspective from Deer Isle/Stonington High School? What is the partnership between Project Launch and the school?

How do you track success? What support and challenges do you face in keeping the program thriving?

What are your hopes for future (individual and for Project Launch)—Each Guest responds as we wrap up the conversation…

Guests:
Kim Hutchinson, Director, Project Launch (PL)
Saige Brages is a fourth-year UMA student, and PL office manager and social media guru!
Rachel Shepard recent graduate Deer Isle-Stonington High School
Kaitlynne Harrison second-year college student,
Dennis Duquette, DISHS principal, PL Advisory Committee Board Member
Chelsea Brown, current DISHS guidance counselor,
Kathy Githens, PL Advisory Committee Member,
Haley Robbins McDonald, owner/operator of Island Daycare, past PL advisory committee member

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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Let’s Talk About It 7/7/20: Isolation

Producer/Host: Patrisha McLean
Technical assistance: Alex Wilder
Music: “Just A Bully” co-written with Patrisha McLean and Nora Willauer in a collaboration with DocSong. Performed by Willauer.

Let’s Talk About It: Conversations with Survivors of Domestic Abuse

Guests:
Jessica Scata and Sicily Siracusa.

Topics include:
The silence of family and community, how friends can help, the link between drugs and domestic abuse.

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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Maine Currents 7/7/20: Decolonization

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

A discussion of decolonization, with specific examples from the University of Maine, and the Abbe Museum, with guests:

Darren Ranco, PhD, a citizen of the Penobscot Nation, an Associate Professor of Anthropology and Chair of Native American Programs at the University of Maine. He has a Masters of Studies in Environmental Law from Vermont Law School and a PhD in Social Anthropology from Harvard University. His research focuses on the ways in which indigenous communities in the United States resist environmental destruction by using indigenous science, diplomacies, and critiques of liberalism to protect natural and cultural resources. He teaches classes on indigenous intellectual property rights, research ethics, environmental justice and tribal governance.

Hailey Cedor, a rising senior in the Honors College at the University of Maine, Orono. She is a History major with a minor in Environmental Horticulture. She is a member of All Maine Women, an undergraduate Research Assistant with the Holocaust Geographies Project, and a Fellow with the McGillicuddy Humanities Center. She has been working to get the University to rename a building on campus that was named for a former university president who was also the president of the American Eugenics Society.

John Bear Mitchell, a citizen of the Penobscot Nation from Indian Island. He presently serves as the UMaine System Office Native American Waiver and Educational Program Coordinator, University of Maine’s Wabanaki Center Outreach and Student Development Coordinator, as well as, a Lecturer of Wabanaki Studies and Multicultural Studies at the University of Maine in Orono. He has served on numerous museum and educational boards throughout the state with missions based on Maine’s Wabanaki people. For 15 years John visited schools in Maine as a Maine Touring Artist delivering an Arts in Education program. During that time, he visited over 150 schools. While working his way through college, he toured with the Native American Storytellers of New England. He presented a traditional and contemporary program in Native American Stories and Song. His singing and storytelling can be heard in many Maine PBS, tribal-sponsored awareness videos, independent film, HBO Lionsgate TV, and many documentaries with topics on Maine’s Native People.

Starr Kelly is the Curator of Education at the Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor. Her responsibilities focus on education through dialogue in a decolonizing context. Starr leads the museum’s education and public programs work, including program development and delivery, teacher training, and educational resource development. She is a member of the Algonquin First Nation of Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg in Quebec

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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