Healthy Options 3/4/20: Interview with Dr. Miryam Wahrman, author of “The Hand Book: Surviving in the Germ-Filled World”

Host/Producer: Rhonda Feiman
Co-producer: Petra Hall
Studio Engineer: Amy Browne

Program Topic: Effective techniques to reduce exposure to infectious disease due to influenza and the emergence of the coronavirus

Key Discussion Points:
1. What are symptoms of the coronavirus? What are symptoms of the flu?
2. How are viruses and bacteria transmitted from person to person?
3. What are the most important ways for us to protect ourselves?
4. Why is hand washing a powerful way to protect your health? What is the proper way to wash your hands?
5. Should we or shouldn’t we be using masks?
6. Why should you keep your hands away from your eyes, nose, and mouth?
7. Why should we stay at home if we are ill? What is bioethics and why is this a consideration?
8. What is the five second rule? Can we rely on the five second rule?
9. Why is it important to keep surfaces clean?
10. What is a simple recipe to make your own hand sanitizer?

Guest:
Miryam Wahrman, Professor of Biology at William Paterson University of New Jersey, where she directs a research laboratory in microbiology to study bacteria on environmental surfaces. Professor Wahrman is an expert in Bioethics, a pioneer in Biotechnology education, an award-winning science journalist (publishing over 200 articles on topics in science and health), and has written extensively on biotechnology, genetics and medical ethics. Miryam Wahrman is the author of The Hand Book: Surviving in a Germ-Filled World

Websites of Interest:

FMI:
facebook.com/SafeHandsBook/
Previous interview with Dr. Wahrman:
Healthy Options 2/6/19: archives.weru.org/healthy-options/2019/02/healthy-options-2-6-19/

About the host:
Rhonda Feiman is a nationally-certified, licensed acupuncturist practicing in Belfast, Maine since 1993. She primarily practices Toyohari Japanese acupuncture, using gentle and powerful non-insertion needle techniques, and also utilizes Chinese acupuncture and herbology. In addition, Rhonda is a practitioner of Qi Gong and an instructor of Tai Chi Chuan in the Yang Family tradition.

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Maine Currents Special 3/3/20: Prison Reform & Super Tuesday

Producer/Host: Amy Browne
Studio Engineer: John Greenman

Part 1: (Approx 6 minutes) “Reducing Jail Populations in Maine”, a workshop to be held in Bangor on 3/28/20. We talk with Doug Dunbar, one of the organizers. FMI: www.nopenobscotjailexpansion.com

Part 2: Station Manager Matt Murphy and Studio Engineer join me, and we open the phone lines for a Super Tuesday call in- and start an informal radio “exit poll”

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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The Nature of Phenology 2/29/20: Partridges in Winter

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn
Host: Hazel Stark

Most folks across the ruffed grouse’s range know them by that name, though if you have spent any time talking about wildlife in Maine, you likely know them by their colloquial name: partridges. Whatever you call them, partridges are chunky ground birds about the size and shape of a small chicken, but draped in the mottled gray, brown, red, and tan trappings of a wild bird.

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

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