Power for the People 3/27/26: A Climate to Thrive

Producer/Host: Steve Kahl

Power for the People: Energy education and solutions for Mainers and Maine communities

This month:
Update on MDI’s A Climate to Thrive.

Guest/s:
Johannah Blackman, Executive Director.
Wilson Haims, Manager of COmmunity Engagement and Resilience.

FMI:
www.aclimatetothrive.org/

About the host:

Steve Kahl developed and has hosted Power for the People since 2015. He retired after 9 years as Professor of Environmental Science at Thomas College in 2024, where he taught environmental and energy courses and advised the student sustainability club. He is a member of the Friends of Quarry Road Trails board of directors in Waterville where he is the main advocate for a net-zero energy welcome center. Steve advised the board of WERU-FM on making the station studios 100% solar powered and worked with Sundog Solar in Searsport to make it happen back in 2020.

Steve is a career lake researcher in addition to roles in energy and sustainability, and was a founding member of the Lake Stewards of Maine in the 1990s and is currently back on their board. He is past board President of Maine Lakes, the NH Lake Association, and the Lake Winnipesaukee Association.

Prior to moving home to Maine in 2004, he was a member of the Energy Commission in Plymouth NH where he obtained Dept of Energy funding for the renovation of a town office building to net-zero energy as well as the installation of 160 KW of solar PV panels on town properties, including a major PV array at the sewage treatment plant that offsets 40% of its electrical costs.

Steve’s past positions include Sustainability Director at Unity College where he developed a plan for the college to become 100% solar powered and earned the college the prestigious STARS Gold sustainability ranking with the American Association of Sustainability in Higher Education. Before that, he was Director of Environmental and Energy Strategies for the James Sewall Company of Old Town where he led a Maine Technology Institute research project that found that the Maine electric grid could be 100% solar powered if all suitably-oriented rooftops had solar PV panels. His lake research was done while serving as founding director of the Senator George Mitchell Center for Environmental Research at the University of Maine.

His own 1940s-era home is 100% electric, where he has installed two air-source heat pumps to eliminate heating oil, a hybrid hot water heater to reduce his water heating costs by 70%, and insulated the basement and attic to reduce the ‘stack effect’ of cold air coming in the basement and forcing heat out of the attic. He has solar panels on his summer place at the lake and hasn’t paid for any electricity there since 2011. In 2025, he added 6 KW of solar PV on his main home, with the goal to be net zero energy on an annual basis.

Steve has a Ph.D. in Earth Sciences from the University of Maine.

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Around Town 3/27/26: Local News, Culture and Events

Host/Producer: Amy Browne

No Kings Day #3, March 28th, 2026
No Kings info and event calendar

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-No Derivatives 4.0 International License

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Around Town 3/26/26: Local News, Culture and Events

Host/Producer: Amy Browne

Mary Ann Larson with the details about No Kings Day in Bangor (Saturday 3/28, 12-1 pm), and an Empty Chair Town Hall (Susan Collins has declined to attend), next Monday, 3/30, doors open at 5:30pm) at Jeff’s Catering in Brewer

FMI:

Indivisible Bangor
Maine People’s Alliance
No Kings info and event calendar

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-No Derivatives 4.0 International License

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World Ocean Radio 3/25/26: Cabinet of Curiosities

Host: Peter Neill
Producer: Trisha Badger

ABOUT THIS EPISODE
This week Peter Neill is spending time with his library of books, sharing three titles that quietly evoke the emotion of loss, and the paradox of things lost. “An Exaltation of Larks”, by James Lipton; “A Calendar of Saints for Unbelievers”, by Glenway Wescott; and “The Atlas of Remote Islands” by Judith Shalansky each sit light in the hand, the mind, and the heart.

WORLD OCEAN RADIO
5-minute weekly insights dive into ocean science, advocacy and education hosted by Peter Neill, lifelong ocean advocate and maritime expert. A catalog of more than 730 episodes offering perspectives on global ocean issues and solutions, and celebrating exemplary projects. Available for RSS feed and broadcast by college and community radio stations worldwide via Exchange.prx.org and Audioport.org. Visit WorldOceanObservatory.org for the full catalog, searchable by theme.

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Around Town 3/25/26: Local News, Culture and Events

Host/Producer: Amy Browne

“Youth Ask the Questions: Gubernatorial Primary Candidate Forum” tomorrow evening, 6-8pm, at the Portland Media Center, hosted by Community Organizing Alliance, Maine Youth Power, and Young People’s Caucus. Click here FMI and to register for link to watch remotely There will be a watch party in the basement stacks at the Jesup Library in Bar Harbor.

Points North, the nonprofit organization behind the Camden International Film Festival, is launching a monthly documentary screening series at the Strand Theatre in Rockland. The series kicks off tomorrow night at 7pm, and will continue on the fourth Thursday of April and May. Each screening will be followed by a Q&A session or facilitated discussion, often with the filmmaker in attendance
Tomorrow night’s inaugural film will be The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist, 2026, directed by Daniel Roher and Charlie Tyrell – and will be offered free of charge.

Also tomorrow / Thursday night, at 7pm: the group RESTORE: The North Woods will continue their speakers series with a zoom presentation called Big Changes and Big Opportunities in the Maine Woods, by Jym St. Pierre, RESTORE’s Maine Director. Click here for more information and to register for the link

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-No Derivatives 4.0 International License

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Wabanaki Windows 3/24/26: Maine Land Claims Research & Conclusions

Host: Donna Loring
Other credits: Technical assistance for the show was provided by Joel Mann of WERU, and Jessica Lockhart.
Music by Ralph Richter, a track called little eagles from his CD Dream Walk.

Wabanaki Windows is a monthly show featuring topics of interest from a Wabanaki perspective.

This month: Research conclusions by Evan Richert and Roger Milliken Jr. They find the Wabanaki Tribes understanding of the Maine Indian Land Claims is the correct one.

Guest/s: 
Prof. Darren Ranco, a member of the Penobscot Nation, Professor of Anthropology and Chair of Native American Studies at the University of Maine.
Prof. Harald Prins, emeritus at Kansas State University.
Evan Richert, former member of the Maine Indian Tribal State Commission.
Roger Milliken Jr., Chairs board of Baskahegan Company.

About the host:
Donna M Loring is a Penobscot Indian Nation Tribal Elder, and former Council Member. She represented the Penobscot Nation in the State Legislature for over a decade. She is a former Senior Advisor on Tribal Affairs to Governor Mills. She is the author of “In The Shadow of The Eagle A Tribal Representative In Maine”. Donna has an Annual lecture series in her name at the University of New England that addresses Social Justice and Human Rights issues. In 2017 She received an Honorary Doctoral Degree in Humane Letters from the University of Maine Orono and was given the Alumni Service Award. It is the most prestigious recognition given by the University of Maine Alumni Association. It is presented Annually to a University of Maine graduate whose life’s work is marked by outstanding achievements in professional, business, civic and/or Public service areas. Donna received a second Honorary Doctorate from Thomas College in May of 2022.

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Outside the Box 3/24/26: “Quotes, 2025 and 2026”

Producer/Host: Larry Dansinger

About the host:
Larry Dansinger (no pronouns) of Bangor came to Maine in 1974 and has been here ever since. Some of Larry’s activities since then: Done community organizing on numerous issues through INVERT and then Resources for Organizing and Social Change (ROSC), committed civil disobedience several times, grown a garden yearly since 1977, joined various food cooperatives and two men’s groups, refused to pay federal income taxes for war, lived on a community land trust for 23 years, and met a wonderful partner whom Larry has loved for over 40 years. Larry has produced Outside the Box features on WERU since 2007 and continues to look for unique ways of seeing almost any problem or situation.

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