Beacon Podcast

Paul LePage is running for office in Maine again. So we’re revisiting our 2022 podcast series examining his record as governor — and the impacts his policies still have today. Third in the series: how LePage’s racist rhetoric and policies harmed immigrants and people of color while dividing Mainers along racial lines. _______________________________ Editor’s note: This…

The post Podcast Special: Divide and Conquer — LePage and Race first appeared on Maine Beacon.

Paul LePage is running for office in Maine again. So we’re revisiting our 2022 podcast series examining his record as governor — and the impacts his policies still have today. Second in the series: how LePage’s business-first approach reshaped Maine’s economy and hurt workers. _______________________________ “I think like a business person. […] You know the…

The post Podcast Special: Run it Like a Business — LePage and the Economy first appeared on Maine Beacon.

Paul LePage is running for office in Maine again. So we’re revisiting our 2022 podcast series examining his record as governor — and the impacts his policies still have today. First up: how LePage’s cuts targeted Maine’s social safety net and the people who relied on it. _______________________________ “About 47% of able-bodied people in the…

The post Podcast Special: Slash and Burn — LePage and the Social Safety Net first appeared on Maine Beacon.

What’s it actually like to knock on strangers’ doors and ask them to talk about politics — and maybe donate money? In this special audio story, the canvassers of Maine People’s Alliance take us behind the scenes of organizing door to door. They share the awkward encounters, tough rejections and unexpected moments of connection that…

The post The other side of the knock: Stories from Maine’s progressive canvassers first appeared on Maine Beacon.

The Money on the Left Collective joins the Beacon podcast to rethink how we talk about money and public spending. Will Beaman, Tyler Suksawat and Rob Hawkes of the collective join MPA legislative strategist Gus Dunn-Hindle to dig into public banking, why money doesn’t have to be treated as a scarce resource, and how states…

The post What if we rethought money through public banking? first appeared on Maine Beacon.

This week on the podcast, Nora sits down with Maine Center for Economic Policy President and CEO Garrett Martin to talk about why tax fairness has become one of the biggest economic issues in Maine and across the country. Nora and Garrett talk about major tax fairness victories in the last legislative session, look at…

The post How taxing the rich helps everyone, and how we can do it more first appeared on Maine Beacon.

This week on the podcast, we’re bringing you a special broadcast. Beacon host Cate Blackford sat down with author and advocate Heather McGhee as part of the Authors Guild Foundation’s Pascal Hall Author Series for a conversation about McGhee’s book The Sum of Us and what it can teach us about building solidarity in a…

The post What Heather McGhee says we lose when communities are divided first appeared on Maine Beacon.

This week on the podcast, we are sharing the full recording of gubernatorial candidate Shenna Bellows and U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner at a town hall in Old Town hosted by the Maine People’s Alliance (of which Beacon is a project) on May 3, 2026. The two share more on their policy platforms and backgrounds,…

The post Who holds politicians accountable? Bellows and Platner point to grassroots organizing first appeared on Maine Beacon.

This week on the podcast, Cate is joined by guest host and legislative strategist Gus Dunn-Hindle to break down the latest in Maine politics and local organizing, from Sanford’s new mobile home park rent cap ordinance to growing rent stabilization efforts across the state. They also discuss MPA’s member-led endorsement process, key endorsed candidates, and…

The post Maine voters head into high-profile primaries first appeared on Maine Beacon.

This week on the podcast Esther is joined by Andrea Paluso, Director of The Child Care for Every Family Network, and Charlotte Jacobs, community organizer and former program director of a childcare center. They share how both their experience as experts in the field and as parents has shaped their worldview on why free universal child care is crucial — and how we can…

The post What it would take to build a truly universal child care system first appeared on Maine Beacon.