Maine Calling

Linda Holmes is the pop culture correspondent for NPR and the host of Pop Culture Happy Hour. Her first novel, "Evvie Drake Starts Over," which is about love and sad things and baseball and the state of Maine, comes out on June 25. Maine Public’s All Things Considered host Nora Flaherty will interview Holmes on Thursday evening (June 27) at the Portland Public Library.

June 27 is the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Up rising in New York, the "birthdate" of the modern gay rights movement. July 7 is the 35th anniversary of the death of Charlie Howard in Bangor, the event which led to the founding of MLGPA, predecessor of Equality Maine. This year also marks the 45 anniversary of the founding of the Wilde-Stein Club at UMaine in Orono, Maine's first LGBTQ organization. Our panel discusses LGBTQ life in Maine, past, present and future.

We talk with Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife Commissioner Judy Camuso about her background, priorities and goals--and what challenges she see ahead.

We hear from Maine Public News team editors and reporters, as well as from Tara Williams, executive director of the Maine Association for the Education of Young Children, about the issues we’ll be covering during this week’s special deep dive series on child care in Maine.