TideSmart Talk with Stevoe » Podcast Feed

In this "double guest episode," Mark Swann of Preble Street joins us again to talk about homelessness in the veteran population, a new program with Maine Medical Center's medical students and how you can help Preble Street and other non-profits in your community continue their work. Also, Dr. Glenn Cummings of the University of Southern Maine tells us the story about how he started as a teacher in Gorham and ended up as the President of the town's university.

Following a quarrelsome election season, Former Massachusetts Governor and 1988 Democratic party presidential candidate Mike Dukakis joined us for a quick talk about the state of our union. Calling in from Boston, where he is currently teaching at Northeastern University, he and Stevoe discussed the media's role in this year's presidential election.

Scott Planting, a St. Louis native, has known his path in life has been to help those in need since early in his career. A Harvard grauduate, but not one to brag about it, Planting worked in Farmington for a short while in graduate school and immediately felt connected to the people of the small town. Coming from St. Louis and studying in Boston, he made his career helping small communities in Maine and joined us today to talk about his work at Maine Seacoast Mission and how Maine's economics have led to the downfall of some of these communities.

Dr. Melik Peter Khoury (pronounced like "Corey") became Unity College's 11th President earlier this year and recently joined us in-studio for an update about America's Environmental College.

TideSmart Talk recently welcomed back Dana Connors of the Maine State Chamber of Commerce. At this visit, Stevoe and Connors delved deeper into Connors professional history only to find that he's held just three jobs since graduating from the University of Maine in 1965. He has been at the Maine State Chamber of Commerce for over twenty years now and it certainly seems like he's still enjoying himself.

It's back-to-school time in Southern Maine and Xavier Botana is ready to get started as Portland School's Superintendent. Born in Cuba and growing up in Madrid, Spain and Chicago, education has always been a big part of Botana's life. His grandmother taught him that "education is the only thing that no one can take away from you" and he's been sharing that sentiment with school-age children since he started his career.

Pulitzer Prize winning Ellen Goodman entered the journalism world at a time when there were no female journalists. She also had no intention of making writing her career. She had never written for the school newspapers, never took an English class, and didn't know what she wanted to do when she graduated from Radcliffe/Harvard. She applied for a position as a researcher at Newsweek and worked the wire, because that was a woman's job. She worked under writer Peter Benchley, a friend, and former classmate. From there she discovered that she enjoyed writing and moved on from Newsweek, taking a position with the Detroit Free Press.

Topher Mallory is "from away," but worked his way up to Maine in his own time. A Massachusetts native, he competed his undergraduate degree at the University of New Hampshire, studying Business/Finance and Art. He had spent time in Maine's mid-coast during the summers growing up and fell in love with it. During those summers he took up a job with Mexicali Blues and as the shop's owner Pete Erskine says it, "[they] pulled Topher into its orbit slowly, but inevitably." He is now the CEO of Mexicali Blues and recently started another, more personal endeavor: Split Rock Distilling.

Show Information

Show: 179

Air Date: Saturday, 02 July 2016

Guests: Sharon Bates & Florence Ann Romano

Host: Steve Woods (Stevoe)

Studio Contributor: Debi Davis

Executive Producer: Emily Sullivan (Sully)

Sharon Bates is a woman with a mission. After her son, Anthony, died suddenly at age 20 in 2000 due to an undiagnosed Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy, she decided it wouldn’t be good enough to “just plant a tree” in his memory – she needed to do more. That’s how the Anthony Bates Foundation (ABF) came to be and Bates is helping to provide free cardiac screenings for school-aged children and young adults to help prevent Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA).

Host of TideSmart Talk with Stevoe, Steve Woods, welcomed the founder of The Anthony Bates Foundation, Sharon Bates (at right).

Bates joined us to talk briefly about her growing organization. Her foundation has found that 10% – 20% of those screened have some type of heart issue and 1 in every 1,000 children are born with a heart defect. In 2000, there were only two other foundations doing these types of screenings so Bates has been hard at work to reach as many people as possible.

She says all children are at risk and that over 12,000 children suffer cardiac arrest every year. She mentions that athletes tend to get more recognition, but everyone is at equal risk. Every three days our country loses a high school athlete due to SCA. In the last year, the ABF has screened over 11,000 and almost 1,500 of them had some type of issue (that’s one in every eight) and half of those cardiac issues can be life threatening.

Bates and the ABF works with local pediatric cardiologists and other medical professionals to perform the screenings, which includes EKGs and/or ultrasounds to identify issues. There are now over 350 organizations who do cardiac screenings thanks in part to the ease of access to education about SCA and other heart-related issues.

Bates has a goal to screen 10 million high school athletes and left Stevoe with a few tidbits of advice for community/school/team preparedness:

Have AEDs available and handy (and educate others on how to use them). 

Work with a local medical facility who is willing to facilitate screenings.

To learn more about SCAs, Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy, cardiac screenings, or the Anthony Bates Foundation, visit their website: anthonybates.org or listen to the interview below.

Florence Ann Romano joined us by phone from Chicago, IL. Starting as a “mother’s helper” at a young age, Romano always knew she enjoyed working with children and became a babysitter and eventually a nanny once in college. She earned a degree in Performance Theatre and Communications, which may not seem like the obvious choice for someone with a background in childcare, but Romano says it was quite fitting. She went on to write a children’s’ book, Nanny & Me, that illustrated the relationship between nannies and their charges.

Host of TideSmart Talk with Stevoe, Steve Woods, welcomed Florence Ann Romano, “The Windy City Nanny” (photo courtesy of florenceannromano.com ).

In Nanny & Me, Romano writes about a child’s transition from home life with their parents to spending their days with a nanny and also about the transition when a child ages out of needing a nanny or when the nanny leaves for other reasons.

Romano also discussed some of the stigmas that surround hiring nanny. Some believe that their spouse will cheat with the nanny and some parents are subject to judgement from other families who don’t need to rely on a nanny. She says that a major quality in a nanny is trustworthiness and the ability to have open communication between the nanny and the parents or caregivers. Romano says that 60% of American families have this type of childcare in their lives. She says it’s a good thing to have this type of help raising children.

To learn more from Romano about nannying [...]

Newburgh, Maine native Beth Andrews' early career history doesn't seem to convince you she wanted to be a clinical social worker. She majored in East Asian Studies and learned Mandarin Chinese during her undergrad at Middlebury College in Vermont. She worked several jobs after that before becoming a bartender and settling on social work at NYU. She know co-owns and operates a private practice in Yarmouth called H.O.P.E. Counseling Services where she is a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) and licensed drug and alcohol counselor (LADC).