WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives

Producer/Hosts: Ron Beard and Liz Graves College of the Atlantic provides help with production. Engineering by Joel Mann of WERU Community Radio. Theme music for Talk of the Towns Theme is a medley from Coronach, on a Balnain House Highland Music recording. Talk of the Towns: Local Community concerns and opportunities This month: What inspired Dar Williams to write her 2017 book What I Found in a Thousand Towns? Why is “positive proximity” such an important factor in building healthy communities? What kinds of projects foster connections for community members? What kinds of “spaces” help build communities? How has A Climate To Thrive exemplified some of the lessons that Dar Williams has written about? How might resilient communities respond to the consequences of climate change? Guest/s: Dar Williams, singer, songwriter, author of What I Learned in a Thousand Towns. Andy Revkin, journalist, musician, host of podcast Sustain What. Johanna Blackman, Executive Director, A Climate to Thrive. FMI: www.aclimatetothrive.org darwilliams.com revkin.substack.com/podcast criteriontheatre.org About the hosts: Ron Beard is producer and host of Talk of the Towns, which first aired on WERU in 1993 as part of his community building work as an Extension professor with University of Maine Cooperative Extension and Sea Grant. He took all the journalism courses he could fit in while an undergraduate student in wildlife management and served as an intern with Maine Public Television nightly newscast in the early 1970s. Ron is an adjunct faculty member at College of the Atlantic, teaching courses on community development. Ron served on the Bar Harbor Town Council for six years and is currently board chair for the Jesup Memorial Library in Bar Harbor, where he has lived since 1975. Look for him on the Allagash River in June, and whenever he can get away, in the highlands of Scotland where he was fortunate to spend two sabbaticals. Liz Graves joined Talk of the Towns as co-producer and co-host in July 2022, having long admired public affairs programming on WERU and dreamed of getting involved in community radio. She works as the Town Clerk for the Town of Bar Harbor, and is a former editor of the Mount Desert Islander weekly newspaper. Liz grew up in California and came to Maine as a schooner sailor.

The post Talk of the Towns 7/8/26: Stories from a Thousand Towns, with Dar Williams first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Host: Peter Neill Producer: Trisha Badger ABOUT THIS EPISODE This week on World Ocean Radio we are paying tribute to Mario Soares, one-time president of Portugal and founder of the Independent Commission of the Future of the Oceans. We propose Soares be remembered for his global vision and international actions to address the ocean/freshwater continuum: the single, most important challenge to community survival, peace, and justice in our time. 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.

The post World Ocean Radio 7/8/26: Mario Soares, Stateman for the Ocean first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Hosts: Nolan Altavater and Nick Bear Producer: Esther Anne Technical Support: Scarlett Tudor Original music: Nick Bear Dawnland Signals highlights indigenous topics not immediately represented in mainstream media and is meant to share, inspire, and inform. This month: -Reclaiming an art form used for colonial subjection as a tool for self-determination and communal expression. -Current Abbe Museum exhibits with Wabanaki artists – In the Shadow of the Eagle and Holding the Light: Contemporary Wabanaki Photography -Historical harm of photography that puts native people in the past -The reclamation of contemporary photography to direct indigenous existence, narratives, and cultures -Self portraiture as documentation of the persistence of Wabanaki existence and way of life -Annual Dawnland Festival of Arts and Ideas in Bar Harbor that centers Wabanaki and Native thought leadership through panels, performances, and a Northeastern Native arts market Guests: Maya Attean – Penobscot and Passamaquoddy, Artist, Photographer and Media Specialist for Wabanaki REACH Christiana Becker – Penobscot, Curator of Education at the Abbe Museum FMI: www.abbemuseum.org/ www.abbemuseum.org/dawnland-festival www.wabanakireach.org/

The post Dawnland Signals 7/7/26: Waponahki Photography first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

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.

The post Outside the Box 7/7/26: “What the Unhoused Say” first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Producer/Host: R.W. Estela Hi, I’m RW Estela: Since 1991, I’ve been presenting A Word in Edgewise, WERU’s longest-running short feature, a veritable almanac of worldly and heavenly happenings, a confluence of 21st-century life in its myriad manifestations, international and domestic, cosmopolitan and rural, often revealing, as the French say, the more things change, the more they stay the same — though not always! Sometimes in addressing issues affecting our day-to-day lives, in this age of vagary and ambiguity, when chronological time is punctuated elliptically, things can quickly turn edgy and controversial, as we search for understanding amid our dialectic. Tune in Monday mornings at 7:30 a.m. for an exciting journey through space and time with a few notable birthdays thrown in for good measure during A Word in Edgewise . . . About the host: RW Estela was raised as a first-generation American in Colorado by a German mother and a Corsican-Basque father who would become a three-war veteran for the US Army, so RW was naturally a military brat and later engaged in various Vietnam-era civil-service adventures before paying his way through college by skiing for the University of Colorado, playing Boulder coffeehouses, and teaching. He has climbed all of Colorado’s Fourteeners; found work as an FAA-certificated commercial pilot, a California-licensed building contractor, a publishing editor, a practitioner of Aikido, and a college professor of English; among his many interdisciplinary pursuits are the design and building of Terrell Residence Library (recently renamed the Terrell House Permaculture Living & Learning Center at the University of Maine), writing Building It In Two Languages (a bilingual dictionary of construction terminology), aerial photo documentation of two dam removals (Great Works and Veazie) on the Penobscot River, and once a week since 1991 drafting an installment of A Word In Edgewise, his essay series addressing issues affecting our day-to-day lives — and WERU’s oldest continuous short feature. When pandemics do not interfere, he does the Triple Crown of Maine open-water ocean swims (Peaks to Portland, Islesboro Crossing, and Nubble Light Challenge) and the Whitewater Downriver Point Series of the Maine Canoe and Kayak Racing Organization. RW is the father of two and the grandfather of three and lives with his partner Kathleen of 37 years and their two Maine Coons in Orono.

The post A Word in Edgewise 7/6/26: Heat Index Value, Daniel Durand, & Althea Gibson . . . first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Read by: Pepin Mittelhauser Producers: Glen Mittelhauser and Daaby Tingle In this episode, Pepin continues reading an essay by Sandra Mitchell, describing the breeding biology and spectacular courtship dances of Sandhill Cranes while following a nesting pair through the spring breeding season. More information about Maine Natural History Observatory can be found on our website at mainenaturalhistory.org/. About the hosts: Glen Mittelhauser founded Maine Natural History Observatory (MNHO) in 2003 to fill the need for an organization that specializes in collecting, interpreting, and maintaining datasets for understanding changes in Maine’s plant and wildlife populations.  Glen received his Bachelor’s in Human Ecology from College of the Atlantic in 1989 with a focus in the biological sciences and received his Master of Science degree in Zoology (with a focus on ornithology and statistics) from the University of Maine in 2000. Glen was the Managing Editor for Northeastern Naturalist and Southeastern Naturalist for 18 years and has served as external graduate faculty for 3 graduate student committees at the University of Maine.  Glen currently serves on the Baxter State Park Research Committee. Logan Parker is an Ecologist residing in Waldo County, Maine. Logan started the Maine Nightjar Monitoring Project in 2017 and brought the project (and his passion for bird conservation) to MNHO when he joined the team in 2018. Logan is heavily involved in the ongoing Maine Bird Atlas where he both coordinates and participates in the project’s special species surveys. When “off the clock”, Logan enjoys birding, writing, gardening, and working alongside his wife, Hallee, on their off-grid home in the Maine woods. Logan is also a wildlife photographer and shares photos and field notes through his project, Here In The Wild.

The post Nature Notes: A Maine Naturalist Afield 7/5/26: Sandhill Cranes in Maine, Part 2 first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

CJ Kenna | Producer & Writer/Reader

The post Esoterica 7/5/26: Got Peace? first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

What’s the Word on Maine Street?, hosted by Sarah Pebworth, is a weekly short feature Saturdays at 9:30am looking at local literary and visual arts events and offerings! FMI: wordfestival.org healthyislandproject.org penobscotmarinemuseum.org peninsulapotters.com goodlife.org bhpl.net About the host: Sarah Pebworth leads the steering committee for Word—a Blue Hill Literary Arts Festival, founded in 2017 and held each October. She serves on the boards of the Cultural Alliance of Maine and Lawrence Family Fitness Center YMCA. Since February 2023 Sarah has written “Shared Seas and Common Grounds,” a column published in the Penobscot Bay Press’s Weekly Packet. She and her wife Julie Jo Fehrle live in Blue Hill. Theme music: Ross Gallagher is a bassist who grew up in East Blue Hill, ME, and currently lives between Bath, ME and Brooklyn, NY, where he works with a wide variety of musical artists. Infinite Blues is a cut from his recently released neon night, an excursion into an ambient/electronic musical world built around rhythmic bass ostinatos, clouds of processed looping electronic atmospheres, and melody. By turns both subtle and unapologetically noisy, the songs are a collection of luminous constellations, roved between by a band of texturally minded instrumental improvisers.

The post What’s the Word on Maine Street? 7/4/26 first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Producer/Host: Anu Dudley About the host: Rev. Dr. Anu Dudley is an ordained Pagan minister and a retired history professor. She continues to teach classes, including the three-year ordination curriculum at the Temple of the Feminine Divine, and others such as History of the Goddess, Paganism 101, Ethical Magic, and Introduction to the Runes. Currently she is writing a book about how to cast the runes using their original Goddess meanings. She lives in the woods off-grid in a small homesteading community in Central Maine.

The post Earthwise 7/4/26: Interdependence Day first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Host/Producer: Amy Browne Bicentennial to Semiquincentennial Theme music: BreakBeat Chemists I, 2015 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International License

The post Around Town 7/3/26: Local News, Culture and Events first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.