Donate to WERU Today!Host/Producer: Amy Browne
Berit Becker from the Ellsworth Public Library is here with information about the Indie Lens Pop-up documentary film series that kicks off on Saturday, March 21st at 2pm with The Inquisitor: The Life and Legacy of Barbara Jordan. There are 2 more films in the series, to be shown in April and May – Berit will be back later to say more about those. For more information and to register to attend
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-
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Nature Notes: A Maine Naturalist Afield 3/15/26: Sailing Through Plastic Along the Maine Coast
Host/Producer: Glen Mittelhauser
Recorded while sailing east along the Maine coast in the summer of 2025, this episode reflects on the striking absence of visible plastic at sea and the far more pervasive presence of microplastics throughout the water column. Glen explains how these long-lived fragments move through marine food webs, from plankton and shellfish to birds and seals, and why reducing single-use plastics remains one of the most direct ways individuals can make a difference.
More information about Maine Natural History can be found 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.
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Around Town 3/13/26: Local News, Culture and Events
Host/Producer: Amy Browne
Maria Girouard, co-founder of the Sunlight Media Collective, stops by to invite you to a showing of two of their short documentaries [Environmental Justice: An Age-Old Saga: Penobscot Nation Takes a Stand Against Juniper Ridge Landfill (2025), and It’s Not Just Us: Penobscot Nation Puts Environmental Justice to the Test (2026)] on the battle to protect the Penobscot watershed from the Juniper Ridge landfill, just upriver from Indian Island. The event will take place tomorrow (Saturday 3/14) at 2pm at the Sockalexis Arena on Indian Island. No tickets required.
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-
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Around Town 3/12/26: Local News, Culture and Events
Host/Producer: Amy Browne
Big changes to LD2176 as the state legislature’s Judiciary Committee holds a second public hearing
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-
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Around Town 3/11/26: Local News, Culture and Events
Host/Producer: Amy Browne
Loaves & Fishes internet cafe is now open to the public
The Jesup Memorial Library in Bar Harbor is currently accepting donations for the 56th Annual Booksale. Call or text Ruth at 207-610-2355 for more info
Maine Bicentennial news in the local papers 50 years ago today
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-
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Dawnland Signals 3/10/26
Hosts: Nolan Altvater and Nick Bear
Zoom Recording Technician: Scarlett Tudor
Producer: Esther Anne
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:
– Maine Indian Land Claims Settlement.
– Beyond the Claims: Stories from the Land and Heart, Wabanaki REACHs truth seeking oral history project.
– Maine Wabanaki-State Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
– Where the River Widens, a community devised play.
– Public access to the Beyond the Claims archives at Bowdoin College.
Guests:
Maria Girouard, Penobscot Nation citizen and Tribal historian who served as Executive Director of Wabanaki REACH and is the visionary behind the Beyond the Claims oral history project.
Kat Stefko – Interim Director of the Bowdoin College Library – former Director of Special Collections and Archives Collections – facilitates access to the TRC and BTC archives library.bowdoin.edu/
Links:
Wabanaki REACH: www.wabanakireach.org/
Dawnland Signals: www.wabanakireach.org/dawnland_signals
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Outside the Box 3/10/26: “Danger to the World”
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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Around Town 3/10/26: Local News, Culture and Events
Host/Producer: Amy Browne
Ashley Megquier, Outreach Coordinator for Friends of Sears Island, is here with a run down of the activities they have planned this month – for all ages
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-
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
