Maine Policy Matters

S5E5 Maine Tourism: Trends and Sustainable Hospitality (Part 2)

This episode features a one-on-one interview with Charlene Virgilio, executive director of Four Directions. Then, you’ll hear a panel discussion with Tracy Michaud, Steve Lyons, and Rauni Kew on Maine’s tourism trends and hospitality.
Tracy Michaud's coauthored Maine Policy Review article: "The Role of Aquatourism in Sustaining Maine’s Working Waterfronts" https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1940&context=mpr
 Steve Lyons's Maine Policy Review article: "Coastal Tourism in Maine" https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mpr/vol32/iss2/38/
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You can access the transcript here: https://mcspolicycenter.umaine.edu/2024/03/26/s5e5-maine-tourism-trends-and-hospitality-part-2/

S5E4 Maine's Tourism Sectors (Part 1): Our Economy, Traditions, and Sense of Place

On this episode, we interview David Vail, Caroline Paras, and Stuart Kestenbaum on Maine’s Tourism Sectors.
Article on Maine's outdoor recreation economy: https://www.pressherald.com/2023/11/20/commerce-report-says-maines-outdoor-recreation-economy-grew-16-5-in-2022/
Caroline Paras's coauthored Maine Policy Review article "The Role of Aquatourism in Sustaining Maine’s Working Waterfronts" https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1940&context=mpr
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You can access the transcript here: https://mcspolicycenter.umaine.edu/s5e4-maines-tourism-sectors-our-economy-traditions-and-sense-of-place/

S5E3 Policy and Environmental Impacts: Maine's Offshore Wind Advantage (Part 2)

This episode is part 2 of a two-part series on Maine’s offshore wind efforts. In this episode, we’ll be following up on our interview with Dr. Habib Dagher, Executive Director of the University of Maine’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center, by interviewing Celina Cunningham, Nicholas Lund, and Jack Shapiro on the environmental and policy implications of Maine’s offshore wind efforts. If you haven’t listened to our interview with Dr. Dagher and would like an introduction to Maine’s offshore wind efforts, make sure to listen to Season 5 Episode 2: Habib Dagher & Leading Energy: Maine’s Offshore Wind Advantage (Part 1).
Governor's Energy Office - Offshore wind:
https://www.maineoffshorewind.org/
https://www.maine.gov/energy/initiatives/offshorewind/roadmap
NRCM: https://www.nrcm.org/
Maine Audubon: https://maineaudubon.org/  
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You can access the transcript here: https://mcspolicycenter.umaine.edu/s5e3-policy-and-environmental-impacts-maines-offshore-wind-advantage-part-2/

S5E2 Habib Dagher & Leading Energy: Maine's Offshore Wind Advantage (Part 1)

On this episode, the first of a two-part series, we interview Habib Dagher, the founding Executive Director of the University of Maine’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center. In two weeks, we’ll be featuring a discussion with Celina Cunningham, Nicholas Lund, and Jack Shapiro on the environmental and policy implications of Maine’s offshore wind efforts. Dr. Habib Dagher is the founding Executive Director of the University of Maine’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center (ASCC). 
Advanced Structures & Composites Center: https://composites.umaine.edu/why-offshore-wind-2/
Advancing Offshore Wind Energy in the United States: https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2023-03/advancing-offshore-wind-energy-highlights.pdf
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You can access the transcript here: https://mcspolicycenter.umaine.edu/s5e2-leading-energy-maines-offshore-wind-advantage-part-1/

S5E1 From Moose to Mainers, the State of Ticks in Maine

In this episode, we interview Lee Kantar and Griffin Dill on the impacts of ticks on Maine wildlife and communities.
Lee Kantar is a moose biologist with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. He was awarded the Distinguished Moose Biologist Award by his peers at the 53rd North American Moose Conference.
Griffin Dill manages the Tick Lab within the Diagnostic and Research Laboratory. 
Resources:
https://www.maine.gov/dhhs/mecdc/infectious-disease/epi/vector-borne/#ticks
https://www.maine.gov/ifw/
https://extension.umaine.edu/ticks/
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You can access the transcript here: https://mcspolicycenter.umaine.edu/from-moose-to-mainers-the-state-of-ticks-in-maine/
 
 

S4E7 Impactful Research: Discussions with Award-Winning Student Researchers

On this episode, we interview Mikayla Reynolds, Tamra Benson, Santiago Tijerina, and Caroline Paras, winners of UMaine’s 2023 Student Symposium. The mission of the UMaine Student Symposium is to give graduate and undergraduate student researchers the opportunity to showcase their work, research, and creative activities to the greater community, fostering conversations and collaborations that will benefit the future of Maine and beyond.
Mikayla graduated as Salutatorian in May 2023 and earned her B.S.B.A with majors in management and marketing. She is currently a graduate student pursuing her MBA with concentrations in sustainability and public & non-profit management and is an Alfond Ambassador Scholar. She is a Sustainability Graduate Fellow with the George J. Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions. Mikayla serves as the Lead Peer Coach for TRIO Student Support Services, where she partners with students on their personal and collegiate goals. She is also a core organizer and the Impact Assessment Director for the Black Bear Mutual Aid Fund.
Tamra Benson (she/her) graduated from the University of Maine in 2023 with a B.A. in Biology. She is the founder and vice president of the Black Bear Mutual Aid Fund. She now works as a Community Organizer for Food AND Medicine, a nonprofit based in Brewer whose motto is that no one should have to choose between food, medicine, and other necessities. At FAM, Tamra primarily helps to coordinate the Collective Gardens Program. She strongly believes that everyone, no matter their circumstances, deserves to have their needs met, and that community care initiatives are healing and effective methods for collective, sustainable change. 
Santiago Tijerina’s documentary short film titled, Climate Action at the University of Maine, won first prize in the arts category at the 2023 Center for Undergraduate Research (CUGR) Student Symposium. Tijerina currently attends the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies at the Maine College of Art & Design.
Caroline Paras grew up in Southern California as the daughter of immigrants from Argentina, whose own families escaped religious persecution in the Old World. A first generation American, Caroline has been proud to call Maine her “home” since 1993. Over the last three decades, she has pursued two distinct careers: first as an educator who helped teachers create service-learning opportunities for K-12 students; and second, as a planner who engaged residents in economic and community development. Her third career was born on a trip to Italy, where she traveled to Bologna to learn how the distinct products of Denominazione d'Origine Protetta (DOP) Parma are made. Through an Interdisciplinary PhD at the University of Maine, she is researching whether agritourism experiences on culinary trails can facilitate consumer loyalty, brand experience, and regional economic development, thus keeping working farms and waterfronts in production while transforming consumers into lifelong customers of Maine farm and fishery products. On the side, Caroline also serves as the principal of her own consulting firm, ParasScope, providing market research and grant writing to support local and regional food economies. Caroline graduated from the University of California, San Diego with a double major in Political Science and Communication. At the University of Southern Maine, she has earned a Master of Arts in American and New England Studies, Graduate Certificate in Community Planning, and a second Bachelor’s in Tourism and Hospitality (‘22). She lives in Portland with her husband, Peter.
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Threads: coming soon
You can access the transcript here: https://mcspolicycenter.umaine.edu/s4e7-impactful-research-discussions-with-award-winning-student-researchers/

S4E6 Democracy: Margaret Chase Smith and the League of Women Voters

On this episode, we discuss the Maine League of Women Voters, and this organization’s ties to the Margaret Chase Smith Library and most notably, Margaret Chase Smith herself. 
First is an introduction by Dr. David Richards, the director of the Margaret Chase Smith Library on Margaret Chase Smith’s lifelong connection to the League of Women Voters, how she won the League’s Carrie Chapman Catt Award, and the significance of this honor. Then we talk with Anna Kellar, executive director of the League Of Women Voters of Maine, about what it truly means to make democracy work, their essay, “What’s In a Name? Being a League of Women Voters in 2022”, and their connection with the Margaret Chase Smith essay series. Kellar’s essay was featured in Volume 31, Issue 1 of Maine Policy Review.
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Threads: coming soon
You can access the transcript here: https://mcspolicycenter.umaine.edu/s4e6-democracy-margaret-chase-smith-and-the-league-of-women-voters/

S4E5 The Future of Our Planet: Maine’s Youth Perspectives on Climate Change

In this episode, we talk with Edgelynn Venuti and Victoria Leavitt about their winning essays in the Margaret Chase Smith Library Essay Contest on the government’s role in combating climate change.
You can find Edgelynn's essay here: https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mpr/vol32/iss1/10/
You can find Victoria's essay here: https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mpr/vol32/iss1/11/
 
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Today's episode transcript cannot fit in the show notes. You can access the transcript here:

S4E4 PFAS: The Forever Chemicals We Need to Know About

On this episode, we talk with Caroline Noblet, Jean MacRae, Dianne Kopec, and Caleb Goossen about PFAS (Per- and Polyfluorinated Substances) and their effects on the environment, Maine’s efforts to combat it, the public’s understanding of the issue, and how PFAS affects agricultural systems and interstate commerce.
Caroline Noblet's MPR article: “Forever Chemicals Needing Immediate Solutions: Mainers’ Preferences for Addressing PFAS Contamination
Jean Macrae's MPR article: “Estimated Greenhouse Gas Emissions from PFAS Treatment of Maine Drinking Water”
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Today's episode transcript cannot fit in the show notes. You can access the transcript here: https://mcspolicycenter.umaine.edu/s4e4-pfas-the-forever-chemicals-we-need-to-know-about/
 

S4E3 Maine’s Clean Water Act: A Celebration of Progress

On this episode, we talk with Rebecca Schaffner, Chris O. Yoder, Brian Kavanah, and David L. Courtemanch about the Clean Water Act, in celebration of Maine Policy Review’s special section titled “50 Years of the Clean Water Act.” This significant milestone of half a century since the passage of the Clean Water Act, we are bringing in a panel of experts to highlight Maine’s efforts to improve water quality and the need to maintain and strengthen water quality protections.
You can find the articles discussed in this episode by following this link: https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mpr/
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Today's episode transcript cannot fit in the show notes. You can access the transcript here: https://mcspolicycenter.umaine.edu/s4e3-50-years-of-the-clean-water-act-in-maine/