Podcasts about new england public radio

Highlights from our episode with the bestselling, awards-winning, queen herself, Grace Lin: Picking a setting where you *want* to spend time Identifying as a storyteller vs. a writer Why she is the 1% of writers who do NOT start their story with character Her pals persistence and doggedness The role of faith in writing How publishing has shape-shifted over the past 30 years Grace Lin, a NY Times bestselling author/ illustrator, won the Newbery Honor for “Where the Mountain Meets the Moon” and the Theodor Geisel Honor for “Ling and Ting.” Her novel “When the Sea Turned to Silver” was a National Book Award Finalist and her picture book, “A Big Mooncake for Little Star” was awarded the Caldecott Honor. Grace is also an occasional commentator for New England Public Radio, a reviewer for the NY Times, a video essayist for PBS NewsHour, and the speaker of the popular TEDx talk, “The Windows and Mirrors of Your Child's Bookshelf,” as well as the co-host of the Book Friends Forever podcast.  In 2016, Grace's art was displayed at the White House where Grace, herself, was recognized by President Obama's office as a Champion of Change for Asian American and Pacific Islander Art and Storytelling. In 2022, Grace was awarded the Children's Literature Legacy Award from the American Library Association. 

In conversation with Ellen Yin A New York Times bestselling children's author and illustrator, Grace Lin earned the Newbery Honor for Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, the Theodor Geisel Honor for Ling and Ting, and the Caldecott Honor for A Big Mooncake for Little Star. Her novel When the Sea Turned to Silver was a National Book Award Finalist. Recognized by former President Obama's administration as a Champion of Change for Asian American and Pacific Islander Art and Storytelling, Lin was awarded the Children's Literature Legacy Award from the American Library Association. She also provides commentary for New England Public Radio, book reviews for The New York Times, and she hosts the podcasts kidlitwomen* and Kids Ask Authors. In Chinese Menu, she serves up insights on the history, legends, and myths behind favorite American Chinese dishes. High Street Hospitality Group founder and co-owner Ellen Yin operates some of the country's most acclaimed eateries, including a.kitchen + bar, Fork, High Street Restaurant & Bakery, The Wonton Project, and High Street Hoagies. In 2023 she was named ''Outstanding Restaurateur'' by the James Beard Foundation Awards. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, she is involved with several community-centric organizations, including the Sisterly Love Collective and the Independent Restaurant Coalition, and she sits on the Board of ''The Philadelphia Award.'' Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! The views expressed by the authors and moderators are strictly their own and do not represent the opinions of the Free Library of Philadelphia or its employees. (recorded 2/12/2024)

Digital downloads for mental health needs surged nearly 200 percent during the pandemic. Now, it seems this trend is here to stay. The market for mental health apps is projected to reach 3.3 billion dollars in the next six years. This hour, experts discuss how digital products are changing the way people care for their mental wellbeing, and the scientific rigor required from app developers to ensure successful outcomes.  Coming up, we talk to industry experts on the future of apps in mental healthcare. Anecdotes versus evidence: What works, and what doesn't?  GUESTS:  Briana Benn-Mirandi - therapist at Art and Soul Art Therapy in Madison, CT. Dr. Paul Weigle - psychiatrist and Associate Medical Director of Ambulatory Programs at Natchaug Hospital, part of HartfordHealthCare's Behavioral Health Services. Dr. Doug Nemecek -  Chief Medical Officer for Behavioral Health, Cigna. Karen Brown - Health Reporter at New England Public Radio. Support the show: http://wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Digital downloads for mental health needs surged nearly 200 percent during the pandemic. Now, it seems this trend is here to stay. The market for mental health apps is projected to reach 3.3 billion dollars in the next six years. This hour, experts discuss how digital products are changing the way people care for their mental wellbeing, and the scientific rigor required from app developers to ensure successful outcomes.  Coming up, we talk to industry experts on the future of apps in mental healthcare. Anecdotes versus evidence: What works, and what doesn't?  GUESTS:  Briana Benn-Mirandi - therapist at Art and Soul Art Therapy in Madison, CT. Dr. Paul Weigle - psychiatrist and Associate Medical Director of Ambulatory Programs at Natchaug Hospital, part of HartfordHealthCare's Behavioral Health Services. Dr. Doug Nemecek -  Chief Medical Officer for Behavioral Health, Cigna. Karen Brown - Health Reporter at New England Public Radio. Support the show: http://wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Digital downloads for mental health needs surged nearly 200 percent during the pandemic. Now, it seems this trend is here to stay. The market for mental health apps is projected to reach 3.3 billion dollars in the next six years. This hour, experts discuss how digital products are changing the way people care for their mental wellbeing, and the scientific rigor required from app developers to ensure successful outcomes.  Coming up, we talk to industry experts on the future of apps in mental healthcare. Anecdotes versus evidence: What works, and what doesn't?  GUESTS:  Briana Benn-Mirande - therapist at Art and Soul Art Therapy in Madison, CT. Dr. Paul Weigle - psychiatrist and Associate Medical Director of Ambulatory Programs at Natchaug Hospital, part of HartfordHealthCare's Behavioral Health Services. Dr. Doug Nemecek -  Chief Medical Officer for Behavioral Health, Cigna. Karen Brown - Health Reporter at New England Public Radio. Support the show: http://wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Digital downloads for mental health needs surged nearly 200 percent during the pandemic. Now, it seems this trend is here to stay. The market for mental health apps is projected to reach 3.3 billion dollars in the next six years. This hour, experts discuss how digital products are changing the way people care for their mental wellbeing, and the scientific rigor required from app developers to ensure successful outcomes.  Coming up, we talk to industry experts on the future of apps in mental healthcare. Anecdotes versus evidence: What works, and what doesn't?  GUESTS:  Briana Benn-Mirande - therapist at Art and Soul Art Therapy in Madison, CT. Dr. Paul Weigle - psychiatrist and Associate Medical Director of Ambulatory Programs at Natchaug Hospital, part of HartfordHealthCare's Behavioral Health Services. Dr. Doug Nemecek -  Chief Medical Officer for Behavioral Health, Cigna. Karen Brown - Health Reporter at New England Public Radio. Support the show: http://wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

June Millington, director Bobbi Jo Hart and Face2Face host David Peck talk about their fun, engaging, long overdue new film Fanny: The Right to Rock. They touch on sexism in the industry, liberation, your inner compass, poetry, safe spaces and role models, racism and why it’s so important to play it forward.“Revivify Fanny. And my work will be done.” David BowieTrailerTo learn more about the band and their work head here.For more information about IMA go to www.ima.orgSynopsis:Fanny: The Right to Rock opens with the words of David Bowie, bemoaning the band’s fate: “One of the most important bands in American rock has been buried without a trace.” The film then takes us deep into the woods of Goshen, Massachusetts, where we discover the Institute for the Musical Arts. It’s an underground music camp and recording studio for girls and women only, where Fanny lead guitarist June Millington, 69, has been teaching young girls to rock out long before rock camps became “a thing.”There, she and fellow Filipina-American bandmates, including her bass-playing sister Jean and drummer Brie Darling, celebrate their 50-year reunion with a new rock record deal -- cheekily titled Fanny Walked the Earth. If the stars align, it’s a chance to right the wrongs of music history.Fanny: The Right to Rock juxtaposes an intimate, cinema verité journey of Fanny’s uphill battle to complete and release their new album, with the fascinating herstory of the band’s improbable journey during their 70s heyday. Their controversial, self-penned lyrics dared embrace the newfound freedom of birth control as well as the trauma of the Vietnam War.Discovered early on by the secretary of legendary producer Richard Perry and signed as teenagers to the epic Warner/Reprise label,Fanny honed their signature sound in edgy L.A. clubs like The Troubadour. Fanny Hill, hosted regular jam sessions with visitors/crashers including Joe Cocker, Little Feat, and Bob Dylan’s The Band. There, serious rock & roll comingled with sex, drugs and skinny dipping.Fanny toured extensively across North America and Europe with major groups including Slade, Chicago and Ike & Tina Turner. They toured while writing, recording and releasing a new album every year from 1970 -75. They performed live and gave interviews on major network TV shows with Dick Cavett, Sonny & Cher, Helen Reddy and The Tonight Show, as well as the famed BBC show “The Old Grey Whistle Test”.The movie includes testimonials from Kate Pierson of the B-52s, Bonnie Raitt, Cherie Currie of The Runaways, Kathy Valentine of the Go-Gos, and Bowie bassist Gail Ann Dorsey. Male music icons also sing their praises including Todd Rundgren, Charles Neville of The Neville Brothers, The Lovin’ Spoonful’s John Sebastian and Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott (who unveils a Fanny flexi-disc he has saved for 50 years, since he discovered the band at age 12).About June Millington and Bobbi Jo Hart:Bobbi Jo Hart is an award winning American/Canadian documentary filmmaker with Adobe Productions International, based in Montreal, Canada. With a career that has spanned 25 years, Hart has filmed in countries as diverse as Pakistan, Russia, Guatemala, Australia, Scotland and Zimbabwe — with subjects ranging from women’s professional soccer and tennis to classical music, comedy, dance and manic depression. Her documentary films have the most common thread of revealing untold stories of marginalized girls and women, weaving universal threads of dreams, family, love, loss, happiness, sadness, success, failure and determination. Her intimate, cinema verité style results in thought-provoking films that ultimately celebrate our shared humanity.Her most recent feature documentary I Am Not A Rock Star premiered at dozens of worldwide film festivals and was broadcast on networks in many countries, including BBCFour, SVT Sweden, ABC Australia, Documentary Channel. Music in the film included Jack Johnson & Patrick Watson. This film won many festival awards as well. Hart’s previous award-winning films include SHE GOT GAME: Behind-the-Scenes of the Women's Tennis Tour (LIFE Network, Starz), which had exclusive access during over a year on tour. Hart is currently starting the festival tour for her exclusive theatrical documentary celebrating Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo (Documentary Channel, ARTV).June Millington “one of the hottest female guitarists in the industry” wrote, Guitar Player Magazine has been making music since she was a child playing ukulele in her native Philippines. Having moved from Manila to California in the early sixties, she and her sister bassist Jean turned in their folk guitars for electric and formed a succession of all-girl bands. By ‘69 they were in Hollywood with their band Fanny, which was one of the first all-women’s rock band to be signed to a major label (Reprise). Through five successful albums and extensive touring of Europe and North America, Fanny served notice that women could do more than simply sing, they could write and play passionate rock ‘n roll. As David Bowie said of the group in an interview with Rolling Stone (RS January 2000): “They were extraordinary: They wrote everything...they are as important as anyone else who’s ever been, ever....”Fanny played with major artists like Chicago, BB King, Dr John, the Kinks, the Staples Singers, Ike and Tina Turner, & Chuck Berry - and recorded an album at Apple Studios with Geoff Emerick, the Beatles engineer. June left the band in 1973 and continued to record and perform with her sister and on a number of solo albums. She played in the genre of women’s music for many years, and produced records by artists Cris Williamson, Holly Near, Mary Watkins, Melanie DeMore, and Bitch and Animal, among others. She is the co-founder and Artistic Director of the non-profit Institute for the Musical Arts [IMA], an internationally known teaching, performing and recording facility supporting women and girls in music and music-related business. Founded by June, along with partner Ann Hackler, activist/writer Angela Davis, and engineer/producer Roma Baran, IMA expanded into a 25- acre campus in Goshen, MA which runs five residential summer programs for girls and young women from 9-24 and hosts shows and workshops with established artists the rest of the year.Millington has received numerous awards for her achievements including the Audio Engineering Society’s Lifetime Achievement award, the Bay Area Career Women’s LAVA award for being a “leg- end of women’s music,” the Outmusic Heritage Award and in 2007 she, along with the other members of FANNY, received the Rockrgrl Women of Valor Award at Berklee College of Music. In 2013 she received New England Public Radio’s (NEPR) Arts and Humanities Outstanding Individual of the Year Award, the Veteran Feminists of America Award and, along with her partner Ann Hackler the Outstanding Activist Award from the Living Kindness Foundation. In 2015 she was given an award for her contributions by the National Women’s Music Festival.June released her autobiography Land of a Thousand Bridges: Island Girl in a Rock ‘n Roll World in June of 2015 and has received a great deal of press, including articles in MS Magazine, Pitchfork and Newsweek as well as on NPR. Millington continues to perform, write and record and teaches at IMA as well as colleges and universities around North America.Image Copyright and Credit: Adobe Productions International and Bobbi Jo Hart.F2F Music and Image Copyright: David Peck and Face2Face. Used with permission.For more information about David Peck’s podcasting, writing and public speaking please visit his site here.With thanks to Josh Snethlage and Mixed Media Sound. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Reading Tom Reney article from 2015 on New England Public Radio. ARTICLE Https://digital.nepr.net/music/2015/07/14/hampton-hawes-and-the-pardon-from-jfk/ --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/rdgrouppodcast/support

With the cancellation of long-standing festivals, new rules at theme parks, and concerns over traveling, this summer will be like no other in recent memory. Hosts John Dankosky of New England Public Radio and Rose Scott of WABE in Atlanta discuss the loss of summer as we knew it. We look at the impact on towns that rely on summer tourism, the loss of summer jobs, and what all this means for the future. In addition to callers from across the country, our guests include: Lora Bottinelli, Executive Director of the National Council for the Traditional Arts, based in Maryland; Tom Smith, Associate Finance Professor at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School; and Paul Gribble, President at Georgia Mountain Cabin Rentals in Blue Ridge, Georgia

A virus doesn’t discriminate, so why is it that communities of color have been more vulnerable to COVID-19? Hosts Rose Scott of WABE in Atlanta and John Dankosky of New England Public Radio examine how the coronavirus presents stark racial disparities. According to APM Research Lab, “black Americans represent 13% of the population in all U.S. areas releasing COVID mortality data, but they have suffered 25% of deaths.” Latino and Asian Americans have died at rates roughly equivalent to their population. By comparison, though white Americans represent 61.7% of the combined population, they have experienced 49.3% of deaths. Why is this happening? What is being done to help? And how can we move forward in a way that addresses their needs? In addition to callers from across the nation, our guests include: Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice, president and dean of the Morehouse School of Medicine; Dr. Orlando Torres of Baystate Health-High Street Health Center in Springfield, Massachusetts; and Vanesa Sarazua, executive director of the Gainesville-based Hispanic Alliance of Georgia, which has worked to combat the pandemic by connecting quarantined poultry plant employees with food assistance.

It’s May, and that means more states across America will begin lifting stay-at-home restrictions put in place to curb the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. Are we, as a nation, ready for this? Hosts Brian Ellison of KCUR in Kansas City, Missouri, and John Dankosky of New England Public Radio explore the economic and emotional strife we’re facing. On the one hand, businesses that have been closed and people out of work need to restart. On the other, widespread testing and a vaccine are not yet available. You’ll hear from Pedro Soto, entrepreneur and president and CEO of Hygrade Precision Technologies in Plainville, Connecticut, Laura Norris, owner of Ragazza Italian restaurant in Kansas City, Missouri, Karen Sedatole, interim dean of Emory University’s Goizueta Business School in Atlanta, Georgia, and Rashaun Clark, owner of a salon and Urban Cafe in Kansas City, Missouri.

In Massachusetts, half of all COVID-19 deaths have occurred among nursing home residents, according to the AARP — and that’s just one of the many startling statistics about the virus’ deadly impact on this vulnerable population. Hosts John Dankosky of New England Public Radio and Brian Ellison of KCUR in Kansas City, Missouri, explore what the crisis has taught us about how we care for our seniors. You’ll hear from: Patricia McCreary, founder and owner of Margaret’s Place, a senior recreational center in Kansas City, Missouri; Beverly Murray, a 91-year-old who lived alone in an apartment in Excelsior Springs, Missouri, until she moved in with family because of the pandemic; and Tamara Blue, a caretaker in Detroit, Michigan.

Health care workers in New England are facing incredible challenges on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic, from long hours and dangerous conditions to shifting public policies. Join us for an America Amplified live call-in special from the New England News Collaborative. We bring together voices from around the region — and we want to hear yours. New England health care workers: What has been your experience? Is there a role for regional solutions in the battle against COVID-19? You can also join the conversation by tweeting us at @NENCNewEngland, or emailing AmericaAmplified@nepr.net. GUESTS: Gene Harkless — Associate Professor of Nursing and Chair of the Department of Nursing at the University of New Hampshire. She has been a family nurse practitioner for 40 years. Michael Ulrich — Assistant Professor of Health Law, Ethics & Human Rights at the Boston University School of Public Health. Credits: Host: Laura Knoy, New Hampshire Public Radio's "The Exchange" Show Producer: Ellen Grimm Coordinating Producer: Morgan Springer Executive Producers: John Dankosky for America Amplified and Michael Brindley Executive Editor: Vanessa de la Torre Additional support: Dan Colgan, New Hampshire Public Radio, New England Public Radio, Connecticut Public, Maine Public Radio and WGBH. America Amplified and the New England News Collaborative are funded, in part, by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.Support the show: http://wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Susanne Schmidt is a standup comedienne, master storyteller, and producer for The Moth. Her stories have been featured in The Boston Women in Comedy Festival, The Toronto Comedy Festival, and on New England Public Radio and CBS Sunday Morning. Susanne is a teaching artist at the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts, a graduate professor of Clinical Mental Health Counseling, and the mother of two amazing young men (who would prefer that she stop talking about them on stage).

Shaheen Pasha is an educator and journalist. Today we're talking about her work training both university students and inmates as journalists at the University of Massachusetts. This isn't jail porn. It's an exploration of gaining access to stories that are challenging to report physically and psychologically; what it means when prisoners tell their own stories to people on the outside; and how society is currently making decisions about prison life without an understanding of what it's really like behind bars. You'll find some inspiration for overcoming obstacles in your own passion projects. Pasha is the co-editor of “Mirror on the Veil: A Collection of Personal Essays on Hijab and Veiling,” and is a contributor to The Dallas Morning News, New England Public Radio, USA Today, Daily Beast and Quartz, among other news outlets. Her areas of focus include international journalism, Islam and religion, business reporting, and mass incarceration issues. Write a review of the Writing Coach Podcast on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-writing-coach-podcast-with-rebecca-l-weber/id1435527746 More info and full show notes at: https://www.rebeccalweber.com/podcast14

On the heels of enormous literary success, author William Styron experiences a near-fatal depression and emerges as a defender of the mentally ill. Neurologist Alice Flaherty tries to balance a rare mental disorder with the birth of her healthy twins. The Great God of Depression is a production of Showcase from PRX’s Radiotopia. It’s produced by Karen Brown and Pagan Kennedy, with support from New England Public Radio. Music and sound design by Ian Coss. Julie Shapiro is the executive producer. Find links, photos and more information about this episode at radiotopia.fm/showcase.

After writing a revolutionary memoir, William Styron declares he has beaten depression, but he is wrong. A frightening repeat of madness and writer’s block brings on shame and desperate measures. He seeks help from brilliant neurologist Alice Flaherty, who has herself admitted to being “openly crazy.” Can she save him? The Great God of Depression is a production of Showcase from PRX’s Radiotopia. It’s produced by Karen Brown and Pagan Kennedy, with support from New England Public Radio. Music and sound design by Ian Coss. Julie Shapiro is the executive producer. Find links, photos and more information about this episode at radiotopia.fm/showcase.

William Styron could never finish the war novel that was meant to be his masterpiece. Did that failure lead to his final depression? Or did depression stop him from writing? He and his doctor Alice Flaherty pore over the question together, trying to ward off his suicidal fears and a baffling paralysis, until his wife makes an unconventional and risky suggestion. The Great God of Depression is a production of Showcase from PRX’s Radiotopia. It’s produced by Karen Brown and Pagan Kennedy, with support from New England Public Radio. Music and sound design by Ian Coss. Julie Shapiro is the executive producer. Find links, photos and more information about this episode at radiotopia.fm/showcase.

In the final episode, after years of struggling with depression, William Styron keeps his bargain with his readers, and his wife works hard to keep his spirits up until the very end. Alice Flaherty emerges from her own years of madness to a happier life, albeit a less literary one. The Great God of Depression is a production of Showcase from PRX’s Radiotopia. It’s produced by Karen Brown and Pagan Kennedy, with support from New England Public Radio. Music and sound design by Ian Coss. Julie Shapiro is the executive producer. Find links, photos and more information about this episode at radiotopia.fm/showcase. Thanks for additional support from Benjamin Brock Johnson, Whitney Light, Cathleen O’Keefe, Katherine Sullivan, Emily Jones, Abby Holtzman and Ian Fox, Audrey Mardavich and Alex Braunstein, from the PRX Podcast Garage. Thanks to Jack Gilpin, who read for us from Styron’s works, And a very special thanks to Alice Flaherty and Rose Styron, as well as to Alexandra and Tom Styron. Archival material for the series came from the Rubinstein Library at Duke University, The DANA Foundation, a 1990 interview by NPR’s Terry Gross on Fresh Air, produced by WHYY, The Diane Rehm Show from WAMU and NPR, the 92nd Street Y, biographer Jim West, filmmaker Joel Foreman, and the Sun Valley Writers Conference, an annual conference where readers and writers come together to celebrate ideas. Thanks to Librivox reader Stewart Wills for the Moby Dick excerpts. Sarah Shapiro designed our logo, and Michael Vitale and Shane Allesio performed additional music for the series. Thanks for listening to The Great God of Depression. Suicide can be a difficult topic to hear about, and also hard to talk about if you’re having distressing thoughts yourself. The national suicide prevention hotline is there to help. It’s free, confidential, and available 24 hours a day. The number is 1-800-273-8255.

After a personal tragedy, newly minted neurologist Alice Flaherty falls into a rabbit hole of mania, delusions and creative overload—and encounters a famous writer who revolutionized the conversation about mental illness. The Great God of Depression is a production of Showcase from PRX’s Radiotopia. It’s produced by Karen Brown and Pagan Kennedy, with support from New England Public Radio. Music and sound design by Ian Coss. Julie Shapiro is the executive producer. Find links, photos and more information about this episode at radiotopia.fm/showcase.

New Hampshire is known for its mountain views, but it’s got another less family-friendly attraction- cheap liquor. Out-of-staters have been skirting the legal limits of what you can buy at state-owned liquor stores, but the government is not so keen to investigate. And while we try to stay warm, we hear about a program that helps Connecticut residents keep the drafts out, and visit a company in Maine that builds some of the most efficient homes on the market. Plus, we parse what New England communities ask from their local baseball teams – and what the owners of those teams are asking from taxpayers in two struggling cities. The Hartford Yard Goats play the Trenton Thunder at Dunkin Donuts Park, Hartford, Connecticut, in July 2017. (Jesse Douglas/CC) The Hennessy State A New Hampshire State Liquor outlet near the state border on Interstate 93. (NHPR file photo). In the absence of an income or sales tax, New Hampshire uses the lure of cheap liquor to help balance the books. The state owns and operates about 80 retail liquor stores – nearly every liquor store in the state. Many of these low-cost, high volume outlets are strategically located on the state's southern border, some at highway rest stops. Recently, out-of-staters have been arrested for cash transactions that skirt legal limits, and one elected official from New Hampshire is sounding the alarm. The liquor at the center of his concerns is Hennessy cognac. New Hampshire Public Radio's Todd Bookman is part of a reporting team that has been looking into this story. And he says its not the first time the issue has surfaced in the state. All About Efficiency As New England's aging fleet of oil and nuclear plants retire, one way to make up for lost energy is to build more generation: new solar panels or wind turbines. But before we add to the grid, there is a simpler way to lower emissions –improve the energy efficiency of homes. As Connecticut Public Radio's Patrick Skahill reports, a home energy audit can help with that by sealing up houses from wind and helping to lower heating bills. But as state budgets tighten, some of those programs are going away. A wall section is lowered by a crane on to the foundation of a “passive house” manufactured by the Maine company Ecocor. (Jon Kalish/NEXT) European architects and house builders have taken the lead in building the healthiest and most energy efficient homes. They are part of the so-called passive house movement, which began in the early 1990’s in response to high energy costs. In the last ten years passive homes have been popping up in the United States. The leading builder of these homes, a company called Ecocor, is based in rural Maine. Independent producer Jon Kalish has more. Root for the Home Team Built in the 1940s, McCoy Stadium in Pawtucket is the home of the PawSox, a farm team for the Boston Red Sox. The team is asking for public money to build a new stadium in downtown Pawtucket. (Elisabeth Harrison/RIPR) Minor league baseball is booming across America. It's family-friendly, relatively inexpensive, and it brings the sport to small and mid-sized cities that don't have major league baseball. Pawtucket, Rhode Island has been home to minor league baseball since the early 1970s, and the city has had a special kind of relationship with its team ever since. It doesn't hurt that the team- the Pawtucket Red Sox-  is affiliated with the Boston Red Sox, located just an hour up the highway. Red Sox legends like Jim Rice, Wade Boggs and Roger Clemens all played for the team lovingly known as the “PawSox” at old McCoy Stadium. But now team officials say they need a new stadium. It's launched a political battle over public funding for a private stadium, and brought back some bad feelings left from another baseball-related deal in Rhode Island's recent past. Rhode Island Public Radio political reporter Ian Donnis brings us the latest on this political fight over a cherished civic institution. Areas of land the city of Hartford, Connecticut, is looking to develop around the minor league baseball stadium. (Courtesy: City of Hartford) The city of Hartford already built a brand-new minor league ballpark to lure a minor league team from nearby New Britain, Connecticut. Much like in Pawtucket, the plan is to build residential and retail developments near the park. The surrounding North End neighborhood currently has a lot of vacant lots and boarded-up buildings. And while the Hartford Yard Goats played their first season at the ballpark last year, the adjacent developments have yet to begin. Hartford residents are thinking about what should come next, what the area needs, and what might be lost. New England Public Radio's Heather Brandon reports. Tom and Jean Yawkey’s initials depicted in Morse code line the white stripes separating the American League scores on the Green Monster at Fenway Park. (Eric Kirby/Flickr) And this week, New England’s only major league baseball team is reckoning with its past…sort of. Last week, the Red Sox filed a petition with the City of Boston to change the name of the street that Fenway Park sits on. That street is named Yawkey Way after Tom Yawkey, who became the last major league team owner to hire a black player in 1959. The petition would return the street to its original name – Jersey Street. But as WBUR’s Ally Jarmanning reports, there’s still a visible reminder of Tom Yawkey’s legacy at Fenway. Confronting Hate on Campus University of Vermont students walked out of class in February 2018, demanding the school do more to address racial justice and inequity on the Burlington campus. (Liam Elder-Connors/VPR) It seems every few weeks there is a hate crime reported on a college campus in New England. The groups that keep track of these  incidents say there is, in fact, a marked increase in the number of racist slurs found scrawled on campus walls and an increase in white supremacist group activity. As New England Public Radio’s Jill Kaufman reports, protests are also on the rise, as students demand their schools and classmates pay more attention to why hate has come to campus. Wild Women Julia Wilcox and Claire Rouge tend to a fire they made during BOW’s winter survival skills class. Do you have what it takes to be an outdoors-woman? New Hampshire Public Radio’s Annie Ropeik attend a winter survival skills class with the New Hampshire Department of Fish and Game where participants start fires, built show shelters, and learn to fend for themselves. About NEXT NEXT is produced at Connecticut Public Radio. Host: John Dankosky Producer: Andrea Muraskin Executive Producer: Catie Talarski Contributors to this episode: Todd Bookman, Lauren Chooljian, Casey McDermott, Patrick Skahill, Jon Kalish, Ian Donnis, Heather Brandon, Ally Jarmanning, Jill Kaufman and Annie Ropeik Music: Todd Merrell, “New England” by Goodnight Blue Moon Get all the NEXT episodes. We appreciate your feedback! Send critique, suggestions, praise, questions, story ideas, and winter survival tips to next@wnpr.org.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

New Bedford, Massachusetts is known for its profitable fishing port. It even draws visitors by celebrating Moby Dick, a novel inspired by whalers there. But facing a crackdown on fishing by regulators, the city is starting to look at another source of revenue – offshore wind. We take a look inside the hidden, often lucrative world of Vermont sheriffs, and mourn (or celebrate??) the end of L.L. Bean's lifetime return policy. Plus: responding to racism on campus through art, and Palestinian storytellers in Boston. A man looks at a harpoon display at the New Bedford Whaling Museum (John Bender/RIPR) Keeping Tabs on the Sheriff When Attorney General Jeff Sessions at a speech to the National Sheriffs Association said “The office of sheriff is a critical part of the Anglo-American heritage of law enforcement,” he prompted many shocked observers to wonder where that leaves people of color within that heritage. It's also thrown a pretty harsh spotlight on the job of sheriff. But do you even know who your sheriff is? In 2006, an anonymous whistleblower tipped the Vermont state auditor off to financial misdeeds in the Windham County Sheriff’s Department, which was led by Sheila Prue. If you live in Connecticut, that’s a trick question! County government is nonexistent in the Nutmeg State — that’s why there are no sheriffs — but it’s not very strong in other New England states either. While Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Massachusetts have elected sheriffs, their elections don’t get much attention. That lead a listener to the Vermont Public Radio podcast Brave Little State to ask: if voters aren't holding these elected officials accountable, then who is? VPR investigative reporter Emily Corwin dug in and joins us to share some surprising tales of sheriffs going bad — and virtually getting away with it. So, did that dog bed you purchased from LL Bean five years ago get chewed by its occupant? Up until last week, you could just take it back and get a replacement for no charge. But the iconic Maine company is changing its famous unconditional return policy — one that has been a part of the brand since it started more than a century ago. The change comes as a response to the growing number of customers who have been taking advantage of the policy. Maine Public Radio’s Patty Wight reports. “The Last Arrow,” by Thomas Moran, is one of the works slated for sale by the Berkshire Museum. Image courtesy of Sotheby’s And there are plenty of complaints about a deal the Massachusetts attorney general struck with Berkshire Museum. The deal allows, with some conditions, the museum to sell up to 40 works of art — including two Norman Rockwell paintings — to fund renovations and boost its endowment. A group of the museum’s members said it will press forward in a lawsuit attempting to block the sale. New England Public Radio’s Adam Frenier has more. A Maritime Past and Future in New Bedford Boats docked at the Port of New Bedford. (Lynn Arditi/RIPR) New Bedford, Massachusetts was on the front page of the New York Times this week. The headline: “A Famed Fishing Port Shudders as Its Codfather Goes to Jail.” Back in October, fishing magnate Carlos Rafael, also known as “the Codfather,” was sentenced to 46 months in federal prison for mislabeling his catch and money-laundering. But with Rafael behind bars, the men who worked for him are barred from catching groundfish with his boats. Some of Rafael's boats and permits have even been seized by regulators. And as the Times reports, the ripple effects can be felt across the usually bustling port of New Bedford, which has gone eerily quiet. Visitors listen to Moby Dick read aloud, during the annual Moby Dick Marathon at the New Bedford Whaling Museum. (John Bender/RIPR) Yet while the fishing sector sits in limbo, another industry is just gearing up off Massachusetts' South Shore — offshore wind. Right now, the Commonwealth is developing what could be the nation's first large-scale offshore wind project, and New Bedford wants to be a big part of it. Rhode Island Public Radio's environmental reporter Avory Brookins takes a look at that city's bet on offshore wind energy. In the mid 19th Century, New Bedford was one of the world’s whaling capitals. The whaling industry is long gone, but New Bedford is drawing in fans of the world most famous leviathan. RIPR’s John Bender has the story. The RIPR newsroom has been exploring New Bedford for their series “One Square Mile,” and there’s lot’s more at ripr.org. RIPR and the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth are holding a public forum on Wednesday, February 21 called “After the Codfather: The Future of New Bedford’s Fishing Industry.” Admission is free, registration required. Cultural Catharsis A painting of Trayvon Martin was part of a performance piece by Imo Nse Imeh at Westfield State University. (Jill Kaufman) NEPR An art professor recently spent four days painting a six-foot-tall portrait of Trayvon Martin, while spectators came and went. The performance took place at Westfield State University, near Springfield, Massachusetts, where last semester there were numerous reports of racist messages left around campus. New England Public Radio’s Jill Kaufman reports. Nadia Abuelezam performs on stage at “Palestinians, Live!” a night of storytelling in Cambridge, Mass, on January 28. Photo by Annie Sinsabaugh When we hear about Palestinians in the news, it's usually in the context of conflicts or negotiations with Israel. With their stories being so highly politicized, the personal narratives of Palestinians don't often make it to American ears. Nadia Abuelezam, a Palestinian-American living in the Boston area, wants to change that. In 2015, she launched an event series called Palestinians, Live! featuring true stories told on stage. The stories are later released on Palestinians Podcast, which Nadia also created. Reporter Annie Sinsabaugh went to a recent Palestinians, Live! event at the Oberon Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she found not only entertainment but a community. About NEXT NEXT is produced at WNPR. Host: John Dankosky Producer: Andrea Muraskin Executive Producer: Catie Talarski Contributors to this episode: Emily Corwin, Patty Wight, Adam Frenier, Patrick Skahill, Avory Brookins, John Bender, Jill Kaufman and Annie Sinsabaugh Music: Todd Merrell, Ben Cosgrove, “New England” by Goodnight Blue Moon, “Sama’i” and “Julnar” by Huda Asfour, “September Mountains” by “DrumTamTam” Get all the NEXT episodes. We appreciate your feedback! Send critique, suggestions, questions, story leads, and diaspora stories to next@wnpr.org. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A woman who's widely referred to as the “original Dreamer” weighs in on the current moment in immigration. A young man shares a tale of rising above poverty, homelessness, and undocumented status. Plus, does Boston deserve its racist reputation, and what's being done to move beyond it? We discuss takeaways from the Boston Globe's series on racism with columnist Adrian Walker. We get a critical look at offshore wind from across the pond, and rethink a potato-focused school break. Tereza Lee, center, protests in New York City on Wednesday. Lee – whose parents brought her to the U.S. as a child without documents – reached out to Sen. Richard Durbin about her family’s status as a teenager. Durbin would go on to introduce the DREAM Act in Congress.  (Courtesy Tereza Lee) They Had a Dream This week, the fate of young immigrants across New England has been at the center of a Washington political debate over DACA — or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. And, they've been a chip in a bigger political fight over keeping the government open. At stake is whether these so-called “Dreamers” – who were brought to the country illegally by their parents years ago – will be allowed to stay, or be forced to return to countries many of them don’t consider home. The movement behind the DREAM Act began nearly 20 years ago when an undocumented teenager in Chicago wrote to her senator. WBUR’s Shannon Dooling sat down with Tereza Lee, the woman  known as the original “Dreamer.” Saul Grullon, a native of the Dominican Republic, was abused by his parents because of his sexuality. (Beth Reynolds|Joyce Showyra/ NEPR) While Tereza Lee grew up with the fear of being separated from her family, Dominican-born Saul Grullon sought refuge from his family in the immigration system. Grullon come out to his family as gay when he was a teenager living in New Jersey, and he encountered such hostility that it felt dangerous to stay at home. Grullon was undocumented, but he was able to apply for a temporary visa through VAWA — the Violence Against Women Act. He told his moving story for New England Public Radio's “Words in Transit” project. Is Boston Racist? About a year ago, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh took a staunchly pro-immigrant stand in the face of President Trump's executive order pledging to strip funding from so-called “sanctuary cities.” Walsh said that people fearing deportation could live at city hall, if they wanted. Other cities in the greater Boston metropolitan area also promised to do what they could to protect immigrants. But there's another group whose members don't always feel welcome in Boston: African Americans. Saturday Night Live cast member Michael Che brought up this sentiment before last year's Superbowl — when the Patriots played against the Atlanta Falcons. Sport and race have long been a sore spot in the city, but the history goes much deeper. Protests and riots around court-ordered school desegregation in the 1970s were a particularly ugly time for African Americans in Boston — one that's left lasting scars. “I remember riding the buses to protect the kids going up to South Boston High School. And the bricks through the window. Signs hanging out those buildings, ‘Nigger Go Home.’ Pictures of monkeys. The words. The spit. People just felt it was all right to attack children.” – bus safety monitor Jean McGuire, a speaking with WBUR in 2014. Bill Russell experienced discrimination as the only black member of the Boston Celtics during the 1956-1957 season, his rookie year. The Boston Globe’s Spotlight Team is known for investigations into issues like political corruption and sex abuse in the Catholic Church. Last fall the investigative unit took on what they call their most difficult question yet: Does Boston deserve its reputation as a racist city –and a place that's unfriendly to blacks in particular? Their reporting series “Boston. Racism. Image. Reality” was published in print and online in December. Our guest Adrian Walker is a columnist for the Metro section of the Boston Globe. Walker is part of the team behind the Spotlight series, where he wrote about professional sports and fan culture. Winds of Change Fisherman Steve Barratt is aboard his boat Razorbill in the Ramsgate harbor in southeast England. Barratt says he’s lost valuable fishing ground to a wind farm in the Thames Estuary. (Chris Bentley/WBUR) We've reported on plans to build wind farms in the waters off Massachusetts’ South Shore and in the Atlantic south of Long Island, and the opposition by some fishermen to those plans. But right now, aside from a small array of turbines off the coast of Rhode Island, the worries are theoretical. To get a sense of how big wind farms might affect fishing in New England’s future, WBUR reporter Chris Bentley visited fishermen working near giant wind farms in the United Kingdom. If jobs in the new energy economy are seen as part of a growth industry, many in traditional farming communities have seen their way of life shrinking. Carson (left) and Kyle Flewelling, pictured in 2014, worked 12-hour days on their family farm in Easton during harvest break, spading up about 700 acres of russets for the fry and chip markets. (Jennifer Mitchell/ Maine Public In Maine's northern Aroostook County the acreage for potato farming has shrunk over the last 50 years, and technology has reduced the demand for labor. That's a big deal for high school students there, who have traditionally taken a three-week break from classes each fall to harvest potatoes. With far fewer teenagers now working in the fields, the school board in the town of Presque Isle is looking at a new approach that could end the tradition of the October break, and bring the harvest into the classroom. Maine Public Radio’s Robbie Feinberg reports. About NEXT NEXT is produced at WNPR. Host: John Dankosky Producer: Andrea Muraskin Executive Producer: Catie Talarski Contributors to this episode: Shannon Dooling, Saul Grullon, John Voci, Tema Silk, Chris Bentley, and Robbie Feinberg Music: Todd Merrell, “New England” by Goodnight Blue Moon, “Adapt and Prosper” by Akrobatic Get all the NEXT episodes. We appreciate your feedback! Send praise, critique, suggestions, questions, story leads, and potato harvest selfies to next@wnpr.org.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What does a state owe to people serving time in prison? And what does it owe those who should never have been locked up in the first place? We speak with a man who went to prison in Massachusetts for 32 years for a crime he didn't commit. And we travel back over 300 years to a war on New England soil where women leaders played a major role. Plus, elm trees make a comeback, and a New Hampshire bagpipe business bumps up against global trade rules. Released on bail after serving 32 years on a murder charge after doubts about his guilt surfaced, Darrell Jones speaks to the media in front of the Brockton, Mass. Superior Courthouse. Photo by Jesse Costa for WBUR Behind Bars On December 21, Darrell Jones walked out of a courthouse in Brockton, Massachusetts, 32 years after being convicted for a murder he always maintained he didn't commit. Jones – who is African American – was released based on suspicions that police tampered with video evidence, and allegations of racial bias among jurors. Standing on the courthouse steps, Jones made a plea for others like him. “I stayed in prison a long time, not just for something I did not do,” He told reporters. “But it was hard to get people to hear you, so I’m trying to get everybody here to understand one point: There is somebody else back at that jail that nobody is listening to that’s probably innocent, and been trying to fight like I’ve been trying to fight, and I’m just asking all the reporters and all the people that do this, to sometimes just give them a chance.” Now imagine yourself in that situation: walking out of court, your innocence finally proven. Would you expect the state to compensate you for your time behind bars? 37 states have some sort of law that allows the wrongfully convicted to file for compensation, including every New England state except Rhode Island. The dollar amount ranges widely from state to state. For example, Vermont awards exonerees between $30,000 and $60,000 for each year in prison, while New Hampshire caps the total lifetime award at $20,000. It can be difficult to get any money at all from the state. Advocates say that's the case in Massachusetts, where a rewrite of the wrongful convictions compensation law is moving through the legislature. Victor Rosario, on Sept 8, with wife Beverly, following a hearing in which he was formerly exonerated. Photo by Debora Becker for WBUR In light of the news about Darrell Jones, we've decided to revisit our November conversation with Jenifer McKim and Victor Rosario. Jenifer McKim is a senior investigative reporter at the New England Center for Investigative Reporting, where she's been covering wrongful convictions – including the Darrell Jones case – and the legislative push.  Rosario was convicted for starting a fatal apartment fire in Lowell, Massachusetts in 1982 – but his sentence was overturned  in 2014. A 2010 report from the New England Center for Investigative Reporting pointed to his innocence.  Rosario was formally exonerated on September 8, 2017.  Ordained while in prison, he now works as an outreach pastor at the Tremont Temple Baptist Church in Boston, where runs a program to help former prisoners readjust to society. Further reading: “Should state change compensation law for wrongfully convicted?” – recent reporting from the NECIR and WGBH about efforts to amend the Massachusetts law governing compensation for the wrongfully convicted “Reasonable Doubts” – NECIR investigation into the case of Darrell Jones, a  Massachusetts man who has spent 32 years in prison on a questionable murder charge “Wrongful incarceration. Moral debt?” – Jenifer McKim tells the story of Kevin O’Loughlin, a man falsley convicted for child rape, who is struggling to obtain compensation from Massachusetts Roger Brown’s prison diary mentions repeated trips to pick up medications that weren’t in stock. There have been rumors and allegations coming out of Vermont’s prison system for years about inmates requesting medical care, and not getting the help they needed. But getting the full story can be challenging: the inmates involved are behind bars, or dead, and officials are bound from giving their account by privacy rules. But Roger Brown, an inmate at a prison in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, kept a diary. Brown was one of more than 200 Vermont inmates sent to state prison in Pennsylvania due to a shortage of beds in Vermont. Taylor Dobbs reported this story for Vermont Public Radio. Revisiting King Philip’s War Here on NEXT, we've shared the stories of refugees from countries like Syria and Iraq- people who escaped war to start over in a peaceful New England. But during the early years of European colonization, New England was a war zone too – where colonists fought indigenous people over land, resources, and the rights to self-government. Native homelands of the Northeast, highlighting places mentioned in Our Beloved Kin: A New History of King Philip’s War. Courtesy Yale University Press King Philip's War, fought from 1675 to 1678, was perhaps the most devastating of those conflicts for both sides. The Wampanoag leader Metacom, known by the the colonists as King Philip, organized attacks on 12 settlements before the colonists gained control of Southern New England. This meadow abutting the Connecticut River in Vernon, Vermont is illustrative of the fertile fields and floodplains that indigenous women used to plant crops in the 1600s. Photo courtesy Lisa Brooks. Since then, as it often happens, the colonial perspective has dominated the historical narrative. In her upcoming book Our Beloved Kin: A New History of King Philip's War, historian Lisa Brooks flips the script, focusing on the stories of Native American leaders. Lisa Brooks is Associate Professor of English and American Studies at Amherst College. Our Beloved Kin is out from Yale University Press on January 9, 2018.  At the same time, Brooks will also be launching ourbelovedkin.com, a website with maps, historical documents, and images from her journeys through New England's indigenous geography. Brooks will speak about the book at the Massachusetts Historical Society in Boston on February 7, and at Harvard on February 14.  Acorns, Elm Trees and Bagpipes It's nearing the end of mating season for deer in our region, and deer hunting season wrapped up a few weeks ago. This time of year, a more likely encounter with a deer would be on the road, with a bad outcome for both you and the animal. New England states rank right around the national average for likelihood of a car strike, but the danger increases in rural areas during mating season. WNPR's science reporter Patrick Skahill spoke with a biologist to find out more. And he uncovered an interesting connection between roadkills and acorns. An American elm tree in 2012 at Spring Grove Cemetery in Hartford, Connecticut. Photo via Wikimedia Commons No matter where you live in New England, you probably know of an Elm Street; but if you go there, you probably won't find many surviving elm trees. In the mid 20th century  Dutch Elm disease killed off millions of the species. Towns and forests were notably changed. Decades later, new invasive pests and disease are attacking other species of trees. Watching this, ecologists have been engineering a comeback for the American elm, as New England Public Radio’s Jill Kaufman reports. Richard Spaulding runs Gibson Bagpipes in Nashua, Nh. Photo by Todd Bookman for NHPR Newly made bagpipe parts await assembly inside Gibson’s Nashua factory. Photo by Todd Bookman for NHPR Think bagpipes, and you likely think Scotland. But one of the world's largest bagpipe manufacturers happens to call Nashua, New Hampshire home. That company, however, recently faced an unexpected wrinkle in its international supply chain. New Hampshire Public Radio’s Todd Bookman reports. About NEXT NEXT is produced at WNPR. Host: John Dankosky Producer: Andrea Muraskin Executive Producer: Catie Talarski Contributors to this episode: Taylor Dobbs, Patrick Skahill, Jill Kaufman, Todd Bookman, Bruce Gellerman Music: Todd Merrell, “New England” by Goodnight Blue Moon, bagpipe music by Eric Bean Get all the NEXT episodes. We appreciate your feedback! Send praise, critique, suggestions, questions, story leads, and bagpipe music recommendations to next@wnpr.org.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What does a state owe to people serving time in prison? And what does it owe those who should never have been locked up in the first place? We speak with a man who went to prison in Massachusetts for 32 years for a crime he didn't commit. And we travel back over 300 years to a war on New England soil where women leaders played a major role. Plus, elm trees make a comeback, and a New Hampshire bagpipe business bumps up against global trade rules. Victor Rosario, right, with wife Beverly on Sept. 8, following a hearing in which he was formerly exonerated. Rosario spend 32 years in a Massachusetts prison after being convicted for homicide and arson. Photo by Deborah Becker for WBUR. Behind Bars Imagine that you've been convicted and locked up for a crime you didn't commit. After years appealing your case, you finally prove your innocence and are set free. Would you expect the government to compensate you for that time behind bars? 37 states have laws that allow the wrongfully convicted to file for compensation, including every New England state except Rhode Island. The amount of that compensation ranges widely from state to state. For example, Vermont awards exonerees between $30,000 and $60,000 for each year in prison, while New Hampshire caps the total lifetime award at $20,000. And it can be difficult to get any money at all from the state. Advocates say that's the case in Massachusetts, where they're pushing for a rewrite of the state's wrongful conviction compensation law. Our guest Jenifer McKim is a senior investigative reporter at the New England Center for Investigative Reporting (NECIR), where she's been covering wrongful convictions and the legislative push. We're also joined by Victor Rosario, an outreach pastor at the Tremont Temple Baptist Church in Boston, where runs a program to help former prisoners readjust to society. Rosario was convicted for starting a fatal apartment fire in Lowell, Massachusetts in 1982 – but his sentence was overturned  in 2014. A 2010 report from the New England Center for Investigative Reporting pointed to his innocence.  Rosario was formally exonerated on September 8, 2017.  Further reading: “Should state change compensation law for wrongfully convicted?” – recent reporting from the NECIR and WGBH about efforts to amend the Massachusetts law governing compensation for the wrongfully convicted “Reasonable Doubts” – NECIR investigation into the case of Darrell Jones, a  Massachusetts man who has spent 32 years in prison on a questionable murder charge “Wrongful incarceration. Moral debt?” – Jenifer McKim tells the story of Kevin O’Loughlin, a man falsley convicted for child rape, who is struggling to obtain compensation from Massachusetts Roger Brown’s prison diary mentions repeated trips to pick up medications that weren’t in stock. There have been rumors and allegations coming out of Vermont’s prison system for years about inmates requesting medical care, and not getting the help they needed. But getting the full story can be challenging: the inmates involved are behind bars, or dead, and officials are bound from giving their account by privacy rules. But Roger Brown, an inmate at a prison in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, kept a diary. Brown was one of more than 200 Vermont inmates sent to state prison in Pennsylvania due to a shortage of beds in Vermont. Taylor Dobbs reported this story for Vermont Public Radio. Revisiting King Philip’s War Here on NEXT, we've shared the stories of refugees from countries like Syria and Iraq- people who escaped war to start over in a peaceful New England. But during the early years of European colonization, New England was a war zone too – where colonists fought indigenous people over land, resources, and the rights to self-government. Native homelands of the Northeast, highlighting places mentioned in Our Beloved Kin: A New History of King Philip’s War. Courtesy Yale University Press King Philip's War, fought from 1675 to 1678, was perhaps the most devastating of those conflicts for both sides. The Wampanoag leader Metacom, known by the the colonists as King Philip, organized attacks on 12 settlements before the colonists gained control of Southern New England. Native and colonial settlements it what is now Rhode Island and southeast Massachusetts at the time of King Philip’s War. Courtesy Yale University Press Since then, as it often happens, the colonial perspective has dominated the historical narrative. In her upcoming book Our Beloved Kin: A New History of King Philip's War, historian Lisa Brooks flips the script, focusing on the stories of Native American leaders. Lisa Brooks is Associate Professor of English and American Studies at Amherst College. Our Beloved Kin is out from Yale University Press on January 9, 2018.  At the same time, Brooks will also be launching ourbelovedkin.com, a website with maps, historical documents, and images from her journeys through New England's indigenous geography. Acorns, Elm Trees and Bagpipes It's peak mating time for deer in our region. And, depending on the state, it's also deer hunting season. If you're not a hunter this time of year, a more likely encounter with a deer would be on the road, with a bad outcome for both you and the animal. New England states rank right around the national average for likelihood of a car strike, but the danger increases in rural areas during mating season. WNPR's science reporter Patrick Skahill spoke with a biologist to find out more. And he uncovered an interesting connection… between roadkills and acorns. In the mid 20th century  Dutch Elm disease killed off millions of the species. Towns and forests were notably changed. Decades later, new invasive pests and disease are attacking other species of trees. Watching this, ecologists have been engineering a comeback for the American elm, as New England Public Radio’s Jill Kaufman reports. Richard Spaulding runs Gibson Bagpipes in Nashua, Nh. Photo by Todd Bookman for NHPR Newly made bagpipe parts await assembly inside Gibson’s Nashua factory. Photo by Todd Bookman for NHPR Think bagpipes, and you likely think Scotland. But one of the world's largest bagpipe manufacturers happens to call Nashua, New Hampshire home. That company, however, is facing an unexpected wrinkle in its international supply chain. New Hampshire Public Radio’s Todd Bookman reports. About NEXT NEXT is produced at WNPR. Host: John Dankosky Producer: Andrea Muraskin Executive Producer: Catie Talarski Contributors to this episode: Taylor Dobbs, Patrick Skahill, Jill Kaufman, Todd Bookman Music: Todd Merrell, “New England” by Goodnight Blue Moon, bagpipe music by Eric Bean Get all the NEXT episodes. We appreciate your feedback! Send praise, critique, suggestions, questions, story leads, and acorns to next@wnpr.org.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, we're talking ballot questions. Why are more of them showing up in voting booths in states like Maine and Massachusetts, and how much power do elected officials have to tinker with citizen-passed laws? Plus, a Puerto Rican family is reunited in Holyoke, Mass., and a Vermont veteran with PTSD finds a way to heal, through farming. Listen to the end, and we’ll take you to the most peaceful place in the universe. Marijuana plants are harvested and hung in a processing facility in Franklin, Mass. Currently only medical cannabis sales are legal in Massachusetts. A referendum passed in 2016 set the date for legal recreational sales to begin at January 1, 2018. But a law passed this summer by the state legislature pushed the date to July 1, 2018. Photo by Jesse Costa for WBUR Power to the People? Mainer Kathleen Phelps speaks in favor of expanding Medicaid at a news conference in Portland. Me. on Oct. 13, 2016. Photo by Patti Wight for Maine Public Maine voters earlier this month approved a ballot measure that would expand the Medicaid program, making it available to more than 70,000 Mainers. But Governor Paul LePage — who used his veto power to block past legislative attempts to expand Medicaid — has said he won't implement Medicaid expansion until the statehouse appropriates funds to pay for the state's share of the program. Last year, Maine and Massachusetts voters approved legalizing recreational marijuana through a referendum — but in both states, lawmakers have altered the legislation, raising taxes and pushing back the start date for legal weed sales. Looking forward to 2018, Boston public radio station WBUR recently polled Massachusetts residents on three questions proposed for next year’s election. Respondents showed overwhelming support for initiatives to institute paid family leave, raise taxes on millionaires, and lower the sales tax. All this left us thinking: how powerful are ballot questions when the will of the people is later overhauled by their legislators? And why are they showing up  more frequently in states like Maine and Massachusetts in recent years? Joining us to help answer those questions are Steve Mistler, chief political corespondent for Maine Public Radio, and Colin A. Young, Massachusetts statehouse reporter for the Statehouse News Service. Trying to Find Stability Kristin, an active drug user, finds a syringe and a mirror from the tent she once lived in that other drug users took over. She says methamphetamine users use the mirror as an aid to inject themselves in their neck. Photo by Jesse Costa for WBUR According to Massachusetts Department of Health data, homeless individuals who use heroin or fentanyl experience an overdose-related death rate 30 times higher than people with stable housing. The finding is no surprise to drug users who live on the streets or in the woods, as WBUR's Martha Bebinger discovered on a visit to an urban tent community in Greater Boston. Solimari Alicea hands baby Yedriel to German Santini to hold. Photo by Jesse Costa for WBUR WBUR reporter Simón Rios has been charting the influx of Puerto Ricans into Massachusetts since Hurricane Maria left much of the island without power, water, or infrastructure. He went to Holyoke, and introduces us to two young parents who are trying to get their feet on the ground. Next we travel a bit further west on the Mass. Pike to the bucolic Berkshires. Those hills are alive with art — museums, galleries, theater and dance companies, and the summer home of the Boston Pops, Tanglewood. “La Fete,” by Raoul Dufy, is one of the works slated for sale by the Berkshire Museum. Image courtesy of Sotheby’s But the arts community has been in turmoil over a plan by the Berkshire Museum to sell off some of its artwork — including two Norman Rockwell paintings — to fund an expansion. The plan angered many in the art world, and got the attention of the state's Attorney General, who's working to stop the sale. Our guest Adam Frenier, Berkshire County reporter for New England Public Radio, has been following the story closely. Finally at Peace Pigs grub for food on a veteran-owned farm in Norwich, Vt. Photo by Peter Hirschfeld for VPR Nearly 4,000 Vermont veterans have served in Iraq and Afghanistan since 9/11, and many are still dealing with the invisible wounds of the nation's longest-running war. Some of them, however, have begun to find healing through farming. Vermont Public Radio’s Peter Hirschfeld brings us the story of Brett, an army vet who says learning to raise livestock saved his life. Read and listen to more stories of veterans-turned-farmers in Vermont. Life on a farm may sound peaceful enough to you. But New Hampshire Public Radio's Sean Hurley says he's found the most peaceful place in the universe. It's a spot he calls Moose Painting Pond. Sean Hurley looks out over “Moose Painting Pond.” Photo by Sean Hurley for NHPR Do you have a question about New England you’d like NEXT to investigate? Tell us about it here. About NEXT NEXT is produced at WNPR. Host: John Dankosky Producer: Andrea Muraskin Executive Producer: Catie Talarski Contributors to this episode: Martha Bebinger, Simón Rios, Peter Hirschfeld, Sean Hurley Music: Todd Merrell, “New England” by Goodnight Blue Moon, “Hotline Bling” by Drake, “Unsquare Dance” by David Brubeck, “Shameless” by Ani DiFranco Get all the NEXT episodes. We appreciate your feedback! Send praise, critique, suggestions, questions, and sound recordings of the most peaceful place in your personal universe to next@wnpr.org.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Utility companies face allegations that they drove up the cost of electricity in New England, and they’re pushing back. A rural doctor is told by the state she has to quit – in part because of her prescribing practices. Her patients ask, “who will help me with my pain?” We have the story of a wildfire that ravaged Maine 70 years ago. And we find out what the deal is with wild turkeys that are bugging residents around Boston. Dr. Anna Konopka of New London used only paper records and did not accept take insurance, but patients raved about her care. She closed her practice this month to settle allegations from the New Hampshire Board of Medicine. Photo by Britta Greene for NHPR Gaslighted A new academic report, released in conjunction with the nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund, says that New England electricity consumers paid billions of dollars more than necessary over a three-year period. The reason? Large utility companies created artificial gas shortages, according to the report. One of the big utilities named called the report a fabrication, but it's drawn concern from state officials. Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey says she is “reviewing” the report, and public utility regulators in Connecticut have opened an investigation. Maine Public Radio’s Fred Bever has the story. Mellanie Rodriguez, Francisco Rodriguez’s 10-year-old daughter, goes shopping for school supplies with her grandmother, Jesus Rodriguez. Photo by Hadley Green for WBUR We've been following the story of a Chelsea, Massachusetts, man who remains behind bars after being arrested by federal immigration officials during a scheduled office visit. Francisco Rodriguez is awaiting potential deportation back to El Salvador, the country he fled more than ten years ago. But as WBUR’s Shannon Dooling reports, life carries on for his family. There are homework assignments, meals to cook and loads of laundry to be done. Greg Gibson, of Gloucester, Mass, with a photo of his son’s killer, Wayne Lo, on a computer screen. Gibson has kept up a correspondence with Lo for years, and the two men met in person for the first time this week. Photo by Anthony Brooks for WBUR It’s been a little more than two weeks since a gunman opened fire on crowd of concert-goers in Las Vegas, leaving 58 people dead and 489 injured. While investigators search for a motive, the family members of those who were murdered are just beginning a long and painful period of grief. WBUR’s Anthony Brooks has the story of two New England fathers who experienced this kind of grief firsthand, and who turned their losses into action. Not Your Typical Doctors Anna Konopka, M.D. Photo by Britta Greene for NENC Dr. Anna Konopka of New London, New Hampshire ended her decades -long practice this month. She's nearly 85, but her retirement is not voluntary. She says she was forced to shut her practice down by a system that no longer values her brand of patient-centered medicine. However, the New Hampshire Board of Medicine has a different opinion. The board challenged her medical decision making and other aspects of her work. While the details of the allegations against Konopka are confidential, it’s likely that her practice of  prescribing opioid painkillers to many of her patients is under scrutiny. New Hampshire Public Radio’s Britta Greene reports. An empty marijuana jar at the Canna Care Docs clinic in Burlington. The company opened its first location in Vermont last month, and offers patients a new avenue to medical marijuana. Photo by Emily Corwin for VPR Two weeks ago, a new health clinic opened its doors in Burlington to do in Vermont what it has already done in several other states: bring thousands of new patients into the state's medical cannabis program. Canna Care Docs bills itself as a “medical marijuana evaluation and education center,” and in places like Maine and Massachusetts, it has created an efficient new avenue for patients to gain legal access to medical marijuana. But some in Vermont worry that the Canna Care model sidesteps the important doctor-patient relationship. Vermont Public Radio’s Peter Hirschfeld has more. Wild Fires, Wild Turkeys Fast-moving wildfires in northern California have destroyed thousands of homes and taken more than forty lives. Seventy years ago, this same time of year, wildfires burned over hundreds of miles in Maine. These fires wiped out towns and forever changed the landscape. New England Public Radio’s Jill Kaufman reports. On Columbus Day, a Cranston, Rhode Island orthodontist stopped in to check on his office, only to find the double pane glass of his waiting room window shattered. And then he found the culprit– a fully-grown wild turkey – still alive. While smashing through a window is rare, human encounters with wild turkeys are becoming increasingly common in the Boston metro and other cities and suburbs around the country. Some residents complain that the animals are attacking humans and cars. Others are bemused or fascinated by the birds, like the Boston man who tweeted this cell phone video of a group of turkeys circling a dead cat, causing a stir online earlier this year. We talk with David Scarpitti, the wild turkey and upload game biologist for the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife about why we're seeing this influx of wild turkeys in urban and suburban areas – and what makes some of them so aggressive. Do you have a question about New England you’d like NEXT to investigate? Tell us about it here. About NEXT NEXT is produced at WNPR. Host: John Dankosky Producer: Andrea Muraskin Executive Producer: Catie Talarski Contributors to this episode: Fred Bever, Shannon Dooling, Anthony Brooks, Britta Greene, Peter Hirschfeld, and Jill Kaufman Music: Todd Merrell, “New England” by Goodnight Blue Moon, “Gold Dayz” by Ultraista Get all the NEXT episodes. We appreciate your feedback! Send praise, critique, suggestions, questions, and turkey tales to next@wnpr.org.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A solar array in Coventry, Vermont. Photo by Angela Evancie for VPR This week on NEXT: A new draft federal climate report forecasts warmer temperatures, higher seas, and more precipitation for the Northeast than predicted just three years ago. We speak with a University of New Hampshire climatologist. And one town is host to a surprising amount of resources New Englanders use, and that’s taking a toll on local residents. We find out how Massachusetts's big renewable energy procurement is shaping up, and learn about local efforts to save seeds from disappearance. Plus, we visit a West Indian food fest in Hartford, Connecticut, and an influential artists’ colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire. And finally, Jill Kaufman fills in for John Dankosky on this episode–it’s NEXT! You can stream the entire episode by clicking play on the embedded media player above or listen to the embedded SoundCloud files below for individual reports.  Unambiguous Several industrial sites are located on the Chelsea Creek in Chelsea, Massachusetts. Photo by Robin Lubbock for WBUR A “global, long-term, and unambiguous warming trend has continued,” according to a draft of a congressionally-mandated report published every four years. And many lines of evidence “demonstrate that human activities, especially emissions of greenhouse gases are primarily responsible” for those climate changes in the last almost 70 years. Back in March, when at least one draft of this report had already surfaced, Scott Pruitt, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, told CNBC he does not think carbon dioxide is a primary control knob for climate: “Measuring with precision human activity on the climate is something that's very challenging to do and there's tremendous disagreement about the degree of impact. So no, I would not agree that it's a primary contributor to the global warming that we see… but we don't know that yet. We need to continue the debate and continue the review and the analysis.” To learn more about the report, and climate changes that are happening in New England, we're joined by Dr. Elizabeth Burakowski, Research Assistant Professor at the University of New Hampshire's Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space. Low-income communities and communities of color are disproportionately affected by the consequences of climate change: think New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina. These areas suffer from poor air quality, increasing temperatures, and extreme weather. In many of those same communities, residents already live among health hazards like fuel storage units and the toxic remains that come with them. In the city of Chelsea, Massachusetts, residents bear these burdens while much of New England benefits. WBUR’s Shannon Dooling reports. Extension Cord Central Maine Power’s New England Clean Energy Connect proposal (left) and Emera Maine’s Atlantic Link proposal represent two bids to bring hydro-electric power from Quebec dams to Massachusetts. Massachusetts is making huge efforts to get renewable energy to its consumers. State policy is changing the energy landscape in New England, and maybe the physical landscape, too. Fred Bever covers energy for Maine Public Radio, and he's been looking at how Massachusetts's energy efforts affect the whole region. Biologists worldwide are saving seeds from crops and other plants important to the ecosystem. In New England, 22 percent of the region’s native plants are considered “rare.” Some are on the federal list of endangered species. Many Islands and One Colony Los Calientes, or The Hot Ones, a Connecticut-based salsa band, performs at the Taste of the Caribbean and Jerk Festival in Hartford, Connecticut. on August 5, 2017. Photo by Andrea Muraskin for NEXT Jamaicans celebrated the 55th anniversary of their independence from Great Britain on August 5. Hartford, Connecticut enjoys a whole week of celebrations every summer, with participants from across the West Indian diaspora. NEXT producer Andrea Muraskin went down to the city's waterfront for the kickoff event, the 12thAnnual Taste of the Caribbean and Jerk Festival, and shares an audio postcard. Last Sunday, in Peterborough, New Hampshire, the renowned MacDowell artists’ colony opened its gates to the public. The annual event is a big deal for hundreds of outsiders who come here to wander the fields and woods, and meet the 30 or so poets, composers, painters, dancers, architects, and journalists: artists-in-residence tucked away in simple, sufficient studios for a few weeks, in near obscurity. Guest host Jill Kaufman paid a visit and sat down with renowned novelist Michael Chabon, chair of the MacDowell Colony board. “Tombstones” in a studio at the MacDowell Colony bear the names of artists who have stayed there. Photo by Jill Kaufman for NEXT. About NEXT NEXT is produced at WNPR. Our host this week is Jill Kaufman of New England Public Radio. Our regular host is John Dankosky. Producer: Andrea Muraskin Executive Producer: Catie Talarski Digital Content Manager/Editor: Heather Brandon Contributors to this episode: Jill Kaufman, Shannon Dooling, Fred Bever Music: Todd Merrell, “New England” by Goodnight Blue Moon Get all the NEXT episodes. We appreciate your feedback! Send praise, critique, suggestions, questions, story leads, and jerk recipes to next@wnpr.org.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

From Lake Champlain to the Connecticut River, overtaxed sewage systems are being pushed to filter out more pollutants. This week, we look into what it takes to clean up our water systems. Following the announcement that Los Angeles will host the 2028 Summer Olympics, we revisit Boston’s aborted Olympic bid in search of lessons about urban planning and civic engagement. We follow the journey of an aluminum can, and meet a DIY Youtube star from the woods of Maine. The mouth of the Connecticut River. The Amtrak Old Saybrook-Old Lyme bridge is the last crossing before the river meets Long Island Sound. Nitrogen runoff from soil upriver is responsible for fish die-off in the salt waters of the sound. Photo by Ryan Caron King for NENC Influent and Effluent Springfield Water and Sewer Plant Manager Mickey Nowak gives a quick biology lesson, explaining how bacteria found in sewage is currently denitrified at the plant. Photo by Jill Kaufman for NENC By the end of the year, the Environmental Protection Agency is expected to announce new limits on the amount of nitrogen that wastewater treatment plants in Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire can release into New England's largest river, the Connecticut. These new rules could mean a small tweak of the system, or a costly plant retrofit. No one knows for sure until the limits are announced. Nitrogen is a nutrient in soil, but when it reaches salt water it becomes a pollutant. And it’s nitrogen that's blamed for fish die-offs in Long Island Sound, where the Connecticut river ends. New England Public Radio’s Jill Kaufman reports. A combined sewer overflow outfall in Rutland, VT. When there’s too much rain in the lines, the system starts working differently. Instead of going to the treatment plant, untreated stormwater gets diverted, along with with untreated sewage, straight into the river. Photo by Talyor Dobbs for VPR There's another nutrient that's plaguing water quality in New England: phosphorous. It's linked to toxic blue-green algae blooms in Lake Champlain. But that's just one of the problems the podcast Brave Little State went to investigate in a recent episode. This people-powered program from Vermont Public Radio asks for listener questions. This month, listener Mike Brown asked, “How are we going to address the aging sewage systems in Vermont?” Angela Evancie and Mike Brown visit a combined sewer overflow outfall on the edge of a cemetary in Rutland, Vermont, with public works commissioner Jeff Wennberg. Photo by Taylor Dobbs for VPR Brown was concerned about sewage overflows that were happening more frequently with big storms and flooding. As it turns out, the problem is linked to climate change and an antique sewer system that in some spots predates the automobile. Our guest is Vermont Public Radio digital reporter Taylor Dobbs, who co-reported the episode with host Angela Evancie and question-asker Mike Brown. Lessons From the Boston Olympics That Wasn’t Residents hold signs before a community meeting in Boston’s Jamaica Plain neighborhood in June 2015. Photo courtesy of University Press of New England At the end of July, the city of Los Angeles reached a deal with the International Olympic Committee to host the 2028 Summer Games. L.A. was actually competing with Paris to host the 2024 Olympics, but L.A. officials agreed to wait four more years, with Paris hosting in 2024.  Back in 2015,  before the US Olympic Committee set its sights on L.A, it chose Boston. But the Boston 2024 project was beset by problems, including lack of transparency about costs, and a snow storm that brought the subway system to a grinding halt. (The Boston Globe has a helpful timeline of the Olympic bid.) In July, 2015, Mayor Marty Walsh announced he would not sign a contract that would promise taxpayer funding for Olympic costs overruns, and the Olympic bid came to an end. Our next guests are some of Boston 2024’s most outspoken skeptics. Chris Dempsey is a co-founder of the movement No Boston Olympics, previously served as assistant transportation secretary for Massachusetts, and is now the director of the nonprofit Transportation for Massachusetts. Andrew Zimbalist teaches economics at Smith College and studies public financing of sports events. Demspey and Zimbalist are co-authors of the new book, No Boston Olympics: How and Why Smart Cities Are Passing on the Torch. While the majority of public opinion in Boston had turned against hosting the games by the time the city dropped the bid, not everyone was happy to see their hometown pass on the Olympic experience. For another perspective, we speak with Boston Globe columnist Shirley Leung, who covered the Olympic debate closely. Break It Down, Build It Up After aluminum is melted down (above) chemists inject additives to ensure the alloy is correct for can “body stock.” The material is then cast into giant slabs, which weigh thousands of pounds and are very thick. Those slabs are then milled down to a very thin body, which is cooled and coiled before it gets shipped to can makers. Photo courtesy of Constellium – Muscle Shoals, AL Maler Gardner Waldeier, aka “Bus Huxley,” in his Waterford, Maine workshop. Photo by John Kalish for NENC Massachusetts, Vermont, Maine, and Connecticut all have bottle bills. Those are recycling programs built around a system of deposits and refunds, aimed at reducing litter and protecting the environment. But when it comes to old aluminum, it's not just environmentalists who want to see more recycling: there's a business case to be made for it, too. WNPR’s Patrick Skahill reports. There’s a thriving scene on YouTube where woodworkers, metalworkers and other “makers” provide a step-by-step guide to their process. In Waterford, Maine a maker named Gardner Waldeier — who calls himself “Bus Huxley” — has been entertaining viewers with equal portions of Yankee ingenuity and video wizardry. Jon Kalish reports. Below: Gardner Waldeier demonstrates how to butcher a deer. About NEXT NEXT is produced at WNPR. Host: John Dankosky Producer: Andrea Muraskin Executive Producer: Catie Talarski Digital Content Manager/Editor: Heather Brandon Contributors to this episode: Jill Kaufman, Taylor Dobbs, Angela Evancie, Jon Kalish, Patrick Skahill Music: Todd Merrell, “New England” by Goodnight Blue Moon Get all the NEXT episodes. We appreciate your feedback! Send praise, critique, suggestions, questions, story leads, and DIY videos to next@wnpr.org.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Alex Ciccolo — a 24-year-old who was arrested two years ago in Adams, Massachusetts on charges of attempting domestic terrorism — is back in the news. His mother spoke with our reporter Jill Kaufman. Later in the show, we take a look inside the world of eel trafficking in Maine, and learn about an effort on Martha’s Vineyard to help small fishermen get a foothold. Plus, we discover the surprising origins of a body pulled in by a fishing boat off the coast of Cape Cod, and explore our region’s ambiguous relationship with inclusivity through the arts. On the fishing boat Diversion, Marvin Benitez dumps a pail full of crabs into a bin for preparation for sale to seafood retailers and restaurants on Martha’s Vineyard. Government-issued permits for fishing rights can be expensive, but nonprofit permit banks are leasing them to small fishermen at lower rates. Photo by Jesse Costa for WBUR In Despair, and Angry Shelley MacInnes holds pictures of her son, Alex Ciccolo, who faces domestic terrorism charges. Photo by Jill Kaufman for NEPR Alex Ciccolo, 24, of Adams, Massachusetts, has been in federal custody since July 4, 2015. He’s charged with attempting to commit domestic terrorism. Ciccolo’s father is a Boston police captain, and was among the first responders at the 2013 marathon bombings. He was the one who tipped off federal officials his son was becoming “obsessed” with ISIS. That led to an FBI sting, where Ciccolo described to a government informant his plans to explode pressure cooker bombs in a crowded place. After Ciccolo’s arrest, his father made a single statement to the public. His mother, Shelley MacInnes, has kept an even lower profile, until recently. New England Public Radio’s Jill Kaufman reports. Below, Alex Ciccolo is interviewed by the FBI hours after his 2015 arrest. Reporter Trevor Aaronson of The Intercept has been investigating the connections between domestic terrorism charges that have led to 800 arrests since 9-11. He told Jill Kaufman how Alex Ciccolo fits into the mix. Hauling It In Dutcher’s Dock in Menemsha, Martha’s Vineyard. Photo by Jesse Costa for WBUR The Massachusetts fishing industry in recent years has taken a beating. Stiff regulations and expensive fishing permits are making it difficult for small fishermen to stay above water. A nonprofit in Martha’s Vineyard now wants to help by acquiring fishing permits, and leasing them at subsidized rates to emerging fishermen. WBUR’s Simon Rios reports. What's slippery, see-through, and goes for $1,300 a pound? Listeners in coastal Maine probably know the answer. Our guest Rene Ebersole is a contributing writer for National Geographic and a reporter for the Food and Environment Reporting Network. Her recent article: “Inside the Multi-Million Dollar World of Eel Trafficking.” Glass eels are American eels in their juvenile phase. The price per pound of these animals jumped from $99.94 in 2009 to $891.49 in 2011. In 2012, it went over $1,800. Alvah Wendell, 43, rhythmically swishes his dip net to catch young eels as they swim up the Bagaduce River in Maine. He uses a green headlamp because white light spooks the fish. “You don't need to see them to catch them,” he says. “But I like to watch.” Photo by Sarah Rice for National Geographic  The little eels are destined for aquaculture farms in Asia, where they’re later harvested for sushi. The demand for American eels skyrocketed earlier this decade, because the European Union banned eel exports in 2010. European and Asian eels are considered superior to American. The 2011 tsunami, which damaged Japan’s fishery, also had an impact. Eels transform from leaf-shaped larvae into two-inch elongated juveniles with haunting eyes and a visible spine just before they swim from the ocean up freshwater rivers. Photo by Sarah Rice for National Geographic These days, if you're in the eel-catching business, Maine is the place to be. Fishing for American eels is illegal in every other East Coast state, except for South Carolina and Florida, where fisheries are small. High prices have led to poaching. In March, two Maine fishermen, Bill Sheldon and Timothy Lewis, were indicted for illegally trafficking wildlife. Sheldon could face a maximum of 35 years in prison. The Hera II, sister ship to the vessel that brought in a very unexpected catch last year. Both boats are draggers, trailing nets that scrape the ocean floor for groundfish. Photo by Andy Short Whether you're catching eel swimming upstream or haddock in the Atlantic, the work of fishing can get monotonous. On an early December morning, that routine was upended for the crew of the Hera, a commercial groundfishing boat from New Bedford, Massachusetts. Andy Short has the tale. Craving more fishy news? Listen to our own Episode 35: Outfished. You’ll learn about Carlos Rafael, a.k.a. “the Codfather” — the New Bedford fishing magnate who in March plead guilty to 28 counts of fraud. (On a side note, Rafael just happens to be the owner of the Hera). Making Good Neighbors Juan De La Cruz comforts his youngest daughter, Isabella, at their home in Vergennes, Vermont. Photo by Kathleen Masterson for VPR A Vermont father of six is facing deportation to Mexico in a case that highlights shifting federal immigration enforcement priorities. Juan De La Cruz came to the U.S. illegally over a decade ago, and later married a U.S. citizen. They formed a family and a farm business together, and Juan obtained a federal work authorization permit. But a previous deportation on his record now makes De La Cruz a target for ICE. Vermont Public Radio’s Kathleen Masterson has the story. Visiting the ICA on vacation from Colombia, Maria Alejandra Garcia Velez and her daughter Maria Jose Cortes Garcia, 9, approach the shoelace work by Nari Ward, “We the People.” Photo by Jesse Costa for WBUR Life often inspires art, and art in turn often reflects society. In a time of divisive political discourse, especially around immigration, an art show currently featured at Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art opens up a space for dialogue. The exhibit offers museum-goers a glimpse into the naturalization process and what it means to be, and to become, American. WBUR’s Shannon Dooling takes us there. Thea Alvin is a “dry mason,” meaning she builds stone walls without using mortar. Photo by Amy Noyes for VPR Of course, we know that New Englanders have, and have always had a rocky relationship with inclusivity. For instance, the famous line from Robert Frost's 1912 poem “Mending Wall” — “Good fences make good neighbors” — has been used to describe Yankee culture. But building stone walls like the one in Frost's poem has become something of a dying art. Stonemason Thea Alvin explained to Vermont Edition how she builds her walls for their series “Summer School.” About NEXT Do you have a question about New England you’d like NEXT to investigate? Tell us about it here. NEXT is produced at WNPR. Host: John Dankosky Producer: Andrea Muraskin Executive Producer: Catie Talarski Digital Content Manager/Editor: Heather Brandon Contributors to this episode: Jill Kaufman, Simon Rios, Andy Short, Kathleen Masterson, Shannon Dooling, Amy Noyes. Music: Todd Merrell, “New England” by Goodnight Blue Moon Special thanks this week to Jane Lindholm at Vermont Edition Get all the NEXT episodes. We appreciate your feedback! Send critique, suggestions, questions, reflections and wildlife trafficking tips to next@wnpr.org.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

From Lake Champlain to the Connecticut River, overtaxed sewage systems are being pushed to filter out more pollutants. This week, we look into what it takes to clean up our water systems. We also revisit Boston’s aborted Olympic bid in search of lessons about urban planning and civic engagement. We follow the journey of an aluminum can, and meet a DIY Youtube star from the woods of Maine. The mouth of the Connecticut River. The Amtrak Old Saybrook-Old Lyme bridge is the last crossing before the river meets Long Island Sound. Nitrogen runoff from soil upriver is responsible for fish die-off in the salt waters of the sound. Photo by Ryan Caron King for NENC Influent and Effluent Springfield Water and Sewer Plant Manager Mickey Nowak gives a quick biology lesson, explaining how bacteria found in sewage is currently denitrified at the plant. Photo by Jill Kaufman for NENC By the end of the year, the Environmental Protection Agency is expected to announce new limits on the amount of nitrogen that wastewater treatment plants in Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire can release into New England's largest river, the Connecticut. These new rules could mean a small tweak of the system, or a costly plant retrofit. No one knows for sure until the limits are announced. Nitrogen is a nutrient in soil, but when it reaches salt water it becomes a pollutant. And it’s nitrogen that's blamed for fish die-offs in Long Island Sound, where the Connecticut river ends. New England Public Radio’s Jill Kaufman has our story. A combined sewer overflow outfall in Rutland, VT. When there’s too much rain in the lines, the system starts working differently. Instead of going to the treatment plant, untreated stormwater gets diverted, along with with untreated sewage, straight into the river. Photo by Talyor Dobbs for VPR There's another nutrient that's plaguing water quality in New England: phosphorous. It's linked to toxic blue-green algae blooms in Lake Champlain. But that's just one of the problems the podcast Brave Little State went to investigate for their latest episode. This people-powered program from Vermont Public Radio asks for listener questions. This month, listener Mike Brown asked, “How are we going to address the aging sewage systems in Vermont?” Angela Evancie and Mike Brown visit a combined sewer overflow outfall on the edge of a cemetary in Rutland, Vermont, with public works commissioner Jeff Wennberg. Photo by Taylor Dobbs for VPR Brown was concerned about sewage overflows that were happening more frequently with big storms and flooding. As it turns out, the problem is linked to climate change and an antique sewer system that in some spots predates the automobile. Our guest is Vermont Public Radio digital reporter Taylor Dobbs, who co-reported the episode with host Angela Evancie and question-asker Mike Brown. Lessons From the Boston Olympics That Wasn’t Residents hold signs before a community meeting in Boston’s Jamaica Plain neighborhood in June 2015. Photo courtesy of University Press of New England Paris and Los Angeles are in the running to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. Before the U.S. Olympic Committee set its sights on L.A., it chose Boston. But the Boston 2024 project was beset by problems, including lack of transparency about costs, and a snow storm that brought the subway system to a grinding halt. (The Boston Globe has a helpful timeline of the Olympic bid.) In July, 2015, Mayor Marty Walsh announced he would not sign a contract that would promise taxpayer funding for Olympic costs overruns, and the Olympic bid came to an end. Our next guests are some of Boston 2024’s most outspoken skeptics. Chris Dempsey is a co-founder of the movement No Boston Olympics, previously served as assistant transportation secretary for Massachusetts, and is now the director of the nonprofit Transportation for Massachusetts. Andrew Zimbalist teaches economics at Smith College and studies public financing of sports events. Demspey and Zimbalist are co-authors of the new book, No Boston Olympics: How and Why Smart Cities Are Passing on the Torch. While the majority of public opinion in Boston had turned against hosting the games by the time the city dropped the bid, not everyone was happy to see their hometown pass on the Olympic experience. For another perspective, we speak with Boston Globe columnist Shirley Leung, who covered the Olympic debate closely. Break It Down, Build It Up After aluminum is melted down (above) chemists inject additives to ensure the alloy is correct for can “body stock.” The material is then cast into giant slabs, which weigh thousands of pounds and are very thick. Those slabs are then milled down to a very thin body, which is cooled and coiled before it gets shipped to can makers. Photo courtesy of Constellium – Muscle Shoals, AL Maler Gardner Waldeier, aka “Bus Huxley,” in his Waterford, Maine workshop. Photo by John Kalish for NENC Except for Rhode Island and New Hampshire, all New England states have bottle bills. Those are recycling programs built around a system of deposits and refunds, aimed at reducing litter and protecting the environment. But when it comes to old aluminum, it's not just environmentalists who want to see more recycling; there's a real business case to be made for it, too. WNPR’s Patrick Skahill reports. There’s a thriving scene on YouTube where woodworkers, metalworkers and other “makers” provide a step-by-step guide to their process. In Waterford, Maine a maker named Gardner Waldeier — who calls himself “Bus Huxley” — has been entertaining viewers with equal portions of Yankee ingenuity and video wizardry. Jon Kalish reports. Below: Gardner Waldeier demonstrates how to butcher a deer. About NEXT NEXT is produced at WNPR. Host: John Dankosky Producer: Andrea Muraskin Executive Producer: Catie Talarski Digital Content Manager/Editor: Heather Brandon Contributors to this episode: Jill Kaufman, Taylor Dobbs, Angela Evancie, Jon Kalish, Patrick Skahill Music: Todd Merrell, “New England” by Goodnight Blue Moon Get all the NEXT episodes. We appreciate your feedback! Send praise, critique, suggestions, questions, story leads, and DIY videos to next@wnpr.org.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, a political reporter’s history of the New Hampshire primary. Plus, we follow scientists who are recreating ancient forests, tracking the effects of climate change on moose, and fighting to keep funding for weird-sounding research. And we hear the story of a soccer team that’s leveling the playing field for kids of all backgrounds. You can stream the entire episode by clicking play on the embedded media player above or listen to the embedded SoundCloud files below for individual reports.  Give Me Primary, or Give Me Death New Hampshire’s near-religious devotion to the democratic process has surfaced on our show before – most recently last month when the state plowed forward with Town Meeting Day, despite the mid-march blizzard that swept the region. But the Granite State’s political fervor reaches it’s height during its first-in-the-nation presidential primary. Just take a look at this headline-making tweet from the 2016 race: Photo-@pgrossmith: A woman calmly eats breakfast at Blake’s in Manchester as @CarlyFiorina campaigned today. #fitn pic.twitter.com/LiakOK6oRI — UnionLeader.com (@UnionLeader) February 8, 2016 Our guest, long-time political reporter Scott Conroy, followed the often absurd 2016 campaign up and down New Hampshire for a year and a half leading up to the primary. His new book,  Vote First or Die chronicles the pancake breakfasts, ice cream socials and frigid walks to knock on doors – all hallmarks of the retail politics that presidential hopefuls still have to engage in during the primary season. Engineering Forests, Tracking Fading Moose In this area of Jericho Research Forest in Vermont, most trees are about 150 years old. This makes for a rather homogeneous forest with fewer opportunities for wildlife habitat. Photo by Kathleen Masterson for VPR. In the northeast U.S., there is less than 1 percent of old growth forest left. A new University of Vermont study finds that harvesting trees in a way that mimics ancient forests not only restore critical habitat but also stores a surprising amount of carbon. Researchers created this tip-up mound by pulling over this tree with a cable. A downed tree offers a number of habitat niches for small mammals, insects, and invertebrates. Photo by Kathleen Masterson for VPR For a forest to be considered “old growth,” it must grow largely undisturbed, usually for several centuries. These ancient forests help foster biodiversity of plants, animal, and even fungi — and can help mitigate flooding. University of Vermont ecologist Bill Keeton wanted to see if he could take a “middle-aged” New England forest and “nudge” the forest ecosystem into old-growth conditions. Vermont Public Radio reporter Kathleen Masterson went to take a look. The 1990s were a good time to be a moose in New Hampshire. The animals could take advantage of a perfect mix of young and mature forest, and plenty of food. At its peak, the statewide population reached 7,400. But given the lush habitat, scientists wondered why the moose population wasn't growing faster. Today, there are only about 3,400 moose in New Hampshire, and the same steep decline is being reported in neighboring Vermont and Maine. The culprit? A nasty tick whose proliferation is brought on by climate change. We speak with Kristine Rines, a wildlife biologist with the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department. Rines is leading a four-year study to learn more about how weather changes and forest management practices affect the moose population. In Defense of Weird Science and Affordable Soccer The national March for Science on April 22, and the many satellite events around New England marked a departure for many scientists. Until recently, they didn't consider political activism a part of their jobs. But over the past few years, a growing number of researchers have faced political attacks about their work, and many say it’s time to come out swinging. New England Public Radio's Karen Brown visited one scientist who's urging colleagues to step up and make the case for continued federal funding, even when their research sounds strange. Cameron Rodrigues, 11, plays competitive soccer in Nashua, NH. Photo by Emily Corwin for NHPR Last year, Boston's Metro South Under-15 girls soccer team became champions in the New England Premiership Soccer League. Playing on club soccer teams like that can get attention from college recruiters. But those clubs also charge players’ families around $1500 per child, per year. New Hampshire Public Radio's Emily Corwin has a story about a soccer club in Nashua, New Hampshire, with a different approach to high-level sports – one that's all about leveling the playing field. Introducing: West Mass Here’s an update on what we’re calling the Connecticut River Valley region in Massachusetts. In February the Greater Springfield Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Economic Development Council of Western Massachusetts announced a rebrand for the area formerly known as the Pioneer Valley. The new name, “West Mass,” was released with a promotional video. But “West Mass” took a beating on social media. One Youtube commenter put it this way: “It’s nice that even in these divisive times, we can all come together and agree that this is very bad.” So last week, the organizations behind the rebranding announced that they're putting “West Mass” on pause. They're asking for feedback from both inside and outside the region- in the form of an online survey where you can vote for “West Mass,” or “Western Mass.” (“Pioneer Valley” is not an option!) If you missed our segment where we analyzed “West Mass” and other New England branding campaigns with Connecticut state historian Walt Woodward, that's definitely worth a listen. Find it in Episode 31, or listen right here: About NEXT NEXT is produced at WNPR. Host: John Dankosky Producer: Andrea Muraskin Executive Producer: Catie Talarski Digital Content Manager/Editor: Heather Brandon Contributors to this episode: Kathleen Masterson, Karen Brown, Emily Corwin Music: Todd Merrell, “New England” by Goodnight Blue Moon Get all the NEXT episodes. We appreciate your feedback! Send praise, critique, suggestions, questions, story leads, and place branding ideas to next@wnpr.org.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, we tackle the confusing and contradictory world of health care, from politics that are personal, to overcoming the trauma of being a refugee, to the shifting language of addiction. We also explore the work of Marsden Hartley, whose art defined the rocky coast, the looming hills, and the working men of Maine. Marden Hartley, Lobster Fishermen, 1940-41 Metropolitan Museum of Art New Ideas in Health Care We go to a clinic in Vermont that's working to help treat the mental health issues of the refugee community there, both from past traumas and the stresses of transitioning into a new culture. And caregivers are pushing back against terminology that they think minimizes an illness or condition. That means the term “post-traumatic” is out, in favor of language that acknowledges the ongoing nature of trauma. In New Hampshire, many on the front lines of the opioid epidemic are coming to see addiction as a medical disorder. And the Republican plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act stalled in Washington, D.C., in part because of predictions that up to 24 million people could lose their health insurance. That would include many people who voted for Donald Trump. We hear from a high-profile skeptic of Obamacare who's changed his point of view. Ajuda Thapa, center in black, learns about Lake Champlain Chocolates on an outing with other Bhutanese refugees who have sought mental health treatment at UVM’s Connecting Cultures clinic. Kathleen Masterson/VPR Marsden Hartley’s Maine Portrait of Marsden Hartley by Carl Van Vechten, U.S. Library of Congress In the permanent collection of the Wadsworth Atheneum, the nation's oldest art museum in downtown Hartford, Connecticut, is a painting by Marsden Hartley called “Down East Young Blades,” depicting three colorful figures standing on a pier. Massive, strapping, working men with comically broad shoulders are pictured with the images of their trade: lobsters, fish, and logs. Hartley's career, stretching from the early years of the 20th century to his death in 1943, celebrated the vast and wild scenery of New England; specifically, his home state of Maine. The exhibition “Marsden Hartley's Maine” is at the Met Breuer in New York until June, when it moves to the Colby College Museum of Art. Our guest Donna Cassidy, Professor of Art and American and New England Studies at the University of Southern Maine, co-authored the exhibition book about the artist's relationship with this place. Mt. Katahdin (Maine), Autumn -2, 1939–40, Metropolitan Museum of Art Recognition Angelica Merino Monge was ten years old when she, her mother and her older brother fled El Salvador. She lived in the U.S. illegally until recently, when the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or DACA was passed, enabling her to become authorized to work and stay in the country. She's putting herself through college and is now president of the Latino International Students Association at Holyoke Community College. We hear her story as told to the Words in Transit Project at New England Public Radio. Last, we hear a story about recognition, a long time coming. Portland, Maine is remembering a long forgotten African American man who served, and was injured, in one of the nation's earliest wars. It's a saga that began more than two centuries ago, and a story of justice twice denied — or at least delayed. Larry Glatz (left) and Herb Adams immediately make plans to add “Quazi-War with France” to William Brown’s gravestone after unwrapping it. Troy R. Bennett/Bangor Daily NewsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“He has no compunction about telling you how he’s screwing you,” is how one fisherman described the way the man known locally as “the Codfather” did business. This week, how one man gamed the system meant to keep New England fishing fair and sustainable. Plus, we talk gentrification in two very different Boston squares. And with the first hints of spring, we bring back the story of a grandma who conquered the Appalachian trail. Boats belonging to Carlos Rafael, AKA “the Codfather,” photographed in December 2016 in New Bedford, Mass. New Bedford, a historic whaling port, is now one of the most valuable fishing ports in the United States, with hundreds of millions of dollars worth of seafood brought in annually. Carlos Rafael, owner of Carlos Seafood and known as the “Codfather,” was one of the most successful commercial fishermen in New England. Photo by Tristan Spinksi for Mother Jones/FERN. Big Fish In Boston Federal court Thursday, Carlos Rafael, a man known as “the Codfather,” plead guilty to 28 counts of fraud. Charges against the fishing magnate included conspiracy, false entries involving labeling cod as haddock in order to avoid regulatory oversight, and cash smuggling. Rafael was a fishing magnate who controlled one fifth of New Bedford’s fishing fleet. He dominated the New England fishing industry with a bravado he likened to the Al Pacino character Scarface. It was that signature bravado that brought the Codfather down. Our guest is environmental reporter Ben Goldfarb, who covered Raphael for the Food and Environment Reporting Network in collaboration with Mother Jones Magazine. His article is entitled “The Deliciously Fishy Case of the Codfather.” We spoke with Ben earlier this week in New Haven, Connecticut. A Tale of Two Squares The Abbott Building at 5 JFK Street in Harvard Square Cambridge, Massachusetts, photographed in 2010. The Abbott has been bought by the investment firm Equity One. The firm plans to turn the property into a mall, but is facing opposition from locals. Photo by Daderot via Wikimedia Commons For Harvard Square neighbors bemoaning the loss of independent businesses to rising rents, the latest blow hit last weekend. On March 26, the 150- year old Schoenhof's Foreign Books on Mount Auburn Street closed its brick and mortar location, moving to online-only sales. Upscale retail chains continue to pour into Harvard Square, from D.C.-based craft pizza to Swedish outdoor apparel. Long-term residents are worried that Harvard Square has become so commercial that it's losing what makes it special. Jim Cronin, father of our guest Louie Cronin, serving Boston baked beans to Elizabeth Taylor. Photo courtesy of Louie Cronin. At the center of the latest controversy is the historic Abbott Building at Five JFK Street. It houses the world's only Curious George store and is also the former home of NPR's Car Talk. The developer that bought the Abbott and its two adjoining buildings last year — for $85 million — plans to turn them into a mall. Long-term residents are worried that Harvard Square has become so commercial that it's losing what makes it special. About five miles south, a historically Dominican and African American neighborhood, Egleston Square, is experiencing rapid gentrification. Below, watch a summer concert in Egleston Square. Egleston Square residents and the city government are mulling over, and sometimes butting heads over, how much affordable housing to require and what the business mix will look like. What can and/or should residents do to mitigate the effects of gentrification? To answer that complicated question, Louie Cronin joins us, author of a new novel, Everyone Loves You Back, which takes place in Cambridge in the 1990s. Cronin grew up in Cambridge, where her father owned a restaurant, and worked in the Abbott building as a producer for Car Talk. Also joining us is Luis Cotto, executive director of the not-for-profit Egleston Square Main Street. Take A Hike If you’re thinking, that tree couldn’t have grown that way naturally, your instincts are correct. (Credit: John Voci/NEPR) If you spend any time walking in the woods, you see a lot of strange looking trees — trees shaped by the wind, or split by lightning. Occasionally, some twists and turns are man-made. When walking in the woods near his Putney, Vermont, home, Dan Kubick discovered a most unusual tree. New England Public Radio's John Voci has our story. Emma Gatewood with Thomson brothers (from left) Tom, seven; David, nine; and Peter, 11; near the Thomson home in Orford, New Hampshire, on her through hike of the Appalachian Trail in 1955. (Courtesy of Peter Thomson) You might know someone who’s gone out looking for his or herself along the Appalachian Trail. Next year will mark the 80th birthday of the 2100-mile footpath. This year marks the 80th birthday of the 2100- mile footpath that goes from Georgia to Maine. A third of the trail runs through New England, including its most rugged parts, ending at the summit of Mount Katahdin in Maine. This is the time of year when through-hikers traditionally get started in Georgia. Emma “Grandma” Gatewood made headlines when she became the first woman to hike the entirety of the Appalachian Trail, back in 1955. She was 67 years old, and wore Keds. Writer Ben Montgomery, Emma's great great nephew and author of the book Grandma Gatewood's Walk, tells her story. About NEXT NEXT is produced at WNPR. Host: John Dankosky Producer: Andrea Muraskin Executive Producer: Catie Talarski Digital Content Manager/Editor: Heather Brandon Contributors to this episode: Benjamin Goldfarb, John Voci, Elliot Rambach, Ben Montgomery Music: Todd Merrell, “New England” by Goodnight Blue Moon, “Unsquare Dance” by Dave Brubeck, “Sunrise Blues” by Samuel James Get all the NEXT episodes. We appreciate your feedback! Send praise, critique, suggestions, questions, story leads, and fish stories to next@wnpr.org.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week: more stores from our series Facing Change, about shifting demographics in New England, and the impact of immigration. A reporter crosses the border to find those leaving the U.S. to seek asylum in Quebec, and we go to prep school to meet a pair of teenage refugees. We meet people trying to build political power in the region’s growing Muslim community, and visit a Spanish-language bookstore that’s open for just five more weeks. A Canadian police officer offers a hand to a migrant crossing the U.S.-Canada border near Champlain, New York. Photo by Kathleen Masterson for VPR Heading North At the Royal Canadian Mounted Police communications center in Montreal, technicians monitor live-camera screens of popular illegal border crossings. If people cross into Canada, command control can alert patrolling police. Photo by Kathleen Masterson for VPR The Royal Canadian Mounted Police are reporting surges in illegal crossings in Canada in recent months. Officials say Quebec has seen the highest influx of people seeking asylum, with many crossing in remote, snowy areas west of Lake Champlain. One illegal border crossing area has become so popular among immigrants seeking asylum that all taxis in Champlain, New York, know it by name: Roxham Road. Vermont Public Radio reporter Kathleen Masterson visited Roxham Road, and found migrants knowingly crossing into police arrest on the Canadian side. Back in Episode 21 we shared the story of the town of Rutland, Vermont, where, at the end of last year, residents were busily preparing for 100 Syrian and Iraqi refugees. Ghena and Ayman Alsalloumi stand on the St. Johnsbury campus on a snowy January day. Their family is from Homs, Syria — a city torn apart by civil war. Photo by Ryan Caron King for NENC President Trump's immigration orders have thrown plans like that into doubt. But WSHU’s Cassandra Basler found one Vermont prep school that's trying their own approach to bring in those fleeing from the war: offering scholarships to refugees already living in the U.S. Cassandra followed teenagers Ayman and Ghena Alsalloumi from the Connecticut shoreline to the snowy north. Below, watch a video of Ayman and Ghena at St. Johnsbury Academy. A Time to Run for Office Somali refugee Deeqo Jibril is running for Boston City Council. Photo by Jesse Costa for WBUR As more Muslim immigrants come to New England, they're pushing for a seat at the political table. As WBUR's Shannon Dooling found, a nonprofit based in Cambridge, Massachusetts is trying to jump-start the effort, encouraging Muslims across the country to run for political office. The group, called Jetpac, trains potential candidates regardless of party affiliation with the goal of increasing civic engagement within Muslim communities. On right, Portland city counselor Pious Ali, one of the first African-born Muslims to hold public office in Maine. Photo by Ryan Caron King for NENC In Portland, Maine, there's a Muslim politician who's already gained substantial political clout. A newly-elected city counselor, he’s working to get out the vote. Maine Public Radio’s Fred Bever introduces us to Pious Ali. Vietnamese-American poet Ocean Vuong. Photo by Tom Hines, courtesy of Ocean Vuong. “I always had the sense that I was a perpetual trespasser, a guest. And in a way, we were.” – Ocean Vuong More than a million Vietnamese came to the U.S. as refugees in the years after their civil war ended. More than 65 thousand Vietnamese make New England home. Now another massive wave — dislocated Syrians — are seeking safety. It is unclear just how many will be allowed into the U.S. under the Trump administration. These two very different cultures share a common experience. New England Public Radio’s Jill Kaufman shares a profile of Ocean Vuong, a Vietnamese poet from Hartford, Connecticut who is reaching out to the new refugees. Fabric and Paper American Roots top stitcher Duaa Khalifa. Photo by Patty Wight for Maine Public In Portland Wednesday, Maine Congresswoman Chellie Pingree held a roundtable with business leaders to highlight the role of  immigration in Maine's economy. For the venue, Pingree chose a small made-in-the-U.S. clothing company called American Roots, which employs mostly immigrants. Maine Public Radio's Patty Wight visited in October 2016, when the company was about a year old. Artist Pablo Helguera said that despite continuing growth in the U.S. Latino population, access to books in Spanish is disappearing. That’s the impetus behind a traveling bookstore/art installation that’s making it’s temporary home in Boston’s Jamaica Plain neighborhood. WBUR’s Simón Rios paid a visit. Project Urbano Director Stella Aguirre McGregor standing in the middle of the current exhibition Librería Donceles, a participatory art project consisting of a traveling bookstore of more than 10,000 used books in Spanish. Photo by Jesse Costa for WBUR About NEXT NEXT is produced at WNPR. Host: John Dankosky Producer: Andrea Muraskin Executive Producer: Catie Talarski Digital Content Manager/Editor: Heather Brandon Contributors to this episode: Kathleen Masterson, Cassandra Basler, Shannon Dooling, Fred Bever, Jill Kaufman, Patty Wight and Simón Rios Music: Todd Merrell, “New England” by Goodnight Blue Moon Get all the NEXT episodes. Find all of the stories from the New England News Collaborative’s Facing Change series. We appreciate your feedback! Send praise, critique, suggestions, questions, story leads, and tell us how demographics are changing in your community at next@wnpr.org.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, we take a rare look a gigantic battery that's helping to balance our region's energy grid. Plus, we get perspective from Maine’s top energy official, who is stepping down. We also take trips to a tiny island where opioid addicts go to seek treatment, and to the city that inspires the country’s most famous horror writer. And we learn what charitable donations — or lack thereof — say about New Englanders. The road into the entry portal of the hydro-electric power plant in Northfield Mountain. At 33-feet in diameter, the tunnel is nearly a mile long and leads 750 feet deep into the heart of the mountain. (Credit: Jesse Costa/WBUR) Finding the Right Energy Mix Today’s batteries come in all shapes and sizes. The largest in New England — and once the world — was built 45 years ago and is still working. But it’s hidden, on top and deep inside a mountain in north-central Massachusetts. WBUR’s Bruce Gellerman reports from Northfield Mountain. Inside the Northfield Mountain pumped storage hydroelectric station. (Credit: Jesse Costa / WBUR) The upper reservoir is the battery that powers the Northfield Mountain pumped hydro-electric plant. It holds more than five billion gallons of water. (Jesse Costa/WBUR) In Maine, Republican Governor Paul LePage's energy director is stepping down from his job at the capitol. “Augusta is really broken,” Patrick Woodcock, who held his position since 2013, told the Portland Press Herald. “Energy policy is really complicated and there's an over-reliance on special interests,” he said. Patrick Woodcock, director of the Governor’s Energy Office in Maine, is stepping down this week. (Credit: Mal Leary/ Maine Public Radio) Woodcock says he wants to keep working in energy, in Maine, outside of state government. As our region aggressively moves toward more renewable sources of power, he says we need to stay focused on bringing down costs for consumers and businesses. We recorded our conversation with Woodcock on Tuesday. Since, we’ve learned that President-elect Donald Trump has picked Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to head the EPA. Pruitt has been a close ally of fossil-fuel companies, questions the human impact on climate change, and has been sharply critical of EPA regulations. We asked Woodcock – as someone who served in the administration of Paul LePage, a governor who has been likened both politically, and in temperament to Donald Trump – what he thinks the impact of Trump's national energy policy might be on Maine and New England.  You won't hear Woodcock's response to this appointment – because, at the time, we had fewer specifics. But he did have some interesting thoughts on the issue. Treatment Island Brett, a program participant at Penikese, learns how to chop wood. (Credit: Karen Brown/NEPR) About a dozen miles off the coast of cape cod sits a rustic island named Penikese, near the end of the Elizabeth Island Chain. A hundred years ago, Penikese was home to a leper colony. Later it housed a school for troubled boys, and a bird sanctuary. This past fall, Penikese opened to its newest incarnation: a treatment program for young men suffering from addiction. The program’s participants live simply: using kerosene lamps and cooking on a wood-burning stove, and minimal access to the internet. New England Public Radio’s Karen Brown takes us there. New Englanders Give Less to Charity, Stephen King Excepted Bangor, Maine is one of the most famous towns in the world, though some may not realize it. Fans of renowned horror author Stephen King know Bangor well, but by another name: Derry. The fictional town is a thinly disguised version of Bangor, where the author has lived for decades. Derry appears in many of King's stories and provides the major setting for the novel “It.” Maine Public Radio's Jennifer Mitchell took a tour of the real Derry with a tour company exclusively devoted to showcasing Stephen King's Bangor. A family poses in front of Stephen and Tabitha King’s home in Bangor Maine during a King-themed tour. (Credit: Jennifer Mitchell/Maine Public Radio) Alongside his wife Tabitha, Stephen King has given millions to public projects in Bangor, according to the city’s Community and Economic Development Department. The Kings have quietly funded upgrades to libraries, fire departments, baseball diamonds and more around Maine. But New Englanders in general look less than generous compared with people in other parts of the country. We give an average of less than three percent of our household incomes to charity, compared to the national average of 4.7 percent. Of course within New England, some states give more than others. With the holiday season upon us, Connecticut-based columnist Susan Campbell took a hard look at household charitable giving in a recent article for the New England News Collaborative. We sat down with Susan and Jim Klocke, CEO of the Massachusetts Nonprofit Network. Create column charts About NEXT NEXT is produced at WNPR. Host: John Dankosky Producer: Andrea Muraskin Executive Producer: Catie Talarski Digital Content Manager/Editor: Heather Brandon Contributors to this episode: Bruce Gellerman, Karen Brown, Jennifer Mitchell, Susan Campbell Music: Todd Merrell, “New England” by Goodnight Blue Moon, “The Mountain” by the Heartless Bastards Get all the NEXT episodes. We appreciate your feedback! Send praise, critique, suggestions, questions, story leads, and pictures of your corner of New England to next@wnpr.org.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Conversation with Tina Antolini, a Peabody-Award-winning storyteller and radio producer. She serves as the host and producer of Gravy, a podcast with the Southern Foodways Alliance, which was named the James Beard Foundation's Publication of the Year for 2015.Tina's worked in public radio for more than 10 years, including NPR’S State of the Re:Union (SOTRU), where she won a Peabody and a national Edward R. Murrow Award, and New England Public Radio. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

With days to go before the election, we put New England’s changing political DNA under the microscope with pollster and University of New Hampshire political scientist Andrew Smith. We also have an update on the roadside outhouse turned voting booth from Episode 11. Plus, renewable energy is best for the planet, but reality here is a little…gassier. And we take a detour from the campaign trail and head for the hills, and mountains. One of These Things is Not Like the Others Should New Hampshire’s outsize roll in presidential politics be reconsidered? (Credit: NHPR) New England is seen as reliably Democratic. Along with New York, it's part of a big blue blob in the upper right hand corner of those election maps we've seen all too much of. But it wasn't always like this. And, as we know, there's one state, with a famous independent streak, that has always been a little different. A poll by WBUR in Boston – taken less than a week before election day – shows Republican Donald Trump pulling slightly ahead of Democrat Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire. While the Granite State seems like an outlier, political scientist Andrew Smith says it's really the last state in a regional shift from Republican to Democratic that's been happening across decades. We invited him into the studio to learn about how and why New England's political DNA is changing. Smith teaches political science at the University of New Hampshire, and directs the UNH Survey Center. He's co-author of the book The First Primary: New Hampshire's Outsize Role in Presidential Politics. New Hampshire voters may take elections seriously, but a few weeks back we met one Granite Stater who definitely doesn't take them too seriously. Chris Owens hung a sign reading “Official NH Voting Booth” on an outhouse at his farm stand, and invited visitors to “cast their ballots” for Trump or Clinton in one of two toilets inside. The results are in! New Hampshire Public Radio’s Sean Hurley reports. Farmstand owner Chris Owens posted the results of his poll a week before the election. (Credit: Sean Hurley/ NHPR) Got the urge to nerd out over New Hampshire politics? Check out New Hampshire Public Radio’s database of election results going back to 1970. Gas Pains For months, clean energy advocates have been anxiously awaiting the results of a contest of sorts. It was a request for proposals by the three Southern New England states, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, to build new project that would help the region meet both its greenhouse gas emissions goals – and overall energy needs. When the winners were unveiled, there were some big surprises. First, the mix of wind and solar projects, totaling 460 megawatts, are largely located in southern New England. That means large wind farms proposed in northern Maine, and a transmission project for Canadian Hydro-Power lost out. Pipes for a proposed natural gas pipeline in South Dakota are stacked at a staging area. (Credit: Nati Harnik/AP) The other big surprise was that the state of Connecticut pulled the plug on another plan, to construct more natural gas pipelines in the state. It was prompted by previous decisions in Massachusetts and New Hampshire that said it was unconstitutional to pass along the cost of building pipelines to electric customers. That would have left Connecticut ratepayers on the hook – without help from their regional neighbors. Protesters rally in downtown Pittsfield, Mass. before an injunction hearing on a natural gas pipeline in July, 2016. (Credit: Adam Frenier/ NEPR) This might mean the end of big pipeline projects like “Access Northeast.” And, it raises questions about the need for more gas-fired power plants, including those that have met with local opposition in Connecticut and Rhode Island. But Connecticut officials are saying, “not so fast.” Right now, New England gets more than 50 percent of it's power from gas, and state regulatory commissioner Katie Dykes says the fuel is necessary for the region to provide reliable, year-round power – even as it invests more in renewable energy. Dykes been part of this process in her previous role as Connecticut's Deputy Commissioner for Energy. She told us that the decision to halt the pipelines was done to protect ratepayers in her state. Take a Hike If you’re thinking, that tree couldn’t have grown that way naturally, your instincts are correct. (Credit: John Voci/NEPR) If you spend any time walking in the woods, you see a lot of strange looking trees — trees shaped by the wind, or split by lightning. And — occasionally — some twists and turns are man-made. When walking in the woods near his Putney, Vermont, home, Dan Kubick discovered a most unusual tree. New England Public Radio's John Voci has our story. Emma Gatewood with Thomson brothers (from left) Tom, seven; David, nine; and Peter, 11; near the Thomson home in Orford, New Hampshire, on her through hike of the Appalachian Trail in 1955. (Courtesy of Peter Thomson) You might know someone who’s gone out looking for his or herself along the Appalachian Trail. Next year will mark the 80th birthday of the 2100- mile footpath. A third of the trail runs through New England, including its most rugged parts, ending at the summit of Mount Katahdin in Maine. Emma “Grandma” Gatewood made headlines when she became the first woman to hike the entirety of the Appalachian Trail, back in 1955. She was 67 years old, and wore Keds. Writer Ben Montgomery, Emma's great great nephew, tells her story. Ben Montgomery's book, Grandma Gatewood's Walk came out in paperback earlier this year. About NEXT NEXT is produced at WNPR. Host: John Dankosky Producer: Andrea Muraskin Executive Producer: Catie Talarski Digital Content Manager/Editor: Heather Brandon Contributors to this episode: Anthony Brooks, Sean Hurley, John Voci, Elliot Rambach Music: Todd Merrell, “New England” by Goodnight Blue Moon, “Roast Beef of Old England” by the US Marine Band, “Sunrise Blues” by Samuel James Get all the NEXT episodes. We appreciate your feedback! Send praise, critique, suggestions, questions, story leads, and tales from the trail to next@wnpr.org.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

John Voci, Executive Director of Programming and Content at New England Public Radio, introduces Words in Transit, a podcast of personal stories of nearly 30 people from around the world who have made their new home in western New England.

Lovely early fall weather means we’re spending our whole hour-long episode outside. All these sunny days, though, mean a shortage of water for crops, gardens, livestock, and lawns. Climate scientists warn that droughts interspersed with periods of heavy storms are becoming the new normal in New England. We look into how farmers and the rest of us are adapting. We also consider what “national monument status” means. President Barack Obama just granted the status to nearly 90,000 acres of the north woods of Maine, and is considering doing the same for miles of ocean canyons and mountains off the coast of Cape Cod. And: it's back to school time, but that means something different for the children of seasonal workers, bringing in the late summer crops. Our Dry New England Summer Livestock farmer Bill Fosher with sheepdog Zues. (Courtesy Bill Fosher) It was an unusually dry summer for much of New England. Massachusetts was (and still is) the hardest-hit. This week, Governor Charlie Baker announced an emergency loan fund to help family farms and other small businesses affected by the drought. New England Public Radio reporter Jill Kaufman has been reporting on the tentative move among New England farmers to adopt drought-friendly techniques. She joins us in the studio, and we call New Hampshire livestock farmer Bill Fosher to talk soil and water. It's not just farmers who have been affected by the long dry spell. If you live in Massachusetts, your town may have told you to limit watering the lawns and garden. But as WBUR reporter Shannon Dooling found out, the rules may be different on the other side of the town line. (Courtesy of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection) Director of the Billerica Public Works Abdul Alkhatib points out the level of the Concord River is three feet lower than it was this time last year in 2015 due to the current drought conditions this summer. (Jesse Costa/WBUR) Monuments to Nature If you've ever visited the North Maine Woods, you know that it's one of the most wild places you'll ever see. Nearly 90,000 acres adjacent to Baxter State Park have been designated by President Obama as the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument. It’s not quite a national park, but it is protected recreational land. It was donated by Roxanne Quimby, the founder of personal care company Burt's Bees. The donation was her family's plan for some time. The moon rises over Mt. Katahdin. (Bill Duffy) Bull moose in the area designated Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument (Mark Picard) View from Lunksoos Mountain (Bill Duffy) Wassataquoik River at Orion Falls (Credit: EPI) The area also has logging and paper industry history. Many politicians have fought against the protected designation, hoping that some day paper mills would return. We speak with two Maine reporters covering the dispute: Maine Public Broadcasting’s Susan Sharon, and Nick Sambides, Jr. of the Bangor Daily News. There's an even more remote part of New England being considered as a national monument. The New England Coral Canyons and Seamounts area, about 150 miles from Cape Cod, is (according to a Congressional letter written to the President): “a world of canyons that rivals the Grand Canyon in size and scale and underwater mountains that are higher than any east of the Rockies. These mountains – known as seamounts – rise as high as 7,700 feet from the ocean floor and are the only seamounts in the U.S. Atlantic Ocean.” A Paramuricea coral in Nygren Canyon, which is 165 nautical miles southeast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Hydromedusa in Washington Canyon. Mussels in Nygren Canyon. Lawmakers, led by Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal, want the president to use the 1906 Antiquities Act to preserve the area. This is much like President George W. Bush did when he designated a similar monument in 2006 off the coast of Hawaii. President Obama just expanded that monument. But like loggers in Maine, many in the commercial fishing industry are fighting the designation, questioning the use of the act by the president. We speak with Brad Sewell, Director of Fisheries and Atlantic Ocean Program at the Natural Resources Defense Council, which is backing the proposal. We also hear from Bob Vanasse, executive director of the fisheries industry group Saving Seafood. Maine’s Blueberry Harvest School September means one thing for most kids in New England: an end to summer holidays and the start of classes. But for some, the school year isn't that straightforward, because their parents chase the seasons from Texas to Maine, harvesting vegetables, picking apples, and raking blueberries. The federally funded Migrant Education Program seeks to fill some of the gaps left by a life on the road. MPBN reporter Jennifer Mitchell spent a day with the Blueberry Harvest School in Downeast Maine. The Blueberry Harvest School was established to teach kids whose parents are busy bringing in Maine's $75 million wild blueberry harvest. (Jennifer Mitchel/MPBN) To learn more about parents of these kids — the blueberry harvest workers — we spoke with Jorge Acero, State Monitor Advocate for migrant farm workers in Maine. A teacher asks for volunteers during a class. (Jennifer Mitchel/MPBN) About NEXT NEXT is produced at WNPR. Host: John Dankosky Producer: Andrea Muraskin Executive Producer: Catie Talarski Digital Content Manager/Editor: Heather Brandon Contributors to this episode: Jill Kaufman, Shannon Dooling, and Jennifer Mitchell Music: Todd Merrell, Lightning on a Blue Sky by Twin Musicom, New England by Goodnight Blue Moon Get all the NEXT episodes. We appreciate your feedback! Send praise, critique, suggestions, questions, story leads, and pictures of your corner of New England to next@wnpr.org.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Facts This week, we're joined by comedian Maeve Higgins. Surprisingly Awesome’s theme music is “How We Do” by Nicholas Britell. Our ad music is by Build Buildings. Andrew Dun mixed this episode.This episode was edited by Annie-Rose Strasser, and Peter Clowney and produced by Rachel Ward, Christine Driscoll, and Elizabeth Kulas.  Jacob Cruz, David Pitman, and Laura Varela provided production assistance.  Thank you to New England Public Radio and KQED in San Francisco.  Learn More Impress us and Punmaster Gary Roma with your best #flossipher puns and send them to us at @SurprisingShow Did you like our incredibly fast description of biofilm? You can read a very approachable primer about the biofilm in your mouth here. Not enough floss, hoss? You can get more flossing fix in the ebook - The Joy of Flossing, which we read for this episode. It's just 42 pages and it you'll even find some philosophy in there, too.

Grassroots Marketing speaks with Laura Beohner is President of The Healing Rose, an Organic Cannabinoid Wellness Brand. She is the Founder and Director of MA Hemp Coalition. Plant Medicine & Cannabis Activist. Basketball & Softball Coach. Twin Mom. BoD for Elevate Northeast & NOSHA.Using 100% natural ingredients and 99% organic ingredients, The Healing Rose line uses the finest ingredients to create the most therapeutic CBD salves and topicals. Helping a range of different conditions and ailments, you can check them out at http://thehealingroseco.com/ The Healing Rose Company, based in Massachusetts, handcrafts hemp-derived CBD infused body care products in small batches using natural and organic ingredients. They combine organic herbs and essential oils with hemp-derived, 100% THC-Free Phytocannabinoid Rich Hemp Oil with only high-quality organic kinds of butter & oils. They've spent countless hours developing formulas through extensive research & development. Their body care products are made with care in Andover, MA. Massachusetts-based cannabis and hemp advocate, educator and entrepreneur Laura Beohner is president and co-founder of The Healing Rose Company, which offers handcrafted organic body care products using full-spectrum CBD hemp oil. Organic is important for Beohner, because so many beauty and wellness products come with unwanted side effects. “When you use all-organic ingredients, you don't get those pesticides and heavy metals that are on so many cosmetic ingredients,” she says.Laura has spoken about cannabis, topicals, marketing, branding, entrepreneurship, and product development in the cannabis and hemp industries at the Boston Freedom Rally, Women Grow Boston, Women Grow Connecticut, New England Cannabis Convention, East Coast Cannabis Conference, New England Cannabis Convention, CannaCon Boston, Cannabis & Migraine Symposium and more.Laura co-founded Massachusetts Hemp Coalition and serves on the board of directors at Northeast Sustainable Hemp Association and Elevate New England (@elevatenewengland). She is a girls' basketball coach.She holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Entrepreneurial Studies from Northeastern University and graduated from the Northeastern Institute of Cannabis. She's been featured in Boston Business Journal, New England Public Radio, Sensi Magazine, Emerald Magazine, The Enterprise, Marijuana Venture and more.