Category: Specials

Peter Raven at College of the Atlantic
Producer: John Greenman

Time Magazine has called him a “Hero of the Planet” for his championing of conservation and biodiversity. But Dr. Peter Raven is a controversial figure among some conservationists. The long-time director of the Missouri Botanical Garden makes no excuses for the millions of dollars in grants he’s received from Monsanto for his biotechnology research. But none of this came up at a recent speech Dr. Raven gave to an invited audience at College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor. Dr. Raven spoke eloquently and passionately about the need for humans, especially Americans, to use less, to be more conscious of the effects of their actions. Only at the very end of the hour-long power-point presentation, in a question and answer period, did the subject of genetically modified plants come up briefly.
For more information about Dr. Peter Raven, biodiversity, Genetic Modification and the Missouri Botanical Garden, go to www.mobot.org. And for an independent profile of Dr. Raven, you can visit gmwatch.org.

Producer: Amy Browne
Topic: Bruce Gagnon is the Coordinator and co-founder of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, a long time activist, author and film maker. He organized the largest peace protest in Florida history in 1987 at the first test flight of the Trident II nuclear missile. 10 years later he organized the Cancel Cassini Campaign. Project Censored has twice named his stories among the most censored of the year (1999 and 2005). In 2005 his book Come Together Right Now: Organizing Stories from a Fading Empire was published. Gagnon’s work has been published in Earth Island Journal, National Catholic Reporter, CounterPunch, Z Magazine, Space News, and many others, nationally and internationally. He is a member of the National Writers Union and a former farm workers union organizer. His videos include 2003’s Arsenal of Hypocrisy and The Battle for America’s Soul (2005) which have been shown extensively on Free Speech TV. Gagnon also hosts a local cable show and publishes a newsletter.
For more information: www.space4peace.org or 207-729-0517
This speech was recorded at the WERU Full Circle Fair in Blue Hill, Maine on 7/23/06
Aired on WERU-FM on 7/27/06
Features music by Tom Neilson and Ethan Miller and Kate Boverman

WERU Special: Interview with Roshi Kobutsu Malone, Executive Director of “The Engaged Zen Foundation” in Sedgwick, Maine (www.engaged-zen.org)

Host/Producer: S.A. Feite Topic: Engaged Zen and Buddha-dharma; Death-penalty abolition; Socially engaged Buddhism What is the role of Buddhism in our prisons? How socially engaged is modern Buddhism? What is enlightenment? Features a song (with permission) by Zenji Stuart Davis, “Ladder” (www.stuartdavis.com)

Aired: 07/25/06

Hosts: Amy Browne and Meredith DeFrancesco
Topic: “Green Scare”
Guests: Attorneys Lynne Williams and Phil Worden

How are tactics being used by the government today similar to those used during the McCarthy era “red scare”?
What are your rights if police ask for a DNA sample without a warrant?
What is a Grand Jury?

Call in show with several callers

Producer: John Greenman

Ray McGovern is a former CIA analyst who used to brief President George
H.W. Bush on inlelligence matters.
For the last 3 years, since leaving the CIA in protest, he’s been
speaking “truth to power”, even confronting Donald Rumsfeld recently
about why he had lied to help get the US to invade Iraq.
McGovern spoke in Maine on May 26th, and here’s your chance to hear what he said.