Let's Connect
Let’s Connect – Overcoming Employment Barriers – Mar 8 2024

Let’s Connect – Overcoming Employment Barriers – Mar 8 2024

Tae Chong (Maine State Chamber of Commerce, Director of Multicultural Markets and Strategies), Quincy Hentzel (Executive Director of Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce) and Melissa Hue (Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity for the City of Portland), discuss how to help people overcome employment barriers and strengthen the region's economic resilience.

Let’s Connect – Municipal Wastewater – Feb 29 2024

Let’s Connect – Municipal Wastewater – Feb 29 2024

Emily Prescott, Planning Director of Saco, and Howard Carter, Director of the city’s Water Resource Recovery Department, discuss how waste water systems play a pivotal role in developing sustainable infrastructures within the community.

Let’s Connect – town managers – Feb 8 2024

Let’s Connect – town managers – Feb 8 2024

Yarmouth's Town Manager Nat Tupper and Cumberland Town Manager Bill Shane talk with host Kristina Egan about the joys and challenges of being a town manager in Maine. Both men are retiring this winter after long careers in public service.

Let’s Connect – dredge project – Feb 1 2024

Let’s Connect – dredge project – Feb 1 2024

Dan Healey, Chair of the Board of Harbor Commissioners for Portland Harbor, Tom Dobbins, the commission’s former chair, and Bill Needleman, the Waterfront Coordinator for the City of Portland, discuss a major project to dredge along the private and public piers in Portland Harbor.

Let’s Connect – Kate Snyder – Jan 10 2024

Let’s Connect – Kate Snyder – Jan 10 2024

Kate Snyder talks with Belinda Ray about her recent term as mayor – the high points, the challenges, and what it’s been like to serve in municipal government in today’s increasingly polarized environment.

Let’s Connect – Piping Plovers – Dec 27 2023

Let’s Connect – Piping Plovers – Dec 27 2023

Andrew Fersch and Laura Minich Zitske talk with host Tom Bell about Piping Plovers and efforts to protect their habitat in Maine. Andrew is the author of the children’s book, “The Piping Plover,” about the endangered seabirds that live at Higgins Beach in Scarborough. The book is illustrated by Bruce Hutchison of Cape Elizabeth. Laura is a wildlife ecologist and Coastal Birds Project Director at Maine Audubon.

Let’s Connect – Affordable Housing – Dec 22 2023

Greg Payne, senior advisor to Gov. Mills on housing issues, talks with host Kristina Egan about Maine’s massive housing shortage and its implications. Maine needs as many as 84,300 new homes of all kinds within the next seven years to meet current and future demands. A state study in October concludes that failing to build or reinvest in more homes may have serious implications for Maine’s labor force and economy.

Let’s Connect – E-bikes – Nov 22 2023

Let’s Connect – E-bikes – Nov 22 2023

Cashel Stewart, Sustainable Transportation Coordinator at the City of South Portland, and Jim Tasse, Assistant Director of the Bicycle Coalition of Maine, talk about E-bikes. How do they work? What are the regulations? Are they safe? How can E-bikes help us reduce greenhouse gas emissions and save the planet?

Let’s Connect – Public Transportation Goes Electric – Nov 16 2023

Let’s Connect – Public Transportation Goes Electric – Nov 16 2023

Transit agencies in our region are electrifying their fleets. Learn the reasons why, with Hank Berg, general manager of Casco Bay Lines, Chad Heid, Executive Director at Biddeford Saco Old Orchard Beach Transit, Rodney Carpenter, the bus agency’s deputy director, and Jonathan Gagne, Sustainability Program Coordinator at the Greater Portland Council of Governments.

Let’s Connect – Homeless in Portland – Sept 28 2023

Portland Press Herald reporter Rachel Ohm, who has written in depth about the homeless in Portland, and Amber Lesperance, who lives in a homeless encampment, discuss the factors causing an increase in the city’s homeless population and what can be done to help.

Let’s Connect – Accessibility – Aug 30 2023

Accessibility advocate Sadie Donnell, who is blind, speaks with Gorham Economic Development Director Kevin Jensen about efforts to make streets and sidewalks easier to navigate for people experiencing disabilities.

Let’s Connect – Climate Show – Aug 16 2023

Dave Reidmiller, the Director of the Climate Center at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, talks about the impact of global warming on the Gulf of Maine. Reidmiller has worked for both the Obama and Trump administration on federal climate policy. Now, he works with Maine’s most vulnerable communities to ensure they are prepared for climate change.

Let’s Connect – Trail Network – Aug 4 2023

Allison Burson, National Greenway Director at East Coast Greenway, Rob Lavoie, Gorham Town Councilor, and former Maine state senator Dick Woodbury discuss the importance trails and what efforts are underway to expand the trail network.

Let’s Connect – Victoria Pelletier

A conversation with Portland Councilor Victoria Pelletier and Casco Selectwoman Mary Fernandez. Portland City Councilor Victoria Pelletier and Casco Selectwoman Mary Fernandez discuss the realities of serving as Black women in local office and how they are paving the path for other women of color in Maine.

Let’s Connect – City Manager

Kristina Egan talks with Danielle West, Portland's new city manager, about her new job, what she loves about Portland, and the issues the city is facing, including efforts to find temporary housing for asylum seekers at the Portland Expo.

Let’s Connect – Siobhán Brett

Let’s Connect – Siobhán Brett

Kristina Egan interviews Portland Press Herald Opinion Editor Siobhán Brett, who recounts what brought her to Maine and the similarities she sees between Maine and her native Ireland.