Essential Salt

From Maine Public's new storytelling series, Greetings from Maine: three close friends tackle a spring cleaning project, and wind up uncovering powerful insights about how to navigate change.

There are so many ways to know a place – maybe you know the best place to grab lunch, the best place to stargaze, or the best way to beat traffic on a Friday afternoon. You might have a deep understanding of its geology or history, or you might know the families who’ve lived there for decades. But there are other ways of knowing a place that might not always get our full attention. Like the smell...

There is no shortage of beauty in Maine – from the mountains and shore, to historic buildings and lighthouses, to all the many vibrant and ever-evolving types of art that are made here. Reflecting on how to think about the value of this kind of richness, and who has access to it and how, can lead to profound and important questions. We’ll think about these huge ideas in the context of two very unu...

Finding a sense of belonging, especially in Maine, can mean many things – it can be about an actual place. But it can also be about making a space to be. To live on your own terms and be seen and valued. To not only be remembered, but to help inform the future. We begin with a story about a woman who makes a choice about her home that stuns her community and leads to a criminal investigation. And...

There are so many ways to explore Maine – you can paddle its waters, sail the coast, hike through the forests. But no matter where you’re looking to go, you’re probably going to need a car, or truck, or bus to get you where you need to be.

Whether you live inland or on the coast, making a life in Maine means getting to know your neighbors, and learning to listen to one another. Being heard is powerful, and so is steering into conflict with the desire to keep listening. We have two stories about the power of making your voice heard, and of listening to your heart. The first is the story of a reporter from Skowhegan, Maine, who fights...

Maine is made up of many tight-knit communities – from rural areas to dense city neighborhoods. And it’s usually not a line on a map that shows us how to find these communities, or how to understand what holds them together. We’ll look at the connections that make strangers neighbors and friends, as well as people who challenge us to decide how we want to show up in our own lives. First, we’ll get...

Essential Salt is a collection of richly reported stories about living and working in Maine – where making a life brings the joy of vibrant landscapes and dynamic communities. But it also means grappling with tensions between rural and urban values, concerns about how to protect the water and land, and how to make sense of the past in a way that builds toward a strong future. This is a show about...

Episode 5 of the Essential Salt podcast: What Lurks in the Dark

Episode 4 of the Essential Salt podcast: Into The Great Maine Wild

Episode 3 of the Essential Salt podcast: Home.

Episode 2 of the Essential Salt podcast: Ferry Access Only.

Episode 1 of the Essential Salt podcast: What's Essential.