Grounded in Maine

There were so many great moments that it was hard to narrow them down in this conversation with Stephanie Gross, Founder of Bumby Wool! She built a sustainable fashion brand with merino wool in Canada. Stephanie is a married mom of 2, and is passionate about circular fashion, using what's already existing and her community. 

Bumby Wool started out in 2007 as cloth diaper covers, because the wool wicks moisture away from the ski...

I absolutely loved talking with Rebecca Newburn, the Founder of the Seed Library Network! Past podcast guest and friend Ranya Dube connected us after a workshop that Ranya hosted and Rebecca spoke in. I remember hearing recently that I think it was Israel that destroyed Gaza's national seed library, which got my mind wanting to learn more about seed libraries, and why that mattered so much. I had heard of seed libraries, but I...

I met Lauren Lovejoy last fall in a Women in Regenerative Agriculture group and was so silly excited to learn that she was the creator of the Red Hen app that I already had on my phone. Ren Hen app is a farm finder, so wherever you are, you're able to support small farmers- you can message and set up a meeting and pay for stuff all through the app - it's kind of like a mobile farm stand!

The Red Hen app is still relatively...

If you're following me on Instagram, you may have noticed me sharing posts about Barterloo bartering app - community powered and community building, sharing strengths and caring for each other. I'm talking with the founder, Kelly Dempsey. I learned about her when she was a guest on another New England podcaster, Molly Amatangelo's Local Treads podcast. Barterloo is just a few weeks away from launch, and it's so ...

I loved this conversation with Michelle Heberling, and learned so much about the gut role and how to care for it with fermentation. Michelle shares her very intense story of finding her way to fermenting foods, and she shares many more in her soon to be published book The Guts of Fermentation, along with some of her favorite recipes.

We talked a bit about the Germ Theory and the Bristol Chart, calming our gut with mindfulness, BELLY...

Talor Stewart has a very different way of looking at home design, and I am here for it! Conscious Home Design is Talor's business and the name of his #1 Best Selling book. 

What does a home truly need to provide? There has been research done about what makes people happy as they age; Talor has incorporated both of these studies and more with his Architecture education to offer Conscious Home Design. He offers a workbook and als...

Christa Dhimo is a New England Podcaster who I hadn't had much of a chance to get to know until I talked about my sustainability podcast in our community, and Christa, Founder of Impono - Senior Business Advisor, went full-on nerdy about DIRT. 

Christa hosts a podcast about business questions called Ask Christa, where people will write in whatever business questions they might have - from executive to employee and everything in...

This conversation with Doug Katz went deeper than expected, but it was SO good! Doug is a retired Military Veteran who has used his disability as inspiration to create adaptive items. He just started selling the Nulu adaptive knife last summer - it's inspired by the Inuit ULU, but adjusted to accommodate his and others' disability. 

Talking with Doug, I learned that there are Adaptive Libraries across the country, so that ...

Climate Storyteller barely touches on the work that Maya Lilly has been a part of in the climate change world; she's part of the Emmy Award Winning The Years Project. She's been an activist since she was 15. She's a Producer, Speaker, and Climate Storyteller. She was named to the Grist 50 for revolutionizing Hollywood's approach to Climate Storytelling. She uses storytelling as a force for justice, empathy and r...

I found Jacaranda Hemp Apparel through a podcast guest newsletter and thought that by satisfying some curiosity we can learn more about an available sustainable fabric with so many great qualities! I got my 'I grew up under a rock' questions out of the way before recording to spare you, but there's still plenty to learn.

There are so many things about Jacaranda that impress me, like their entrepreneurial spirit, and t...

I attended Chad Thompson's talk at the SOVA Rise Entrepreneur Summit last October about business planning, I didn't tell him this, but it wasn't a talk that I thought really pertained to me, since I didn't really have a business to market so to speak; something drew me to it- and I'm so glad I listened to that! 

Chad mentioned something about the business plan that I had never heard or even thought about bef...

Let me tell you a little story about my meeting Samantha Erickson... I think she reached out to me (my Instagram name is Grounded in Maine, and she's a Maine business, so I assume that's why), and the idea of used formal dresses was such a great business plan, so I was sold, and invited her to talk about it on the podcast. When I got her podcast guest form, she said "turning grief and pain into purpose," and if ...

Tom Schueneman has lived a fascinating life of traveling and music, and now has been an environmental journalist for several years - literally a member of the Society for Environmental Journalists. This year he started hosting his own podcast, which was called Global Warming is Real - recently rebranded to Earthbound, which is so good. Tom is very thoughtful and really cares about the earth and people, and that comes across very cl...

Julie Colombino-Billingham was working in disaster response 15 years ago, and was in Haiti after the earthquake of 2010. She never went back. She fell in love with the resilience and kindness of the people, and started a business with them called Deux Mains (two hands), making sustainable, fair trade leather bags and accessories - and also school shoes for students that they sell to churches and ministries to distribute. These beau...

As everyone is seeing their electricity bills rise, the opportunity to speak with Our Power Maine came up. I'm speaking with the Executive Director Seth Berry, and Policy and Communications Fellow Isabelle Winstead - just days after  they succeeded in pausing what seemed to many as a huge increase in Maine's CMP (Central Maine Power) rates. It's historic to halt the monopoly of a utility like this, and they are very ...

Y'all, sometimes things just fall into place, and the chance to talk with Annamarie Pluhar is definitely one of those! As I'm in the process of selling my VA house and looking for a new place to live, and knowing that to grow food for more than 1 will take more time and energy than I have, partnering with folks feels like it needs to be part of my plan (always was, but less for the financial aspect), but then enters Annam...

When I was approached by Brett Aldrich's team, I wasn't quite sure how the conversation would go - if it would be something you would be interested in; but maybe this convo was more for me than you? I booked a visit with her, at least! You'll hear me fumble my way around what I thought Ayurveda was (clearly I'm wrong), but Brett's practice is absolutely fascinating to me! Did you know about Ayurveda before ...

I was first introduced to Clara Schroeder through recent podcast guest Brittany Hansen, knowing that I would love talking with Clara - I'm super grateful to Brittany for that!

Clara is an Eco Therapist who has been working with big companies like Microsoft, Women in Cloud, Aura, and Insight Timer, and more. Clara recently published ReNature: How Nature Helps Us Feel better and Do Better, and she's here to talk about that, ...

This conversation is a little heavier than most, but it's so important to talk about. I can honestly say I knew almost nothing about West Virginia before I came across these ladies, but I can't say that anymore. Julie Eisenberg and Babette Hogan are here to talk about their first documentary together that just debuted called Running for the Mountains. "This is about politics and keeping our water and air safe, requir...