Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Episode 44: Recording your elders - Jessica Lamarre gets it done





Jessica Lamarre talks about how she recorded her 89 year old grandfather, Arthur Lamarre, in his home in Fall River, MA. She and her own dad triggered and focused his memory using photos from the time and asked meaningful questions to get a sense of the time when he was a young man.

Check out the process Jessica uses here.


Watch the youtube videos of Arthur Lamarre for the full effect!

Part 1: Conversations with Pa: The Wedding
Part 2: Conversations with Pa: The Early Years
Part 3: Conversations with Pa: Travels with Mary and Larry

Check out this episode!

Saturday, December 27, 2014

Episode 43: Jon Watts describes how ROTC training interfaces with the corporate world.


2007 Duxbury High School grad, Jon Watts, tells how signing up for the Air Force ROTC helped him get a top-notch education at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute AND allowed him to bring military leadership skills into the world of industrial engineering.

Air Force ROTC

Check out this episode!

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Episode 42: Andrew Flowers on curating your interests as a career strategy


Andrew Flowers, 2008 UChicago graduate, talks about how he navigated his way from college into a fulfilling career as a quantitative editor at the fast-paced data-driven news agency, Fivethirtyeight.com.

Check out this episode!

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Episode 41: Bill McBain: Navigating his career decisions and landing at Razorfish






Bill McBain, 2003 Duxbury High School graduate, explains how he made his career decisions while steering his way through the largest financial crisis since the Great Depression.

Where he works now: Razorfish

Check out this episode!

Sunday, November 30, 2014

Episode 40: Sara El-Amine: 2003 Duxbury Grad now Executive Director of Organizing for Action


Sara El-Amine talks about how she found her calling as an agent for progressive legislative change in multi-cultural America.

Check out this episode!

Here's a video featuring Sara as she speaks about September 11th and the effect it had on her family.

Saturday, November 8, 2014

Episode 39: Forty Thieves: A Fractured Fable from Iran

Ancient Isfahan, Iran, where this story originates

Simple Ahmed is nagged into becoming a royal diviner by his scheming wife, Jamell, only to find that a quick wit and some lucky misunderstanding can prove quite lucrative.

Check out this episode!

Thursday, November 6, 2014

Episode 38: Meaghan Thompson: 2005 Duxbury grad and new library director




Meaghan Thompson,
2005 Duxbury High School grad, assumes the role of new Library Director in the dynamic and eclectic town of Randolph, MA.

Meaghan  represents a new generation of library directors who are taking libraries into the 21 century.

 Check out this episode!

Monday, August 4, 2014

Episode 37: Twilight Zone: Identity Crisis Remake


Clay Neuger re-wrote the famous Twilight Zone episode: Identity Crisis, for the Radiofaces performance group. The premise: what if you suddenly were told that what you thought was your real life is really a TV show? Truman Show anyone?

Check out this episode!

Episode 36: The Angers Connection: Phoebe Marshall-Raimbeau explains it all



Duxbury High School teens Skyping with Angers teens

American Phoebe Marshall-Raimbeau is the Director of the Bibliothèque Anglophone, in Angers, France.
She reached out to us over eight years ago to become a sister library with hers and we have been collaborating ever since.
 Pen pals, Skyping, Garden Club visitors, email updates have all been ways we have maintained our link to the wonderful people of Angers.

Check out this episode!

Bibliothèque Anglophone web site

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Episode 35: Razia Jan brings the power of education to Afghan girls


Razia's Foundation



Razia Jan, the former Duxbury merchant and president of the Duxbury Rotary club, talks about her journey back to Afghanistan after 9-11 to bring the power of girls education into an area of 7 conservative villages. Her story is a testiment to the effect one person can have on the lives of many.

Check out this episode!


Books you might find interesting:




Razia's Ray of Hope, Elizabeth Suneby

Under the Persimmon Tree, Suzanne Fisher Staples

The Breadwinner series, Deborah Ellis



Saturday, July 12, 2014

Saturday, June 21, 2014

Episode 33: Summer Reading Preview



The Duxbury Free Library has hot summer reads, cool teen titles and nifty children's books, plus magazines, games videos, and much, much more for people of all ages!

Lots of fun books for adults, teens and kids to enjoy this summer. Join the fun by signing up for the Adult Summer Reading Program,
the Teen Summer Reading Program, or
the Children's Summer Reading Program !

Duxbury High School and Midde School Summer Reading Lists: some wonderful titles...

Book Breeze Series of author talks

Children's Calendar of activities

Check out the awesome programs for all age groups at the library.

Check out this episode!

Monday, June 9, 2014

Episode 32: The Discipline and Practice of Recitation: Rev. Dr. Gordon Postill



Rev. Dr. Gordon Postill shares his thoughts on the discipline and practice of recitation.

Poems recited on this podcast:




Otherwise by Jane Kenyon

I got out of bed
on two strong legs.
It might have been
otherwise.  I ate
cereal, sweet
milk, ripe, flawless
peach.  It might
have been otherwise.
I took the dog uphill
to the birch wood.
All morning I did
the work I love.

At noon I lay down
with my mate.  It might
have been otherwise.
We ate dinner together
at a table with silver
candlesticks.  It might
have been otherwise.
I slept in a bed
in a room with paintings
on the walls, and
planned another day
just like this day.
But one day, I know,
it will be otherwise.

Muktinath by David Whyte

Dawn at Muktinath
and I look through the window,
white mountains and the steady
slopes of snow,
cold scent of pine and the raven-call
of black birds
circling upward – toward nothing.

So the breath escapes the mouth
spiraling in a cold room,
so the words leave our lips,
the first line of a long poem
with no courage to finish.

This is the place the path begins,
the empty room beneath the breath
where everything we’ve broken
comes back to be repaired,
where bitterness returns, opens,
turns to a final sourness
on the lime-washed walls
and disappears.

This is the place we start again,
place sunburnt knuckles in moist eyes
and bow the head
feel the rough cold wall
on the forehead and weep.

This is the place we stop,
look up, lean out the window
and find the first signs of life.

Beneath us
a child is crying,
while above,
a tight arrow of driven ponies
points the way to the high pass.









Check out this episode!

Monday, April 21, 2014

Episode 31: The DFL Bookmarks converse on conversation




A wide-ranging discussion of emotional honesty, social niceties, grammar, philosophy, accents, the value of differences with references to TED talk by Brene Brown, film: My Dinner with Andre, books: The Fault in Our Stars, The Giver, To Kill a Mockingbird, TV show: Everyone Love Raymond.

Check out this episode!

Monday, March 31, 2014

Episode 30: Interview with Evan Sneider, successful movie star who happens to have Down Syndrome.


Check out this episode!

Evan Sneider has always believed he could follow his dreams - and he did!
Starting with The Replacement Child, a film by Justin Lerner, Evan has been featured in two highly acclaimed films, the other one being, Girlfriend. also produced and directed by Evan's high school friend and UCLA film school graduate, Justin Lerner.

In this podcast, Evan shares his healthy outlook on Life.

Monday, March 24, 2014

Episode 29: Poetry with Gordon Postill



The Rev. Dr. Gordon Postill describes his relationship with poetry in his personal life as well as his career as a hospice chaplain.

Gordon will be hosting a workshop on:

Saturday, April 5 from 2 - 3:30 p.m. in the Merry Room called, "Let Us Go Then You and I,"
in celebration of National Poetry Month. It is designed not only for poetry lovers, but also for people who may be on a journey of self-exploration.
Sign up here:

On the podcast, he gives a recitation of the Mary Oliver poem, "When Death Comes."

When death comes
like the hungry bear in autumn
when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse

to buy me, and snaps his purse shut;
when death comes
like the measle-pox;

when death comes
like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,

I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering;
what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?

And therefore I look upon everything
as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,
and I look upon time as no more than an idea,
and I consider eternity as another possibility,

and I think of each life as a flower, as common
as a field daisy, and as singular,

and each name a comfortable music in the mouth
tending as all music does, toward silence,

and each body a lion of courage, and something
precious to the earth.

When it’s over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was a bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.

When it’s over, I don’t want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don’t want to find myself sighing and frightened
or full of argument.

I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world.


Check out this episode!