Speak Up with Laurel Libby

Rohen Brown was 18 years old, running the last race of her high school career, when she stepped onto the Western Conference Championship podium in second place. The athlete in first was a male who had been competing in her races for years.Rohen is 19 now, studying political science at the University of Southern Maine, and serving as Lead Maine's first intern. This November, Maine voters will have a say on a ballot initiative to protect girls' and women's sports. But right now, through May 7, Mainers can comment on how that ballot question is worded. What you'll hear in this episode:Why Rohen grieved more for the girl who came in 31st than for her own lost placements, and what a lack of fairness in girls' sports actually costsWhat it felt like to stand on the Western Conference Championship podium in second place during the final race of her senior year, with St. Dominic's closing behind her and college aheadWhat female distance running culture in Maine has been, and how that changed when the atmosphere around her races turned chargedWhat she'd tell a young Mainer who feels politically alone, doesn't know where to start, and is spending too much time on social media looking for answersSubmit your comment to Maine’s Secretary of State regarding a clearly-worded ballot question to Protect Girls’ Sports before May 7: www.leadmaine.com/protectgirlssports

What happens when a doctor has time to actually know their patients?Dr. Zev Myerowitz has spent over a decade in Maine's healthcare policy debates. But his real argument is practical, built from years running one of New England's largest integrative musculoskeletal practices.In this conversation, Dr. Zev walks through the economics that broke primary care, why direct primary care clinics are opening across Maine faster than anyone predicted, and what happens when you flip the insurance-driven model on its head. He also explains the hidden mechanism behind Maine's provider shortage, one most people don't talk about.You'll also hear from two Family Nurse Practitioners and Direct Primary Care providers, Courtney Muldoon and Rachel Baillargeon from Live Life Family Practice, on what patient-centered care actually looks like for Mainers in Oxford County.This is a conversation about healthcare policy that starts with a simple question: what if patients and providers were on the same side of the table??📌 Subscribe to Speak Up with Laurel Libby for conversations on Maine policy and civic engagement.🌐 Learn more about Lead Maine: https://leadmaine.comFollow Dr. Zev on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drzmyerowitz

I met Parker Brownrigg on a flight. He's 26, grew up in Lewiston, graduated Maine Maritime, and paid off over $100,000 in student loans before his 27th birthday. He also can't buy a house in Maine. We talked about why ‒ and what it says about where our state is headed.

Mississippi policymakers prioritized science-based reading over the last decade and saw the nation's greatest gains in reading scores as measured by the National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as the Nation's Report Card. Meanwhile, Maine has been spending more and more on K-12 education, not empowering families, losing student enrollment, and falling to some of the worst NAEP results ever.This week, Laurel sits down with Rebekah Staples, a Mississippi-based public policy consultant who served as policy director for Governor Haley Barbour and senior advisor to Lieutenant Governor Tate Reeves. During her time in state government, she worked on education funding, budget reform, workforce development, and government efficiency initiatives. She holds an MBA from Vanderbilt University and currently runs her own consulting firm. FSStrategies.com/our-story

Amy Sussman is a wife, mother, longtime Mainer, and aunt of Max Hathaway, a victim of the tragic October 2023 shooting in Lewiston. Max was 35 at the time, a father of two with another on the way, and that day received his business degree from the University of Southern Maine. Amy has spent much of her free time tracking down how the money was spent that was raised for the Lewiston shooting victims, finding out that the way it was dispersed, while legal, was likely unethical or improper. Laurel sits down with Amy in-studio to discuss where the money went (or didn't), and how a situation so tragic for the survivors and victims' families was made even worse.

Laurel brings on Jason Snead to discuss the absurdities of Ranked-Choice Voting, how the national movement for RCV has stalled (thankfully!), and what Mainers can do to push back on this extreme form of election manipulation in our state. Maine is one of only two states (with Alaska) that use RCV for any statewide elections.Jason Snead is the Executive Director of the Honest Elections Project. He previously spent a decade at The Heritage Foundation as a senior policy analyst, where he managed the development of the Heritage Election Fraud Database and became a recognized expert on election integrity, criminal justice reform, and technology policy. He holds a master's in public policy from George Mason University.HonestElections.org | @HonestElections | @JasonWSnead | @StopRCV NetworkKeywords: politics, elections, voting, ballots, maine, alaska, ranked choice voting, RCV, election integrity, transparency, voter ID, SAVE Act, honest elections project

Who spent all the money?? Dr. Vance Ginn joins Laurel for a discussion on the good, the bad, and the ugly of state budgets, what makes for real economic prosperity, and what Maine can learn from states that are cutting taxes and enabling people to flourish.Vance Ginn is a free-market economist, founder of Ginn Economic Consulting, and host of the Let People Prosper Show podcast. He served as chief economist at the White House Office of Management and Budget during the first Trump administration and previously at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Dr. Ginn is a senior fellow at Americans for Tax Reform, and his economic commentary has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Fox News, and Washington Post.Follow Dr. Ginn on X @VanceGinn and keep up with his work on VanceGinn.com

Laurel and special guest, Mary Katharine Ham, discuss the issues that hit close to home, and how the government that's closest to us affects us the most. From the cost of energy to the state of education, the answer to the question, "How can we CHANGE the future?" has a surprising answer... tune in for the inaugural episode and simultaneous Lead Maine launch!

Join Laurel and Nick, Lead Maine's new Policy & Comms Director, for a preview of what's around the corner with our upcoming launch and beyond!