The Upper Cape Catch

This week on the Upper Cape Catch, host and producer Gilda Geist delves into the history of slavery on Cape Cod. Many New Englanders think of American slavery as a southern problem, but the truth is that the economy of slavery made Cape Cod what it is today. They say those who don’t learn history are doomed to repeat it—in that case, you might want to give this episode a listen.

Learn more:

Ever wondered how composting works? Wonder no longer. In today’s episode, producer Noelle Annonen goes behind the scenes with Black Earth to learn the ins and outs of how food scraps are made into new, nutritious soil. She also explores the future of composting on the Upper Cape.

This week on the Upper Cape Catch, the entire podcast team pitched in to bring you three stories of art on Cape Cod. Each story features a different local artist. In this episode, we talk about painting, printing, woodworking, and poetry as they relate to self- and community-expression on Cape Cod.

More about Alice Kociemba:

Note: This episode discusses child sex abuse.

This week on the Upper Cape Catch, host and producer Gilda Geist interviews Jacob Stapleton of Children’s Cove, Cape Cod’s child advocacy center. Though this episode deals with the challenging topic of child sex abuse, it does so in a way that is meant to empower families and youth-serving professionals to do their part to keep kids safe. 

This week on the Upper Cape Catch, we put together a local viewing guide for Monday’s solar eclipse. In this episode, host and producer Gilda Geist takes you through everything you need to know about the eclipse, including where to get free eclipse glasses on the Upper Cape. 

Solar eclipse events with free eclipse glasses:

Did you know this episode just won us the Best Podcast award at the New England Newspaper & Press Association competition? This is one of our favorite episodes producer Noelle Annonen made here at the Upper Cape Catch, and we're glad the folks at the New England Newspaper & Press Association agreed.

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It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a cold-stunned turtle stuck in the hook of Cape Cod! And it has a long journey ahead. Follow the turtles and producer Noelle Annonen on a journey from the coasts of Cape Cod to the Gulf of Mexico and back again in today’s episode of the Upper Cape Catch.

Millions of people in the United States live with the effects of a disability or chronic illness every day. Many manage their symptoms in the workplace without anyone knowing. Others are reaching out for help they’re not able to receive. Join Upper Cape Catch producer Noelle Annonen in hearing two of those stories from people who live and work on the Upper Cape.

This episode originally aired in July 2023. We're replaying it for you this week because it's just as timely as ever! Falmouth Town Meeting members will vote on whether to fund a town-wide urine diversion pilot project this coming April, and the broader electorate will weigh in in the May elections.

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We're back with another installment of The Great Flush, our series on the Upper Cape's wastewater management reckoning. This week, host and producer Gilda Geist goes on a tour of the Massachusetts Alternative Septic System Test Center, which is partnering with the town of Falmouth to start a urine diversion pilot project. Listen now to join Gilda on her journey of learning more about pee than she could ever have imagined.

Related:

Three scientist couples, three love stories—that’s today’s episode in a nutshell (or in a test tube?). These Woods Hole scientists have discovered the formula for love, and so we just had to ask them for the secret ingredient. Join host and producer Gilda Geist in hearing three local science couples tell their stories. 

Check out the scientists’ work:

This episode was originally published in May 2023. In light of all the recent urine diversion talk on the Upper Cape, we thought we'd bring this episode back. New episodes coming soon!

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Housing, water quality, environmental protection and agriculture - all of these are critical to human life, and all of them can be impacted by the simple flush of a toilet. Because municipal wastewater is so tightly intertwined with daily life on Cape Cod, conversations about wastewater management often turn into debates. In the Upper Cape Catch's new series, the Great Flush, we'll be exploring as many sides of this debate as we possible can, and strive to unravel this politically and scientifically tangled issue.

This week, in the first installment of our new series, host and producer Noelle Annonen takes a closer look at urine-diverting technology, and what it could mean for local wastewater management and the world.

Check out Hilda Maingay and Earle Barnhart’s work at the Green Center and archives from the New Alchemy research institute here: 

Happy Black History Month Upper Cape Catch listeners! This episode comes to you in two parts. The first part is your guide to local Black History Month events here on the Upper Cape, and the second is a rerun of one of our favorite stories from last year about Cape Cod’s first Black teacher and principal Emma Barrow. 

Have you ever wondered how your newspaper gets printed? In this week’s episode of the Upper Cape Catch, Enterprise reporters Noelle Annonen and Alex Megerle take a field trip to the company that prints the Enterprise each week. Join host and producer Gilda Geist in hearing about their journey and learning how a modern day printing press actually works.

Music:

One thing we know for sure here at the Enterprise is that words have immense power. In this episode, host and producer Gilda Geist explores this concept through the unique perspectives of local musician and poet Melissa Roberts Weidman and Mashpee Enterprise reporter Sam Drysdale.

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Students at the Upper Cape’s vocational school have been hard at work for months on this year’s dinner theater and their efforts are about to pay off. In today’s episode, host Noelle Annonen takes you behind the scenes with Upper Cape Tech’s drama club and we learn how students from across the schools’ programs will make ‘A Christmas Carol’ come to life. 

First Nation people live, exist, and resist age-old colonialism around the world. Many of these nations exist within the borders of the United States. The United American Indians of New England have been hosting the National Day of Mourning in Plymouth, Massachusetts on Thanksgiving Day since 1970 so that no one will forget the past or ignore the realities of the present. At the 54th annual event, people came together to lift the voices of aboriginal people from across the globe. Listen to their voices and learn about their fight to restore homelands and human rights in today’s episode. 

Rising seas and stormy waters are creeping up on Upper Cape doorsteps. As scientists and residents based in seaside villages learned how seriously the side effects of climate change could damage their infrastructures and homes, they sprung into action. Host Noelle Annonen takes a look at all the ways that locals on the Upper Cape are working to “stop admiring the problem” and become resilient in the face of a future climate. 

***This episode originally aired in November 2022. Please note that the holiday market discussed in this episode was last year, not this year!***

It’s November, which means it’s National Native American Heritage Month. Join host and producer Gilda Geist in learning more about local Wampanoag culture, dispelling Thanksgiving myths, and taking a closer look at a historical inaccuracy in Bourne’s 127-year-old town seal.

More information:

Without a doubt, coyotes live among us. They wake us with their nighttime howls. They dart in and out of the shadows of our neighborhoods. They are the subject of Facebook posts that amass dozens of likes, shares, and comments. This week on the podcast, join host and producer Gilda Geist in learning all about the coyotes of the Upper Cape.

This week on the Upper Cape Catch, host and producer Gilda Geist learns how to bird. Cape Cod is apparently an ideal birding location, and a lot of us are missing out. Check out this episode to learn how to better identify and appreciate bird species in the Upper Cape area. 

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T’is the season for cranberries! But did you know about the deep-rooted (pun intended) culture running underneath this popular, holiday fruit? On today’s episode of the Upper Cape Catch, producer Noelle Annonen explores the lesser-known history behind Cape Cod’s favorite cranberry bogs and sneaks a peek at what might lie in store for bogs in the future. 

The Upper Cape Catch is back this week with another installment of our wastewater series, The Great Flush. In this episode, host and producer Gilda Geist goes behind the scenes of Falmouth’s Wastewater Treatment Facility with town wastewater superintendent Amy Lowell. Then, Gilda talks to Sandwich’s wastewater guru David Mason about how the Cape’s upper watersheds are handling the wastewater issue. 

Music:

Some row for fun. For others, it’s a lifestyle. A few of those lifelong scullers, including one Olympic athlete, have rowed around the world and found their way to Mashpee Pond, the home of the Head of the Ponds regatta. Jump in a double sculler with host Noelle Annonen and two internationally recognized athletes to learn what it means to be one of the best competitors in the world. 

Sound credits: 

This week the Upper Cape Catch is rerunning an older but apparently evergreen episode all about affordable housing. Join host Noelle Annonen on a journey through three stories of people who are struggling to find a stable home, and learn what it looks like when a community comes together to tackle a seemingly insurmountable problem.

Sound:

Millions of people in the United States live with the effects of a disability or chronic illness every day. Many manage their symptoms in the workplace without anyone knowing. Others are reaching out for help they’re not able to receive. 

Calli Remillard is an Upper Cape activist for people who are struggling with symptoms of just one of these illnesses; endometriosis. Check out her efforts to advocate for those with endo, raise awareness, and inspire her community towards action in today’s episode. 

Then, join Upper Cape Catch producer Noelle Annonen in hearing just some of these 61 million stories from people who live and work on the Upper Cape.

Welcome back to our wastewater series, The Great Flush. In this episode, host and producer Gilda Geist interviews three Woods Hole scientists to get to the bottom of the nitrogen problem caused by wastewater on Cape Cod.

From a seaside village to salt marshes to rolling forests, the Shining Sea Bikeway attracts thousands of cyclists each year. But there are some who want to take it further than where the path ends in North Falmouth. In today's episode, producer Noelle Annonen takes a look at the history of the bikeway, what it means for its future, and meets the people in Bourne who are making that future a reality.

Special thanks to Bourne Community Television for granting audio permissions for this episode. 

Audio Credits:

Cape Cod is home to centuries of rich industrial history, and lots of artifacts from that time period remain — for now. This week on the podcast, host and producer Gilda Geist explores the issue of historic home demolition on Cape Cod.

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Hey Upper Cape Catch listeners, this week we have a special story for you in honor of Pride Month! In this episode, host and producer Gilda Geist interviews Falmouth residents Charles Evans and Paul Glass. Charles and Paul were both at the Stonewall riots in New York City 1969, an event that signaled a major turning point in LGBT+ liberation. Whether you're here to brush up on your LGBT+ history, or you're here to get the story of Paul and Charles' "50+ year love story," as Paul calls it, this episode has something for everyone. 

If you’re concerned about the growing problem of pollution in Cape Cod waterways, you are not alone. Towns have been trying to get a handle on increasing nitrogen pollution in coastal and fresh waters for a years But locals in Upper Cape towns are starting to push for a better plan of action. Producer Noelle Annonen takes a deeper look at how municipal leadership has been handling wastewater and why residents are asking they do more in this second episode of the limited series, the Great Flush: What’s The Plan?

This week on the Upper Cape Catch, we’re rerunning a story we did a few months ago, but with an update. This story about Holtec International’s attempts to dump one million gallons of radioactive wastewater into Cape Cod Bay originally aired on December 23, 2022. Now, join host and producer Gilda Geist in hearing the latest updates from Enterprise reporter Tao Woolfe. 

In the COVID-19 pandemic, technology was a major part of how students accessed education. But now that the pandemic is seemingly over, what role does technology play in the classroom? This is the question that Falmouth Public Schools parents have been asking the school district over the past couple of months. Today on the Upper Cape Catch, hosts and producers Gilda Geist and Kurt Achin take a closer look at the issue by talking to parents and school administrators. 

From the Enterprise:

There’s a lot at stake in today’s climate and voters in towns on the Upper Cape are tackling important issues. Most recently, they’ve been asked to consider acting locally on the global problem of plastic. Bylaws banning plastic water bottles and plastic in takeout containers at restaurants are going before Town Meetings. For some towns, it isn’t the first time they’ll be voting on whether or not to accept these laws. 

But why ban plastic? And how can we know we have the best information on these issues so we can cast our vote? Join producer Noelle Annonen in trying to find the answers to these questions and more. 

This week on the Upper Cape Catch, we're talking about Falmouth Public Schools' sister school project with ELLCV, an English language school on Cape Verde. Join host and producer Gilda Geist in learning all about the language, culture, and history of Cape Verde. 

Learn more:

In 2013, Gabriela Rowland’s life changed forever. In the decade since surviving domestic violence, she has become an advocate for survivors like herself and works to raise awareness in her community and beyond. Join producer Noelle Annonen in hearing her story. 

Domestic violence is happening around the country every few minutes, even in places like Cape Cod. ‘Intimate - an Upper Cape Catch Limited series,' aims to shed light on the often overlooked social problem of intimate partner and domestic violence and abuse.

For free assistance with domestic or intimate partner violence, call the Independence House 24-hour hotline at 800-439-6507.

There is also a national 24/7 hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE.

This week on the Upper Cape Catch, host and producer Gilda Geist takes a look into addiction, substance use, and recovery on the Upper Cape. In this episode, you’ll hear three stories: one about the Falmouth Commission on Substance Use’s newest member, Richard Corey Jr.; one about a young man who was killed in Falmouth after battling addiction for much of his life; and one about a local effort led by Doris Kraemer to get emergency opioid overdose kits, or Naloxboxes, into buildings around the Upper Cape.