Maura Stephens
Independent Journalist • Writer • Educator • Theater Artist
Not content to sit idly as our Earth burns and the guilty fiddle
Selected Presentations and Interviews
Maura has given dozens of unique presentations on Iraq since 2003. She has also spoken widely about Burma and dominionism in U.S. government. Now she speaks primarily on fracking, fossil fuels and related industries and infrastructure, environmental and sustainability issues, journalism and independent media, democracy, and active resistance to tyranny.
Publicity for "Avoiding 'Fake News,'"
in the Finding Voice series, cohosted by League of Women Voters of Steuben County and the Southeast Steuben County Library, April 2, 2018
Audio interview with Ryan Clover on EcoDefense Radio, "Maura Stephens Returns from Standing Rock," November 22, 2016.
Audio interview with Francesca Rheannon on Writer's Voice, about fracking and related industrial activities in Pennsylvania and New York, media, and the U.S. presidential primaries, April 17, 2016.
Organizing on Fracking in the UK and US, virtual (video) panel hosted by Emily Masters of Peace News, 17 April 2014, with Fiona Brookes – Campaign for Climate Change, London, UK; Tisha Brown – Frack Off London, London, UK; Vera Scroggins - Pennsylvania Gas Tours; and Maura Stephens - Coalition to Protect New York, RAFT, Frackbusters, etc.
Organizing on Fracking in the UK and US, virtual (video) panel hosted by Emily Masters of Peace News, 17 April 2014, with Fiona Brookes – Campaign for Climate Change, London, UK; Tisha Brown – Frack Off London, London, UK; Vera Scroggins - Pennsylvania Gas Tours; and Maura Stephens - Coalition to Protect New York, RAFT, Frackbusters, etc.
Audio interview with Dennis Bernstein on Pacifica Radio show "Flashpoints"
about President Barack Obama's veto of the Keystone XL northern route and the larger picture, February 26, 2015 (18 min.; 0:01:30-0:19:45).
Video, "Live from the Frontlines" panel at NYC Climate Convergence, leading into the historic People's Climate March, September 18, 2014, at
the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space, hosted by System Change Not Climate Change. Moderator: Chris Dols. Panelists: Karen Feridun (Berks Gas Truth, PA), Vicci Hamlin (Michigan Coalition Against Tar Sands, MiCATS), and Maura Stephens.
Postcards for "Fighting the Frack Monster" at Left Forum 2014 with national journalists Steve Horn and Peter Rugh and California organizer Lauren Steiner.
Audio interview with Mary Glenney on WMNF Tampa Radio show "From a Woman's Point of View," on Pete Seeger, activism, fracking, and politics, January 30, 2014 (30 minutes; starts 30 minutes in).
Audio interview with Dennis Bernstein on Pacifica Radio show "Flashpoints" about Pete Seeger (RIP), the 2014 State of the Union address, fossil fuels, etc. Honored to be on the same show as Harvey Wasserman. January 29, 2014.
Audio interview on "EcoReport" on WFHB in Bloomington, Indiana, anchored by Trish Kerle and Dan Young; the interview was conducted by Stephanie Stewart. (Brief audioclip at top, then interview starts about halfway into the program at 13:45 and runs about 9 minutes; download or podcast.) January 9, 2014.
Audio interview (MP3, one hour) on "The Forecast" on WRFI Ithaca/Watkins Glen with Guillermo Metz and Art Weaver, on journalism, climate change, and keeping the fire. December 18, 2013.
Truthout Interview featuring Maura Stephens (video, 19 minutes) on Walmart, journalism, and corporate capitalism, with Ted Asregadoo, December 7, 2013.
Poster for "Extreme Fossil Fuel Extraction: What We're Up Against and How to Fight It" panel, Left Forum 2013. Also featured journalists Peter Rugh, Steve Horn, and Karen Charman.
Poster for "Fracking Us Every Which Way from Sideways, and How to Put the Kibosh on It," panel, Left Forum 2013. Also featured Caroline Town Supervisor/farmer Don Barber and POCLAD principal Virginia Rasmussen.
Speech at "Grassroots Greet the Governor" event in Corning, NY, April 2012. Video by Shaleshock Media.
Poster for "Who Steals My Purse Steals Trash" panel, Left Forum 2012, chaired by scholar-activist Cecile Lawrence; also featured singer-songwriter Janet Burgan and officeholder, union leader, and author Anthony Gronowicz, March 17.
Video: "The role of higher education in the Occupy movement" panel at Goddard College's "Occupy Conference," March 10, 2012, with moderator Anne Galloway, panelists Abigail Borah, Eva Swidler, Barbara Vacarr, Dan Chodorkoff, Maura Stephens, Nathan Gusdorf.
One-minute video interview for The Ithacan by Isabel Braverman and Lindsay Ahern at Fight the Frack rally, Ithaca College, October 28, 2011.
April 19, 2011 radio interview on KBOO Portland (OR) with Chris Andreae (starts at 10:30 on the slide) on fracking and the T. Boone PIckens-pushed "NAT GAS" Act (H.R.1380).
Poster for "No Fracking Way! Resisting Shale Gas Extraction, the Next Fossil Fuel Industry Assault" panel at Left Forum 2011; also featuring Karen Charman, Joel Kupferman, March 20.
Three-minute video interview by Shaleshock Media about the first antifracking statewide summit, hosted by Coalition to Protect New York, June 19, 2010.
An interview on Democracy Now! on World Refugee Day 2008: U.S. Fails to Help Iraqi Refugees, with Hayder Assad.
Interview with Tish Pearlman on Out of Bounds radio show, with Dhia Abed Waheed, Iraqi translator whom Maura helped to seek asylum in the USA (in an excruciating three-year process of which she has written (2007).
Interview with Chicago Public Radio show Ministry of Truth's Mitchell Sczcepanczyk on Burma and Iraq, October 2007 (starts about 40 percent into the audio feed).
Interview on the Worldview show, Chicago Public Radio.
Maura interviews journalist, blogger, filmmaker, and news analyst Danny Schechter, the "news dissector," in summer 2014 during his 50th reunion at Cornell University, on his remarkable work as a student journalist and activist in the 1960s, on social justice, and on the current state of U.S. media. For WRFI Community Radio for Ithaca and Watkins Glen. Danny "tells it like it is because he was there when it was." (Sadly, Danny died in 2015.)
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