Nora R Saks

Nora is in her late 30s and works as a journalist in Portland, Maine in the podcast department for the public radio station WBUR. She spoke about her current position as well as her previous work at Montana Public Radio. Nora also spoke about her childhood in Rockville, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, DC, where she grew up with her parents and one brother. She described a particularly impactful experience from her high school years when she attended a summer conservation and wilderness program in New Mexico as a 16-year old. She spoke of how she has remained committed to learning about and protecting the environment in both her personal and professional life. She went on to study environmental studies in college at the University of Toronto and, before becoming a journalist, worked as an organic farmer and educator. She spoke about her search for a place that she wanted to settle in and call home, and she expressed her current feeling that Maine is that place. She spoke of never having had a strong connection to her Maryland hometown, where her mother still resides (her father died when Nora was 27).Her current desire is to buy a farmhouse and some land, perhaps further north in Maine, and settle into a community. Her connection to the state is strengthened by the fact that one set of her grandparents were Jewish immigrants who settled in Maine and worked in the shoe industry. Nora wants to dig deeper into this part of her history and learn more about her Maine roots. Nora also spoke about her goal of one day writing books to help children – and their adults – understand and appreciate the environment. She spoke fondly of a story she cherished from her own childhood about a woman who follows her path to do three things: see the world, do something to make it more beautiful and find a home by the sea.