Sara Schiller, co-founder of the Sloomoo Institute and Bowdoin College alumna, joins Dr. Lisa Belisle on Radio Maine to share how curiosity, resilience, and joy shaped her unlikely path from rural Maine to a national cultural phenomenon. Raised in Winterport, Sara credits her Maine roots—and the confidence she built at Bowdoin—with fostering a lifelong curiosity that led her into art, business, and entrepreneurship. After early work in hospitality and corporate leadership, her passion for art and public experience took shape through Wooster Collective, a groundbreaking street art blog that helped demystify contemporary art for a global audience.

Following profound personal challenges within her family, Sara co-founded the Sloomoo Institute as a joyful, hands-on space where creativity, sensory play, and human connection come together. What began as a short-term experiment has grown into multiple locations nationwide, welcoming hundreds of thousands of visitors each year. Deeply rooted in Maine values of openness and ingenuity, Sara’s story is one of fearlessness, imagination, and purpose.

Join our conversation with Sara Schiller today on Radio Maine—and don’t forget to subscribe to the channel.

Radio Maine is sponsored by the Portland Art Gallery

Liz Kovarsky, founder of the Electric Cottage Collective in Brunswick, Maine, joins Dr. Lisa Belisle on Radio Maine to explore a new model for creativity, wellness, and community connection. A trained social worker, artist, and educator, Liz created Electric Cottage Collective as a shared, embodied space that brings together creative coworking, arts practice, and wellness—challenging the ways modern culture often separates mind from body. Drawing on her background in social work, art education, and movement practices like dance and yoga, Liz shares how her own experiences of burnout and disconnection led her to imagine a more accessible, community-centered approach to healing and creativity. At the heart of her work is the idea of “practice over perfection,” emphasizing process, mutual aid, and collective care rather than productivity or profit. Grounded in Maine’s strong sense of place and community, Electric Cottage Collective offers sliding-scale and inclusive programming that invites people to show up as whole humans.

Join our conversation with Liz Kovarsky today on Radio Maine, and be sure to subscribe to the channel.

Radio Maine is sponsored by the Portland Art Gallery

Jeff Mao, founder of Knead and Nosh, educator, author, and former statewide leader in educational technology, joins Dr. Lisa Belisle on Radio Maine to reflect on a career shaped by curiosity, adaptability, and community. A Bowdoin College graduate, Jeff began as a teacher and coach before becoming a central figure in Maine’s pioneering one-to-one laptop program, which helped transform how students and teachers across the state engaged with technology and learning. In recent years, Jeff has brought that same systems-thinking and love of experimentation to food, launching Knead and Nosh and earning statewide recognition for his bagels—including the award-winning Sichuan Dragon bagel, inspired by his Chinese heritage and culinary history. He shares how education, technology, and food intersect through storytelling, science, and culture, and how Maine’s farmers markets and food community have become an extension of his lifelong work connecting people. Thoughtful, wide-ranging, and deeply rooted in place, Jeff’s story is one of reinvention and purpose.

Join our conversation with Jeff Mao today on Radio Maine, and be sure to subscribe to the channel.

Radio Maine is sponsored by the Portland Art Gallery