New Portland podcast, ‘Ink & Pine,’ launches with Obamacare analysis

Behind the scenes here at the BDN’s Portland bureau, I’ve been working in recent weeks with Maine Digital Press President Dan Bodoff to develop a Portland podcast, titled “Ink & Pine.”

We’ve been doing some recording, getting our on-mic chemistry down and playing with our format in an attempt to cement a weekly process we could be satisfied with and that would produce a regular podcast that would provide a deeper dive into the issues facing Greater Portland today.

Along the way, we picked up Dylan Martin, staff reporter for The Forecaster (a content-sharing partner of ours at the BDN), as a regular third voice and we plan to invite in subject matter experts from our family of media outlets — and beyond — to help us talk through what are sometimes complicated issues.

The episode we’re going live with today as what’s turning out to be our inaugural offering (after a couple of unreleased test runs in previous weeks) is not a Portland-specific one, so forgive us on that front.

For this edition, we called in BDN Health Editor Jackie Farwell to talk about the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare, to talk about the president’s signature health care reform law. We talked about the launch of the health insurance marketplaces this week, the federal government shutdown over that very law, how Mainers can comply without being penalized, why so many people don’t like the law and what so many people just don’t know about it.

On the one hand, it’s a relatively thorough analysis of the law, but on the other, I think it’s very accessible. You won’t need to be a physician or a lawyer to understand this podcast, but if you’re like a lot of people, you still have questions about the Affordable Care Act and what it means for you.

So please, if you have the technology and are accustomed to listening to news or talk radio on your daily commutes, click here, download “Ink & Pine” and give it a try during your next drive time. Or, if you’re going about your business today at a computer with speakers, listen right through the Internet.

We’ll be back next week with another episode, topics to be announced.

If you like what you hear on “Ink & Pine” — or even if you don’t, but wished you had — check out some of Maine Digital Press’ other programs as well. Perhaps Dan’s signature program, freezingprocess.net, has been providing raucous and lively coverage of the Greater Portland music scene for more than three years now and has a loyal following.

Other fun ones include The Split Screen, with local perspectives on pop culture topics like movies and video games, and The Maine Culinary Podcast, about our state’s foodie destinations.

Dan also works with Chris Busby of The Bollard on a regular podcast for that publication, so he’s a busy guy. Give his programs a listen.

Seth Koenig

About Seth Koenig

Seth has nearly a decade of professional journalism experience and writes about the greater Portland region.