In this installment of Light Hearted, we meet Ben Swan and Gigi Lirot of Whitehead Light Station, on an 80-acre island in Midcoast Maine. Whitehead offers three-to-five-day programs that focus on a variety of subjects and activities taught by an instructor. Ben Swan is the executive director, and Gigi Lirot is the island manager for Whitehead Light Station.
Host Jeremy D’Entremont also interviews Catherine Bumpus, a lifelong sailor who is the executive director of the Friends of Nobska Light in Woods Hole on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The Friends are working to complete restoration and to open a museum on the site. Nobska is one of the iconic lighthouses of Cape Cod.
In the history segment, Jeremy and co-host Michelle Jewell Shaw discuss the Tower of Hercules, also known as La Coruña Lighthouse, in Spain. It is considered the oldest functioning lighthouse in the world.
As usual, there’s also a trivia question with prizes going out to the first two people to answer correctly.
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Jeremy D’Entremont is the author of more than 20 books and hundreds of articles on lighthouses and maritime history. He is the president and historian for the American Lighthouse Foundation and founder of Friends of Portsmouth Harbor Lighthouses, and he has lectured and narrated cruises throughout the Northeast and in other regions. He is also the producer and host of the U.S. Lighthouse Society podcast, “Light Hearted.” He can be emailed at Jeremy@uslhs.org