Plenty of Mainers have stories to tell, either as a hobby, or with hopes of earning a living through podcasting. In this occasional series, Spectrum News Maine profiles local hosts who are expressing themselves through podcasts.

Ian Saxine is not a Maine native, but you wouldn’t know it listening to his podcast.

“Mainely History” is a comprehensive look at the history of the Pine Tree State hosted by Saxine, a professor and historian. Right now, he is based in Providence, R.I., but said he is working on how to permanently move back to the state he fell in love with 10 years ago.

“Since then, I have been trying to get my way back to Maine, by hook or by crook,” he said.

Saxine’s podcast debuted in September 2020, and he has produced 35 episodes in total so far. He said he’s had a total of about 7,000 downloads, or an average of about 200 downloads per episode.

Saxine is offbeat, funny and personable, usually taking a conversational approach with guests.

“We’re not highbrow, we’re not lowbrow, we’re unibrow. We hope there’s something for everyone,” he said.

Subject matters vary widely. In his debut episode, Saxine talked with Jacob Newcomb, captain of Dirigo Vintage Base Ball Club, a team that plays baseball with rules, equipment and uniforms that date back to 1860. Another episode focuses on Adelbert Ames, the Rockland native who served as a general in the U.S. Civil War, and during the years that followed was elected governor of Mississippi. 

In another episode, Saxine explored the 1992 presidential campaign of H. Ross Perot who, despite being a third-party candidate against Bill Clinton and George H. W. Bush, won more votes in Maine that year than he did in any other state.

“I try and use local stories to talk about big ideas,” he said.

Saxine’s two most popular episodes, he recalled, included one he did on the history of the paper mills in Maine, and another on Maine-based pirates in the Bay of Fundy.

“People love local stories, and people love pirates, so surprise, surprise, those two did the best,” he said.

Saxine doesn’t set out to be controversial, but he said he inevitably brushes up against sensitive topics. He did an episode in January 2021 about the civil war reconstruction era and the simmering anger among Americans, and wound up running the episode shortly after the Jan. 6, 2021 clashes at the Capital Building in Washington, D.C. prior to President Joe Biden taking office. He also recalled doing another episode where he spoke with activists who are working to preserve and recover the Penobscot Nation language, which wound up touching a nerve among some listeners.

“It’s pretty unavoidable,” he said.

Originally from Chicago, Saxine moved to Portland’s Parkside neighborhood in 2012, on the recommendation of one of his professors, to do PhD research on colonial and native American history. At the time, he said, he was researching the bitter and sometimes violent infighting that was happening among Maine residents in the colonial period, and why it eventually stopped (he found the fights were usually over land rights, and renegotiated land deals eventually put an end to the disputes).

Despite leaving when his research came to an end, Saxine said he found himself yearning to come back and working to maintain a connection to Maine and the community of historians here. For a brief period, he had a visiting professor position at Bates College, and after arranging the Maine Historical Society’s first annual historians forum in 2017, he has coordinated the event every year since.

It was in 2017 that Saxine said he first had the idea of doing a podcast through the society. At the time, he said, he and the society had trouble arranging funding for it, and the coronavirus pandemic also put the concept on hold.

“COVID and budgets are always tricky,” he said.

But like most people during the pandemic, Saxine said he found himself cooped up at home with time on his hands, and decided to try producing the podcast on his own.

“Recording equipment was a lot cheaper than I thought,” he said.

Saxine described his initial efforts as “pretty nerve-wracking,” but said within about six months of its debut, the podcast began gaining followers. He doesn’t make any money off of it right now, but he said he might set up an account on Patreon, a website that allows fans to support their favorite artists financially. 

Saxine records his episodes at his Providence home, with plans this year to take the podcast on the road, recording interviews in Maine for future episodes. He also said he might actually do live podcasts from Maine. Regardless of where he records, he knows he will continue exploring the stories Maine is built on, just as he started doing back in 2012.

“I became interested in the history. How can you not be? I found a lot to like,” he said.

“Mainely HIstory” is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and other podcast platforms.