Behind the laughter and bright lights of sitcoms, some of America’s favorite shows featured queer storylines – whether viewers realized it or not. From Bewitched to the Golden Girls, “Hi Honey, I’m Homo!: Sitcoms, Specials and the Queering of American Culture” explores how sitcoms played a role in the advancement of LGBTQ+ rights by embracing queer culture. Matt Baume is a Seattle-based podcaster, Youtuber and author of the new book. He joins us to share some of the most impactful shows in gay h...
Mar 01, 2024•52 min
Charles Yu has written a lot about the nature of reality, how we understand what is real, and the assumptions we make about each other and the universe we live in. Yu’s first novel, “How to live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe,” follows a time machine repairman who is searching for his father who is lost in time and memory. His latest book, National Book Award winning “Interior Chinatown,” takes place in a Chinese restaurant that’s also the set for a police procedural TV show and a sendup...
Feb 29, 2024•52 min
For many, the name Audubon conjures up images of birds or birdwatchers venturing into nature with a pair of binoculars to catch a glimpse of a beloved warbler or bird of prey. But for some, the name can evoke a painful reminder of the legacy of John James Audubon – an artist, self-taught ornithologist and naturalist who owned slaves, opposed abolition and stole human remains from Native American graves. Acknowledging that painful history, the Portland chapter of the National Audubon Society rece...
Feb 28, 2024•18 min
This school year, Oregon received more than $17 million to fund and strengthen career and technical education. Right now there are more than 1,000 CTE programs offered throughout the state and many schools continue to expand their offerings. The Oregon Department of Education is in the process of creating its latest strategic CTE plan. But what does demand look like at schools right now? To help answer this question and more we’ll hear from Stephen DuVal, the director of college and career readi...
Feb 28, 2024•16 min
Last Saturday marked the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers have been killed and more than 6 million refugees have fled the fighting since the war began. Yulia Brockdorf is a Ukrainian American psychotherapist who lives in Hillsboro. She is also the co-founder and president of DAWN, a nonprofit that has been sending medical supplies, water filtration equipment and other humanitarian aid to Ukraine. She made four trips last year, including ...
Feb 28, 2024•19 min
The Oregon Public Use of Land Act protects local governments from lawsuits if someone is injured while recreating on public land. But a 2019 lawsuit threw the “recreational immunity” law into question when a judge sided with a Newport woman who sued the city after slipping on a wet footbridge. Since walking, running and bicycling aren’t explicitly included in the recreational activities protected by the law, cities and counties across the state have closed trails and bike paths to avoid liabilit...
Feb 27, 2024•13 min
Oregon lawmakers are considering a bipartisan bill that would create some of the strictest limits in the nation on corporate ownership of primary care and specialty medical clinics. The bill has passed the House already, and senators on the health care committee voted Tuesday to pass it on to the full Senate for consideration. Some of the bill’s toughest provisions would not apply to hospitals, health systems, and nursing homes, which are already largely exempt from Oregon’s restrictions on the ...
Feb 27, 2024•14 min
The ringtail is a big-eyed, bushy-tailed relative of the raccoon whose range extends from northern Mexico to Southern Oregon. The squirrel-sized carnivores are active during the night and spend the day resting in hollowed-out trees. It’s a reclusive species, but a recent study from the Hoopa Valley Tribe and Oregon State University shed new light on the ringtail's habitat and behavior. By understanding which trees the animals choose to rest in, researchers and tribal members hope to better infor...
Feb 27, 2024•16 min
The Oregon legislature is considering a bill which would make state agencies pay a fee to compensate the city of Salem for fire, police and emergency medical services. The proposal would require paying roughly $6 million a year to the city, and would launch as a three-year pilot project this year if approved by lawmakers. Supporters say the payment is needed since Salem misses out on millions in tax revenue from state-owned land even though those agencies rely on city services. Whitney Woodworth...
Feb 27, 2024•11 min
Last week, the Portland school board unanimously passed a resolution allowing for the sale of its North Portland district headquarters to the Albina Vision Trust. The local nonprofit has been working to restore the historically Black Albina neighborhood through redevelopment efforts such as the construction of 94 affordable housing units it recently broke ground on. The idea for AVT’s acquisition of the PPS property goes back several years, and gained momentum last month when AVT presented its p...
Feb 26, 2024•22 min
The National Parks Service is planning to terminate its contract with Aramark, the company that manages lodging, food and other services at Crater Lake under the name Crater Lake Hospitality. The announcement comes after the company received the lowest possible annual rating from the park service last year. Since Aramark took over in 2018, annual reports have documented fuel leaks, sewer overflows, incomplete maintenance projects, food safety issues and more in the park. Unsafe and rodent-infest...
Feb 26, 2024•13 min
Oregon Democrats and Republicans appear to have reached agreement to enact jail sentences of up to 180 days for people caught with small amounts of drugs like fentanyl, meth and heroin. House Bill 4002 also weakens a provision that would have required police to offer to connect people caught with drugs to treatment rather than bringing them to jail. That “mandatory deflection” was designed to give drug users a choice to avoid a criminal charge. But under the most recent version of the bill, it’s...
Feb 26, 2024•18 min
Last month, trees throughout Western Oregon fell as strong winds and snow battered the region. In Portland alone, there are more than a million trees in its parks and nearly 3 million trees on private property. January’s storm affected branches, dead and dying trees, but also healthy trees. What can the city learn about its urban forest following the storm? How should we think about the conifers around us moving forward? We check in on trees with Brian French, arborist and owner of Arboriculture...
Feb 23, 2024•16 min
In 2015, Portland created a groundbreaking policy to give preference for affordable housing and housing loans in historically Black neighborhoods to those who have been displaced from the area. In 2018, a report found that just 4 households had been able to purchase homes using city loans. After a major overhaul, part of the contract for the city’s housing preference policy was handed to the Portland Housing Center. This week, the nonprofit celebrated 5 years and 110 homes that have been success...
Feb 23, 2024•21 min
The Portland Police recently announced it had made 13 arrests and recovered two stolen vehicles during a mission targeting thefts of large amounts of retail goods in the Hollywood and LLoyd districts. About two dozen retail theft missions have taken place since last March, mainly at locations in North Portland like the Cascade Station shopping mall, according to North Precinct Portland Police Commander Rob Simon. He said the missions can involve up to 15 officers and require the participation of...
Feb 23, 2024•16 min
After the All-Star Break, the Portland Blazers have just 28 games left in their season. With new faces on the court, the loss of beloved point guard Damian Lillard and TV viewership reportedly dropping by almost 50%, what is the future of the team? To give us a sense on how the season has played out so far and what is to come, we’re joined by Host of the “Locked on Blazers” podcast Mike Richman.
Feb 22, 2024•15 min
A new report from a coalition of service providers for queer communities in the Portland area found that the region lacks support and resources for LGBTQ+ people experiencing homelessness. The report comes from the LGBTQAI2S+ Housing Collaborative, which is composed of several groups including Basic Rights Oregon, Pride Northwest, the Equi Institute, PDX Trans Housing Coalition, the Q Center, Black & Beyond the Binary Collective and others. The collaboration notes there is a lack of emergenc...
Feb 22, 2024•23 min
Earlier this month, the Albina Music Trust launched a digital archive containing thousands of photographs, audio recordings and film and video clips documenting the culture and history of the Albina neighborhood. Black Portlanders built a thriving community in the Albina until redevelopment projects such as the construction of the I-5 freeway more than 60 years ago destroyed the neighborhood, shuttering businesses, demolishing homes and displacing residents. The Albina Community Archive is more ...
Feb 22, 2024•15 min
Cycling was up 5% last year compared to 2022 numbers, according to the latest bike count from the Portland Bureau of Transportation. The 2022 report showed that from 2019 to 2022, ridership fell almost 35%. Jonathan Maus is the editor and publisher of Bike Portland. He joins us to share more on what these numbers say about the current bike trends in Portland.
Feb 21, 2024•22 min
A new study by researchers at Oregon State University found that fish embryos that were exposed to tiny amounts of pesticides for four days experienced lasting behavioral changes. It also found that the offspring of those fish also experienced changes in behavior and had altered development and gene expression even though they were not exposed to the commonly used pesticides. Joining us to talk about the findings and their implications on human health is Susanne Brander, an associate professor i...
Feb 21, 2024•15 min
Oregon’s short legislative session is more than halfway over, and Monday marked the first major deadline that legislation needs to clear in order to have a chance to pass this year. A bill that would have bolstered the state’s goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in coming years isn’t moving forward, along with a bill that would have blocked teachers from striking. Legislators are still working on tweaks to Measure 110 and campaign contribution limits. OPB political reporter Dirk VanderHa...
Feb 21, 2024•16 min
Affordable housing options that prioritize people with disabilities are limited and waitlists are long. Community Vision, an advocacy organization for Oregonians with disabilities, develops accessible units for residents in the Portland metro area. We hear more about the effort from Jennifer Knapp, executive director of Community Vision. We'll also hear from Christin and KeJon Carter, recipients of a unit.
Feb 20, 2024•23 min
Until recently, doctors didn’t think it made a difference which arm patients got their COVID-19 vaccine in. But a new study from Oregon Health & Science University shows that switching arms between doses could lead to as much as a fourfold increase in immune response. Though further studies are necessary, researchers suspect the improvement has to do with how the body learns to protect itself against viruses, meaning the results could be replicated in other multi-dose vaccine regimens. Marce...
Feb 20, 2024•18 min
In Oregon, large commercial dairies follow rules by the Oregon Department of Agriculture that help regulate animal waste. Confined animal feeding operations can house hundreds or thousands of animals. Rules governing large commercial dairies didn’t always apply to small, mom and pop operations. But a reinterpreted regulation from the Oregon agency might affect smaller farms, and now several small dairies in Oregon have filed a lawsuit over the interpretation, as the Statesman Journal reported. W...
Feb 20, 2024•12 min
Even though the Roman empire came to an end thousands of years ago, we still tell stories about the emperors who ruled during that time. From Caligula, who threatened to make his horse a senator, to Nero, who killed his own mother and set fire to the city to make room for his palace, classicist Mary Beard argues that the stories we tell about the Roman emperors might say more about us than they do about the emperors themselves. Beard joins us to talk about her latest book, “Emperor of Rome: Ruli...
Feb 19, 2024•52 min
The mission of Portland’s August Wilson Red Door Project is to “use the power of narrative art to bridge divides.” Its show "Evolve" does that by presenting scenes and monologues based on the real life experiences of Black Americans, police officers and others in the justice system. But it’s not just powerful stories on stage. The performances are interspersed with pauses throughout with opportunities for the audience to participate in guided reflection and sharing, based on their reactions to w...
Feb 16, 2024•22 min
College-bound students in Oregon and around the nation would typically be receiving their financial aid packages from colleges and universities right about now to help them decide where to enroll in the fall. But many students may now have to wait until April because of the U.S. Department of Education’s delay in sharing financial aid information to colleges and universities. The delay adds to the troubled rollout of the new version of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid which the educa...
Feb 16, 2024•13 min
After years of pressure from climate activists and others, Oregon Treasurer Tobias Read has put forth a plan to divest state investments from fossil fuel interests. He presented a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emission impacts of pension funds to net zero by 2050 to the Oregon Investment Council this week. The plan includes a target of an interim 60% reduction by 2035. Oregon and other states have faced challenges to make significant changes while also fulfilling the mandated mission to maximize...
Feb 16, 2024•17 min
For the 10th consecutive year, U.S. News and World Report has named Oregon State University one of the top 10 places in the nation to obtain an undergraduate degree online. OSU is ranked fourth, along with Arizona State University and North Carolina State University, for best online bachelor’s programs which were evaluated on factors such as faculty credentials and graduation rates. OSU was an early adopter of remote learning, making its first leap into the space more than 20 years ago. Today, s...
Feb 15, 2024•20 min
If a patient or a coworker makes a racist comment to a Black person working as a nurse in Oregon, that nurse may have no one who looks like them to turn to for commiseration and understanding. Nurses of color in Oregon work in predominantly white spaces, which can be very isolating on top of a job that is already emotionally and physically draining. A new podcast, Black Care Matters, focuses on the challenges and successes of Black nurses in Oregon. We talk to Erica Bailey, president of the Alli...
Feb 15, 2024•22 min
