A 23-year-old civil rights activist from Alabama named John Lewis was the youngest speaker at the famous March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom led by Martin Luther King Jr, delivering a fiery speech to hundreds of thousands of marchers gathered on the Washington Mall. Lewis went on to serve on the Atlanta City Council, and was elected to Congress in 1986, where he has earned a reputation as one of the most liberal members of the House. He has also teamed up with Andrew Ayden and illustrator N...
Jan 20, 2025•52 min
Oregon’s legislative session is set to begin on Tuesday. Lawmakers will consider a slew of bills on issues such as housing, infrastructure, mental health care and more. House Speaker Julie Fahey, D-Eugene, and House Minority Leader Christine Drazan, R-Canby, join us to share their parties’ priorities for the upcoming session.
Jan 17, 2025•33 min
Kaarin Knudson became the mayor of Oregon’s second largest city, Eugene, on Monday. She delivered her first state of the city address shortly after being sworn in. Knudson says increasing housing capacity and revitalizing the city’s downtown are among her top priorities. But first, she faces a budget shortfall and will need to work with the city council to find a way to fill it. Last year, a proposed municipal fee to address the shortfall drew a lot of public opposition and the council decided n...
Jan 17, 2025•21 min
By the early 1900s, the Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacist group founded by former Confederate soldiers after the Civil War, had all but faded from existence in the U.S. Then, in 1915, a second Klan was founded in Georgia, and soon spread across the country. By the mid-1920s, it had as many as eight million members across the U.S., including many chapters in the Pacific Northwest, and a strong base in the Midwest. Seattle writer Timothy Egan’s most recent book, “ A Fever in the Heartland ,” tells...
Jan 16, 2025•52 min
Animals such as grizzly bears and Arctic ground squirrels have evolved the ability to hibernate as a way to survive winter months of extreme cold. During hibernation, their core body temperatures drop and their heart rates and metabolic activities slow to conserve energy. They also consume less oxygen during this inactivity. But what if you could make non-hibernating species – including humans - hibernate? How could you control hibernation as a therapy to help people recover from strokes or hear...
Jan 15, 2025•15 min
People are choosing to spend less time than ever in the presence of other people, whether in social events, one-on-one meetups or eating out. The latest cover story in The Atlantic explores some of the psychological and social implications of that trend. And a recent study out of Oregon State University goes deep into how solitude is defined and experienced — and the range of benefits that different kinds of solitude seem to offer. If you go out to eat alone, but are around other people, that’s ...
Jan 15, 2025•19 min
On Jan. 6, Josephine County Commissioners voted to terminate the lease of the Grants Pass central library. Commissioners have since said they simply want to renegotiate the $1-a-year lease of the county-owned building. This comes after a legal battle last year over whether residents could opt out of the library’s special tax district. It also follows a period of 10 years in which the library system was run by a nonprofit and volunteers, rather than by the county. Josephine County Commissioner Ch...
Jan 15, 2025•13 min
In Southern California, fire hydrants ran dry as flames ripped through the Los Angeles area. Some critics blamed the municipal system for not meeting the demands for water. But the systems that house fire hydrants were not designed to battle major wildfires. Kylie Mohr is a freelance journalist and correspondent for High Country News. She reported on this issue for the outlet and joins us with details.
Jan 15, 2025•7 min
Students from Southern Oregon University collected over a million photos and videos of animals attempting to cross Interstate 5 in Southern Oregon. The students were working with SOU professor Karen Mager to try to understand the best place to put a wildlife crossing to facilitate passage for wildlife in an area well-known for vehicle-animal collisions. The federal government recently announced over $33 million in funding to create an overpass within the Mariposa Preserve of the Cascade-Siskiyou...
Jan 14, 2025•14 min
Disability Rights Oregon filed a motion last week, asking a federal judge to hold Oregon in contempt of court for failing to admit aid and assist cases within seven days. At the same time, a number of bills have been introduced in the Oregon Legislature surrounding mental health. Chris Bouneff is the executive director of the Oregon chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. He joins us to share improvements he hopes the state will make during the Legislative session.
Jan 14, 2025•22 min
At the beginning of the year, Portland’s new city council elected Elana Pirtle-Guiney as council president in a contentious vote that revealed some of the dividing lines of the new council. Pirtle-Guiney won by a 7-5 vote after nine rounds of voting. In the new role, Pirtle-Guiney will set council meeting agendas and refer council items to a vote that are proposed by the mayor or city auditor. Pirtle-Guiney joins us to talk about her new role and the challenges facing the new 12-member city coun...
Jan 14, 2025•17 min
Last year, Seattle-based company Ironwood Studios released its debut game, "Pacific Drive." The game is set in the Olympic Peninsula and players drive around in a station wagon, exploring supernatural happenings. The production company Atomic Monster has acquired the rights to turn the award-nominated game into a TV series. Cassandra Dracott is the CEO and creative director for Ironwood Studios and also grew up in Portland. She joins us to share how growing up in the Pacific Northwest influenced...
Jan 13, 2025•14 min
Tory Johnston is an enrolled member of the Quinault Indian Nation and a lecturer in American Indian Studies at the University of Washington. He grew up in the Quinault Indian reservation on the Washington coast with a love for music, whether it was the loud guitar riffs of Metallica or the jazz improvisation of Thelonious Monk. In 2023, with no prior experience as a radio DJ, he applied to work on a new show Seattle radio station KEXP was launching that appealed to his academic and personal expl...
Jan 13, 2025•19 min
Washington’s legislative session begins on Monday and runs through April. Lawmakers are working on the state’s budget as Washington faces a multibillion-dollar budget gap. Governor-elect Bob Ferguson will be sworn in on Wednesday. Sentence about budget stuff He said officials should focus on budget cuts and efficiency. Jeanie Lindsay is the Olympia correspondent for partner station KUOW. She joins us with details of what officials have planned.
Jan 13, 2025•19 min
Bikram Vaidya grew up in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, and ran a pub there for years before coming to the U.S. to get a culinary arts degree at Western Culinary Institute/Le Cordon Bleu in Portland, Oregon. Vaidya later went on to teach at Le Cordon Bleu and was a founding member and lead instructor at the Oregon Culinary Institute. For the last 15 years he has been dedicated to cataloguing the cuisines of his homeland. Vaidya has trekked across Nepal and spent time staying with families to l...
Jan 10, 2025•26 min
In Portland, arts organizations are facing shrinking budgets, donor fatigue and other financial struggles. The city launched the Office of Arts of Culture last year, but Portland faces a $27 million budget gap. As people move out of Portland, an arts tax aimed at boosting the region’s arts and culture offerings might yield less money. Blake Shell is the executive and artistic director of the Oregon Center for Contemporary Art. Marissa Wolf is the artistic director of Portland Center Stage. Kimbe...
Jan 10, 2025•27 min
A contractor with the Port of Coos Bay is facing allegations of racism after recordings revealed him praising Hitler and using other anti-Jewish and anti-Black rhetoric. Reporters have connected the recordings from an antifascist infiltrator to Michael Whitworth Gantenbein, owner of Whit Industries, which has received nearly $300,000 in contract work from the Port of Coos Bay over the last decade. A coalition of human rights and environmental groups are calling for the port to cut ties with Gant...
Jan 09, 2025•13 min
Last October, Amazon announced it had signed an agreement to develop four small-scale modular nuclear reactors, or SMRs, along the Columbia River to power its data centers in Eastern Oregon. Energy Northwest, a consortium of publicly owned utilities, is partnering with Amazon on the development of the SMRs which it says could be scaled up to meet the energy needs of more than 770,000 homes in the region without the use of fossil fuels. But opposition to the plan is now ramping up as environmenta...
Jan 09, 2025•16 min
Republican Cliff Bentz represents Oregon’s 2nd Congressional District in Congress. It’s the largest district in Oregon, and represents around two-thirds of the state. It encompasses the Owyhee Canyonlands, one of the state’s most-known but — as of yet — unprotected natural places. Conservationists and others, including Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, have called on President Joe Biden to create a national monument here but so far that hasn’t happened. Democratic Senator Ron Wyden has been working since ...
Jan 09, 2025•23 min
At the turn of the 20th century, Vaudeville performances exploded in growth in America, entertaining audiences with a variety of acts from magicians to comedy shows and more. In Astoria, Oregon, the historic Liberty Theatre was home to some of these acts. Melissa Hart is a journalist and author based in Eugene. Her great- grandparents were vaudeville performers themselves and traveled around the world with their act. She wrote about the history of vaudeville both in Astoria and more broadly for ...
Jan 08, 2025•15 min
According to the CDC, more than 2 million people in the U.S. are infected with hepatitis C. The bloodborne illness attacks the liver and can lead to cancer or death if left untreated. Injection drug use is the leading risk factor for hepatitis C, which is also more prevalent in rural counties where diagnosis and treatment can be hard to come by, especially for people experiencing homelessness. Scientists at Oregon Health and Science University demonstrated a new strategy that could significantly...
Jan 08, 2025•22 min
The largest healthcare strike in Oregon history is on the horizon. About 5,000 Providence doctors and nurses who work at 8 different hospitals around the state could strike at the end of this week. We’ll get an update from OPB healthcare reporter Amelia Templeton.
Jan 08, 2025•16 min
Portlander Cameron Booth is mostly known for his blog Transit Maps, which reviews and showcases public transit maps from bygone eras to modern day systems. But for nearly a year now, Booth has been making sure one piece of Portland’s history is not forgotten: street cars. From its beginnings in 1872 to the modern system, Booth has been archiving and cataloging information he finds on his new website, Portland Streetcar History. We hear from Booth to learn more on why he started this project and ...
Jan 07, 2025•14 min
Since the mid-1980s, Marion county has been sending its trash to an incinerator, now known as Reworld Marion Inc. It’s the only one in the state, and the county has partnered with it from the beginning. The company recently filed objections with Oregon's Department of Environmental Quality around environmental regulations the state passed aimed at improving human health by reducing toxic emissions from the facility. Several months ago Reworld announced it would be closing its Oregon facility and...
Jan 07, 2025•20 min
The city of Bend is exploring how it could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 70% by 2050. The goals are outlined in the city’s Community Climate Action Plan, which it’s working on updating. Officials are examining what strategies to prioritize and how future policies could affect Bend's businesses, affordable housing goals and economy. Recently, the city has considered how it could construct new buildings that have electric appliances rather than fossil-fuel power sources like gas. While some c...
Jan 07, 2025•19 min
Valerie Jacques Lehman loves the Oregon Ducks. No matter their crushing defeat in the Rose Bowl. She says like many fans, she was devastated by that loss but says a real fan is loyal, win or lose. We talk with her about the big game and how she keeps on the sunny side even after the worst outcome.
Jan 06, 2025•10 min
A new study, led by researchers at the University of Washington, has linked exposure to wildfire smoke with a higher risk of developing dementia. The study followed more than 1.2 million Kaiser Permanente Southern California members from 2008 to 2019. It also found that minority communities and those living in higher-poverty census tracts were more likely to be diagnosed with dementia than white or higher-income patients. Joan Casey is an associate professor of environmental and occupational hea...
Jan 06, 2025•18 min
The state of Washington owns land that rightfully belongs to the Yakama Nation. A treaty map that showed what land should be included in the Yakama reservation was lost for nearly 75 years since it was filed under "M" for Montana. Because the land ownership was long established and is being used as a revenue source for the state, Washington will likely want compensation before returning it. Maria Parazo Rose is a freelance journalist who covered this story for Grist. She joins us with details....
Jan 06, 2025•13 min
In 2020, Oregonians voted to legalize the use of psilocybin mushrooms in therapeutic settings. This came as fresh research showed promising results of psychedelic therapy for depression, PTSD and substance use disorder. Now a new kind of patient is seeking out this care. As reported in the New York Times, some people are seeking psychedelics, such as ketamine and psychedelic mushrooms, for palliative care. Andrew Jacobs is a health and science reporter for the Times. He joins us to share more....
Jan 06, 2025•12 min
Historically, philosophers have studied ethical theories that focused on how we make decisions based on what is morally right or wrong. But a somewhat newer branch known as care ethics, approaches morality from a much broader context, which involves centering the individual's experience and their relationship to the people around them. Maurice Hamington is a philosophy professor at Portland State University and author of the book, “Revolutionary Care.” He argues that the world needs more care an...
Jan 03, 2025•23 min
