Think Out Loud

We revisit a conversation we first aired in April 2023 which was the first installment of our series on people’s professions. We’ll learn what it takes to do different kinds of jobs and how these professions change us. David Beer is Portland’s Squeezebox Surgeon. He has studied the inner workings of accordions in Italy and at A World of Accordions Museum in Wisconsin. He operates on all differ...

"Fair," as those who attend regularly call it, began in 1969 as a simple fundraiser for an alternative school. But over the last 56 years, it has turned into a veritable Oregon institution. Its mission is to create “experiences that nourish the spirit, explore living artfully and authentically on earth, and transform culture in magical, joyous and healthy ways.” In 2013, “Think Out Loud”...

Ann Patchett’s latest novel is set during the pandemic, but it is also set in the past. The main character, a mother of three adult daughters, tells her children the story of her own youthful romance with a man who is now a famous movie star. The story is told over long days picking cherries on their family farm, where everyone has gathered together for the lockdown. Though the central story revolves arou...

In 2020, the Almeda Fire ripped through Jackson County, destroying homes and ecosystems. The “Think Out Loud” team traveled to Southern Oregon recently and talked to residents about how they’re thinking about fire in their communities now. Mountain View Estates, a manufactured home park in Talent, was destroyed by the Almeda Fire. Now, it’s a nationally recognized Firewise Neighborhood. ...

The entire state of Oregon is facing a housing crisis, and the coast – where second homes and short-term rentals can skew the market – is no exception. “Think Out Loud” traveled to Lincoln County recently to talk about solutions. 

We had a series of conversations about different approaches residents and organizations are taking to create more units, more af...

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 emp...

 Swan Songs Portland has a simple but powerful mission: to provide free, intimate concerts for people at the end of their lives and pay local musicians to perform them. The nonprofit fulfilled its first concert request last autumn when it hired a mariachi band to play for a person terminally ill with cancer, surrounded by her friends and family. It is the first affiliate of Swan Songs, which w...

Oregon got a huge federal grant after the devastating 2020 Labor Day fires left thousands of people without homes, as Nigel Jaquiss reported for the Oregon Journalism Project, but most of it still remains unspent. In Southern Oregon, Representative Pam Marsh, D-Ashland, has been talking with the Oregon Housing and Community Services, the state agency in charge of getting the money to people who nee...

After a marathon session on Wednesday night, Republican lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives are poised to pass a massive tax and spending bill which President Trump has said he wants to sign on July 4. On Tuesday, the U.S. Senate passed their version of the bill after a tie-breaking vote from Vice President JD Vance. The bill passed by the Senate is expected to add $3.3 trillion to the f...

 Last week, stakeholders from the Upper Mississippi River toured the Columbia and Snake River to see what is similar and different from the two water systems. Last year, stakeholders from the Pacific Northwest visited the Mississippi in this continued collaboration between the two rivers. Michelle Hennings is the executive director of the...

Over the last few months, the Trump administration has directed federal agencies such as the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation to cut funding for research with any connection to “diversity,” “equity” or “gender ideology.” The cuts have forced researchers across the country, including in Oregon, to stop their studies or scramble to loca...

 Last week, the Metro Council decided it would not ask voters to extend a regional homeless services tax on the November ballot. The Supportive Housing Services tax, which is set to expire in 2030, applies to residents in Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington counties making more than $125,000 a year (or more than $200,000 for couples filing jointly). Businesses making more than $5 million annua...

When Oregon lawmakers convened in January to kick off the 2025 legislative session, among their top legislative priorities was a transportation funding fix for the state’s aging bridges, highways and roads. But the Democratic supermajority failed to get a transportation package over the legislative finish line when the session adjourned on Friday night. 

 

Democrats wai...

The NBA draft started last week, and free agency just began. For the Blazers and their fans, some new faces will hit the court, and others will say goodbye. Yang Hansen, a 7-foot-1 center from China, is the Blazers’ newest rookie and was No. 16 in the overall draft. The Blazers also recently parted ways with center Deandre Ayton after a slew of “bad ways,” including tardiness, tan...

CAHOOTS, the Lane County program that’s been a model for mobile crisis services around the country, has been facing challenges at the local and federal level. 

 

Services in Eugene came to an end earlier this year as the city managed a budget shortfall.  

Lane County offers crisis services that are funded through Medicaid, but CAHOOTS also special...

Last year, Oregon added the Southern Resident orca to the state’s endangered species list, giving it added protections nearly two decades after it was federally listed under the endangered species act in 2005. Now, a new draft management plan has been released by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife to help whale numbers.

In the last two weeks of the Oregon legislative session, which ended late Friday night,  housing advocates including the Community Alliance of Tenants, the Oregon Housing Alliance and the Urban League of Portland sounded the alarm and protested in Salem over funding cuts. They said the programs for emergency rent assistance and programs to prevent eviction must remain funded to prevent thousan...

The Oregon Legislature wrapped up the 2025 regular session on Sunday. Lawmakers passed bills that addressed utility rate hikes, large energy users like data centers and microgrids for local electricity generation, among other environmental issues. But some advocates think lawmakers didn't go far enough in advancing the state's carbon-cutting goals.

 

Nora Apter is the Oregon direc...

The gavel came down on this year’s session of the Oregon legislature on Friday. Legislators failed to pass a controversial funding package for transportation and infrastructure. They also took up gun bills, civil commitment, wildfire funding and many other issues. OPB political reporter Dirk VanderHart helps us understand it all.  

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