Think Out Loud

 More than a decade ago, Willie Levenson had his heart set on swimming in the Willamette River. In his own words, he got carried away. He is the founder, executive director and ringleader of the Human Access Project, an advocacy group that dedicated its efforts to change Portlanders’ relationship with the Willamette. Over the years they have pushed for city beaches and swimming docks, held annual community events and more. And after being with the organization since its inception in 2010, Levenson is stepping down and retiring. He joins us to share more on his initial vision for the Human Access Project and its future as he steps away.

Sunshine Division, a Portland food relief organization, has opened a new food pantry that takes the form of a free grocery store. People in need can sign up for a time slot to come to the market and choose the groceries that best fit their household’s needs. It’s a model that Sunshine Division says was most requested by the people they serve. Kyle Camberg, Executive Director of Sunshine Division, joins us to explain why.

Lewis and Clark are often thought of as some of the earliest explorers of the western U.S. But more than a century before, Moncacht-Ape, a Yazoo explorer, reached the Pacific Ocean mainly by foot. The Indigenous explorer’s accounts were documented by French colonists, but were often dismissed as being untrue. But as featured in an article in Outside Magazine, historians and explorers may have been looking at the accounts all wrong.    Mike Bezemek, author of “Mysteries of the National Parks,” wrote about his experience following the Yazoo explorer’s trail in the documented accounts and argues that Moncacht-Ape’s accounts are true. Bezemek joins us to share more on his journey and who this Yazoo explorer was.     k

Lewis and Clark are often thought of as some of the earliest explorers of the western U.S. But more than a century before, Moncacht-Ape, a Yazoo explorer, reached the Pacific Ocean mainly by foot. The Indigenous explorer’s accounts were documented by French colonists, but were often dismissed as being untrue. But as featured in an article in Outside Magazine, historians and explorers may have been looking at the accounts all wrong.    Mike Bezemek, author of “Mysteries of the National Parks,” wrote about his experience following the Yazoo explorer’s trail in the documented accounts and argues that Moncacht-Ape’s accounts are true. Bezemek joins us to share more on his journey and who this Yazoo explorer was.     k

  In just a few weeks, our nation will commemorate the 250th anniversary of its independence. As we approach this historic milestone, “Think Out Loud” hears from guests whose life experiences and personal histories illuminate different aspects of what it means to be an American.   For the second installment of this series, we’ll hear from Ebony Frison, a Portlander, artist, and U.S. Air Force Veteran. After her time in the military, her art has largely included archiving photographic work by Newton Carroll. Carroll was a Black American military photographer whose work depicted  military members from segregated U.S. Army units during World War II.   What she found in those nearly 90-year-old images, was faces and expressions and experiences of those service members that mirrored her own time in the military. Her ongoing series, “Black Valor,” uses archival photos and documents to log her family’s connection to the U.S. Military and chronicles stories and images of Black life that are missing from official historical narratives.  

Recent reporting from InvestigateWest found that overcrowding in the neonatal intensive care unit at Oregon Health & Science University is raising concerns among staff and patients. Plans to expand capacity by building a new wing of OHSU’s Doernbecher Children’s Hospital have largely stalled despite rising demand for neonatal intensive care nationwide.   Dana Braner is the physician in chief at Doernbecher Children’s Hospital. He joins us to talk about the challenges hospitals are facing in providing neonatal and pregnancy care.  

On Monday, Oregon Democratic U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley and Alaska Republican U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski led a group of Democratic Senators to urge the National Science Foundation to stop its plans to dismantle a nearly $400 million ocean monitoring network. The Associated Press reported on the letter Sens. Merkley and Murkowski wrote to the NSF, which was signed by nine other U.S. Senators, including Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon and Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell of Washington. More than two dozen Democratic U.S. Representatives signed onto a separate letter, per the AP’s reporting, to warn against the “illegal decommissioning” of the Ocean Observatories Initiative.    The OOI is a network of 900 sensors anchored off Oregon, Washington, Alaska, North Carolina and in the North Atlantic. For more than a decade, the instruments have transmitted real-time data that has helped detect coastal flooding events, manage sustainable fisheries, track marine heat waves and more.  A memo from the NSF posted last month said the “major descoping” is already underway for the array of instruments managed by Oregon State University, with the removal of most of the rest of the network expected to be completed next summer.   Sen. Merkley joins us to discuss his and other Democratic lawmakers’ efforts to protect the OOI, along with other federal issues affecting his Oregon constituents.    

During the pandemic, Lara Blair found herself with a lot of time on her hands. With her Camas photography studio sitting idle, Blair reminisced about her childhood and two things that brought her joy as a 10-year-old: donuts and dollhouses. Thanks to how-to videos she saw on YouTube, she soon began making sculptures of donuts from clay, adorned with sprinkles and surreal, whimsical elements such as tiny people with ropes climbing up their frosted, candy-colored sides.    Today, Blair works full time as a small-scale artist creating intricate dioramas, shadow boxes, commissioned pieces and other tiny, sculpted works she sells online or at Gallery 408 in Camas. The Columbian recently profiled Blair and a miniature version of the art gallery she designed and helped create with the gallery’s co-owners featuring tiny, painted canvases and sculptures Blair and other local artists, including Portland painter Bianca Youngers, contributed.     The mini gallery was inspired by a conversation Blair had with Rachael Harms Mahlandt, a Portlander who co-created the PDX Sidewalk Joy Map that has since expanded worldwide. Harms Mahlandt was one of the featured guests on Blair’s new podcast, “Tiny Worlds, Big Stories.” Blair and Youngers talk with us about making small-scale art that can spark delight and childlike wonder for its creators and audiences alike.   

 In just a few weeks, millions of Americans will celebrate the Fourth of July with their families and friends at barbecues, parades and outdoor concerts under fireworks. This year’s celebrations will take on added significance as our nation commemorates the 250th anniversary of its independence.    As we approach this historic milestone, “Think Out Loud” hears from guests whose life experiences and personal histories illuminate different aspects of what it means to be an American.   We start by hearing from Bryan and Michelle Stewart, a married couple in Battle Ground, Wash. Bryan and Michelle retired as colonels in the U.S. Army after nearly 60 years of combined service at military bases in the U.S and abroad. They both served in Afghanistan and Iraq. Bryan was also deployed to the NATO headquarters in Belgium. Michelle worked in Bosnia, where she helped identify mass grave sites and assisted with the U.S.-led effort to end the war. She also served as the Chief of Staff at Arlington National Cemetery.    Michelle and Bryan Stewart join us to talk about how their military service has shaped their views on patriotism, sacrifice and our country's founding ideals.    

Conditions are becoming increasingly crowded in Oregon Health & Science University’s neonatal intensive care unit, raising concerns among patients and staff. That’s according to new reporting from InvestigateWest. Plans to expand capacity by building a new wing of OHSU's Doernbecher Children’s Hospital have largely stalled despite rising demand for neonatal intensive care nationwide.   Danielle Dawson is a collaborative investigative reporter and Report for America corps member at InvestigateWest. She joins us with more details.  

Sophocles wrote "Antigone" almost 2,500 years ago, but the themes in the story are timeless. Nez Perce scholar and author Beth Piatote was inspired to write an Indigenous version of "Antigone," featuring a young woman torn between a moral duty to her family and ancestors and the will of the state. Playwright Beth Piatote joins us, along with Nathan Woodworth, one of the actors in a new production from the Native Performing Arts Network and Bag and Baggage Productions in Beaverton. We are also joined by Jeanette Harrison, Creative Director of the Native Performing Arts Network.

For 40 years, sculptor M.J. Anderson has been making annual trips from her home on the Oregon coast to Carrara, Italy. She spends up to three months there, traveling along a winding road to quarries with towering walls of marble, the same kind of stone that was used to create Michelangelo’s sculpture of David and other timeless works of Renaissance art.    But Anderson isn’t interested in recreating classical, idealized representations of masculine or feminine beauty. Instead, a unifying theme of Anderson’s work is “the distillation of what it feels like to be woman.” Starting at her studio in Carrara, she uses grinders and air hammers to carve torsos evoking the female form out of massive blocks of marble, onyx and travertine. The pieces are then shipped, unfinished, to Anderson’s studio in Nehalem where she polishes them while retaining drill marks and other raw reminders of the stone’s past and its “power.” We talked with Anderson on Sep. 13, 2025 about her artistic process and the themes she explores in her work.  

In September 2025, Oregon became the first state in the nation to be verified for its accessibility for travelers with disabilities by the travel website Wheel the World. The company worked with Travel Oregon to assess hundreds of hotels, restaurants, tourism providers and state parks in seven regions across the state for their accessibility. That includes features like step-free entrances at museums or specialized wheelchairs available to venture onto a beach on the Oregon Coast.    But the state’s efforts to promote its accessibility doesn’t mean that barriers don’t still exist for travelers with physical or neurocognitive disabilities. Small hotel owners and tourism operators may also lack awareness about best practices to engage with these travelers or struggle with how to become more accessible online and in person.    To address these gaps, researchers at Southern Oregon University received a grant from Travel Oregon to develop and roll out training workshops at 12 locations across the state for travel industry professionals and other stakeholders. The training includes guidance on best practices and role-playing exercises where participants can experience, for example, what it’s like to navigate a carpeted hotel lobby in a wheelchair or to receive information during an emergency as a person who is hard of hearing.    Pavlina McGrady, an associate professor in the school of business at Southern Oregon University and Rebecca Williams, an assistant professor in the school of business at SOU, joined us on Oct. 2, 2025, to discuss the project. We also heard from Ulysses McCready, a junior at SOU who is blind and assisted with this effort.  

Hacky sack, otherwise known as “footbag,” is a collaborative game of dexterity, where players kick a small, round, pellet-filled bag back and forth between players.  The sport is typically affiliated with images of college quads in the ‘80s and ‘90s, but it’s experiencing a resurgence — so much so that there’s even a current hacky sack shortage.  The U.S. Open Footbag tournament is taking place in West Linn, Oregon, this weekend, just across the river from Hacky Sack’s birthplace of Oregon City.  The game is characterized by its laid-back nature, but this weekend, hacky sackers will compete in several different events, including “freestyle battles” and “Net,” a volleyball-style event where competitors have to kick the bag over a 5-foot-tall net. They can even show off their tricks and compete with planned hacky sack routines. Oregon is not only the birthplace of modern hacky sacking, but as it turns out, the birthplace of several professional hacky sack athletes.  One of those athletes is Tricia George, who’s considered one of the best players of all time, according to her entry in the Footbag Hall of Fame.  She holds several Guinness World Records in hacky-sacking and has been playing since 1980. She’ll join us on the show, along with a newer player, Brennan Reim, a soon-to-be 9th grader who’s competing in this weekend’s competition.  He’s been hacky sacking since 2024.  

Educators and faculty at the University of Portland held a three-day conference last week to explore the use of Artificial Intelligence in Catholic higher education and the ethics of AI in educational settings.  Speakers and facilitators presented a host of topics, including the ability of AI tools to streamline people’s workflow, but also to stifle critical thinking.  We hear from Natalie Nelson-Marsh, an associate professor of Communication & Media at the University of Portland, and Naveen Gudigantala, a professor at the University of Portland’s School of Business, for more on the conference and their view of AI’s role in higher education.  

If you're not well-versed in the natural fiber economy, Kristen Buchanan wants to help with that. Buchanan manages a small family farm in Southwest Washington, and she’s the co-founder of PNW Fiber Connect, an organization that wants to create a support network of different players in the regional fiber industry.   The organization aims to educate consumers and share resources from shepherds to mill owners to yarn stores. Buchanan wants consumers to make intentional choices about where their wool and textiles come from and hopes that the Pacific Northwest can one day sustain a more robust fiber economy.   Kirsten Holbo is a shepherd at Iron Water Ranch in Albany, Oregon. She’s been in the fiber industry since 1984 when her family took over Iron Water Ranch. She and Buchanan join us to share more about the current state of the wool industry in Oregon  

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has dredged the lower Columbia River since the 1860s to create a deeper shipping channel between Portland and the Pacific Ocean.    The agency says the practice is necessary to support international commerce, but very few studies have been conducted on its ecological impact. Tribal leaders say dredging has contributed to the decline of lamprey, steelhead and other culturally significant species that rely on the Columbia estuary. Meanwhile, hydropower dams have caused a pileup of sediment in the mid-Columbia, slowing the river’s flow and raising water temperatures to dangerous levels.  

Juan Carlos González was elected president of Metro in May, and then appointed to serve out the remainder of the previous president’s term. He made history in 2018 becoming the youngest member and first Latino to serve on the Metro council. His priorities for the council are creating more affordable housing and jobs in the region. Metro has begun what it calls Future 50, a planning process designed to shape the metro area through 2077. We sit down with González to hear more about his priorities and vision for the next 50 years.

 In late May, Portland City Councilors voted 7-5 to increase the city’s arts tax to $50. The tax, which previously was a $35 fee on individuals making more than $1,000 a year goes toward funding art programs for public schools and nonprofits. The proposal also now exempts individuals making less than $20,000 a year, meaning roughly 214,000 Portlanders are now exempt from paying.   City Council President Jamie Dunphy introduced the proposal and voted in favor of it. Councilor Steve Novick voted against it. We’ll hear from both councilors to get their thoughts on the tax and the new proposal.  

 It’s been nearly five years since a deadly heat dome gripped the Pacific Northwest. Many hundreds of people died — including 69 in Multnomah County alone — from the extreme heat event that sent the temperature soaring to 116 degrees in Portland and broke other temperature records in the region.    As climate change makes extreme heat events more frequent and longer-lasting, a new Portland State University study predicts that heat-related illnesses could double by 2040 across more than 50 of the largest metro areas in the U.S., including Seattle and Portland. The cost of treating heat-related illnesses is also expected to double, according to the study, likely further straining healthcare systems and vulnerable populations.    The study’s authors developed a model integrating multiple variables, including demographic information about age, race and health; climate data; visits to hospitals and emergency rooms for heat-related illnesses; and access to air-conditioning or other cooling infrastructure. The study reveals that cities in the Pacific Northwest could bear an especially high public health burden with their aging populations and lack of cooling infrastructure.   Vivek Shandas is a professor of earth, environment and society at PSU and co-author of the study. He joins us to share more details.  

Last month, Governor Tina Kotek announced the creation of a new state resource to help Oregon businesses reach international markets. The Global Trade Desk advises businesses large and small on how to export their products and find business overseas. Tatum Albertine, the Global Trade Manager at Business Oregon, the state’s economic development agency, joins us to share more details.  

Vu Pham, an independent filmmaker based in Portland, is working on a documentary film about his mother’s murder, which took place when he was a young child.   Pham and his mother fled Vietnam by boat in 1981. The film, Sea Rose Ashes, explores Pham’s journey learning more about his mother’s past and making efforts to take restorative justice pathways with her murderer. Pham joins us to discuss his journey and his current film.  

The U.S. healthcare system is notoriously complex — something as simple as a doctor’s visit has the potential to generate mysterious bills and endless calls to insurance companies. An Oregon couple is attempting to give voice to those frustrations through comedy sketches on social media.   Dr. and Lady Glaucomflecken — otherwise known as Will and Kristin Flanary —  began making TikTok videos during the COVID-19 pandemic. Will is an ophthalmologist and two-time cancer survivor. Kristin supported Will through those diagnoses and, more recently, provided 10 minutes of CPR after he suffered a sudden cardiac arrest in his sleep.   The couple has used their personal and professional experience to tackle topics such as private equity in healthcare, unrealistic expectations placed on medical students, and providers’ struggles to balance the needs of their patients with the requirements of insurance companies.   In addition to social media, the two host a podcast and create educational resources for clinicians and “co-survivors,” or people who support a loved one through a traumatic illness or medical crisis.   Will and Kristin Flanary join us to talk about healthcare advocacy and the role that humor can play in it.  

The Association of Western Pulp and Paper Workers in Vancouver, Wash. is the union that represents the nearly 400 workers who were working at the Nippon Dynawave Packaging Co. when a chemical tank ruptured at the paper mill last month. Eleven employees died, all of whom were union members.    AWPPW has been coordinating relief efforts, including donations, to support and assess the needs of victims and their families. Last week, the union announced it had reached an agreement with Nippon Dynawave to secure full pay until at least Aug. 8 for workers who are unable to or were instructed not to work. Those who are scheduled to work will receive an additional three hours of pay for each shift they work.    A federal investigation into the cause of the rupture is currently underway and being led by the U.S. Chemical Safety Board. Josh Estes, a spokesperson and former local union president at AWPPW, says the union supports the demands for answers and accountability from victims and their families to ensure that a tragedy like this doesn’t happen again. Estes joins us to share the union’s focus on supporting workers and their families and the importance of this industry on the local economy.  

As artificial intelligence becomes ubiquitous, artists and writers are creating their own guiding principles for where and how they use the technology in their creative practices and their work. Tracy Hoagland is the chair of the Portland chapter of Willamette Writers, and by day, she works in the tech industry with AI. She says she doesn’t use AI in her writing practice, but has to consciously separate the two areas of her life. Jessie Kwak is an author and ghost writer based in Portland, who uses AI to supplement her writing work. They both join us to discuss their own ethos around AI in the world of creative writing.

In 1991, James Hall joined the Umatilla Tribal Fire Department as a volunteer firefighter on the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Eastern Oregon. Today, Hall is the fire chief of the agency, leading its response to structural fires, wildland fires and calls for ambulance transportation services in a coverage area spanning hundreds of square miles.    In February, Hall was appointed by Governor Tina Kotek’s Office to serve a three-year term on the Governor’s Fire Service Policy Council, making him the first tribal representative to serve on the council in its history. A bill passed by the Oregon Legislature last year made changes to the council’s membership, including a requirement that one of its members be a fire agency representative from one of Oregon’s nine federally recognized tribes.    Hall shares his recent work on the council and efforts to advocate for all tribal fire agencies in the state.  

With music so readily available on streaming platforms these days, it’s easy to put a playlist on in the background and go about the day. The Eugene Difficult Music Ensemble is asking audiences to put a little more thought into their listening.   The group aims to “expand the definition of what music can be and what music is capable of achieving, as well as who is capable of achieving it.” They commission and perform experimental works from underrepresented artists in showcases such as the New Music Festival and Ambient Ecology, which is taking place over the next two weekends. Recent performances have included vocal meditations that ask for audience participation and an instrument petting zoo for children.   JP Lempke is the executive director of EDME, and Adrian Cervantes Mendez is the group’s secretary. They both join us to talk about difficult music in the age of easy listening.  

Clyde Best became one of England’s first Black soccer superstars when he played for West Ham United from 1968 to 1976. Best scored 58 goals in his 218 appearances as a striker for West Ham. He later  went on to play for the Portland Timbers from 1977 to 1981, helping build the foundation for professional soccer in the U.S.    The documentary “Transforming the Beautiful Game: The Clyde Best Story” showcases Best’s life and career, including the racism he had to contend with on and off the pitch. The film will play at the Aladdin Theater on June 4 and 5, followed by a Q&A with Best and other interviewees in the film.    Clyde Best joins us for a conversation ahead of those screenings.  

 For the third year in a row, the Cascade Booksellers Association has thrown a kind of huge book party for book lovers in the Portland metro area. The idea is to highlight the huge variety of book shops and get people out to visit as many of them as they can. More than 80 bookstores are participating in Portland Book Week this year, including the White Rabbit Book Cafe in Oregon City, Maggie Mae’s Bookshop in Gresham and Lost & Bound Books, a mobile bookshop based in Portland. We sit down with owners Danielle Walsh, Sho Roberts and Desirai Vuylsteke to hear more about what led them to start their independent shops, how they see their role in their communities and their fondest hopes for the week.

After the deadly chemical tank rupture that killed 11 people last Tuesday at a paper mill in Longview, questions continue to loom over the community — including what environmental impacts the chemical spill could have on the city and nearby Columbia River, as well as the potential cause of this disaster. It’s Washington’s deadliest workplace incident in nearly a century.   Officials from the U.S. Chemical Safety Board arrived in Longview last Wednesday to investigate the cause of the chemical disaster. The future of the board has been uncertain in recent months after a proposed budget from President Trump would have defunded the federal agency, and a recent house bill restored the board's funding by $8.2 million. But yesterday afternoon, the House Appropriations Committee adopted an amendment brought by U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez to add over $5 million to preserve the full funding for the CSB.   We’ll hear more from Gluesenkamp Perez, whose congressional district includes Longview, for more on the investigation and its impact on the Longview community.  

For more than 20 years, British author and Cambridge University professor Robert Macfarlane has garnered international acclaim for his writings on nature and our relationships to it, from awe-inspiring wonder and life-giving sustenance to relentless extraction and exploitation. For his book, “Is a River Alive?”, Macfarlane explored the idea of rivers as animate beings, a concept that is connected to the Rights of Nature movement that has spurred a novel legal framework to protect imperiled waterways, animals and ecosystems around the world. To find out, Macfarlane embarked on a journey that spanned continents and topographies. He trekked through a cloud forest in Ecuador, visited dying and polluted waterways in southeastern India and kayaked down a river in northeastern Canada that was granted legal personhood in 2021 to save it from being dammed. Along the way, Macfarlane introduces us to the people fighting to defend these rivers, creeks and basins while bearing witness to the assaults and threats the waterways constantly face. Macfarlane joined us on June 11, 2025 to discuss “Is A River Alive?” and the ideas it explores.

In 2017, 96-year-old Mary Armington took a trip from her home in Florida to Astoria to visit her son, Dr. William Armington. As a radiologist at the time at Columbia Memorial Hospital, Dr. Armington had diagnosed cancer in hundreds of patients, some of whom had delayed getting care because of financial hardships.    So Mary decided to help by donating $50,000 to start a fund for cancer patients in the North Coast region to pay for expenses like transportation, utility bills, lodging and rent. Nine years later, the Arm-in-Arm Fund has nearly tripled in size and has given grants to dozens of patients at the CMH-OHSU Knight Cancer Collaborative in Astoria.    This year, the Columbia Memorial Hospital Foundation increased to $2,000 the grant money a team of social workers can award to an individual to help them, for example, replace a broken refrigerator or repair a home furnace. Money from the fund has also been used to provide Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday meals for patients and their families. Joining us to discuss the fund and its impact are Mary Armington and William Armington, who is now retired and has also donated to the fund. Mark Kujala, foundation director of Columbia Memorial Hospital also joins us.  

 The Pacific Northwest chapter of the International Society of Arboriculture hosts an annual regional tree climbing competition in a Portland park, where arborists can compete for the chance to showcase their skills at a national and international level. This year, 35 climbers will compete in five events over two days.   Terry Flanagan is the chair of the Tree Climbing Competition Committee at the PNWISA. He competed in his first tree climbing competition in 1981 and has been working in arboriculture for 49 years. Kyle Thomas is the regional coordinator for the tree climbing competition, as well as the operations supervisor for the Urban Forestry Division of Portland Parks and Recreation. They both join us to share more ahead of the upcoming competition in Portland, which will take place June 6 and 7 at Farragut Park.  

 Last week, Portland City Councilors passed a new policy barring law enforcement of all kinds from wearing masks. The policy itself would also direct the Portland Police Bureau to investigate someone who engages in law-enforcement activity, such as detaining someone, and doesn’t show proper credentials.   The ordinance passed in an 8-4 vote, and was introduced by Councilor Sameer Kanal and co-sponsored by Councilor Elena Pirtle-Guiney and Angelita Morillo. Opponents of the law say the policy raises concerns around labor laws and workload for PPB officers. Joining us to share more on the policy and its impacts are PPB Chief Bob Day and Councilor Morillo.  

A decade ago, a building in Portland's Nob Hill neighborhood exploded in a gas leak and was consumed by a fire soon after. That building was home to Portland Bagelworks and the eyewear shop Fetch, as well as Art Work Rebels Tattoo Studio, which was located in the building for seven years. Artist Jeff P, who now co-owns Tattoo Smile, was an artist at the shop when this happened. After the dust settled and rubble was sorted, much of the shop was lost, including memories, personal belongings and much of the hand drawn art and flash that many artists like Jeff created.   But for Jeff, some of his work survived as digital scans and phone camera photos he captured as he documented his own work. Now, Jeff has released a book marking the anniversary of the explosion. "Everything That Burned” is a collection of scans and photos of his art and the shop after the fire. Jeff joins us to share more on his memories of the shop and his new book.  

Around 44,000 people died in a gun-related injury in the U.S. in 2024, according to a new report from Pew Research. Suicides make up a majority of those deaths at 62%. But in Oregon, that number is much higher, with 80% of all firearm deaths being a suicide. On top of that, previous reporting has also shown that some of the state’s most rural areas have the highest rates of gun-related suicides, especially for older men. Becca Valek is a research project coordinator at OHSU’s Gun Violence Prevention Center. Katie Lossi is an Associate Professor at OHSU’s department of medicine and a staff physician at VA Portland Health Care System. They both join us now to discuss these figures and what can be done to address them.   If you or someone you know is struggling, you can call or text 988 to reach the national suicide and crisis lifeline. Help is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  

Eleven people died after a chemical tank holding hundreds of thousands of corrosive chemicals ruptured last Tuesday at the Nippon Dynawave Packaging Co. in Longview. The U.S. Chemical Safety Board is leading the investigation as questions mount over workplace safety and the caustic stew of chemicals and equipment maintenance within the paper mill.    Washington state’s deadliest workplace incident in nearly a century has raised concerns about Oregon’s level of readiness and resources to respond to hazardous materials incidents.    That experience dates back to 1989, when Oregon became the first state in the nation to establish a state-level hazmat program. Today, there are 12 regional hazardous material emergency response teams, from Astoria to Ontario, who can quickly deploy to support local first responders in emergencies, as well as offer training to local agencies and industries. The  Community Right to Know program allows members of the public to see where hazardous substances are being stored in their communities, unless that information is determined to be sensitive or confidential.     Oregon State Fire Marshal Mariana Ruiz-Temple joins us to share her thoughts on the Longview disaster and Oregon’s efforts to mitigate the risks hazardous materials pose.  

his year marks the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States. Specifically, it is when the Continental Congress, the provisional governing body of the 13 colonies, adopted the Declaration of Independence.   It goes without saying that much has changed since then. But what would our founding fathers think of our society today? How should history, both past events and current, be taught in classrooms? To answer these questions more we’re joined by two Oregon history teachers. Jacqueline Pope-Brothers teaches U.S. government, AP Government and constitutional law at Sprague High School in Salem. Maurice Cowley teaches English and AP African American Studies at McDaniel High School in Portland.  

The Portland Business Journal reported this week that hotels in downtown Portland are still struggling years later to recover from the pandemic. According to the commercial real estate analytics firm CoStar, the occupancy rate for downtown Portland hotels was roughly 62% last year – nearly 10% less than their pre-pandemic occupancy levels in 2019. In another ominous sign of the market’s recovery, the revenue the hotels generated per room was $13 less last year than what they earned in 2019. Recovery for other downtown businesses, including restaurants and commercial real estate, has also been slow. A recent report from Travel Oregon, meanwhile, showed that spending on hotels and motels by visitors to the Portland region increased by 2% last year from 2024. That might suggest that business travelers and tourists are returning to the area, but choosing to stay overnight and spend their money outside of downtown. Sara Edwards is a staff reporter at the Portland Business Journal who covers commercial real estate. She joins us to explain the grim outlook facing Portland’s downtown hotels.

The only coalition in Oregon that supports aging members of LGBTQ+ communities is expanding its reach.   Over the past decade, the Oregon LGBTQ+ Aging Coalition has conducted a survey on the needs of older LGBTQ+ adults and helped pass legislation that aims to protect queer seniors living in long-term care facilities. It’s currently a volunteer-run effort, but a new collaboration with the nonprofit AGE+ will allow the group to hire its first paid staff and eventually assume its own nonprofit status.   Brandy Penner is the executive director of the Coalition. She joins us to talk about the new partnership and the needs of this population.  

The train-related traffic delays in Portland — especially in the city’s inner east side — have gotten worse and more frequent in recent years. As rail transportation consultant Bill Burgel told Willamette Week, that’s in large part because the average length of a freight train has doubled. Trains used to be 7,500 feet, and now they’re commonly 15,000 feet or more.    As a former employee of Union Pacific with 50 years of experience in the rail industry, and as a member of the city’s Freight Committee, Burgel pays close attention to these delays. And he has some structural ideas to solve or alleviate the delays that regularly last an hour or more. We sit down with Burgel to understand all the factors behind these mind-blowing delays and more about possible solutions.  

Straddling Multnomah and Clackamas counties, the Willamette National Cemetery is the largest cemetery in Oregon for military veterans, their spouses and dependent children. Even though it won’t reach capacity for 15 years, The Department of Veterans Affairs is already planning for expansion by possibly acquiring roughly 300 acres of farmland southeast of Salem.   Per reporting by the Salem Reporter, the agency announced last September it was conducting an environmental assessment of the property, a functioning vineyard located in the unincorporated community of Macleay. Residents there have expressed concerns to VA officials about impacts on water usage, traffic and the rural character of their farming community.     Earlier this month, Marion County Commissioners sent a letter to the VA echoing those concerns and urging the agency to find an alternative site. Gov. Tina Kotek has also now gotten involved by writing directly to VA Secretary Doug Collins to work with the commissioners to find a different location.    The Salem Reporter’s Hailey Cook has been following these developments and joins us to share more details.