Think Out Loud

 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 Washington Association of Wheat Growers. Gary Williams is the executive director of the Upper Mississippi Waterway Association. They both join us to share what the Columbia and Mississippi River can learn from each other. 

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 locate alternative funding.   We’ll hear from three researchers whose federal grants were cancelled: Marguerita Lightfoot is a professor at the OHSU-PSU School of Public Health. Lauren Forrest is an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Oregon. Tala Navab-Daneshmand is an associate professor of environmental engineering at Oregon State University.    They join us to talk about the negative impact the cuts will have on efforts to address health disparities in the U.S.  

 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 annually are also subject to the tax which helps fund programs in the tri-county area to help people experiencing homelessness move into housing.     But a poll the Metro Council recently commissioned suggests that voters in the region appear to be questioning its effectiveness to help combat a crisis that has only gotten worse since the tax went into effect four years ago. The poll found that 53% of respondents said they would vote “yes” to reauthorize the tax, while 43% said they would oppose it.   The Metro Council is now exploring how to reform the tax, starting with a recent vote to index income thresholds to inflation and remove quarterly payment requirements for most high earners. Joining us to discuss the future of the Supportive Housing Services tax is Metro Councilor Christine Lewis.   

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 waited until the last month to unveil HB 2025, which would have generated nearly $12 billion over the next decade through a mix of taxes and fees, including hikes in the state’s gas tax and a new tax on vehicle sales. Republicans balked at the proposal, including several who had been working with Democrats on transportation funding.     Defections emerged among Democratic lawmakers as well, most notably from state Sen. Mark Meek, D-Gladstone, a member of the Joint Committee on Transportation Reinvestment. Senate President Rob Wagner, D-Lake Oswego, removed Meek from the committee on June 20 to boost the bill’s chance of passage. But on Friday, Democrats conceded they didn’t have the votes to pass it, and they had to abandon a last-ditch effort to raise the state’s gas tax by 3 cents to avert looming layoffs at the Oregon Department of Transportation.    Sen. Meek joins us to share his thoughts on the legislature’s efforts to tackle Oregon’s transportation challenges.  

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, tantrums and skipping rehabilitation appointments, as first reported in The Athletic. Mike Richman is the host of the “Locked on Blazers” podcast. He joins us to share more on what to expect from Rip City’s beloved team after this player shake-up.  

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 specialized in homeless and community outreach.  While CAHOOTS is no longer serving Eugene, its contract with Springfield has been renewed. It currently offers 12 hours of service, seven days a week to the city. Justin Madeira is the CAHOOTS program coordinator. He joins us with details about what’s next for the organization and what crisis response efforts look like in Oregon.

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. Currently there are 73 Southern Resident orcas traveling in three pods along the west coast. About 48 whales within two of those pods spend time here in Oregon. There are three main causes for declining whale numbers, including loss of prey, disturbance from vessels and environmental contaminants. The agency is currently taking public comment on the plan that hopes to address these issues. Howard Takata is the Southern Resident orca conservation coordinator with ODFW. He joins us to share more on the plan.

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 thousands of individuals and families with children from being evicted and becoming homeless. Lisa Bates is a professor of Black Studies at Portland State University and helps run a research program studying evictions across Oregon.   We talk with Bates about the lack of legislative funding for homelessness and housing programs and what’s needed in her view to address the ongoing homeless and housing crisis.  

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 director for Climate Solutions, a regional nonprofit that advocates for climate policy. She joins us to talk about what lawmakers did – and didn’t  – pass in terms of climate legislation and how federal rollbacks of environmental protections could impact the state’s climate goals.   

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.  

On Tuesday, Oregon's first measles case of the year was reported in Multnomah County, joining a slew of other states who have had reported cases this year. The individual who tested positive is an adult who is believed to have acquired the disease while traveling abroad and was hospitalized in Portland. The highly contagious disease is transmitted through the air via coughs and sneezes, with symptoms including fever, cough and a rash appearing from seven to 21 days after exposure. Paul Ciselak is the medical director for communicable disease and immunizations at Oregon Health Authority. He joins us to share more.

Two Portland bars are among the top four finalists for this year’s Spirited Awards, one of the most prestigious honors in the cocktail world. Pacific Standard, located inside the KEX Hotel, is nominated for Best U.S. Hotel Bar. Palomar — a Cuban-inspired bar that recently moved from Hosford-Abernathy to Northwest Portland — is a finalist for Best U.S. Restaurant Bar. The awards, which will be announced in New Orleans on July 24, recognize excellence in bars and mixology around the globe. Pacific Standard’s Jeffrey Morgenthaler is also up for Best U.S. Bar Mentor. Morgenthaler joins us along with Palomar’s Ricky Gomez to talk about what the nominations mean, how their approach to running a bar has evolved, and how they’re navigating a cocktail in

Lance Orton is the executive director of CityTeam Portland, which offers shelter, housing and recovery services to its clients. If you hadn’t read about him or heard him tell his story, you’d never guess Orton was himself homeless and addicted to heroin just seven years ago. In addition to being the executive director of CityTeam, he also sits on the board of Central Eastside Together and the Old Town Community Association. He also serves as board chair of Shelter Portland, a public-private initiative by Mayor Keith Wilson to create strategic solutions for homelessness and addiction.  Orton joins us to share more about his personal life transformation about how the faith-based nonprofit he now runs is hoping to expand its services in a new facility that will open soon in the Old Town neighborhood.

Information for Public Use, a group that researches public records, found that the Medford Police Department has collaborated with regional and federal law enforcement agencies including Immigration and Customs Enforcement.     Medford and other law enforcement agencies in Southern Oregon have shared surveillance technology and tactics, according to a report by Jefferson Public Radio.    In August last year, the ACLU of Oregon sued the City of Medford claiming that the police broke state law by monitoring the social media accounts of local organizers. That litigation is ongoing.    When asked to comment about the latest findings from Information for Public Use, Medford Police Lieutenant Geoff Kirkpatrick responded that due to pending litigation, the department cannot comment on questions on this topic at this time.    We learn more about what’s happening in Medford from Kelly Simon, the legal director of the ACLU of Oregon.  

Ketamine is an anesthetic that has been growing in use as an off-label prescription to treat depression. Individuals can access the drug through telehealth appointments and clinics in person. But new reporting from Undark shows that many of these providers face few regulations, and much is still unknown about the drug. Dawn Fallik is an associate professor at the University of Delaware and a freelance medicine and science reporter. She covered this story through a grant from the Pulitzer Center and the University of Delaware and joins us to share more on what ketamine clinics look like in Oregon and around the U.S.

A new high school program in Oregon teaches students the ins and outs of seafood butchery and the state’s "blue economy." The program was in the pilot stage last year at six schools but has grown to 15 and now has a new curriculum that focuses on seafood caught in the Pacific Northwest. A major goal of the program was to get local seafood in the hands of students, as a study commissioned by the Oregon Coast Visitors Association found that 90% of Oregon-caught seafood is exported. Maggie Michaels is the program coordinator for the program. James Byrne is a science teacher at Clatskanie Middle and High School. Cora Evenson is a sophomore at the same school and took the class last year. They all join us to share more about what students are learning in the program.V

Artist Fred Grandy grew up in Oregon with five sisters and one brother. The family also lived in Washington for a time. As an adult, Grandy moved around the country, with stints in California, Louisiana, Kentucky and Virginia. But his last days were spent in Ukraine, volunteering with a group that helped to clear up debris after Russian bombings. His sister, Bend resident Sietska Reed, says he had taken off on an open-ended trip to Western Europe but found himself drawn to Poland and then Ukraine. Reed said her brother felt he was where he needed to be to help Ukrainians in a small but tangible way. Grandy was angry, she said, about President Donald Trump’s embrace of Russia, which invaded Ukraine, and also wanted to represent the many Americans who are horrified by Trump’s actions and demonstrate support for Ukraine’s sovereignty. She says the family was notified last week by the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine that her brother was among those killed in one of the heaviest Russian attacks on Kyiv since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Reed joins us, along with her son Kennith Reed and her brother Jim Grandy to remember Fred and tell his story as they think he would want it told.  

Portland artist and activist Isaka Shamsud-Din has captured the lives and histories of African Americans in paintings throughout his life. He draws on his experiences growing up in Portland for his work. His exhibit, “Rock of Ages,” is currently on display at the Portland Art Museum. We spoke to him in January 2020. As reported earlier by Oregon ArtsWatch, Portland artist, educator and activist Isaka Shamsud-Din has died. The arts and education nonprofit Don’t Shoot Portland announced earlier this month that the artist had entered hospice care. Shamsud-din had been ill with cancer for some time. We listen back to a conversation we first aired in January 2020 with Shamsud-Din when his exhibit, “Rock of Ages,” was on display at the Portland Art Museum.  

 If current trends continue, the city of Vancouver can expect to build roughly 700 new housing units this year. That’s far less than the city’s goal of building 2,000 new housing units annually and a sharp decline from the roughly 1,100 units it developed last year. The Columbian recently reported on the drop in new construction in Vancouver and the factors contributing to it, including tariffs on steel, aluminum and lumber which are driving up construction costs.    Earlier this month, Vancouver’s Economic Prosperity and Housing Director Patrick Quinton outlined several steps the city council could approve to spur new construction. They include eliminating off-street parking requirements for new affordable housing and deferring the collection of fees from developers for market-rate housing. Quinton joins us to talk about these proposed changes amid a housing shortage in Vancouver and the region.  

At least five members of Portland’s Rose City Rollers roller derby team will be headed to the Roller Derby World Cup in Austria next week. And a few more members of the local team will be competing on the world stage representing their countries of origin. Lex Zhang, who is known as Lexsanguination when she skates, will be competing with Chinese Nations Roller Derby. The players for this team come from all over the world but share a common Chinese ancestry. The Roller Derby World Cup also features teams such as Black Diaspora Roller Derby, Indigenous Rising Roller Derby, Team Desi and Jewish Roller Derby. Zhang joins us to talk about the upcoming competition and the joy of skating with Chinese Nations Roller Derby.

 It’s peak harvest time for sweet cherries in Oregon and Washington. Growers in the Pacific Northwest are anticipating a strong crop this year, with a higher yield than last year’s harvest. But what they weren’t anticipating was a workforce shortage that’s being driven by the fear of immigration enforcement raids. KUOW reported earlier on how this issue is threatening the livelihoods of cherry farmers in Washington.    The immigration crackdown is also clouding the outlook for cherry growers in Oregon, according to Ian Chandler, chair of the Oregon Sweet Cherry Commission and the co-owner of CE Farm Management, a cherry orchard in The Dalles. Chandler said he’s not aware of any recent immigration enforcement raids on farms in the Columbia Gorge. But he says the fear of potential enforcement activity led to a 50% reduction in available workers for most cherry farmers in the region at the start of harvest two weeks ago.   Some migrant farm workers whose employers obtained H-2A visas for them have also been stuck at the border in Mexico and unable to help with the harvest in The Dalles, according to Tiffany Davis, business manager for K&K Land and Management. Chandler, Davis and Monica Zipprich, an orchard manager at K&K Land and Management, join us to talk about the toll federal immigration enforcement is taking on the Oregon sweet cherry industry.  

When the gates on The Dalles Dam closed in 1957, Celilo Falls was flooded and a vital salmon fishery for Yakama and Warm Springs tribal people was forever changed. Warm Springs Tribal Elder Linda Meanus was a young girl at the time, being raised by her grandparents, Flora Thompson and Chief Tommy Thompson, in nearby Celilo Village. In that bustling community along the Columbia River where salmon provided sustenance and a way of life, she learned about the importance of first foods, and gained an abiding reverence for her Indigenous culture and language. More than six decades later, Meanus has written “My Name is LaMoosh,” a chronicle of her early life in Celilo Village and a tribute to the legacy of her grandmother to whom the book is dedicated. We first spoke with Meanus in June 2021 about the release of her book which as published by OSU Press in collaboration with Confluence and historian Katy Barber.

Behind the Wok is a new digital archive from APANO that looks at the six historic Chinese restaurants that helped form Portland’s Jade District. These include Hung Far Low, Canton Grill, Chinese Village, New Cathay, Legin and Wong’s King Seafood. The archive explores how these restaurants became community hubs and how early restaurateurs leaned on one another. Suenn Ho is a principal urban designer at Resolve Architecture. Brian Liu is the community development manager at APANO. They both join us to share more on the project.

 Perched high on a ridge in the South American Andes, a new observatory aims to revolutionize our understanding of the cosmos and unravel some of the mysteries it holds. Featuring the world’s largest digital camera, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory will spend the next 10 years continuously surveying and recording time-lapse movies of the stars, galaxies, asteroids and other objects moving across the southern hemisphere. The ultra-high-definition images will help create a kind of “Google Maps” of the night sky, according to Mario Jurić, a University of Washington astronomy professor and member of the observatory’s international science team.  Jurić and his team are creating an online database that amateur and professional astronomers can access to track changes across space and time and zoom into celestial objects of interest – including asteroids that may be on a collision course with Earth. Jurić joins us to share more about the observatory’s capabilities and the first set of images it will reveal on June 23.

This week, Portland City Council finalized a city budget totaling over $8 billion in spending for next year. It includes more funding for alternative shelter sites and an expansion of Portland Street Response, but cuts to the office of Civic Life and less funding for the Portland Police Bureau than the mayor had requested. Mayor Keith Wilson joins us to discuss his plans for executing this final budget. We’ll also discuss the Trump administration’s calls for increased immigration enforcement in West Coast cities and the protests at Portland’s ICE facility.    

 In early June, a federal judge found the state in contempt of a court order that requires people with severe mental illness in custody to be quickly admitted to the the Oregon State Hospital.  Now, the state is appealing that decision and has asked the court to pause the contempt ruling. Amelia Templeton is OPB’s health reporter and has been following this story. She joins us to share more on what is happening at the state’s psychiatric hospital.

Eugene accordionist Maria Telesheva won her first competition when she was just 6 years old. Now a rising senior at North Eugene High School, Telesheva has traveled the globe performing and competing as both a solo artist and as a duo with her father, Sergei. As recently reported by KLCC, she’s also a fellow with NPR’s performance program “From the Top” and a 2025 recipient of the Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award.   Telesheva joins us for a performance and to share what she thinks makes the accordion so special.  

By 2050, roughly one in four Oregonians will be age 65 or older. In rural Lincoln County, older adults already make up about a third of the population, representing one of the fastest-aging communities in the state.“Think Out Loud” recently traveled to Newport to talk about healthy aging — the social connections and habits that can help people thrive as they get older, as well as the programs and policies communities should consider as their populations age.Jan Molnar Fitzgerald is the executive director of North End Senior Solutions, which includes an adult day service. Helen Beaman is the older adult behavioral health specialist for Lincoln and Tillamook counties. Randi Moore is the director of Senior, Disability, and Community Services Programs for the Oregon Cascades West Council of Governments. And Debby Rhein volunteers for some of the council’s programs, including as a Senior Companion and Foster Grandparent.They joined us in front of a live audience at the Newport 60+ Activity Center to talk about the civic and social infrastructure that can lead to healthy aging on the Oregon Coast.                

This week the board of Prosper Portland votes to finalize a settlement for more than 20 people whose homes and businesses were destroyed in the name of urban renewal from the 1950s through the ’70s. The group of Black Portlanders fought for years to get to this point, and eventually filed a federal lawsuit arguing that the city of Portland, Emanuel Legacy Medical Center and Prosper Portland conspired to destroy a previously thriving Black neighborhood. The original financial settlement proposed to the Portland city council was $2 million. After testimony from a dozen community members recently, all 12 Portland city councilors voted to increase the amount to $8.5 million. As part of the settlement, the lawsuit will be dismissed, and the descendants will get financial and land retribution, in addition to other terms. We hear from plaintiffs Donna Marshall and Byrd, who led the research effort that culminated in this settlement, and from their lawyer Ed Johnson.  

Last week, the Trump administration pulled out of a historic agreement made in 2023 to aid in salmon recovery and renewable energy for tribes. The agreement would have invested more than $1 billion in federal funds for wild fish restoration efforts over a decade and could have potentially led to the removal of the Snake River Dams to help native salmon populations. But, some industry leaders were unsupportive of the deal, including those in the agricultural and port industries who say the dams play a critical role in shipping goods overseas. Jeremy Takala is the chair of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission and worked closely with the Biden administration to reach the agreement. Leslie Druffel is the outreach director for the McGregor Company in Washington and works closely with many in the agricultural industry. They both join us to share their thoughts on the rescission of the deal.

Coffee leaders in Oregon recently held a roundtable discussion with Democratic U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici to discuss how changes at the federal level are affecting the industry, according to Daily Coffee News. Leaders in the Portland area say they’re concerned about how a 10% tariff could affect already high coffee prices. Additionally, countries that produce coffee including Kenya, Ethiopia and Honduras have been hit by USAID cuts. Programs that operated with USAID funding have been shut down overnight, affecting farmers and supply chains. Emily Smith is a relationship representative for Hacea Coffee. Darrin Daniel is a consultant for coffee roasters and retailers and has more than two decades of experience as a green coffee buyer. Cassy Gleason is the co-owner of Buckman Coffee Factory and Marigold Coffee. They join us with more on how Oregon’s coffee industry is tied to international relations and what federal policies mean at the state level.

Oregon lawmakers recently unveiled a proposal to maintain the state’s roads and bridges. House Bill 2025 would raise the state’s gas tax by 15 cents, raise vehicle fees and add oversight to the Oregon Department of Transportation, according to OPB reporting. The bill could raise more than $2 billion annually by 2034, according to a revenue analysis. What does the proposal mean for cities and counties? Dan Dorran is a Umatilla County Commissioner. Jim McCauley is the legislative director for the League of Oregon Cities. They join us with more on the role that cities and counties play in Oregon’s transportation system and why funding is critical at the local level.

In Multnomah County, the number of deaths of homeless residents grew from 113 in 2019 to more than 450 in 2023. Research has found that encampment sweeps can threaten the health of people experiencing homelessness. Portland has carried out 19,000 sweeps since 2021, according to city records. Reporting from Street Roots and ProPublica examines why residents of Multnomah County die at a higher rate than in any major West Coast county, according to available homeless mortality data. K. Rambo is the editor-in-chief of Street Roots and produced the story for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network. Rambo joins us with details.

Bend serves as a gateway to natural wonder and recreation in Central Oregon. But, like many other places across the West, the city has too few homes. “High Desert, Higher Costs: Bend and the Housing Crisis in the American West” explores the housing issues that have been brewing for decades in Bend. We’ll hear more about the city from Jonathan Bach, author of the book and housing reporter for The Oregonian/OregonLive.

Oregon lawmakers have until June 29 to finish legislative business and adjourn the 2025 regular session. Although a number of bills remain in play, even at this late date, the only thing lawmakers are constitutionally obligated to do before they leave the Capitol is pass a biennial budget for 2025-2027. During the last five months, Democrats and Republicans have taken up issues related to housing, taxes, transportation and much more. House Minority Leader Christine Drazan, R-Canby, shared her perspective on the session on Friday’s “Think Out Loud.” And joining us today to talk about the progress toward sine die is Senate Majority Leader, Kayse Jama, D-Portland.

By the time he was 20 years old, Seattle amateur filmmaker Richard Lyford had already made nine films, including “The Scalpel.” Lyford wrote, directed, starred in and made the silent horror movie in 1936 when he was still in his teens. The film also showcased Lyford’s skills with makeup and early cinematic special effects, which he used to transform himself into a Dr. Jekyll-like scientist who experiments on himself with gruesome and tragic results. According to Seattle composer and producer Ed Hartman, “The Scalpel” was never publicly shown, apart from a handful of screenings to friends and family and an amateur film club. But thanks to Hartman, who led the restoration of the film and composed a new soundtrack for it, “The Scalpel” is now being shown in its entirety for the first time in nearly 90 years. It will have its Portland premiere on Saturday at the Clinton Street Theater during the Portland Horror Film Festival. Hartman joins us to talk about Lyford’s legacy, restoring this hidden gem of the horror genre and what lessons it offers to budding filmmakers.

Oregon lawmakers have until June 29 to finish legislative business and adjourn the 2025 regular session. Although a number of bills remain in play, even at this late date, the only thing lawmakers are constitutionally obligated to do before they leave the Capitol is pass a biennial budget for 2025-2027. During the last five months, Democrats and Republicans have taken up issues related to housing, taxes, transportation and much more. Sen. Kayse Jama, D-Portland, will join us next week to share his perspective on progress toward sine die. But joining us today to talk about cooperation and conflict in the Oregon Legislature is House Minority Leader Christine Drazan, R-Canby.

On Tuesday, two asylum seekers were arrested at the Portland Immigration Court after they showed up for scheduled hearings. After attorneys from the Portland-based Innovation Law Lab filed habeas corpus petitions on the asylum seekers’ behalf, a federal judge ordered the government to not move them out of Oregon without first providing notice and to wait for at least two days. The Innovation Law Lab is also representing two other asylum seekers who were arrested under similar circumstances at the Portland Immigration Court and who are being detained at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington. In recent days, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have ramped up arrests and deportations at workplaces and courthouses around the nation. Those tactics have sparked a wave of growing protests and clashes with law enforcement in Portland and other cities, including Los Angeles, where President Trump controversially ordered the deployment of the California National Guard and Marines to support federal immigration enforcement in the region. Innovation Law Lab’s legal director, Jordan Cunnings, joins us to share more details about the asylum seekers arrested in Portland and the legal issues surrounding their cases.

We do not need any more nonprofits in Oregon,” Libra Forde wrote that recently in an op-ed for The Oregonian/OregonLive, calling it a “difficult truth.” She’s the executive director of Women’s Foundation of Oregon, a philanthropic organization which does grant-making, research and policy advocacy. We hear more from Forde on how nonprofits should move forward as federal funds shrink and how merging organizations could serve communities better.

Ada Gallagher was an artsy kid who joined the track team at Portland’s McDaniel High School at the urging of her friends. It turns out, not only was she was good at running, she also enjoyed it. Last year, Gallagher won first place in the 200-meter race at the Class 6A state track meet. Earlier this year, Fox News posted a video of her performance in a 400-meter race at a meet. The national attention came because Ada is a member of a very small but controversial population: a transgender female athlete. In February, President Donald Trump issued an executive order titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” that aimed to ban transgender women from competing in girls and women’s sports. After Ada’s win in the 400, the Trump administration launched an investigation into Portland Public Schools and the Oregon School Activities Association for allegedly violating Title IX. Bill Oram, sports reporter at the Oregonian, and Ada Gallagher join us to talk about what it has been like to be at the center of national attention, and why she and her family are choosing to leave the country.

In 2017, Portland created a Tribal Relations Program to bridge the relationship between Tribal governments and the city. It was a trailblazing program at the time, but in the years since, it's had three different managers and has been without a leader for seven months. OPB’s Alex Zielinski and Underscore’s Nika Bartoo-Smith join us to talk about the city’s troubled relationship with Tribal governments and its hopes for the future of the program.

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 new book, “Is a River Alive?”, Macfarlane explores 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 joins us to discuss “Is a river alive?” and the ideas it explores.