The Evergreen

The Evergreen

OPB’s weekly podcast creates an audio portrait of the Pacific Northwest. We tell the stories of the people, places, communities and cultures that make up this region. It’s a podcast about the place YOU live, the places you love, and the geography you feel connected to.

rss_feed RSS Feed

Most Recent Episode

The Evergreen
“I'm literally just trying to feed my kids” - hunger in rural Oregon

In late July, just two days before the first of the month, a line of Oregonians stood waiting for free food. 

 

At the Dallas food bank in the Willamette Valley countryside, the hunger crisis gripping Oregon was on full display. Alexis Arechiga, 28, struggles to afford snacks for church and sporting events with her two kids. Corrina Campbell, 32, visits the food bank twice a week, and says feeding her two kids means that on some nights she goes to sleep hungry.

 

The high cost of groceries and the federal government’s cuts to SNAP benefits have left more Oregonians struggling to afford food. Food assistance programs like food banks are stretched thin trying to meet the growing demand for help. 

 

“Usually it’s pretty full,” said food bank manager Eddie Nelson as she opened a freezer. “But as you can tell our freezers are getting empty.”

 

In this week’s episode, Evergreen producer Mía Estrada and reporter Bryce Dole spend about 24 hours in Dallas. They bring us along for one day at free, local food programs in rural Oregon. 

 

For more Evergreen episodes and to share your voice with us, visit our showpage.

Follow OPB on Instagram, and follow host Jenn Chávez too.

You can sign up for OPB’s newsletters to get what you need in your inbox regularly.

 

Don’t forget to check out our many podcasts, which can be found on any of your favorite podcast apps:

00:27:07
Aug 17, 2026 5:0 AM
Clean

More Episodes

The Evergreen
RETRANSMISIÓN: “No quiero averiguar si me van a meter a un centro de detención”

Esta es la versión en español de este episodio del podcast. Click here to listen in English.

 

Luis Lamas salió de Oregon por miedo.

 

“No quiero averiguar si me van a meter a un centro de detención o si voy a vivir tantos años más y que me digan sabes que, siempre no, te tienes que ir a tu país.” dijo.

 

Lamas se encuentra entre el creciente número de personas que están abandonando los Estados Unidos por temor a ser arrestadas o detenidas, ya que el gobierno de Trump ha prometido arrestar o deportar a cualquier persona sin estatus legal. Inmigrantes con estatus legal también han sido detenidos

 

Este semana en The Evergreen, el reportero de OPB Alejandro Figueroa narra el viaje de Luis Lamas, un inmigrante mexicano que solía vivir en Woodburn.

 

Para escuchar más episodios de The Evergreen y compartir tu opinión con nosotros, visita nuestra página web

 

Síguenos en nuestra página de Instagram y también sigue a nuestra presentadora Jenn Chavez.

 

Suscríbete a nuestro correo electronico para recibir todas las noticias que necesites directamente en tu buzón. 

 

No olvides explorar nuestros otros programas de podcast. Los puedes encontrar en tu plataforma de podcasts favorita: 

 

Y muchos mas! Visita nuestra lista completa aquí.

00:29:25
Aug 3, 2026 5:0 AM
Clean
The Evergreen
REBROADCAST: “I don't want to find out if they're going to put me in a detention center”

This is the English version of this podcast episode. Haga clic aquí para escuchar en español.

Luis Lamas left Oregon out of fear. 

 

“I don't want to find out if they're going to put me in a detention center or if I'm going to live so many more years [here] and be told, you know what, no, you have to go back to your country,” he said in Spanish. 

 

Lamas is among a growing number of people choosing to leave the U.S. out of fear of arrest or detention, as the Trump administration has promised to arrest or deport anyone without lawful status. Immigrants with lawful status have also been detained.

 

In this week’s episode of The Evergreen, OPB reporter Alejandro Figueroachronicles the journey of Luis Lamas, a Mexican immigrant who once called Woodburn home.

 

For more Evergreen episodes and to share your voice with us, visit our showpage.

Follow OPB on Instagram, and follow host Jenn Chávez too.

You can sign up for OPB’s newsletters to get what you need in your inbox regularly.

 

Don’t forget to check out our many podcasts, which can be found on any of your favorite podcast apps:

00:27:00
Aug 3, 2026 5:0 AM
Clean
The Evergreen
Familia

Last fall and winter, after President Trump claimed Portland was “war ravaged” and threatened to send in the National Guard, immigration detentions in Oregon skyrocketed and became more aggressive. We learn what happened next to two families whose loved ones were among more than a thousand Oregonians caught up in what the government called “Operation Black Rose.” 

 

When part of a family is missing, what gets left behind?

 

Learn more by watching the latest episode of OPB’s documentary series, “The Crackdown.”

 

For more episodes of The Evergreen, and to share your voice with us, visit our show page.

Follow OPB on Instagram, and follow host Jenn Chávez too.

You can sign up for OPB’s newsletters to get what you need in your inbox regularly.

 

Don’t forget to check out our many podcasts, which can be found on any of your favorite podcast apps:
Hush
Timber Wars Season 2: Salmon Wars
Politics Now
Think Out Loud

And many more! Check out our full show list here.

00:27:57
Jul 20, 2026 5:0 AM
Clean
The Evergreen
On the Portland streets, one woman found beauty in the unexpected

Becky Lange became enamored with all the goodies you could find in a dumpster. 

 

“You never know what you're going to get,” she said on a 2025 podcast called American Wastepickers.

 

Lange lived unsheltered on the streets of Portland. Things she found in dumpsters, like nail polish, art supplies and hair dye, were treasures to her. She saw the value in what most people consider garbage. 

 

“I would like people to reassess the value of the items that they're throwing away, just like I would like society to reassess the value of the people that we tend to throw away because we don't see the value that they have,” Lange said. 

 

On May 22 2026, an acquaintance allegedly hit Lange in the head with a metal rod and left her crumpled on the sidewalk in Portland’s Old Town. She died 12 days later. Lange was 44-years-old. 

 

On today’s episode of The Evergreen, OPB reporter Alex Zielinski remembers Becky Lange and the way she fought for the rights of unsheltered people amid a housing shortage and homelessness crisis that have gripped the city for more than a decade. 

 

Read Alex’s full story here. 

 

For more Evergreen episodes and to share your voice with us, visit our showpage.

Follow OPB on Instagram, and follow host Jenn Chávez too.

You can sign up for OPB’s newsletters to get what you need in your inbox regularly.

 

Don’t forget to check out our many podcasts, which can be found on any of your favorite podcast apps:

 

00:29:18
Jul 6, 2026 5:0 AM
Clean
The Evergreen
How much water from the Deschutes goes to turn the desert green?

The Deschutes River is a lifeline for Central Oregon. About 90 percent of the river’s water is diverted to irrigation canals during the agricultural growing season. OPB’s Central Oregon Bureau Chief Emily Cureton Cook wanted to know where all that water went, and what it was used to grow. 

 

Emily teamed up with journalists at ProPublica to zoom in on the Central Oregon Irrigation District, or COID. They did some deep data analysis to find some answers. But this is not a story about numbers. This is a story about people, specifically the people growing the food we eat from Oregon. 

 

As we’ve talked about before, Oregon water rights rely on a system called “prior appropriation” or “first in time, first in right.” Basically, in a drought, the people who hold the oldest or “senior” water rights get top priority and junior water rights holders have to make do with less. In this episode, Emily shares her reporting to show us what that looks like on the ground during a time when climate change is making drought conditions more severe. 

 

Don’t forget to check out our many podcasts, which can be found on any of your favorite podcast apps:

00:28:10
Jun 29, 2026 5:0 AM
Clean
The Evergreen
Everyone watches women’s sports, and Portland is at the heart of it

Portland is the global epicenter of women’s sports. At least, that’s what some people have been saying lately. The phrase pops up in media coverage of our new WNBA team, the Fire, and our beloved women’s soccer team, the Thorns. And those are not our only professional women’s sports teams. We also have a pro softball team, the Cascade and a pro ultimate frisbee team called the Oregon Soar. The Cherry Bombs are our new pre-professional soccer team. We’ve got women’s tackle football, rugby and a badass roller derby league

 

So, is Portland the epicenter of women’s sports? It’s hard to know how to measure such a thing, but what we can say for sure is that there are countless opportunities for women, girls, trans and nonbinary people to play sports and cheer for teams across the city. We talk a bit about the history behind the Rose City’s enthusiasm for women’s sports and hear from OPB business reporter Kyra Buckley about how the Portland Fire season is shaping up. 

 

Watch a short video about the history of women’s sports in Portland by OPB’s Emily Hamilton

 

Don’t forget to check out our many podcasts, which can be found on any of your favorite podcast apps:

 

00:27:43
Jun 22, 2026 5:0 AM
Clean
The Evergreen
How the Brother Jonathan became the Titanic of the West Coast

The shipwreck of the Brother Jonathan is one of the Pacific Coast's deadliest maritime disasters.

 

In 1865, the ship crashed into a rock and sank off the coast of Crescent City, California, killing more than 200 people and taking a fortune in gold with it to the ocean floor. 

 

OPB’s Kami Horton takes us on board to understand what happened that day, and learn about the people the ship carried before its demise, from all walks of life and all over the world. 

 

Watch Kami Horton's "Oregon Experience" documentary, The Wreck of the Brother Jonathan.

 

For more Evergreen episodes and to share your voice with us, visit our showpage.

Follow OPB on Instagram, and follow host Jenn Chávez too.

You can sign up for OPB’s newsletters to get what you need in your inbox regularly.

 

Don’t forget to check out our many podcasts, which can be found on any of your favorite podcast apps:

 

00:26:08
Jun 15, 2026 5:0 AM
Clean
The Evergreen
REBROADCAST: Marking Pride with intergenerational conversations among queer people

Happy Pride from The Evergreen! June is officially Pride month, and of course, queer visibility isn’t limited to one month of the year; it’s important all the time. 

 

Pride is about celebrating queer communities and it’s also a chance to learn about queer history. This week, we’re revisiting two intergenerational conversations about the importance of history, and combating queer erasure with friendship and resilience.

 

 

For more episodes of The Evergreen, and to share your voice with us, visit our show page.

Follow OPB on Instagram, and follow host Jenn Chávez too.

You can sign up for OPB’s newsletters to get what you need in your inbox regularly.

 

Don’t forget to check out our many podcasts, which can be found on any of your favorite podcast apps:
Hush
Timber Wars Season 2: Salmon Wars
Politics Now
Think Out Loud

And many more! Check out our full show list here.

00:27:16
Jun 8, 2026 5:0 AM
Clean
The Evergreen
Chinese American doctor Ing Hay provided essential healthcare to Eastern Oregonians

In Eastern Oregon’s John Day, a 160-year-old building holds one of the biggest collections of traditional Chinese medicine in the world. Kam Wah Chung and Company, once part of a thriving Chinatown, was owned and operated by Lung On and Ing Hay for over half a century. It was a home, a general store, a community center and a medical clinic where Ing Hay served as a beloved doctor to residents across the region. His practice included herbal remedies, non-invasive treatments, essential women’s healthcare and more.

  Archaeologists and historians are continuing to deepen our understanding of the legacy of Kam Wah Chung and traditional Chinese medicine in Eastern Oregon. We join them to learn more about Ing Hay’s important contributions to rural communities in John Day and beyond, as part of our special series in collaboration with OPB’s “Oregon Experience,” the Southern Oregon University Laboratory of Anthropology, and Jefferson Public Radio about unearthing Oregon history.

00:29:18
Jun 1, 2026 5:0 AM
Clean
The Evergreen
A rural Oregon town is going broke. Can it be saved?

Lakeview is a small town nicknamed the “Tallest Town in Oregon.” It’s home to hot springs, a round up and about 2,400 people. 

 

But this former timber town is currently millions of dollars in debt it can't pay off, and brown drinking water has become the norm for residents. 

 

OPB reporters Bryce Dole and Joni Auden Land take us inside Lakeview — how it got into such a dire state –  and how residents are trying to save it. 

 

Read Bryce and Joni’s full story here. 

 

For more Evergreen episodes and to share your voice with us, visit our showpage.

Follow OPB on Instagram, and follow host Jenn Chávez too.

You can sign up for OPB’s newsletters to get what you need in your inbox regularly.

 

Don’t forget to check out our many podcasts, which can be found on any of your favorite podcast apps:

00:29:50
May 25, 2026 5:0 AM
Clean
The Evergreen
REBROADCAST: Remembering the Mount St Helens eruption and people who died on the mountain

Everyone who was in the Pacific Northwest on May 18, 1980 has some kind of story about the Mount St. Helens eruption. OPB producer Ian McCluskey revisited that fateful day with some people who remember it very well for both personal and professional reasons. For this week’s episode, we’re revisiting a conversation with Ian about unearthing lost stories from Mount St. Helens.

 

For more Evergreen episodes and to share your voice with us, visit our showpage.

Follow OPB on Instagram, and follow host Jenn Chávez too.

You can sign up for OPB’s newsletters to get what you need in your inbox regularly.

 

Don’t forget to check out our many podcasts, which can be found on any of your favorite podcast apps:

And many more! Check out our full show list here.

00:27:19
May 18, 2026 5:0 AM
Clean
The Evergreen
Portlanders are feeling nostalgic about the Lloyd Center mall as closure approaches

After 66 years, the Lloyd Center Mall is scheduled to close for good this summer. The current owners plan to tear it down to build a new mixed use development in its place. The mall holds a special place in many Oregonians’ hearts — from the iconic ice rink to its memorable 1990s jingles and its recent indie retailer renaissance. We spend this episode looking back on the Lloyd Center’s storied history and hearing some of your memories of the mall.

 

Don’t forget to check out our many podcasts, which can be found on any of your favorite podcast apps:

00:28:29
May 4, 2026 5:0 AM
Clean
The Evergreen
The Oregon roots of rock-n-roll

At the peak of his popularity in the 1950s, no one was bigger than Oregon musician Johnnie Ray. A decade later, Portland’s The Kingsmen recorded one of the greatest rock songs of all time. Both groups helped make rock-and-roll what it is today. What was it about Oregon in the middle of the century that made it so musically innovative? And why don’t we get any credit?

You can read more and see the Oregon Experience Documentary about Johnnie Ray produced by Kami Horton here.



-

For more episodes of The Evergreen, and to share your voice with us, visit our show page.

Follow OPB on Instagram, and follow host Jenn Chávez too.

You can sign up for OPB’s newsletters to get what you need in your inbox regularly.

 

Don’t forget to check out our many podcasts, which can be found on any of your favorite podcast apps:
Hush
Timber Wars Season 2: Salmon Wars
Politics Now
Think Out Loud

And many more! Check out our full show list here.

 

00:34:09
Apr 27, 2026 5:0 AM
Clean
The Evergreen
‘At Work With’ a food pantry worker, a park ranger and a fitness coach

What does it mean for community members to have access to foods from their culture? What is it like to take care of an urban forest and hit the trail for your day at the office? How can fitness prioritize strength and community building over weight loss?

 

Once again, we’ve got questions about all the interesting jobs Pacific Northwesterners have, and so do you. So we’re back with the latest installments of our ‘At Work With’ series, where interview people from different lines of work about what it’s like to do what they do. This time, we meet a worker at a market-style food pantry specializing in Latino cultural foods, a park ranger at Oregon’s Tryon Creek State Natural Area, and a coach focused on making fitness more welcoming and inclusive for everyone.

 

We’re always open to new ideas for jobs — or volunteer positions — that we can learn about next! If you’ve got a suggestion, email us at theevergreen@opb.org.

For more audio postcards about what makes us feel at home in the Pacific Northwest like the one included in this week’s show, check out our very first episode.

-

For more episodes of The Evergreen, and to share your voice with us, visit our show page.

Follow OPB on Instagram, and follow host Jenn Chávez too.

You can sign up for OPB’s newsletters to get what you need in your inbox regularly.

 

Don’t forget to check out our many podcasts, which can be found on any of your favorite podcast apps:
Hush
Timber Wars Season 2: Salmon Wars
Politics Now
Think Out Loud

And many more! Check out our full show list here.

 

00:29:31
Apr 20, 2026 5:0 AM
Clean
The Evergreen
Renée Watson grew up in Portland, then became a bestselling children's author

Renée Watson grew up in Northeast Portland and attended Vernon Elementary. When she was in the second grade, in Ms. Tupper’s class, she wrote a 21-page story. 

 

“I brought it to school, and Ms. Tupper was like, ‘wow, I think you're gonna be a writer one day’.” she said. 

 

Watson is now a New York Times bestselling author and winner of the prestigious 2026 Newbery Medal for her children’s book, “All the Blues in the Sky.” That medal is the nation’s top prize for children’s literature.

 

She mostly writes for young readers, but she doesn’t hold back for her audience. She’s written books that range from themes of grief, identity, race, to friendship, art and hope. 

Watson says sometimes the world we live in is not the world we want, but she can right those wrongs when she’s writing. 

 

“I can change the ending, and ask us to be better,” she said. “I feel very powerful as a writer, to push us to dream and to be better.”

In this week’s episode of The Evergreen: how the remarkable writer Renee Watson inspires young Black readers to step into their power. 

 

Watch OPB’s Oregon Art Beat documentary on Renée Watson here.

 

For more Evergreen episodes and to share your voice with us, visit our showpage.

Follow OPB on Instagram, and follow host Jenn Chávez too.

You can sign up for OPB’s newsletters to get what you need in your inbox regularly.

 

Don’t forget to check out our many podcasts, which can be found on any of your favorite podcast apps:

And many more! Check out our full show list here.

 

00:19:56
Apr 13, 2026 5:0 AM
Clean
The Evergreen
In Eastern Oregon, women powered the male-dominated lumber industry

The history of logging is full of tales of lumber barons and lumberjacks. Think flannel-clad men with double-bit axes doing manly things in the woods. But in the forests of Eastern Oregon, new research into daily life in a once-bustling mill town tells a more nuanced story about the extractive timber industry that once dominated the Northwest: one that elevates women and families.

 

Archaeologists and citizen scientists unearthed thousands of artifacts at the site of the former Baker White Pine Mill, which operated from 1910 to 1918 in the Blue Mountains. What they found provided clues about the role of women in the mill community, and an opportunity to recognize their important contributions to the lumber industry, long absent from the documentary record.

 

Historical archaeologist Chelsea Rose joins us for the next installment in our special series in collaboration with OPB’s “Oregon Experience,” the Southern Oregon University Laboratory of Anthropology, and Jefferson Public Radio about unearthing Oregon history — the real stuff.


Listen to the first installment of our series, about efforts to reclaim the histories of Chinese cowboys at the historic ranches of Eastern Oregon.
And learn more about Oregon’s early logging industry from our episode about the multi-racial community of Maxville

 

 

For more episodes of The Evergreen, and to share your voice with us, visit our show page.

Follow OPB on Instagram, and follow host Jenn Chávez too.

You can sign up for OPB’s newsletters to get what you need in your inbox regularly.

 

Don’t forget to check out our many podcasts, which can be found on any of your favorite podcast apps:
Hush
Timber Wars Season 2: Salmon Wars
Politics Now
Think Out Loud

And many more! Check out our full show list here.

00:25:10
Apr 6, 2026 5:0 AM
Clean
The Evergreen
Mulugeta Seraw, an Ethiopian immigrant who changed Portland: Part 2

In the early hours of November 13, 1988, Mulugeta Seraw was coming home from a going-away party. He had work early the next morning. 

 

Two of his friends, who were also Ethiopian, drove him home. When they arrived at Mulugeta’s apartment complex, they stayed in the car, talking for a bit. 

 

But then a group of racist skinheads pulled up, reportedly chanting racial slurs. It quickly got physical. 

 

One of the skinheads, Ken Mieske, hit Seraw in the head from behind with a bat at least twice.

Mulugeta Seraw was pronounced dead at the hospital a few hours later. He was 28 years old. 

 

OPB producers Nora Colie and Dan Evans join us to tell the story of Mulugeta Seraw: a young Ethiopian immigrant who changed Portland. His murder inspired a wave of anti-racist activism and led to a requirement for police to report hate crimes. In the first episode of a two-part series, we learn more about Mulugeta's life from the person who knew him best: his uncle, Engedaw Berhanu.

 

Watch Nora and Dan’s documentary for OPB’s “Oregon Experience,” “Remembering Mulugeta: Confronting Hate in Portland,” here.

 

For more Evergreen episodes and to share your voice with us, visit our showpage.

Follow OPB on Instagram, and follow host Jenn Chávez too.

You can sign up for OPB’s newsletters to get what you need in your inbox regularly.

 

Don’t forget to check out our many podcasts, which can be found on any of your favorite podcast apps:

And many more! Check out our full show list here.

00:35:29
Mar 30, 2026 5:0 AM
Clean
The Evergreen
Mulugeta Seraw, an Ethiopian immigrant who changed Portland: Part 1

In the early hours of November 13, 1988, Mulugeta Seraw was coming home from a going-away party. He had work early the next morning. 

 

Two of his friends, who were also Ethiopian, drove him home. When they arrived at Mulugeta’s apartment complex, they stayed in the car, talking for a bit. 

 

But then a group of racist skinheads pulled up, reportedly chanting racial slurs. It quickly got physical. 

 

One of the skinheads, Ken Mieske, hit Seraw in the head from behind with a bat at least twice.

Mulugeta Seraw was pronounced dead at the hospital a few hours later. He was 28 years old. 

 

OPB producers Nora Colie and Dan Evans join us to tell the story of Mulugeta Seraw: a young Ethiopian immigrant who changed Portland. His murder inspired a wave of anti-racist activism and led to a requirement for police to report hate crimes. In the first episode of a two-part series, we learn more about Mulugeta's life from the person who knew him best: his uncle, Engedaw Berhanu.

 

Watch Nora and Dan’s documentary for OPB’s “Oregon Experience,” "Remember Mulugeta: Confronting Hate in Portland," here.

 

For more Evergreen episodes and to share your voice with us, visit our showpage.

Follow OPB on Instagram, and follow host Jenn Chávez too.

You can sign up for OPB’s newsletters to get what you need in your inbox regularly.

 

Don’t forget to check out our many podcasts, which can be found on any of your favorite podcast apps:

00:30:03
Mar 23, 2026 5:0 AM
Clean
The Evergreen
How to take care of Oregon’s beloved Bagby Hot Springs

Nestled among the old growth trees in Oregon’s Mt. Hood National Forest, a winding trail leads to the historic bathhouses and hand-carved tubs of Bagby Hot Springs. People have been visiting the springs to soak and commune with nature since time immemorial.

 

But this beloved place also has a complicated history. Over the years, crowds, misuse, vandalism and other problems have caused it to repeatedly fall into disrepair. And teams of volunteers have repeatedly banded together to restore Bagby to its former glory.

 

This week on the show: how do we love a place without loving it to death? How do we reckon with the impact our presence has on the natural spaces we feel connected to? And can a place like Bagby Hot Springs be saved for good?

 

We consider these big questions with OPB “Oregon Field Guide” producer Ian McCluskey, who first visited and fell in love with the springs as a small child.

 

Watch Ian’s documentary for Oregon Field Guide, “Bagby Hot Springs: Ruin and Redemption” on March 19th on OPB’s YouTube channel and at opb.org.

 

-

 

For more episodes of The Evergreen, and to share your voice with us, visit our show page.

Follow OPB on Instagram, and follow host Jenn Chávez too.

You can sign up for OPB’s newsletters to get what you need in your inbox regularly.

 

Don’t forget to check out our many podcasts, which can be found on any of your favorite podcast apps:
Hush
Timber Wars Season 2: Salmon Wars
Politics Now
Think Out Loud

And many more! Check out our full show list here.

 

00:28:05
Mar 16, 2026 5:0 AM
Clean