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.

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The Evergreen
REBROADCAST Unearthing the buried history of Eastern Oregon’s Chinese cowboys

The cowboy is one of the most potent symbols of American Western mythology. But while pop culture might call John Wayne or the Marlboro Man to mind, real history tells a different story than Hollywood or history books. Cowboys in the West were racially diverse, and in Eastern Oregon, Chinese Americans played a big role in ranching and local economies.

 

As part of work to reclaim histories of the early Chinese diaspora in rural Oregon, archaeologists and community historians are on the trail of Eastern Oregon’s Chinese cowboys. That pursuit takes us to the historic Stewart Ranch in Grant County to learn more about Buckaroo Sam, cook Jim Lee and others who lived and worked there. We’re revisiting the first installment 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 — the real stuff.

 

For more episodes of The Evergreen, 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:
Hush
Timber Wars Season 2: Salmon Wars
Politics Now
Think Out Loud

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

00:28:32
Oct 19, 2026 5:0 AM
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More Episodes

The Evergreen
Indigenous youth climbers connect with Washington’s Mount Tahoma

Standing at 14,410 feet, Mount Tahoma is the tallest mountain in the Pacific Northwest. It’s also known worldwide as Mount Rainier, and is often a stepping stone for mountaineers with their sights set on climbing peaks like Denali and Kilimanjaro. It’s long held significance to the Indigenous tribes with homelands around its base, which have their own names for the mountain — like Tahoma. Many of these names translate to “mother of all waters.”

 

Outdoor educator and Muckleshoot tribal member Rachel Heaton began hiking and climbing the mountain during the pandemic, and noticed the lack of Indigenous presence there. In an effort to help bring visibility of Native people back to the mountain, she led a group of Indigenous teens and young adults on a climb in June to Camp Muir, just above 10,000 feet up the mountain.

 

“Oregon Field Guide” producer Jessie Sears brings us along as the group climbs more than 4,600 feet — through dense fog, breathtaking beauty, and tent-snapping winds — and reflects on their relationships with nature and themselves.

 

Watch Jessie Sears’ documentary for OPB’s “Oregon Field Guide,” “Climbing Mount Tahoma.”

 

 

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.

00:27:39
Oct 5, 2026 5:0 AM
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The Evergreen
A love letter to an Oregon mercado

Imagine a place where the smells of barbacoa and leather from cowboy boots waft through the air, where the sounds of cumbia playing, vendors making aguas frescas and conversations in Spanish carry through the aisles.

 

M&M Marketplace, a colorful mercado in Hillsboro, gives many of its visitors a sense of community and home. 

 

At the mercado, podcast producer Mía Estrada was instantly transported to the Texas-Mexico border, where she was born and raised.

 

In this week’s episode, we explore the meaning of home, how we find it in unexpected places, and how it helps us stay resilient — all within the grounds of an Oregon mercado.

 

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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:

 

00:22:47
Sep 28, 2026 5:0 AM
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The Evergreen
REBROADCAST Beyond the Beats: a short history of Portland hip-hop

Portland may not be known as a hub of hip-hop on par with New York or Los Angeles, but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t been a hotbed for sonic experimentation and incredible talent for decades. 

 

We had all the elements: historic Black neighborhoods in Northeast Portland, jazz dripping out of clubs, funk bands, block parties, dances, and plenty of good ol’ fashioned youthful angst. So why isn’t Portland hip-hop bigger?

 

Marlon “Vursatyl” Irving, a longtime Portland rapper and founding member of the Lifesavas hip-hop group, says local nightclubs and venues discriminated against artists, denying artists access to performance spaces

 

“It was hard for us to get into clubs,” he says. “I think had there been more racial diversity in Portland, and just more understanding about hip-hop culture at the time that the foundation was being laid, we would've got to hear some of the greatest, we would've had recordings from the greatest, we would've seen their careers blossom.” 

 

On this week’s episode, we’re revisiting a story about Portland hip-hop, why it isn’t bigger and what keeps it going. 

 

A special thank you to J Jackson, who produced the documentary “Beyond the Beats” in collaboration with OPB’s “Oregon Experience,” KMHD Jazz Radio, and Albina Music Trust. 

 

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:

00:22:16
Sep 21, 2026 5:0 AM
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The Evergreen
How Portland’s WNBA team won our hearts

The rekindled Portland Fire are wrapping up their inaugural season and, while they didn’t make the playoffs, they did finish fourth in the league for attendance. The team averaged more 14,500 fans per game, which is not all that surprising given how much Portlanders love to show up for women’s sports. Center Megan DiLeo (formerly Megan Gustafson) described the team as “a bunch of overlooked players,” and said she never felt respected as an athlete until she came to the Rose City. Whether the team won or lost, every home game brought good vibes to the Moda Center, which the team nicknamed “The Fire Pit.” 

 

We break down the joys and challenges of the new team’s first season with two lifelong women’s basketball fans: OPB business reporter, Kyra Buckly and Rev Shines, host of “Today’s Good News” on KMHD.

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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:
Hush
Timber Wars Season 2: Salmon Wars
Politics Now
Think Out Loud

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

 

00:28:00
Sep 14, 2026 5:0 AM
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The Evergreen
Data centers are everywhere

Data centers are at the heart of heated conversations in communities around the country, and Oregon is no exception. These facilities store and process data that make all kinds of connectivity possible — posting updates to social media, streaming movies and TV shows, online banking, telehealth, and of course, artificial intelligence. There are about 125 data centers in Oregon. The AI boom has rapidly increased the demand for this infrastructure. And with that has come increased awareness about the climate and community impacts of data centers, as well as how they could impact Oregon’s aging power grid. 

 

We dig into the benefits and drawbacks of data centers in communities across Oregon and hear why some of the largest of these facilities could be a threat to air quality in the eastern part of the state. 

–

 

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:
Hush
Timber Wars Season 2: Salmon Wars
Politics Now
Think Out Loud

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

00:28:27
Sep 7, 2026 5:0 AM
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The Evergreen
‘At Work With’ a TriMet planner, a health inspector and a doula

What does it mean to guide someone through one of the most vulnerable moments of their life? What does it take to plan how bus riders get around? What’s it like to walk into restaurants looking for what others might miss?

 

We’re back with the latest stories from “At Work With,” our series where we interview people from different lines of work about what it’s like to do what they do. In this episode, we meet a doula supporting families through birth, a transit planner at TriMet, and a county health inspector making sure food is safe to eat. 

 

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

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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.

00:22:28
Aug 24, 2026 5:0 AM
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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
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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
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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
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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.”

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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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