Think Out Loud

The Portland-based nonprofit Smashing Barriers works with organizations including the Boys & Girls Clubs of America and Friendly House. It offers free tennis clinics and organizes charity tournaments. Jiya Mehta and Rohan Shah, the co-founders, started the nonprofit while in high school. They aim to bring the organization to each state in the U.S. In addition to Oregon, the nonprofit already has chapters in Arizona, California and Texas. We listen back to a conversation we first aired on Aug. 11, 2025 with Shah and Mehta who shared how tennis has shaped their lives and their plans for growing Smashing Barriers.

The city of Portland is facing a $172 million budget shortfall for various reasons, including declining tax revenue, inflation, expiration of pandemic-era funds and increased healthcare costs.  Mayor Keith Wilson shared a proposal last week that would cut nearly 150 jobs and make cuts to public safety, parks, transportation and resources for people experiencing homelessness. Mayor Wilson has said this has been one of the hardest things he’s ever done. He joins us now to share more on his budget proposal and the financial future of the city.

It’s been just over a year since the crisis intervention program CAHOOTS stopped providing services in Eugene after the city decided to end its contract with the organization. The mobile team had operated in the city since 1989. Lane County launched its own crisis response team in 2024, and now, the city is partnering with Ideal Option to send peer navigators on non-emergency calls. Navigators will respond to welfare checks and connect community members to housing, behavioral health and other services.

Eugene-Springfield Fire Chief Mike Caven joins us to talk about the new program and the state of emergency response services in Eugene.

This past winter tied Oregon’s record for the warmest winter ever recorded. The warmer temperatures have led to record-low snowpack levels not only in Oregon but across many other western states. Climate change will likely make our winters not only warmer but also rainier, as more of the winter precipitation falls as rain instead of snow. 

That rain and melting snow are also expected to move faster through our landscape into rivers and streams in the Pacific Northwest through the coming decades, according to a new study led by scientists at Oregon State University. Scientists developed a model that estimates current and future water transit times based on precipitation events in a tributary of the Yakima River. Faster water flows through the landscape could be a variable that water managers may need to consider when planning for summer months when water demand is greatest. 

Zach Butler is a postdoctoral researcher at OSU and the lead author of the study. He joins us for more details.

Prescribed burns are carefully planned fires on public lands to help reduce the risk of wildfires in communities. They're often conducted by by government agencies such as the Bureau of Land Management, but new groups of community members are now getting involved. Prescribed Burn Associations, also known as PBAs, are local groups of community members, land owners and other volunteers that conduct prescribed burns on private land. They also work closely with certified burn managers for planning, securing permits and more to prepare the site for fire.

Chris Adlam is a regional fire specialist for Oregon State University's Extension Program. Aaron Krikava is an organizer for the Rogue Valley PBA. They both join us to share more on what PBAs are and the impact they have had in Oregon.

Over the pandemic, the sale of puzzles skyrocketed. And while people of all ages enjoy piecing together jigsaw puzzles as a more leisurely activity, others take it at a much more serious and at a competitive level. Speed puzzling is a competition where everyone is given the exact same puzzle and individuals, duos or teams work together to complete it the fastest. Last month, USA Jigsaw Nationals brought together puzzle lovers across the country to Atlanta to compete. Portlander Rob Shields was one of the attendees. He is a speed puzzling enthusiast as well as the host of "Piece Talks," a speed puzzling podcast. He joins us to share more on what he saw at the nationals and what makes speed puzzling so appealing.

When it comes to growing apples, no state dominates like Washington. It accounts for roughly 6 in 10 of all the apples grown in the U.S. One of the major threats facing this top crop is fire blight. The bacterial disease attacks apple and pear trees and can ruin an entire harvest, costing roughly $100 million annually in losses for the U.S. apple industry. The fire blight bacteria can also develop resistance to the antibiotic orchardists have typically used to protect their fruit trees.

But that resistance may have met its match in a compound that Washington State University microbiologist and associate professor Cynthia Haseltine calls “the universal assassin” for its ability to kill not only fire blight bacteria but also other harmful pathogens. Haseltine has spent nearly a decade developing this compound that is derived from a microbe found in extreme environments like volcanic vents and hot springs. 

The compound is now being field tested for the first time in central Washington. It’s also shown promise in the lab at killing listeria bacteria which can grow on equipment in fruit packing plants. 

Haseltine joins us to share details of the grant she was recently awarded to expand production and real-world testing of this novel approach to protecting Washington apples.

According to scientists at the Cascadia Research Collective, gray whale populations off the Washington coast are experiencing a higher level of early-season mortality than they’ve ever recorded. Just this year, three gray whales have been found off the Oregon Coast, and 14 have been found off the coast of Washington.

The whales that have been found stranded in Washington and Oregon appear to have been extremely malnourished. Scientists think that melting sea ice due to climate change in the arctic is reducing the whales’ food supply, leading to the uptick in whale deaths recorded along the entire West Coast.

John Calambokidis is a senior research biologist and a co-founder of the Cascadia Research Collective who has been studying gray whales for over 50 years. He’s one of the first to dispatch when a gray whale washes up on the coast of Washington. Calambokidis joins us to discuss these trends and what it means for gray whale populations in our region.

With ballots for Oregon’s primary elections scheduled to go out next week, civic organizations are working to get out the vote. Imagine Black, based in Portland, aims to engage voters through community events, rather than mailers or door-to-door canvassing. The nonprofit is holding a basketball benefit next month with community leaders and elected officials ahead of primary Election Day, May 19.

Joy Alise Davis is the executive director of Imagine Black. She joins us to talk about voter burnout in Portland’s Black communities and how her organization hopes to make voting exciting again.

Luiz Bertassoni is the director of the institute’s Precision Biofabrication Hub, which he helped launch in 2023, and a professor of oncology at OHSU. Since last year, he and his team have received more than $9 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health to advance the potential of these so-called organ-on-a-chip devices in the fight against cancer. The latest grants target an aggressive form of prostate cancer that spreads to bones and a cancer of the bone that spreads to lungs. Bertassoni joins us to talk about this new technology and the promise he thinks it holds for the roughly 40% of adults in the U.S. who will likely develop cancer at some point in their lives. 

As of last week, Oregon had reported 20 measles cases since the start of 2026. Measles was declared eradicated in the U.S. in 2000, but falling vaccination rates have driven outbreaks in more than half of U.S. states so far this year. Health officials warn that community transmission in Oregon is beginning to grow and have asked for the public’s help in curbing the spread.

Dean Sidelinger is a health officer and state epidemiologist for the Oregon Health Authority. He joins us with more details about where the outbreak stands and how people can stay safe.

Paul Bikis, the director of the film, noticed the threads through all of their stories, and created a feature-length film showcasing the Hancock, Doellning and Soens’ unique journeys through their respective outdoor feats. “Adapted” premieres in Bend on April 23rd, and in Portland on April 30th. “Think Out Loud” spoke with Anna Soens ahead of her Paralympic debut in Milan-Cortina earlier this year. We’re joined by director Paul Bikis, and athletes Josh Hancock and Danielle Doelling to talk about the new film.

From the Emerald Ash Borer to Zebra Mussels, Oregon is no stranger to invasive species. The state has a management plan in place that aims to detect invasive species early on, educate the public and prevent their entry into Oregon to begin with. But there are other tools that government agencies and researchers use around the world: dogs. Conservation dogs are trained canines that help locate invasive and endangered species, as well as playing a role in data collection for research. Jennifer Hartman and Heath Smith are co-founders of Rogue Detection Dogs. They both join us to share more on what makes a good conservation dog and how they got into this work to begin with.

Portland’s Bureau of Emergency Communications has drastically improved its 9-1-1 call times and medical response. Just a few years ago, the agency was short staffed and response times were far below national standards. But the efforts the Bureau has made have yielded dramatic results: it recently earned accreditation by the International Academy of Emergency Dispatch, which put it in the top 10 percent of dispatch agencies in the world. We talk with Steve Mawdsley, the interim director of the Bureau of Emergency Communications, and call dispatcher Hannah Kimbell to hear about the improvements they've made, and what it’s like to be the first call in an emergency.

 Charitable donation bins, the large steel and metal boxes often found in parking lots, began appearing in the U.S. in the 1950s. By 1960, Portland had more than 70 goodwill bins, collecting tens of thousands of bags of donated goods a year. But there is a cost that comes with charitable giving. New reporting from The Believer found more than 30 documented cases where people have died while trying to access donated goods. Many of the deceased were people experiencing homelessness, and the documented number of deaths is believed to be an undercount.

Paul Collins, an English professor at Portland State University, wrote about this issue for the publication. He joins us to share more about the people who have died because of these bins and why they are so deadly.