Think Out Loud

Think Out Loud

OPB's daily conversation covering news, politics, culture and the arts. Hosted By Dave Miller.

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Think Out Loud
Oregon Arts Commission celebrates 50 years of public art and artists

This summer, the Oregon Arts Commission is marking the 50th anniversary of the Percent for Art program, which has helped 900 artists create 3,000 pieces of public art. The 1975 law requires that one percent of the cost of new and renovated buildings go toward a piece of art that’s accessible to the public. The arts commission and Travel Oregon launched a “50 for 50” program in August, highlighting 50 pieces in the collection that span across the state and encourages people to get out to see them. We talk with the Oregon Arts Commission Public Art and Artist Programs Coordinator Ryan Burghard about the campaign, along with artist Christine Clark. She is one of the 900 artists included in the collection. Her piece, “Gathering Panes and Shapes,” is installed at the Eastern Oregon University library in La Grande.

 

00:27:13
Sep 3, 2025 12:42 PM
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Think Out Loud
University of Oregon study shows fear of deportation changes with age

A recently published study from the University of Oregon found that the fear of deportation declines with age among immigrants without protected status. The research is based on interviews with Mexican immigrants over the age of 50 in the California communities of Oakland, Fremont and Berkeley. The interviews were mostly conducted in 2019 and some in 2022, before the second Trump presidency.

 

The study found several factors that affected the fear of deportation. For example, older undocumented immigrants tend to have children who are now adults, and so family separation was less of a concern than for an immigrant with minor children. The study also found that “life course mechanisms,” such as leaving the workforce because of retirement, and the older immigrants’ own perception that their age made them less visible targets, also shaped their fear of deportation. 

 

Joining us to discuss the implications of these findings is the study’s author, Isabel García Valdivia, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Oregon.

 

00:14:45
Sep 3, 2025 12:42 PM
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Think Out Loud
Where things stand with Oregon’s special legislative session

Last Friday, Oregon lawmakers convened in Salem for a special legislative session called by Gov. Tina Kotek to pass a transportation funding bill. The special session will now likely not end until later this month to allow Democrats to muster the necessary votes to pass the bill in the Oregon Senate. On Monday, the House passed a bill that would raise gas taxes by 6 cents per gallon, hike vehicle registration and titling fees, raise costs for drivers of EVs, and temporarily double a payroll tax that funds public transit. The bill contains many elements of one introduced earlier this year by Sen. Chris Gorsek, D-Gresham, who is currently recovering from surgery and is seen as a critical vote for the passage of the new transportation funding bill to avert mass layoffs at the Oregon Department of Transportation and cuts in the agency’s services. That earlier bill failed during the regularly scheduled legislative session which ended in June.

 

OPB political reporter Dirk VanderHart joins us for the latest developments about the special legislative session and the political rifts that have emerged as it nears conclusion.

 

00:08:08
Sep 3, 2025 12:42 PM
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Think Out Loud
Former manager of Portland homeless shelters helps people replace lost IDs, birth certificates

 Three years ago, Paul Susi launched PDX ID Assistance, a free service to help people replace lost forms of identification, such as a driver’s license or birth certificate. In a recent magazine essay he wrote for Oregon Humanities, Susi says he was motivated to start PDX ID Assistance after working for years as a manager of homeless shelters in Portland where he saw firsthand the frustration clients experienced trying to obtain housing, employment health care or other services without identification documents. 

 

PDX ID Assistance operates as a kind of free drop-in clinic Susi holds several times a month at locations that are familiar to people experiencing homelessness, like a library or homeless services provider. Susi shows up with a stack of application forms to request a birth certificate in all 50 states, envelopes and stamps for mailing off the forms and checks he fills out to each person seeking his help to cover the cost of replacing an identification document.  

 

Susi joins us to share his experiences with PDX ID Assistance and how it’s taken on new significance in the current political climate. 

 

00:18:26
Sep 2, 2025 1:5 PM
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Think Out Loud
No Vacancy Window Gallery turns boarded-up Portland buildings into accessible art spaces

The No Vacancy Window Gallery is a self-guided art tour through Portland’s Old Town-Chinatown neighborhood. It launches on September 4 and runs through November 30. The gallery aims to create accessible art in the area by turning boarded-up buildings into exhibition venues. We hear more from curator Lauren Lesueur about the exhibition.

00:10:13
Sep 2, 2025 1:4 PM
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Think Out Loud
Will Vaux’s swifts return to Portland’s Chapman Elementary?

Vaux’s swifts are small, migratory birds that travel from their breeding grounds in the Pacific Northwest to Central and South American each fall, roosting in chimneys and hollowed-out trees along the way. For a few weeks in September, huge flocks of the birds have spiraled into the chimney of Chapman Elementary in Northwest Portland. The nightly display has entertained crowds for decades, but as of last year, the birds appear to have abandoned the chimney. 

 

Joe Liebezeit is the statewide conservation director for the Bird Alliance of Oregon. He joins us to talk about why the birds might be moving and what to expect from the swifts this year.

 

00:09:30
Sep 2, 2025 1:4 PM
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Think Out Loud
In Washington, some people accused of domestic violence keep their guns

In Washington, the Flannery decision has caused confusion over when people accused of domestic violence need to surrender their firearms. More recently, another court decision has provided more clarity over the issue.  We dig into this story with Kelsey Turner, an investigative reporter with InvestigateWest. 

00:11:45
Sep 2, 2025 1:4 PM
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Think Out Loud
A day at the Oregon State Fair

The 160th annual Oregon State Fair in Salem wraps up on Labor Day. The 10-day event features live music, monster trucks, carnival rides and competitions that showcase excellence in Oregon art, livestock, agriculture and more. From the tallest sunflower grown to blue ribbons awarded for beef and dairy cattle, the fair is also an opportunity to honor the hard work of future farmers, ranchers or hobbyists who’ve waited months to compete and show off their skills. 

 

We visited the fair on opening day to talk with folks about what brought them there, whether it was livestock to judge, veggies to show off, deep-fried Oreos to sell or childhood memories to rekindle.

 

00:51:39
Sep 1, 2025 12:6 PM
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Think Out Loud
Community land trust builds housing in the wake of Labor Day fires

When the Holiday Farm Fire roared through the McKenzie River corridor five years ago, it destroyed at least 500 homes and most of the community of Blue River.  In the aftermath, many former home owners sold their property rather than rebuilding. Property values went up, and housing - especially affordable or mid-range housing - became very hard to find. In response, some community members founded the nonprofit McKenzie Community Land Trust. One of the only rural land trusts for housing in the country, the trust is nearing completion on six new homes for residents who make below 80% of area median income for Lane County. Tabitha Eck, executive director of the McKenzie Community Land Trust, joins us to explain the model.

 

00:11:43
Aug 29, 2025 1:11 PM
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Think Out Loud
An update on the Flat Fire and its impact on residents of Sisters

The Flat Fire, which is burning two miles northeast of Sisters in Central Oregon, has grown to more than 23,000 acres and is 13% contained, as of Friday morning. The fire broke out last week, grew rapidly and prompted Level 1, 2 and 3 evacuation orders in Deschutes and Jefferson counties. On Thursday, Level 3 orders were downgraded to Level 2 in both counties. According to an update posted Thursday morning, five homes have been destroyed by the fire, the cause of which is still under investigation.  

 

Jim Cornelius, editor-in-chief of The Nugget Newspaper in Sisters, says that while the community is no stranger to wildfires, efforts have expanded in recent years to make it more fire-wise and resilient to wildfires. The city is considering updates to its development code for new construction and in the spring, a local nonprofit, Citizens4Community, organized community forums to educate residents about fire insurance and wildfire preparedness, from assembling a go bag to requesting a free wildfire home assessment. 

 

Cornelius joins us for an update about the Flat Fire, its impact on Sisters and how the catastrophic Labor Day Fires of 2020 shaped the community’s fire-readiness.

 

00:09:24
Aug 29, 2025 1:11 PM
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Think Out Loud
How IRCO is helping Oregon refugees and immigrants amid ongoing immigration crackdown

President Donald Trump declared an indefinite pause on new refugee admissions to the U.S. on his first day in office in January. Shortly after, he froze federal funding for resettlement agencies that provide services to refugees in the U.S. The decisions are part of a broader crackdown on immigration that’s led to arrests and deportations across the country. 


The Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization, or IRCO, provides education, health, employment and other support services to refugee and immigrant communities in Oregon. Executive Director Lee Po Cha joins us to talk about what it’s like to do that work in the current political climate.

00:13:55
Aug 28, 2025 12:53 PM
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Think Out Loud
Portland player wins North American Scrabble Championship

Scrabble is more than just a family pastime for Portland resident Nigel Peltier. For him, it’s been a decades-long pursuit. Peltier first entered the tournament scene as a teenager, quickly rising through the ranks to become one of the top-rated players in North America. 

This summer, he won his first North American Scrabble Players Association National Championship, dominating the final match with six “bingos,” or seven-letter words played in a single turn. He joins us to share what it takes to compete at the highest level and why the game still excites him after all these years.

 

00:12:34
Aug 28, 2025 12:52 PM
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Think Out Loud
Portland officials share efforts they say are helping curb gun violence, homicides

According to the violent crime survey by the Major Cities Chiefs Association, there were 17 homicides in Portland in the first half of 2025 compared to 35 for the same period last year. That 51% decline is the largest drop in homicides among the 68 city and county police agencies represented in the survey. Aggravated assaults, rapes and robberies have also declined in Portland and nationwide, according to the survey.   


Gun violence, however, continues to be a problem, with three firearm-related homicides recorded in Portland just last month. Ceasefire is one of the initiatives the city is pursuing to break the cycle of gun violence. Launched in 2023, it’s based on a national model that identifies individuals at high risk for gun violence and provides them with supportive services and intensive case management within their communities. Ceasefire director Sierra Ellis and Lt. Israel Hill, who supervises the Portland Police Bureau’s Focused Intervention Team and Enhanced Community Safety Team, join us to talk about Ceasefire and other strategies the city is pursuing to curb violent crimes.

00:22:50
Aug 28, 2025 12:52 PM
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Think Out Loud
Over-the-counter pill has improved access to birth control, OHSU study says

The Food and Drug Administration approved the sale of over-the-counter birth control pills two years ago. The decision has dramatically increased access to contraception, according to a new study from Oregon Health & Science University. 

 

Researchers found that more than a quarter of participants who were using the over-the-counter pill had switched from using no birth control at all. They also found that members of the over-the-counter group were more likely to be uninsured and live in rural areas than participants who used prescription birth control.

 

Maria Rodriguez is the director of both the Center for Reproductive Health Equity and the Center for Women’s Health at OHSU. She joins us with more on the importance of removing barriers to reproductive health care.

 

00:19:11
Aug 27, 2025 12:45 PM
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Think Out Loud
Study says Portland is a national leader in green stormwater infrastructure system

Over the past few decades, Portland has built one of the most extensive green stormwater infrastructure systems in the country. Instead of relying only on pipes and drains, it has created thousands of rain gardens and green streets to help keep sewage out of the Willamette River. Much of that work has not only involved city engineers but also local community members — from volunteers who ‘adopt’ and maintain storm drains to nonprofits that rip out pavement and replace it with trees and plants.


A new study in the journal Sustainability looks back at the first 30 years of Portland’s green stormwater infrastructure, but questions remain about whether the city is keeping up with climate change and rapid growth. Our guests are study co-author Adrienne Aiona, a civil engineer at the city's Bureau of Environmental Services and Ted Labbe, finance and partnerships manager of the nonprofit Depave. They join us to talk about the city’s work and the role of local stewardship in keeping Portland’s green stormwater system alive and well.

00:16:16
Aug 27, 2025 12:45 PM
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Think Out Loud
Child care options increasing for Oregon preschoolers, according to OSU report

The availability of child care for children ages 3 to 5 in Oregon is steadily increasing, according to a new report from Oregon State University. In 2018, three-quarters of the state’s counties were considered preschool child care deserts, but as of last year, that number dropped to just nine. However, all but two counties are still considered child care deserts for children ages 0 to 2.

 

Megan Pratt is an associate professor of practice at OSU and the report’s lead author. Alyssa Chatterjee is the director of the Oregon Department of Early Learning and Care. They both join us with more details on what the state’s child care landscape looks like today.

 

00:14:31
Aug 27, 2025 12:45 PM
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Think Out Loud
Portland refugee reflects on 8-year anniversary of Rohingya genocide, new life in US

Eight years ago, the military in Myanmar launched a weekslong campaign of genocide against the Rohingya, a persecuted Muslim ethnic minority. Investigators from the United Nations documented the scale of the “extreme violence” they found: the killing of thousands of civilians; mass rapes of “hundreds, possibly thousands” of women and girls; nearly 400 villages burned to the ground. More than 700,000 Rohingya fled to neighboring Bangladesh where they live in squalid conditions in the world’s largest refugee camp.  

 

Nurul Haque was born and raised in that refugee camp. About a decade ago, he started the Bangladesh Rohingya Student Union, an organization that helps expand educational and leadership opportunities for youth in the camp and advocates to stop child labor and human trafficking by criminal gangs. After being kidnapped, beaten and threatened with death by armed gang members, Haque successfully applied for refugee status in the U.S. for himself, his wife and young son. In December 2023, he and his family arrived in Portland, which he chose for resettlement because a relative lived there.  

 

Haque joins us to share what his life is like today and his continued advocacy for Rohingya communities here and abroad.

 

00:21:03
Aug 26, 2025 1:5 PM
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Think Out Loud
As 5-year anniversary of Labor Day fires approaches, two survivors of Almeda fire share their stories

Nearly five years ago, a combination of dry conditions and heavy winds starting on Labor Day quickly accelerated the spread of multiple wildfires that had broken out in Oregon’s Western Cascades. Eleven people died in the Labor Day fires, which burned more than 1 million acres and destroyed more than 4,000 homes, from Clackamas county to the California border. 

 

As the fifth anniversary of the deadliest fires in the state’s history approaches, we hear from two survivors who lived in southern Oregon at the time. We first spoke with retiree Sue McMillan less than two weeks after she evacuated her home in Phoenix with her pets ad a few belongings to flee the Almeda fire, which broke out near Ashland on Sep. 8, 2020. The fire burned her home and her possessions and prompted McMillan to leave Oregon in March 2021.  Today, she lives in Santa Rosa in northern California to be close to her family, although she says she misses Oregon. 

 

Misty Rose Muñoz was returning from an appointment in Ashland when the Almeda fire broke out. As the highway swelled with motorists, Muñoz was unable to return to her home in a mobile home park near Phoenix. She still managed to alert her neighbors and her daughter to evacuate. Even though Muñoz’s home didn’t burn down, the flames, smoke and ash caused irreparable damage and left it uninhabitable. After leaving the Rogue Valley in Sep. 2023, Muñoz moved to Portland where she eventually found work as a school bus driver. After years of housing instability, in March, she bought a home in Ashland through a grant she received from a federally funded, state administered program that helps wildfire victims repair or replace their homes.  

 

McMillan and Muñoz join us to share their memories about surviving the Almeda fire, what they lost and their years-long journeys of recovery.

 

00:30:04
Aug 26, 2025 1:5 PM
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Think Out Loud
As 5-year anniversary of Labor Day fires approaches, survivors in Detroit share their stories of recovery

Nearly five years ago, a combination of dry conditions and heavy winds starting on Labor Day quickly accelerated the spread of multiple wildfires that had broken out in Oregon’s Western Cascades. Eleven people died in the Labor Day fires, which burned more than 1 million acres and destroyed more than 4,000 homes, from Clackamas county to the California border.

 

As the fifth anniversary of the deadliest wildfires in the state’s history approaches, we hear from survivors about their evacuations and efforts to rebuild their lives. They include Debra Bowman and Russ Boyd, residents of Detroit, a city southeast of Salem in eastern Marion County that is still struggling to rebuild after the fires. 

 

Bowman is a retiree who evacuated the Beachie Creek and Lionshead fires in the early morning hours of Sep. 8, 2020, with her husband and pet dog. Boyd also fled then, driving out of town with his wife and other relatives. Today, he is the co-owner of a mini-mart and bar in Detroit, while his wife and mother-in-law own a hamburger food cart on the same lot. Bowman and Boyd join us to share their memories about the evacuation, returning to Detroit and how they’re doing today.

 

00:32:34
Aug 25, 2025 1:13 PM
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Think Out Loud
Multnomah County chair on Preschool for All, deflection and more

After hours of public briefings, discussions and a public listening session, Multnomah County Commissioners decided last week to pause a controversial move to change Preschool for All’s funding stream. Commissioners were meant to vote this week on an ordinance that would have adjusted the program’s income tax threshold based on inflation, something the governor asked them to do. Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson joins us to discuss the current state of the county’s ambitious plan to achieve universal preschool, and gives us an update on drug treatment and deflection a year after the state ended its drug decriminalization experiment.

00:18:24
Aug 25, 2025 1:12 PM
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Think Out Loud
REBROADCAST: Homeless people in the Pacific Northwest talk about their experiences

As a part of President Trump's takeover of policing in the nation's capital, he has pledged to remove homeless people and encampments from the city. White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said homeless people who don’t leave the city will face punishment in the form of fines and jail time. Cities across the country are struggling  with how to regulate homeless camping, including in the Pacific Northwest. We take this moment to listen back to several conversations we had with people living on the streets of Portland and Vancouver about how they think homelessness should be regulated. 

 

Back in 2022, then Portland mayor Ted Wheeler pledged to create several huge sanctioned homeless camps at the edges of the city and threatened to send people who wouldn’t go to those camps to jail. OPB’s “Think Out Loud” spent a day on the streets of Portland asking people how they felt about the plan.

 

Earlier this winter, OPB’s “Think Out Loud” spent a morning with staff and volunteers of the Council for Homeless as they participated in the Point-in-Time count in Vancouver, Washington.  The Point-in-Time count is a federally required snapshot of how many people are experiencing homelessness in a given area. 

 

00:51:07
Aug 22, 2025 12:6 PM
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Think Out Loud
Former OHA director reflects on running the agency during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic

On June 30, 2021, former Oregon Gov. Kate Brown held a Reopening Oregon Celebration at Providence Park in Portland. Years later, Oregon schools and businesses are fully open, many workplaces have returned to in-office work and people regularly gather together inside. Patrick Allen is the former director of the Oregon Health Authority. He ran the agency during the height of the pandemic and joins us with details of what he learned working through a once-in-a-century crisis. 

00:23:53
Aug 21, 2025 12:44 PM
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Think Out Loud
Oregon doctor warns of rise in cannabis poisoning among teens and kids

The number of cannabis-related reports to poison control centers across the U.S. has risen greatly since 2009, according to new reporting from the New York Times. They also found a rise in cases where cannabis poisoning led to breathing problems and even life-threatening effects, especially among teens and adults. Rob Hendrickson is the medical director of the Oregon Poison Center at OHSU. He joins us to share what he’s seen in the emergency room in recent years.

00:15:38
Aug 21, 2025 12:44 PM
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