Think Out Loud

The Lullaby Project was created more than a decade ago by the Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute. The program pairs singer-songwriters with parents who are incarcerated or experiencing homelessness, and together they create a lullaby.  In Oregon, those songs are arranged for the Oregon Symphony and then publicly performed. 

Ada McGraw was one of the first women to participate in this program after it expanded to the Coffee Creek Correctional Facility last year. While serving her sentence, McGraw was paired with singer-songwriter Bre Gregg. The lullaby they wrote was for her son Legend and included a poem from Legend’s father.

Jessica Katz is the director of The Family Preservation Project and facilitated their meeting. We talk with Katz, Gregg and McGraw to hear about this creative process and learn more about the larger impact of The Lullaby Project. 

On Thursday, musicians drove down to Coffee Creek to begin work on the next set of lullabies with women in custody. We’re rebroadcasting this segment that first aired live on May 5, 2026 to kick off Staff Picks, an occasional series highlighting some of our production staff’s favorite segments 

 As the need for critical minerals like lithium and magnesium grows, scientists are looking for new ways to extract them. Rather than trying to pull them out of the ground, researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Lab are working to pull those minerals out of seawater. The team has created a system to extract magnesium hydroxide from seawater, which can then be processed into magnesium metal for cars, airplanes and construction materials.

Chinmayee Subban is a chemist at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. She joins us to share more about the effort to mine ocean water.

Election Day arrives in just four short days, with mail-in voting already underway in Oregon and Washington. The Trump administration is continuing to challenge the country’s ballots, methods of voting and state voter rolls all around the country. Trump is sending federal election observers to Oregon, Washington and a handful of states. In Washington, the state has also been dealing with allegations that the state’s voter rolls are rife with noncitizens.  

Washington’s Director of Elections Stuart Holmes joins us to talk about the accuracy and security of the state’s voter rolls and election system more broadly in this political moment. We also get an update from Tim Scott, director of the Multnomah County Elections office, about Election Day observers and recommendations for where and how county residents can cast their ballots. 

Earlier this month, Oregon became the 25th state to sanction girls flag football as a high school sport, starting next spring. The sport has grown especially rapidly in the Beaver State since the Oregon School Activities Association voted just two years ago to designate girls flag football as an emerging activity. This past spring, nearly 60 girls high school flag football teams competed in the state, compared to 32 teams in 2024. 

Bubba Lemon is the head coach of the girls flag football team and the boys basketball team at Tualatin High School. In May, senior Briana Kaer and junior Hannah Wachter helped their Tualatin teammates defeat South Salem in overtime to clinch the state title. A month later, Tualatin defeated other top teams from Oregon and Washington to win the Best of the PNW tournament sponsored by the Seattle Seahawks. Kaer, Wachter and Lemon join us to discuss their love for this growing sport, which will make its debut at the Summer Olympics in 2028 in Los Angeles.

The Immigrant Story began in 2017 with a mission of highlighting the humanity of individual immigrants and refugees with photos and accompanying short descriptions of their experiences. Sankar Raman founded the nonprofit after immigrating to the U.S. from India. Since then, it has evolved into a multimedia organization that also features live storytelling. Now for the first time, on the 250th anniversary of the founding of the U.S., Raman is turning his attention to citizens who have not enjoyed the full liberties and protections guaranteed by the Constitution. He partnered with the Portland Opera to create a unique celebration of the U.S. called “The American Story: 250 Years of Becoming.” It features live music and three storytellers who are Black, Mexican-American and Japanese-American citizens.

We talk with Raman, along with storyteller Chani Hawkins and Alfrelynn Roberts, the artistic director of the Portland Opera.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a cyclist in Portland who doesn’t know the name Jonathan Maus. Since 2005, he’s reported on Portland’s evolving bike culture and transportation policy through his blog, BikePortland. But after taking a hiatus in April, Maus announced last week that he’s stepping away from the publication for good. 

Maus joins us to talk about what’s next — both for himself and for BikePortland. 

Scientists at Oregon State University set up cameras and recorded 12,000 hours of video footage to track changes in how marbled murrelets feed their chicks across four years of varying ocean conditions. Poor ocean conditions, for example, are generally associated with warmer marine temperatures that can affect the availability of fish like Pacific sand lance the small, stocky seabirds catch to feed their chicks. 

The scientists found that not only did the chicks receive fewer fish per day during poor ocean conditions, they also took 25% longer to leave the nest, which made them more vulnerable to being eaten by predators like ravens and hawks. That raises concerns for the future of a species that’s listed as threatened in California, Oregon and Washington under the Endangered Species Act. Climate change is affecting marbled murrelets’ population recovery by making marine temperatures warmer and El Niño events stronger, and harming the old-growth conifer forests where the birds nest. 

Jim Rivers is an associate professor of wildlife ecology and the director of the Forest Animal Ecology Lab at OSU. He joins us for more details.

 Last week, the city of Umatilla voted to declare a state of emergency in response to Gov. Tina Kotek’s data center moratorium. The city says preventing future data centers could cost their community millions. Data centers have drawn growing bipartisan opposition across the country. They've also created increasing concern for Oregonians on both sides of the aisle. Umatilla City Manager Dave Stockdale joins us to share more on the state of emergency and the state moratorium's broader impacts.

 It’s been nearly two weeks since the shooting at a Bend elementary school. As new details emerge, experts have shared their ideas for preventing school shootings in the future. School shooter prevention has grown to a $4 billion industry, but researchers and advocates say many of the current efforts turn schools into places that can actually bring more fear to students.

Amie Wexler is the executive director of Alliance for a Safe Oregon. It argues that increased access to mental health support for families, reducing youth access to firearms and changes to the physical environments of schools can prevent future mass shootings. The Alliance also notes that increasing the use of Oregon’s Extreme Risk Prevention Orders could also help prevent mass shootings before they occur. Wexler joins us to share more.

The Bureau of Land Management intended to capture an entire herd of wild horses in southeastern Oregon this month after a wildfire burned much of the vegetation in the area. But a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order limiting the roundup, stating that the agency failed to adequately study how it would affect the herd’s genetic diversity. The BLM began its reduced roundup last week.

April Ehrlich covers lands and environmental policy for OPB. She joins us with more details on the court order and the longstanding conflicts around wild horses on federal lands in Oregon.

Last Wednesday, thousands of students in Bend-La Pine Schools returned to class following a school shooting at Silver Rail Elementary in Bend on Oct. 15. A 16-year-old former student at Silver Rail killed three children and a teacher, and seriously injured another educator and young student that day. A Silver Rail parent, Kaylub Giamanco, who was passing by the school at the time of the attack, pursued the shooter and fatally shot him.

Instruction has resumed at all schools except Silver Rail, which remains closed. The district is asking Silver Rail parents to complete a return-to-school survey and is gathering feedback from the school’s staff to inform its reopening plan. The district has also set up an information hub with updates and community resources for students and their families.  Meanwhile, an online petition created by a Silver Rail parent calls for improved security measures in the district, including regular security assessments and hiring more security officers. 

Bend-La Pine Schools Superintendent Dr. Steven Cook joins us to share updates and what he has been hearing from teachers, staff, students and parents following this tragedy.

Kaylub Giamanco is a 36-year-old carpenter and father of two children who attend Silver Rail Elementary school in Bend. In an exclusive interview with OPB News Regional Managing Editor Emily Cureton Cook, Giamanco described the “split second decisions” he made when his life forever changed on Oct. 15. 

That afternoon, Giamanco pursued and fatally shot an armed 16-year-old who had forcibly entered the school and killed three children and a teacher, and seriously injured two others. “Think Out Loud” features an extended version of Giamanco’s interview with OPB, which was recorded in Bend one week after the Silver Rail school shooting.

Editor’s note: This interview contains descriptions of gun violence. The 16-year-old shooter’s firearm was a shotgun and not a rifle, as Gianmanco refers to it in the interview.

While juggling her graduate studies in computer science at the University of Washington, Yael Eiger has been volunteering at two prisons in the Seattle metro area to teach math and other subjects. Her weekly visits exposed her to technologies such as electronic kiosks and tablets incarcerated people are required to use for communicating with loved ones or for buying and playing digital content. 

Eiger, who is a PhD candidate at UW’s Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, convened focus groups with formerly incarcerated people and their loved ones to find out how the use of these devices affected them. The focus groups revealed widespread surveillance and censorship of messages, video calls and even educational content downloaded onto the tablets. Participants also reported recurring glitches and delays with video calls and messages they sent, along with steep charges and hidden fees they had to pay – even if the calls dropped or the messages failed to arrive.

Another paper Eiger recently published highlights how the lack of digital literacy skills makes formerly incarcerated people especially vulnerable to phishing attacks and online scams.  

Eiger joins us to share her research findings and the latest technologies being sold and marketed to law enforcement and corrections officials.  

Within the first week of classes, the University of Oregon received five reports of sexual assault on or near campus. At least four of those reports involved students. In response, the president of the university in a statement urged students to complete their annual required sexual assault-prevention training online. But as new reporting from Inside Higher Ed shows, these trainings when used alone are not enough to prevent assaults on college campuses, and in some cases, could make students more likely to commit these acts. Emma Whitford is a reporter for Inside Higher Ed. She joins us to share more.

Oregon’s 2026-27 Teacher of the Year is Nate Jackson, a social studies teacher at Willamette High School in Eugene. He also advises the school’s Black Student Union, helping to organize student trips and the first Black Summit for students across the district. Before becoming a teacher, Jackson had a career as an entertainment journalist and emcee for college sporting events.

Jackson joins us to talk about the award and why he thinks it’s a particularly important time to be teaching social studies.

Nearly a million people in the Portland area get their water from the Bull Run watershed, about 25 miles east of the city.

The city council voted in 2017 to build the water filtration plant to protect against cryptosporidium to comply with Environmental Protection Agency standards.

The project was originally estimated at $500 million, but since then it’s risen to $2.58 billion. The water bureau says a number of factors worked to drive up the price tag, including skyrocketing construction costs and defending the project against a number of land use challenges. The filtration plant is now the largest public works project in the city’s history.

It was originally scheduled to be completed next year. But after delays, it is now about 40% complete and on track to be operational in 2029. The Portland Water Bureau's Interim Chief Engineer Muriel Gueissaz-Teufe joins us, along with Lyda Hakes, the Bull Run supply and treatment manager. They share more details about why this kind of filtration is needed, how it will work and the benefits for Portland area residents.

Some families living in mobile home parks in Malheur County have been dealing with arsenic in their drinking water supply for years. And water tested recently at one location where unsafe levels of arsenic have been found since 2004, recently found levels six times higher than federal standards for safe drinking water. We’re joined by OPB Eastern Oregon reporter Monica Carrillo-Casas, who’s been following the story and tells us more about who’s being affected and how people are responding.

The Portland Trail Blazers kicked off their new NBA season Wednesday night at the Moda Center with a resounding 41-point victory over the Phoenix Suns. It marked the return of 9-time NBA All-Star Damian Lillard to the Blazers and his first regular season game since an Achilles injury he suffered in April 2025 while playing for the Milwaukee Bucks. Lillard scored 25 points, including six 3-pointers, in just 24 minutes on the court. Ja Morant, whom the Blazers acquired during the summer from the Memphis Grizzlies, added 14 points and eight assists. Micah Nori, the team’s new head coach, will also be under pressure to deliver results this season. 

Meanwhile, the clock is ticking on a December deadline for Portland city officials and the Blazers’ management - led by owner Tom Dundon – to negotiate a new lease agreement for the Moda Center. At stake is roughly $600 million in public funds state and local leaders have committed to paying to renovate the aging arena, provided certain conditions are met. 

KOIN 6 sports anchor and reporter Brenna Greene joins us to break this all down for us.

Monarch butterflies in the Pacific Northwest are currently making their annual migration south for the winter. Around 200 of them are carrying innovative digital trackers that will allow researchers — and the public — to follow their path for the first time.

David James, an associate professor in Washington State University’s entomology department, is overseeing the project. He joins us to talk about what he hopes to learn about monarch migration patterns

In 2022, Portland musician and storyteller Joe Kye created Tiger Tiger, a festival in Portland celebrating the region’s diverse Asian American and Pacific Islander communities. The festival was also a way to bring joy and healing to those communities after a surge of anti-Asian bias and hate crimes during the pandemic.  

After Tiger Tiger, Kye decided he needed to focus on his own healing with a journey into his family’s past and understanding how it has shaped his identity as a first-generation immigrant, father and artist. That exploration has now culminated in “through-lineage,” a new, solo show Kye will perform this Friday and Saturday in Portland at Reed College. 

The show opens with the story of Kye’s grandfather who made a daring escape from North Korea in 1953 as a prisoner of war. Through live music, projected artwork and audience participation, Kye braids together his family’s past and present, including his own experiences as a Korean American growing up in Seattle and a trip he took with his children and partner this past spring to visit his grandparents’ graves in South Korea.

Kye joins us for a studio interview and preview of his new work.  

Ayad Akhtar is a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and the author of the novels “Homeland Elegies” and “American Dervish.” His works explore themes that span religion and identity, cultural assimilation and immigrant aspiration drawn from his upbringing as a Pakistani American in the Midwest. 

His latest book is “The Radiance.” It’s written in a style that fuses the autobiographical with the fictional, as a playwright and author named Ayad Akhtar retreats to a college town in the Hudson Valley to work on his new book. While riding his bike along a country road one day, a pickup truck hits him and flees the scene. The traumatic, near-death experience leaves Akhtar profoundly changed, with a mysterious and mystical sensation of dissociation from the left side of his body that scrambles his sense of self and awakens a spiritual yearning. Meanwhile, his decision to teach a creative writing course on campus triggers a chain of events that erupts in scandal and tragedy. 

Akhtar joins us to discuss all this and more in front of an audience of students at Franklin High School in Portland.

Broadly, so-called dark tourism is a $32 billion industry and includes many ghost tour companies across the country. Portland is no stranger to ghost tours, with a history going back decades. Tanya March is the owner and tour guide of Slabtown Tours. Marina Martinez-Bateman is the owner of Hawthorne Ghost Tours. They both join us to share more about some of Portland’s haunted sites. We’ll also be taking your calls to hear your spooky stories and unexplained happenings. Our number is (888) 665-5865.

 Big changes are coming to the individual health insurance marketplace in Central Oregon. PacificSource, Moda and Providence are all pulling out of the region, leaving just two options for people shopping for their own health insurance: BridgeSpan Health and Regence BlueCross BlueShield. Both carriers are raising their rates by roughly 20% next year.

Erik Wood is an enterprise market president at PacificSource. He joins us to share more about how insurance carriers make these decisions. We’ll also hear from Corrie Bridges, a broker at Bend Health Insurance, about what she’s hearing from clients as open enrollment approaches on Nov. 1.

Correction: This story has been updated to correct Corrie Bridges’ last name. OPB regrets the error.