Think Out Loud

The Oregon state Senate may soon take up the bill that would enshrine additional protections for Oregonian patients and providers of reproductive services or gender-affirming care. That bill, HB 4088, has already passed in the House and has been referred to the Senate by committee. Chief sponsor Rep. Lisa Fragala (D-Eugene) says the bill reflects a commitment to the rights of Oregonians to access these types of medical care and retain their privacy. Fragala joins us with more on the legislation. We also hear from Rep. Virgle Osborne (R- Roseburg) who voted against the bill.

Susan Sokolowski holds more than 100 patents, most of which she earned during the nearly 18 years she worked as a sports product designer at Nike. One of her favorite patents was for Flyknit, a knitted fabric upper that’s lightweight and provides a sock-like fit on shoes. The inspiration for it came, she says, from conversations she had with women athletes while working as a designer on Nike’s women’s footwear division, which launched in 2002. While at Nike, she also helped design shoes worn by women gymnasts at the 2008 Summer Olympics and track and field uniforms worn by Team USA at the 2016 Summer Olympics. That same year, Sokolowski left Nike to launch University of Oregon’s first graduate program in sports product design. 

Sokolowski was named by USA Today as one of its 2025 Women of the Year in recognition for her work championing and designing sports apparel and products made specifically for women such as sports bras and women’s running shoes. She joins us to discuss her trailblazing career and the big trends, challenges and future of this industry, from sustainable fabrics to equipment for athletes with disabilities.

Artificial intelligence is beginning to change the entry-level job market. AI often automates the repetitive tasks that might otherwise allow new employees to learn on the job, and some worry it could eventually replace those jobs altogether. A study from Stanford University found these changes were most likely to affect “AI exposed occupations” such as software development and customer service.

Lucas Hellberg is an enterprise reporter for the Daily Emerald newspaper at the University of Oregon and an elections reporting intern for Lookout Eugene-Springfield. He recently wrote about how AI is changing entry-level jobs in Oregon, and joins us with more details.

College newspapers are often on shoestring budget, and at the same time they’re a vitally important source of information — especially for their student readers. At the University of Oregon’s The Daily Emerald and Portland State University’s The Vanguard, reporters have been tear-gassed while covering immigration protests. Though reporters at Oregon State University’s The Daily Barometer have not faced that challenge, the editor-in-chief says the paper would like to be prepared for that situation if it arises. All three papers also cover stories in the community that affect the campus. Managing these competing priorities with limited resources can be a major challenge. We get more details from the editors-in-chief at the University of Oregon, Oregon State University and Portland State University: Tarek Anthony, Jenna Benson and Noah Carandanis.

Next Friday, the 2026 Paralympic Games kick off in Milan Cortina, the same region in Northern Italy which hosted the recently concluded Winter Olympics. Anna Soens is an alpine skier from Bend with incomplete paralysis who earned a spot on the Team USA roster. She will now head to Italy to join more than 650 athletes from around the world vying for victory in nearly 80 medal events. 

It is her first time competing in the Paralympics where she has qualified for five events:  downhill, super-G, alpine combined, giant slalom and slalom. The achievement is even more impressive considering that she has only been skiing with the use of adaptive equipment for less than a decade after an accident at a Portland rock climbing gym left her with incomplete paralysis below the hips. In 2018, Soens became the first woman with paraplegia to summit Mt. Hood, which she did with her father, and she is the first person to descend its summit using a sit-ski. 

Soens joins us to share her remarkable athletic journey and hopes for her Paralympic races.

Portland Playhouse in Northeast Portland is currently performing "Angry, Raucous, and Shamelessly Gorgeous." The play follows four Black women artists as they confront their own and each other’s evolving definitions of art, protest, and storytelling.

Audiences have until March 15 to see performances by Faith Lavon and Ashlee Radney, who play actors of different generations. They join us to discuss the production and its relevance today.

Earlier this month, Oregon Health and Science University released new nationwide data that found low physician participation in Medicaid. 

Researchers deemed these physicians “ghost” providers: physicians who are enrolled in Medicaid, but don’t care for even a single patient covered by the federal health insurance program.

Those findings also revealed that another third of physicians who are enrolled in Medicaid may be overburdened, with higher-than-average yearly patient volumes.

Dr. Jane Zhu, associate professor of medicine at OHSU, joins us with more details.

The Oregon public defense system has been in crisis for many years. The number of defendants who need representation has far outstripped the number of available public defenders. Previous reports found the state’s system violated Oregonians’ constitutional rights. Earlier this month the Oregon Supreme Court ruled unanimously  that criminal charges against defendants must be dropped if an attorney cannot be found. Oregon lawmakers have passed legislation aimed at alleviating the crisis. We sit down with Ken Sanchagrin, the new head of the Oregon Public Defense Commission, to talk about the progress that’s been made in turning the crisis around and the future of the system.

          According to recent surveys, the number of people who say they are experiencing burnout is on the rise. Dr. Zarya Rubin practices functional medicine in Portland who specializes in identifying and relieving burnout. She started a podcast last year that she both produces and hosts called “Outsmart Burnout.” She says burnout can manifest as physical and mental exhaustion, brain fog, an increase in anxiety and a decrease in productivity. The factors that contribute to this phenomenon can include almost every aspect of life from work and family dynamics to national politics. We sit down with Rubin to hear more, including her recommendations for getting relief - and take your calls. Our call-in number is 888-665-5865.

Last month marked the beginning of a statewide ban on cell phones in Oregon schools. The executive order, issued by Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, prohibits the use of personal devices such as phones, smart watches and earbuds during instructional hours, including lunchtime and between periods. School districts were to adopt policies by October 31, 2025, and enforce the new rules beginning January 1.

Grant High School in Northeast Portland adopted a phone-free policy in 2024. South Eugene High School began implementing its cell phone policy last month.

James Mcgee, principal of Grant High School, and Kee Zublin, principal of South Eugene High School, join us to give us more information on how parents, administrators, students and teachers are adjusting to the new policies.

The Columbia Center for the Arts in Hood River is currently hosting “Black Infinity House,” a free, immersive art exhibit on display for Black History Month until March 29. 

The exhibit is arranged into three spaces - an artist’s studio, a living room and a porch – that visitors walk through to experience art made by more than 30 Black Oregon artists whose work spans different genres and generations. It includes fabric art illustrating timeless vistas of the Columbia Gorge; painted portraits of Black, tattooed youth; a series of works made by burning designs and illustrations onto wooden canvases painted with imagery of snakes, skulls, hair and hands; handmade beaded jewelry.  

August Oaks, a Hood River-based producer and designer, is the curator of “Black Infinity House,” which he created to celebrate the expansiveness of Black identity. Oaks is also a member of Black in the Gorge, a grassroots organization that started five years ago in Hood River to ease the isolation Black, biracial and multiracial youth and adults can feel living in the Gorge. From organizing the first Juneteenth celebration in Hood River in 2023 to its Black History Month events this year, the group has been expanding its programs and its profile among the communities it serves. Oaks and Black in the Gorge co-founders Evelyn Charity and Stephanie Harris, whose jewelry is featured in the exhibit, join us for more details.

The Black newspaper The Skanner was founded more than 50 years ago by Bernie and Bobbie Foster. It became something of an institution and community organization for Black communities in Portland. The paper went entirely online in 2020 but continued to play a critical role in the lives of many Black Oregonians. Recently, the Fosters announced the paper had shut down as of Jan. 30. We sit down with former reporters for the paper, writers Donovan Scribes and Bruce Poinsette, along with Margaret Carter, the first Black woman elected to the Oregon Legislature in 1984. We hear about their personal connections to The Skanner and get more details about the paper’s importance to members of the community.

Last August, a van carrying seven farmworkers in rural Marion County was stopped by immigration agents. OPB reported on the arrest of the farmworkers, including a man identified as LJPL in court documents. He was arrested even though he had no criminal record and had a pending asylum application. That case and others involving the arrests of workers at dairy farms in Wisconsin and Vermont and a beef processing facility in Nebraska are described in a recent article by Investigate Midwest. The investigation offers a rare glimpse into how the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement tactics are playing out in rural farming communities in different states. 

It found, for example, that these arrests happen even when immigration agents know that the individual has no criminal record. Attorneys also face obstacles getting access to their clients to challenge their detentions before they’re moved across state lines or deported. Meanwhile, the immigration raids are leaving employers such as family-owned farms and meatpacking plants scrambling to fill shifts or find reliable, non-immigrant labor for these jobs.

Sky Chadde, senior reporter at Investigate Midwest, joins us to share more details.

According to its website, The Lavender Network is Eugene’s only LGBTQ+ service and community center. The coalition of five nonprofits offers health care, counseling, a free clothing closet and more to queer communities in Lane County. After renting different spaces around Eugene, the network opened its first permanent space near downtown on Feb. 10.

Laura Henry is the manager of The Lavender Network. She joins us to talk about the importance of creating permanent spaces for LGBTQ+ communities.

Last month, Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek signed an executive order creating an interagency council to better support immigrants and refugees in the state. According to the Oregon Department of Human Services, there are more than 400,000 immigrants in Oregon, making up nearly 10% of the state’s population and nearly 13% of the state’s workforce. 

The Office of Immigrant and Refugee Advancement at ODHS is leading this new effort which aims to boost coordination and communication between multiple state agencies amid the toll heightened immigration enforcement is taking on communities and the state services they rely on.  

According to OIRA director Jessica Ventura, the council had its first meeting last week and aims to deliver a plan by late spring that identifies how to align and boost state programs to support immigrants and refugees while upholding the state’s sanctuary law. Gov. Kotek and Ventura join us for more details about the Interagency Council for Immigrant and Refugee Coordination and to share what they’ve been hearing from dozens of community partners who advocate on behalf of these vulnerable Oregonians.

An exhibit at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry in Portland looks at the eruption of Mount Mazama, the Ice Age floods and other geological events through the perspective of the Nez Perce and other Columbia Basin tribes. “Heads & Hearts: Seeing the Landscape through Nez Perce Eyes” is on display through Feb. 16.

Geologists Roger Amerman and Ellen Bishop created the exhibit, which originally appeared at the Josephy Center for Arts & Culture in Joseph. They join us to talk about how Native oral traditions can — and should — inform modern science.

Rep. Maxine Dexter (D-Portland) escorted a family — including a 7-year-old girl — from an ICE detention facility in Texas back to Oregon on Saturday. The Crespo-Gonzalez family was detained last month while bringing their sick child to urgent care. We sit down with Dexter to hear about that experience and her work in Congress focused on ICE funding and policy. OPB reporter Holly Bartholomew covers Portland’s suburban communities as a Report for America Corps Member. We also talk with her about how the family is doing now and the latest developments around federal immigration actions in Oregon.