Think Out Loud

Polling from OPB shows that the Oregon gubernatorial race is neck-and-neck in the rematch between Republican state Sen. Christine Drazan and the Democratic incumbent, Gov. Tina Kotek. That’s with roughly a week to go before Oregon voters start receiving their ballots. 

OPB politics reporters Lauren Dake and Dirk VanderHart join us to talk about the key issues in the race and where things stand now.

When you think of professional wrestling, World Wrestling Entertainment, also known as WWE, may come to mind. But the Pacific Northwest is home to its own indie scene of wrestling. As Katherine Cusumano writes in The Believer, the blood, sweat and tears that go into wrestling take a toll on the body and mind, but the spirit and drive keep many in-ring. Including Derek Drexl and Amira Lukens, both Portland-based pro-wrestlers who were profiled recently. They join us to share their wrestling careers, match stories and more.

Portland’s got a reputation for food — the New York Times has called the city “the dining capital of the Pacific Northwest.” And last year, a Eugene establishment made it into the publication’s top 100 restaurants of 2025.

Zoe Baillargeon is a freelance food writer based in Portland, and Taylor Gobel is the Food Correspondent at Lookout Eugene-Springfield. They join us to break down some of the regional trends in restaurants and some of the exciting openings to look out for this fall in Portland and Eugene.

 Portland voters in two of the city’s four districts will soon be casting ballots to elect or re-elect their city councilors. It’s the second election using ranked choice voting. With half of the Portland city council seats up for grabs, what should voters expect? We hear from OPB politics reporters Bryce Dole and Alex Zielinski as they discuss the upcoming Portland election on the latest episode of “OPB Politics Now.”

The Oregon chapter of the international nonprofit “Dress for Success” was among the very first of the 130 member networks. It started by offering professional suits and clothes to women who couldn't otherwise afford them. But since 1998, it’s evolved to offering a range of career services. And now it’s opening its most ambitious program yet: WorkWell, a co-working space in NE Portland that includes all those services, plus childcare and more. We talk with Dress for Success Oregon Executive Director Lindsey Norlander and client Delaney Farve, who owns Tiny Travelers Play Place.

The scientists recruited 120 regular users of cannabis to vape a low or moderate dose of cannabis in the lab. They also included a placebo group who vaped without cannabis. Neither the scientists nor the participants knew which group the participants were in during the study.  

All of the participants reported feeling less stressed after vaping – even those in the placebo group. The scientists also found that cannabis appears to have varied effects on stress indicators in the body. For example, the drug significantly elevated heart rate in the moderate-dose group but had no effect on heart rate variability, which typically decreases during stress. 

Carrie Cuttler is an associate professor of psychology and the director of the Cannabis Research Center at Washington State University. She joins us to share more details about the study.

From Wonderwoman and Lois Lane to Cathy and Veronica Lodge, there have been no shortage of women represented in comics. In the new book, “Women in Comics,” authors Nhora Lucia Serrano and Portland State University’s Susan E. Kirtley explore the history of not only the women on the page, but the authors behind them. Using archetypes commonly found in comic books, Kirtley and Serrano look at some of the most influential women that have changed the medium. Kirtley joins us to share more on the book and the impact women have had on the industry. 

Portland’s Alano Club is dedicated to helping people recover from alcoholism, addiction and mental health disorders. It serves 10,000 people a month with meetings, classes, workshops and other activities and programs. Founded in 1947, it’s the oldest and largest such recovery nonprofit in the country.

Several years ago, a participant in its programs decided to start bringing naloxone from the Alano Club and distribute it to bars and restaurants whenever she could. When the executive director got wind of this effort, he immediately began writing grants and invited her to run a formal program to provide naloxone to communities all over the state. Those initial efforts became Project Red, which now works with organizations in all 36 Oregon counties to get the life-saving medicine to as many people as possible. Like many 501-C3s, it lost a significant portion of federal funding, which nearly ended the program. But recent grants from Boulder Care and Pearl Jam’s Vitalogy Foundation have enabled the expansion of the program and guaranteed its operations through 2027.

Kasey Anderson is the executive director of the Alano Club of Portland. He joins us to tell us more about the nonprofit’s work and how Project Red became integral to distributing naloxone throughout Oregon.

Kristin Whitman is the head of information and learning services at the Oregon Health & Science University Library. Fabrice Jotterand directs the university’s Center for Ethics in Health Care. They join us to offer advice on how to navigate chatbots and other online resources in health-related situations.

At a time when many rural hospitals are either closing or merging with larger, urban health systems, a group of Oregon hospitals want to try something different.

Eleven hospitals and health systems are asking for state approval to form a clinically integrated network. They say the partnership will allow them to share resources while maintaining their independence. 

Landon Dybdal is the CEO of Lake Health District and the chair of the proposed Cascade High Value Network. Nate White is the CEO and president of Cibolo Health, which has helped establish these networks in other states. They both join us to talk about the new partnership.

Michael Blesius is the owner of Sports Card Ink, a store in downtown Sisters that specializes in vintage baseball cards and is open for just about three hours a week, by appointment only. Blesius opened it roughly six years ago as a place to house – by his estimation – nearly 2 million baseball cards he has collected over the decades, along with sports memorabilia dating to the 19th century. 

The Bulletin recently profiled Blesius, who refers to Sports Card Ink as his “high blood pressure medicine” and a place for making connections, not profits. A good day at work might be spent appraising a collection, hearing stories from a retired professional player, or giving away cards to children who never got to see Willie Mays make an over-the-shoulder catch at the Polo Grounds.

The future of a new homeless shelter in Grants Pass is in question after the shelter and the organization providing wraparound services ended their working agreement. Under the terms of a lawsuit settlement, Grants Pass is required to provide space for 150 unhoused people in the city, which the shelter is meant to fulfill.

The shelter, known as Parker’s Place Village, is required to provide case management, housing navigation and other wraparound services in addition to basic needs such as clean drinking water, around-the-clock staffing and sanitation. Local organization MINT agreed to provide those services and was already paying for security, utility and trash service at the shelter. But it will end those services Oct. 15.

Reporter Jane Vaughan has been covering these developments for Jefferson Public Radio. She joins us with more details.

Mazama Energy, a Texas-based geothermal company, has recently secured more than $135 million to dig deeper and harvest heat for renewable energy. Project Ceres, which the funding will be put toward, is a horizontal well development in Central Oregon and could generate more than 15 megawatts of power next year. That’s enough to power 4,500 homes. OPB climate reporter Monica Samayoa joins us to share more on geothermal energy in Oregon and its future.

Tape Op is an independently published magazine about the art and science of recording music founded 30 years ago and edited by Portland music producer and studio owner Larry Crane. The magazine features interviews with the skilled technicians and creative minds who help bands and artists realize their vision in the recording studio. The albums they’ve worked on span decades and genres, from hip-hop to bluegrass, pop to death metal and more. 

“Making Music: Conversations with Record Producers,” is a newly published collection of interviews from the Tape Op archives. Crane co-edited the book with Tape Op publisher John Baccigaluppi. It contains two dozen conversations Crane and others did with producers who’ve worked with artists like U2, Kendrick Lamar and The Beatles. Crane joins us to share the enduring appeal of Tape Op and the songs that still inspire him in the studio and beyond.

 A course at Portland Community College is currently being taught where students use styrofoam, clays, paints and their imaginations to create “haunted” charcuterie boards adorned with fake moldy cheeses, unappetizing crackers and rancid-looking slices of deli meats. 

Olivia Vavroch, a Portland artist, teacher and theater designer, is teaching the Halloween-themed class. The Portland Mercury recently profiled Vavroch in its Fall Arts issue, describing the career transition she made into the world of theater several years ago after contracting long COVID-19. Vavroch designs and dresses sets, specializing in making custom theater props that include fake foods like cake or lasagna that can help bring depth to performances and layers of authenticity to the story. She is also one of dozens of artists whose work is being featured in “Inconvenience Store,” an interactive art exhibit currently taking place inside a former 7-Eleven in downtown Seattle. 

Vavroch joins us to share more details about the delicious art of making fake food. 

Retiree Christina Maier moved from Portland five years ago to Tollgate, a subdivision two miles west of Sisters surrounded by the Deschutes National Forest. She quickly set to work helping her community improve its wildfire resiliency, starting with her own home. Nearly two years ago, it became the first home in Oregon to receive a Wildfire Prepared Home designation by the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety. She has also made fire risk assessments on 175 properties in Tollgate and won a state grant to remove diseased ponderosa pines and conduct other forest thinning work. 

Maier is now receiving national recognition for her wildfire resiliency efforts. Last week, she was named one of 10 finalists in the national Neighbor of the Year contest sponsored by Neighbors Bank, which will award $20,000 to the winner. Maier was nominated by Kellen Klein, executive director of Sisters nonprofit Citizens4Community. (Klein was interviewed on “Think Out Loud” last September to talk about community-building efforts and recovery from the Flat Fire.)  

Maier joins us to discuss her nomination and efforts to help her neighbors.

The Trump administration's approach to immigration enforcement has been multi-pronged: detentions and rapid deportation, warrantless arrests, the deployment and attempted deployment of the National Guard, and in some cases lethal force. All of these tactics have been challenged in courts. In Oregon, civil rights groups and immigrant advocates won a significant victory in February, when a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction preventing ICE agents from making arrests without a warrant, except in certain circumstances. But the Innovation Law Lab says that the Administration is still carrying out warrantless arrests, and the non-profit was in court this week asking the judge to enforce his order. We get the details from Joni Auden Land, legal affairs reporter for OPB.

When you hear the term sex education, you might think of classes for kids in public schools. But what Charla Hathaway means by that is far broader. She’s an author with a PhD in human sexuality, and she also became a sex worker for a short time at age 55. She’s now 78, and over the last two decades, Hathaway has given a wide variety of classes and workshops about intimacy, touch, sensuality and sexuality. She says she wants to remove shame around bodies and sexuality in the culture and make those topics normal—not taboo—to talk about. Hathaway joins us to share more about her life and work and the one-woman show based on her work, titled “Naked at My Age.” She’s now performing a follow-up called “More Naked Than Ever.”