OPB Audio

Mary Fariba Afsari is an OB-GYN based in Portland, and she’s the author of a new memoir, called "Labor: One Woman’s Work." She tells the story of her practice, and how she came to turn a 31-foot-RV into a mobile women's health clinic. She also weaves her personal narrative with the story of her grandmother in Iran, who died as a young woman from a lack of reproductive healthcare. We'll talk with A...

Earlier this year, Flor Sánchez made the agonizing decision to leave her husband and 6-year-old son behind, and self-deported to Sinaloa, Mexico amid the Trump Administration’s immigration crackdown. As immigration enforcement activity spread earlier this year into Central Washington, where Sánchez worked in the fruit orchards, she made the choice to depart Sunnyside, Washington and leave the U.S....

Portland mass wedding sees dozens exchanging vows

Portland artist Arvie Smith is known for colorful, larger-than-life oil paintings that explore oppression and injustice against Black Americans through symbolism and visual tropes. He’s also a professor emeritus at Pacific Northwest College of Art after a 35-year tenure. His murals can be seen on buildings in North Portland and at the Donald E. Long Juvenile Center, where he spent time teaching ar...

Seattle poet Kathleen Flenniken grew up in Richland and worked as a civil engineer at Hanford in the 1980s. She served as Washington State Poet Laureate from 2012-2014. In her first year as poet laureate, she published a collection called Plume, which deals directly with how her Hanford area upbringing influenced her.  The book explores the history of the site, the death of her best friend's fathe...

Big Portland Bake Show puts a PNW spin on a British baking competition

Meet the ‘scrappy’ women putting small-scale operations in Oregon and Washington on the winemaking map.

The Oregon Health Authority is considering doubling license fees for the state’s psilocybin service providers. The draft rules would also eliminate discounts for nonprofit service centers and facilitators who are veterans or qualify as low-income. A third of Oregon’s psilocybin service centers have already closed since OHA began issuing licenses in 2023. Cathy Jonas, the founder and CEO of EPIC He...

The Jefferson County Soil & Water Conservation District helps manage irrigation, soil erosion, water quality and other factors that impact the health of the county’s watersheds. It’s supposed to be overseen by a seven-member board, but until recently, one seat had remained vacant for more than 30 years. Alysia Klick’ump was recently appointed to the board as an associate director for Zone 1, which...

Why Portland fell in love with Megan Gustafson

Many residents believe the water is harmful to drink. But the actual quality is unclear because the town failed to consistently test for metals and contaminants.

In 2022, the Multnomah county auditor looked into the jails run by the county sheriff’s office. The audit found that adults in custody who were Black or had mental health conditions were discipled and put in isolation or solitary confinement more often. That audit made several recommendations, but a new report says the sheriff’s office has not implemented the recommendations related to the use of...

People experiencing homelessness in Astoria will have to abide by new camping codes going into effect Wednesday, July 15. The changes to the camping codes make it illegal for people to camp knowingly on public property if they have access to “reasonable shelter,” which will be determined on a case-by-case basis. The code also provides exemptions depending on someone’s circumstances. At the same ti...

A Moda Center deal is in the works, and the Portland City Council will vote in just a few weeks to decide if it will spend public money on a renovation. But details are hazy about where exactly the funding would come from. Mayor Keith Wilson and city councilors have suggested they’ll draw upon city revenue streams such as the Portland Clean Energy Fund and a fund within Prosper Portland, the city’...

On Tuesday, Columbia Riverkeeper joined a coalition of environmental groups that sued the Trump administration over a rule change that would undo protections under the Endangered Species Act for endangered and threatened species of animals like Columbia River salmon, steelhead and northern spotted owls. Other environmental groups and tribes have also filed separate lawsuits over the rule change, i...

How Oregon will handle upcoming major social safety net program cuts

North Powder public works director says their office ‘looked like a bomb went off’ due to decades of disorganization.

For most artists, Portland isn’t the place to relocate amid the heights of their career. But for iLoveMakonnen, relocating to Portland from Atlanta offered a space away from the pressure and attention of the music industry, and the opportunity to explore himself. Makonnen joins us to share more about his upcoming performance at the Pride in Demand Queer Takeover and what has kept him in Portland n...

Oregon school districts rely on the state for funds they need to educate students in their schools, but some educators and advocates say the formula they use to allocate those funds is outdated and inequitable. In-depth reporting by The Oregonian/OregonLive describes the way that students in poverty are undercounted, their schools underfunded and details how the resulting cuts are affecting some o...

July 17 is the deadline for Washington counties to mail out ballots to voters. And it’s the first day voters can submit ballots. In the state’s top two primary, an unusual number of state supreme court judicial candidates appear on the ballot. And five of the nine seats will be decided in November. We talk with Sarah Mizes-Tan, state government reporter for KUOW and KNKX, about this unusual turn o...

Despite wildfires becoming more frequent and intense, little is known about how wildlife responds to the threats they present. Researchers at Oregon State University are attempting to shed some light on the issue. A recent study looked at how wildfire smoke affected the behavior of robins. Instead of simply fleeing the smoky conditions, the birds often reduced their activity and shortened their fl...

A new report found that Portland Police Bureau response times for high-priority calls is on average more than 20 minutes. And as reported in Willamette Week, some neighborhoods in Portland can wait as much as 40 minutes. The reports of these delays come as a new city budget is adopted that will lead to cuts to public safety. A PPB-backed proposed measure aims to direct Portland Clean Energy Fund d...

Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read recently called for the United States Postal Service to look at its policies around mail pick up on Election Day, after officials in Benton county found some voters’ ballots were left in mailboxes. The postal service has said they prioritize package delivery when staffing is short. Read has also pushed back against the Trump administration’s threats to electio...

When ESPN feature writer Roberto Jose Andrade Franco spent two weeks in Woodburn, Oregon, he met and spoke with a host of community members, from business owners to coaches to artists. Those conversations informed a new piece Franco wrote about the ways the community came alive and together during the World Cup. Franco joins us to discuss his reporting and what he found during his time in Woodburn...

In Oregon’s rural, coastal communities, volunteers are coming together to reimagine what end of life care can look like for aging residents outside of medical settings. Three years ago, Margo Lalich co-founded the North Coast End of Life Collective. She’s a nurse and public health professional who says the COVID-19 pandemic was a “wake-up call” that helped her identify a lack of intentional, commu...