The Evergreen

Who was the badass woman who became the namesake for Portland’s only lesbian bar? Dr. Marie Equi was born in 1872 and came to Oregon at the age of 20. She became known as a radical and lived an extraordinary life. She was a fierce advocate for women’s rights and reproductive freedom as well as an activist for workers’ rights. She staged a one-woman anti-war protest during World W...

When people think of the Pacific Northwest, along with gray skies and evergreen trees, coffee often comes to mind. That’s because some of the most iconic modern coffee brands — Starbucks, Stumptown, Dutch Bros — all call our region home. For a place that doesn’t even grow coffee, we’ve had an outsized influence on the global coffee culture and are continuing to shape...

On March 20,1998, police in Salem, Oregon, discovered the body of a 28-year-old Harriet Thompson inside her apartment. Within a week, they arrested Jesse Johnson for murder. Johnson drifted west after a troubled childhood in Arkansas and a stint in prison there. In Salem, he was known around town as a homeless drug user. A random encounter with Thompson the week before she was killed changed Johns...

American country music, sometimes described as ‘three chords and the truth,’ can be a great vehicle for storytelling. And many songs share a nostalgia for a certain idea of home. But for those whose ancestors have traveled long distances, home can often be a messy concept.  A few years ago, three Oregon musicians and artists started getting together to play and share music, inform...

What if a spider could play the harp?    OK, sure, there aren’t spider virtuosos in little tuxedos out there performing harp concerts. But there IS a harp-like musical instrument inspired by a spider’s web, complete with a mechanical spider perched in the middle, and it was dreamt up in Oregon. It’s meant to simulate how spiders use vibrations in their webs to understan...

You may be familiar with ferris wheels, funnel cakes, quilting competitions, and demolition derbies. But the Tillamook County Fair has a unique event you’ve probably never heard of: Pig-N Ford races. Racers hold piglets while driving around a dirt track on stripped down Ford Model T cars (sounds cute, right?) The tradition has endured for close to 100 years and some families have been racing...

Honey may be one of the weirder things you’ll see in a science lab. But researchers at Washington State University Vancouver say honey is key to what they’re working on: faster, cleaner computers.    OPB’s science reporter Jes Burns learned about their research - including the effort to make computer chips work more like human brains - and gives us an inside look. You c...

Carolyn Arntson and Denise Hatch have spent the past few years sorting through thousands of old cardboard boxes abandoned at Oregon funeral homes with one goal in mind: to find the remains of veterans, and get them interred at Willamette National Cemetery. OPB general assignment reporter Joni Auden Land has been following these women on their journey and tells us how the two sifted through boxes o...

June is officially Pride month, but queer celebrations spill over into July – Portland Pride is this weekend. And of course, queer visibility shouldn’t be limited to one month of the year; it’s important all the time. Pride is about celebrating queer communities and it’s also a chance to learn about queer history. We bring you two intergenerational conversations about the i...

Oregon has a unique history with cults — remember Rajneeshpuram , the inspiration for the docuseries Wild Wild Country? A spiritual group known as TwinRay is based in Ashland, Oregon. The leaders dress in all white and charge thousands of dollars for online classes. Are they a cult? OPB reporter Leah Sottile fills us in on the details. You can read her recent article on TwinRay here .  ...

Hi! It’s Jenn Chávez, host of The Evergreen. When I’m walking around, I often wonder about the lives of people I see at work, in different professions. What made them want to have that job in the first place? Is it hard? Do they see themselves doing that forever?   Lucky for me, I have the perfect job to ask people those questions. For our latest “At Work With”...

Water rights are super confusing. In the face of ongoing drought , farms, homes, wildlife and commercial users like golf courses and resorts are all competing for this precious resource. OPB’s Central Oregon Bureau Chief Emily Cureton Cook joins us to help shed some light on the situation and what changes could be on the horizon.   For more coverage on Oregon’s struggle with droug...

Last week, we introduced you to OPB’s Class of 2025 project , where we are following a class of kindergarteners on their journey all the way through high school. The idea stems from a goal Oregon set more than a decade ago – a 100% high school graduation rate by 2025.    As the Class of 2025 has grown, so has Oregon. That once tall order of a 100% high school graduation rate...

Over a decade ago, former Oregon governor John Kitzhaber announced an aspirational goal to improve the state’s low-ranking high school graduation rate. His mission: a 100% graduation by 2025.   If successful, Oregon would catapult its rock-bottom national ranking to the top. It was a very ambitious goal. And so back in 2012 - when ‘Call Me Maybe’ was the song you heard every...

NBA Hall-of-Famer, Portland Trail Blazers legend and Northwest icon Bill Walton died recently at the age of 71. He’s known as one of the most beloved Blazers of all time, credited with leading the team to its first NBA Championship in 1977. He’s also remembered as a freewheeling sportscaster, a devoted Deadhead, a young activist, a bike-lover and so much more. It’s clear from the...

The U.S. Supreme Court is currently considering a case out of Grants Pass that asks whether cities can punish people for living outdoors if there’s not enough shelter space for them to go to instead. Clinton Triangle, a large, low-barrier, outdoor shelter in Southeast Portland, is supposed to be the city’s model for how to serve chronically homeless Portlanders, and allow the city to e...

A case currently before the U.S. Supreme Court centers around this question: can cities punish people for living outdoors if there’s no other place for them to go? The court’s ruling, which is expected as early as June, could change homelessness policy nationwide — and it all started in Grants Pass, Oregon. Street Roots Newspaper reporter Jeremiah Hayden spent time in Grants Pass...

Everyone who was in the Pacific Northwest on May 18, 1980 has some kind of story about the Mount Saint Helens eruption. OPB producer Ian McKluskey recently revisited that fateful day with some people who remember it very well for both personal and professional reasons. We talk with Ian about unearthing lost stories from Mount St Helens.    For more Evergreen episodes and to share your vo...

A water pollution crisis has been unfolding in Eastern Oregon for decades. Contamination of the Lower Umatilla Basin’s groundwater with excess nitrates — a naturally occurring chemical also found in fertilizer — has meant residents of Morrow and Umatilla Counties who get their water from private wells are struggling to access clean drinking water. Though the issue has been a know...

Dani Rowe has been the artistic director for Oregon Ballet Theatre for a little over a year now. She is the first woman to be named permanent artistic director of the organization in its 35-year history. Rowe brings her experience as a dancer, a choreographer and a mother to bear in her new role. Oregon Art Beat producer Geneva Chin profiled Dani Rowe and brings us some insights.  For more Ev...

If you’re drinking a beer anywhere in the Pacific Northwest, chances are it’s an IPA. Whether you’re grabbing something from the cooler at your local convenience store or choosing a pint at a pub, you’re sure to find a wide selection of this hoppy, crisp style of beer. The letters stand for India Pale Ale, but the IPAs widely available today actually have a strong connectio...

You might have a lot of different ideas in your head about what could drive a family into homelessness, but one thing you might not think of: childcare.  On today’s episode, we’re talking about Oregon’s childcare crisis : how expensive it is for parents and guardians, how hard it can be to find and how providers are struggling with staffing shortages and limited space. ...

You’ve probably heard about fish ladders and other mechanisms to help adult salmon get upstream past dams. It turns out that on the Willamette River, more than half of baby salmon die on their way downstream past the dams trying to get to the ocean. The US Army Corps of Engineers, the federal agency that operates the dams, has proposed building massive and costly fish collectors to try to sa...

Have you ever walked by someone doing an interesting job and wondered: What does their day look like? Who do they meet throughout the day? What made them want to have that job in the first place?    This curiosity sparked a new series we’re calling “At Work With.” Every month, we’ll talk to a Pacific Northwesterner who does something cool – and ask them your...

Oregon has the highest rate of unaccompanied, unsheltered homeless youth in the nation, according to some recent federal data. But in some ways, these young people are invisible. They might be couch surfing or living out of a car, and many face homelessness when they age out of the foster care system. But these might not be the people you think of when you think about people experiencing homelessn...