Think Out Loud

If you want to see some really old stuff, Portland isn’t a bad place to be. With dozens of antique shops around the city, it isn’t hard to find objects more than a hundred years old.   But from now until March 6, Lewis & Clark College will do you one better: Its special collections department has unveiled an exhibit featuring manuscripts from the Middle Ages, some dating back...

After the murder of George Floyd, federal law enforcement agencies banned the use of chokeholds during arrests. But new reporting from ProPublica found more than 40 cases where immigration agents used these banned practices, including in Portland. Nicole Foy reported on this story and joins us to share more.

The 2026 Winter Olympics kick off next Friday in northern Italy, with nearly 3,000 athletes from more than 90 countries vying for a medal in events ranging from figure skating to curling. Twelve athletes from Oregon and Washington have qualified for Team USA’s roster competing in Milan, Cortina D’Ampezzo and a handful of other sites where skiing and snowboarding events will be held.&nb...

 A 2022 study from the Oregon Coast Visitors Association found that 90% of seafood sold on the Oregon coast wasn’t locally caught. In fact, much of the seafood caught in Oregon is exported to other countries. The OCVA estimates that Oregon's coastal communities lose roughly $252 million a year because of seafood exportation. There are many challenges with trying to keep Oregon seafood i...

Education research shows a strong connection between spending time in school and academic achievement. Oregon has the third highest rate of chronic absenteeism in the nation, and it has fewer days of instruction than most other states. Student achievement in reading and math have dropped dramatically in the last decade. We talk with Sarah Pope, the executive director of Stand for Children, which c...

Of the thousands of apple varieties grown in the U.S., only a small handful are actually bought and sold on a large scale. They have familiar names, like Honeycrisp, Gala, Fuji, Granny Smith and Red Delicious. But these hugely commercially, successful apple varieties tend to overshadow older, more unique varieties known as heirloom, or heritage, apples. Some of these apples are almost literally hi...

In 2010, environmental advocates, elected officials and executives from TransAlta, a Canada-based electricity supplier, assembled a plan to close down Washington’s last remaining coal-burning power plant by the end of 2025. The 15-year long project was a sort of benchmark for transitions of this kind – it included comprehensive financial support and educational opportunities for employ...

On Monday, Oregon state lawmakers will convene in Salem to start the 2026 short legislative session. They’ll have just 35 days to tackle their legislative priorities, including the future of transportation funding, housing and rebalancing the state budget, which is facing a nearly $900 million shortfall due to an estimated loss in state revenue from tax changes under the One Big Beautiful Bi...

Southern Oregon artist Crystal Proffitt has always had a connection to hair. As a dancer, she grew comfortable styling her own hair for performances, and later worked as a professional hairstylist. But she’s also had strangers approach her to touch or tug her curls unsolicited, an experience she says isn’t uncommon for people of color.    Proffitt channeled those experiences...

Hand-in-hand with Jefferson High School’s planned expansion comes a change in boundaries for Portland’s school districts. Portland Public Schools voted earlier this month to end the dual-assignment policy , which for the last 15 years has allowed families to let their student opt-out of attending Jefferson High School and instead choose to attend one of three other high schools in the...

 Many Native American tribes use the phrase “time immemorial” to describe how long they’ve been living in North America. But how long is “time immemorial”? What does it really mean?    Indigenous affairs reporter Toastie Oaster dug into the history and significance of the phrase for High Country News. It was part of the magazine’s larger issue on...

The U.S. Constitution likely would not have been ratified in 1788 without Article 5, which allowed for amendment. Many of the original founders championed the idea that the document would need to change as the country changed. As historian Jill Lepore points out in her newest book most of the 27 amendments to the constitution have happened just after times of war or conflict, and after 33 years wi...

Music and science don’t often overlap, but University of Oregon professor Leif Karlstrom is making it happen with the Volcano Listening Project . Karlstrom turns datasets from the volcanoes he studies every day into sound, then uses those soundtracks to make music with a wide array of musicians. The project will be on display at a pair of upcoming shows in Portland and Hood River on Jan. 28...

The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act , or NAGPRA, requires museums, universities and other institutions that receive federal funding to return Native American ancestral remains and cultural items to their original tribes. Though the law passed nearly 35 years ago, many institutions have failed to fulfill its requirements .     Oregon State University recently o...

 Clark County resident Wayne Sutton was only 7 or 8 years old, he says, when his father, who worked in the logging industry, helped him buy his first chainsaw. That was 60 years ago. Today, Sutton is the founder and curator of Wayne’s Chainsaw Museum, a private museum located a few miles outside of Amboy in Clark County that is free and open to visitors by appointment.    The...

 If you were around Portland in the '90s, you probably heard the infectious, upbeat pop tunes of the band Sunset Valley. They toured up and down the West Coast, played in front of big audiences and eventually signed with a big record label. But breakout fame wasn’t in the cards for this group, and the members have since moved on to other things. Now the band is reissuing their record "B...

Morgan Stanley has projected the weight loss medication market to reach $150 billion globally by 2035. The use of GLP-1s, such as Ozempic, have increased drastically since 2019 . At the same time, new research shows that the use of these drugs still comes with the risk of judgement and social pressures that all relate to weight stigma. An Oregon-based group, Body Liberation for Public Health, want...

If you’ve been in Portland for a while, you’ve probably seen Mike Bennett’s artwork: It’s on the facade of the Wonderwood Restaurant & Indoor Mini Golf course. It’s on Trailblazer hats and Portland Timbers banners. It’s on road signs and beer cans. Now, the famous cartoonist and immersive space designer has launched a new video-podcast series that explores t...

Earlier this month, the Oregon Community Foundation and Oregon Humanities announced the names of four recipients of Fields Artist Fellowships . Each of the winners will be awarded $150,000 during the two-year fellowship to work on artistic projects inspired by the communities and cultural traditions they hail from.   Ernesto Javier Martínez is a 2026-2028 Fields Artist Fellow base...

Oregon became the first in the nation to legalize psychedelic therapy through psilocybin back in 2020 . What soon followed were bans in various jurisdictions , large costs for individuals seeking treatment and other barriers to access. Now, new reporting from The New York Times found that a third of psilocybin service centers have closed and other states have also begun offering this therapy, incl...

This weekend the Portland band Typhoon will play two concerts celebrating 20 years of making music together. The band broke out in the early 2010s, with albums like "Hunger and Thirst" and "White Lighter." Two members of the band, Kyle Morton and Shannon Steele, join us to talk about the band’s history and future.

State lawmakers and business leaders have argued high taxes and stringent regulations are hurting Oregon businesses. In 2025, not long after a CNBC report ranked Oregon near the bottom of states to do business, Gov. Tina Kotek announced a plan to change that . Among other goals, it aims to sharpen the state’s competitive edge through changes to permitting and taxation, partnerships with the...

Since President Trump took office a year ago, Oregon has sued the administration more than 50 times, often teaming up with other Democrat-led states. Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield has held a series of town hall meetings with other state attorney generals to discuss their efforts and ask for feedback. We ask Attorney General Dan Rayfield about what he has learned from these events.

 There are 27 different species of reptiles and amphibians in Columbia County, Oregon, according to the first ever herpetological-assemblage report of the region. The report is the work of Jon Hakim, who grew up in Columbia County and has been obsessed with reptiles and amphibians his whole life. It took over 15 months and many volunteer hours to visit every possible habitat type in the count...

 Amid crackdowns by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, some are turning to serve for the U.S. military in order to receive protections for their undocumented family members. The Parole in Place program provides a protection from deportation for undocumented parents and spouses of military members. New York Times reporter Greg Jaffe , who covers the Pentagon and the U.S. military, spent...