Think Out Loud

Oregon Public Broadcasting

Hosted by Dave Miller

  • 52 minutes 28 seconds
    Poets Danez Smith and Diannely Antigua at the Portland Book Festival

    Danez Smith has won and been nominated for a lot of big prizes for their poetry, including the UK’s Forward Prize, the National Book Critic Circle Award and the National Book Award. But in 2020, Smith stopped writing. In the depths of the pandemic, after the death of George Floyd in Smith’s hometown of Minneapolis, poetry began to feel less powerful as a place for social change. Danez Smith joined poet Diannely Antigua, author of two poetry collections including “Good Monster,” for a conversation with OPB’s Jenn Chavez at the 2024 Portland Book Festival to talk about the role of poetry in our fractured society and our fractured lives.

    24 December 2024, 8:00 pm
  • 52 minutes 30 seconds
    Singer Ani DiFranco talks about our responsibility to each other at the Portland Book Festival

    Ani DiFranco is best known for getting up on stage and belting out hard-hitting feminist songs while playing her guitar. But when she walked out in front of an audience recently at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, there was no guitar in sight. She was there for the 2024 Portland Book Festival to talk about the picture book she wrote for young readers about a child who accompanies her mother to their local polling station. DiFranco was interviewed on stage by OPB’s Prakruti Bhatt.

    23 December 2024, 8:00 pm
  • 52 minutes
    The best ‘Think Out Loud’ stories of 2024

    As 2024 comes to a close, the staff of OPB’s “Think Out Loud” look back on some of their favorite conversations from the past year. Producers Sage Van Wing, Elizabeth Castillo, Gemma DiCarlo, Rolie Hernandez and Sheraz Sadiq join host Dave Miller in conversation.

    20 December 2024, 9:22 pm
  • 28 minutes 51 seconds
    What’s the song of your year?

    Music can provoke powerful emotional responses. Sometimes your favorite song, or album played on repeat, can be just what you need to get through. What song or album has helped you get through this year? What music have you had on repeat? OPB’s Prakruti Bhatt will join us to talk through the year in music.

    19 December 2024, 9:12 pm
  • 23 minutes 53 seconds
    What does drug re-criminalization and deflection look like in Multnomah County?

    Earlier this year, Oregon lawmakers passed a bill to implement new criminal penalties for drug possession and end the state’s three-year experiment with drug decriminalization. The legislation also allows law enforcement in counties that have opted into the program to deflect drug users away from the criminal justice system and into treatment as a way to avoid charges. In Multnomah County, 127 deflections have been initiated since the program started in September. Portland Police Commander Brian Hughes and Heather Mirasol, Director of the Behavioral Health Division for Multnomah County, join us to talk about what the deflection program looks like so far.

    19 December 2024, 9:12 pm
  • 32 minutes 53 seconds
    Remembering the grace and power of poet Nikki Giovanni

    Earlier this month, the celebrated and prolific poet, author and professor Nikki Giovanni died at the age of 81 from a third bout of cancer, according to Virginia Tech. She taught at the university for 35 years as an English professor before her retirement in 2022. Giovanni published her first collections of poetry, “Black Feeling Black Talk” and “Black Judgment,” in 1968, and was a leading figure in the Black Arts Movement that emerged during the Civil Rights Era. 

    We listen back to an interview we recorded with Giovanni in 2014 after the release of “Chasing Utopia,” a collection of poetry and prose which covers topics both personal and political. 

    18 December 2024, 8:00 pm
  • 20 minutes 52 seconds
    As the monarch butterfly gets federal protection recommendation, Portland nonprofit receives grant to aid habitat restoration

    U.S. Fish and Wildlife are proposing federal protections and label the Western monarch butterfly as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The federal agency will be accepting public input until March 12. At the same time, a federal grant of $300,000 was awarded to the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation to aid in habitat restoration. The Portland nonprofit will be using the funds to continue offering free kits containing milkweed and wildflowers for community spaces and working, tribal and public lands in Oregon, Washington and California. 

    Emma Pelton is a conservation biologist with the nonprofit. She joins us to share more on the impact this funding will have and what potential protections for the butterfly will mean going forward. 

    18 December 2024, 8:00 pm
  • 16 minutes 25 seconds
    New holiday movie puts spotlight on La Grande

    If you’re not a fan of traditional holiday movies, “Breakup Season” might be for you. It follows a young couple that plans to spend Christmas together, only to break up on the first night of their vacation. A snowstorm makes travel impossible, meaning they’re stuck together for the holiday. The movie was entirely filmed in Eastern Oregon, featuring shots of downtown La Grande and the surrounding snow-capped hills and valleys.  

    Filmmaker H. Nelson Tracey developed “Breakup Season” through a residency with the Eastern Oregon Film Festival. He joins us to talk about his debut feature film and why it was important to set it in La Grande. 

    17 December 2024, 9:09 pm
  • 15 minutes 3 seconds
    Why Portland’s District 1 voter participation lagged other districts in first election using ranked choice voting

    Earlier this month, the City of Portland and Multnomah County released data and survey results about Portlanders’ experience with ranked choice voting. According to the survey, 91% of voters said they understood how to fill out their ranked choice ballots. But only 55% of voters in East Portland’s District 1 turned in those ballots, compared to rates of turnout that ranged from 74 to 76% for the other three districts. District 1 voters were also more likely to turn in ballots that had no candidate for city council selected, and nearly a quarter of D1 voters surveyed said they had no awareness of ranked choice voting. 

    City officials acknowledged that more work needs to be done to reach voters of color and to better understand the low voter turnout in District 1. The lack of engagement may also be a result of decades’ long neglect for the needs of East Portland voters in City Hall, according to José Gamero-Georgeson, a D1 resident and volunteer at East County Rising, a political action committee that supports progressive candidates in East Multnomah County. He is also the co-chair of the Portland Government Transition Advisory Committee. Gamero-Georgeson joins us to share his perspective on how to engage and boost participation among voters in East Portland. 

    17 December 2024, 9:08 pm
  • 21 minutes 9 seconds
    Portland City Administrator Michael Jordan agrees to stay on in new mayor’s administration

    During an interview on “Think Out Loud” last month, Portland Mayor-elect Keith Wilson said that he was “an admirer” of Interim City Administrator Michael Jordan when describing whom he would want to hire to oversee the day-to-day operations of city bureaus. Outgoing Mayor Ted Wheeler announced Jordan’s appointment in May as part of the voter-approved changes to Portland’s new form of governance and elections using ranked choice voting. 

    Jordan’s contract was set to expire on June 30, 2025 to ease the transition from one administration to the next. But Jordan will now stay on through at least the end of next year, according to reporting by The Oregonian.

    Jordan joins us to talk about the transition and his priorities amid a grim financial outlook for the city’s finances and its departments.

    17 December 2024, 9:08 pm
  • 20 minutes 5 seconds
    Oregon sees growth in outdoor industry, worth over $8 billion

    New federal data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis found that Oregon’s outdoor industry continued to see growth last year, earning more than $8 billion. Kate Porche is the director for Oregon State University’s Center for the Outdoor Recreation Economy. Randy Rosenberger is an economics professor in OSU's department of forestry. They both join us to break down the growth the industry has seen and what its future may look like.

    16 December 2024, 9:10 pm
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