Think Out Loud

What can animals teach us about ourselves? That’s part of what poets Reginald Dwayne Betts and Mai Der Vang are both exploring in their new collections. “Doggerel” is Bett’s collection about the relationship between dogs and their humans. “Primordial” by Der Vang tells of a nearly extinct deer-like creature that lives in the jungles of Laos. They spoke to OPB’s Jenn Chavez at the 2025 Portland Book Festival.

 It was a big year in news for the Pacific Northwest. The president attempted to send the National Guard into Portland, plans for a potential ICE facility caused unrest in Newport, and communities across the region saw an uptick in aggressive immigration enforcement activity.   Meanwhile, a significant road funding bill died — then was resurrected — in the Oregon Legislature. And the deadline for Mayor Keith Wilson’s pledge to end unsheltered homelessness in Portland came and went.   Lisa Bates is a professor of Black studies at Portland State University. Jim Pasero is a principal at the public affairs company Third Century Solutions. Nigel Jaquiss is a senior investigative reporter for the Oregon Journalism Project. They all join us to break down the biggest news stories of 2025.  

The immigration detention center in Tacoma, WA is one of the largest detention centers in the country. This prison-like facility has rapidly filled to capacity as a new era of ICE enforcement gains steam and brings profound changes for people locked inside detention — many who are longtime residents of Oregon and Washington. Today we bring you a documentary from our partners at KUOW Public Radio in Seattle called “Inside ICE Detention” which opens a window into this time of transition under the Trump Administration. It looks into who is getting detained, how they are treated and some new pressures people are facing as they try to fight deportation.

Sometimes laughter can be the best way to make it through difficult times. And a good joke can go a long way to connecting with another person, no matter how different they are. Those are themes in the two new books “Stop Me if You’ve Heard This One” by Kristen Arnett and “So Far Gone” by Jess Walter. OPB’s Jess Hazel talked to Walter and Arnett about their books at the 2025 Portland Book Festival.  

What does survival look like if it comes at the expense of freedom? How can we build safe places in an increasingly unstable world? These questions are at the heart of two new books by authors Leni Zumas and Cleyvis Natera. Zumas’s book “Wolf Bells” tells the story of an intergenerational group home determined to make a space for people who fall through capitalism’s cracks. Natera’s book “The Grand Paloma Resort” tells the story of staff at an exclusive Caribbean resort as they navigate class, race and colonialism. OPB’s Allison Frost spoke to Leni Zumas and Cleyvis Natera at the 2025 Portland Book Festival.  

Irish-Canadian author Emma Donoghue is perhaps best known for her novel “Room,” told from the perspective of a 5-year-old boy held captive with his mother. Most of Donoghue’s work, however, is rooted in historical fiction. She frequently writes about characters and perspectives that are often erased from history. Her latest novel, “The Paris Express,” tells the story of a fateful disaster on a French train in 1895. Donoghue spoke to OPB’s Crystal Ligori in front of an audience at the 2025 Portland Book Festival.  

The Owyhee Canyonlands area encompasses millions of acres along the Owyhee River on the borders of Oregon, Idaho and Nevada. The land is rugged and remote and beautiful, and efforts to to protect it in some way have dragged out for years. There were pushes for the last two Democratic presidents to designate the area a national monument and most recently, a bill to protect over 1 million acres of the land as wilderness failed in Congress at the end of last year. We traveled to the area and talked to people about the land and the efforts to protect it.    We stopped in Jordan Valley and talked to Mindy Kershner, a lifelong Jordan Valley resident, rancher, and owner of the Ranch Hand Hardware & Mercantile. Then we travelled down to Birch Creek Historic Ranch on the edge of the river to talk to Tim Davis, executive director of Friends of the Owyhee. We spoke to rancher Elias Eiguren on his family’s land in Arock. And then we talked to Reginald Sope, an elder of the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes who lives near the head of the canyon in Nevada.   

Ponderosa pine trees dominate parts of Eastern Oregon and Washington and have long been an icon of the American West, but in the past decade more than two hundred million ponderosa have died. Particularly in the Southwest, scientists estimate that by mid-century less than 5% of the ponderosa trees may remain. Portland author Gary Ferguson explores the history and the future of the ponderosa forests of the Southwest in his newest book, “The Twilight Forest.”

As 2025 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, Gemma DiCarlo, Rolie Hernandez, Sheraz Sadiq, Riley Martinez and Malya Fass join host Dave Miller in conversation.  

A new audit from the Secretary of State found that the implementation of Measure 110, the drug discrimination ballot initiative, faced a number of challenges with unclear results. The audit notes that despite the roughly $800 million dedicated to programs aimed at helping in-recovery and substance-use treatment, the outcomes — including the number of people served — are unclear. Beyond that, the audit also says frequent revisions “undermined confidence in the program.” Secretary of State Tobias Read joins us to share more on the audit and M110.