Think Out Loud

Oregon lawmakers have until June 29 to finish legislative business and adjourn the 2025 regular session. Although a number of bills remain in play, even at this late date, the only thing lawmakers are constitutionally obligated to do before they leave the Capitol is pass a biennial budget for 2025-2027. During the last five months, Democrats and Republicans have taken up issues related to housing, taxes, transportation and much more. House Minority Leader Christine Drazan, R-Canby, shared her perspective on the session on Friday’s “Think Out Loud.” And joining us today to talk about the progress toward sine die is Senate Majority Leader, Kayse Jama, D-Portland.

By the time he was 20 years old, Seattle amateur filmmaker Richard Lyford had already made nine films, including “The Scalpel.” Lyford wrote, directed, starred in and made the silent horror movie in 1936 when he was still in his teens. The film also showcased Lyford’s skills with makeup and early cinematic special effects, which he used to transform himself into a Dr. Jekyll-like scientist who experiments on himself with gruesome and tragic results. According to Seattle composer and producer Ed Hartman, “The Scalpel” was never publicly shown, apart from a handful of screenings to friends and family and an amateur film club. But thanks to Hartman, who led the restoration of the film and composed a new soundtrack for it, “The Scalpel” is now being shown in its entirety for the first time in nearly 90 years. It will have its Portland premiere on Saturday at the Clinton Street Theater during the Portland Horror Film Festival. Hartman joins us to talk about Lyford’s legacy, restoring this hidden gem of the horror genre and what lessons it offers to budding filmmakers.

Oregon lawmakers have until June 29 to finish legislative business and adjourn the 2025 regular session. Although a number of bills remain in play, even at this late date, the only thing lawmakers are constitutionally obligated to do before they leave the Capitol is pass a biennial budget for 2025-2027. During the last five months, Democrats and Republicans have taken up issues related to housing, taxes, transportation and much more. Sen. Kayse Jama, D-Portland, will join us next week to share his perspective on progress toward sine die. But joining us today to talk about cooperation and conflict in the Oregon Legislature is House Minority Leader Christine Drazan, R-Canby.

On Tuesday, two asylum seekers were arrested at the Portland Immigration Court after they showed up for scheduled hearings. After attorneys from the Portland-based Innovation Law Lab filed habeas corpus petitions on the asylum seekers’ behalf, a federal judge ordered the government to not move them out of Oregon without first providing notice and to wait for at least two days. The Innovation Law Lab is also representing two other asylum seekers who were arrested under similar circumstances at the Portland Immigration Court and who are being detained at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington. In recent days, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have ramped up arrests and deportations at workplaces and courthouses around the nation. Those tactics have sparked a wave of growing protests and clashes with law enforcement in Portland and other cities, including Los Angeles, where President Trump controversially ordered the deployment of the California National Guard and Marines to support federal immigration enforcement in the region. Innovation Law Lab’s legal director, Jordan Cunnings, joins us to share more details about the asylum seekers arrested in Portland and the legal issues surrounding their cases.

We do not need any more nonprofits in Oregon,” Libra Forde wrote that recently in an op-ed for The Oregonian/OregonLive, calling it a “difficult truth.” She’s the executive director of Women’s Foundation of Oregon, a philanthropic organization which does grant-making, research and policy advocacy. We hear more from Forde on how nonprofits should move forward as federal funds shrink and how merging organizations could serve communities better.

Ada Gallagher was an artsy kid who joined the track team at Portland’s McDaniel High School at the urging of her friends. It turns out, not only was she was good at running, she also enjoyed it. Last year, Gallagher won first place in the 200-meter race at the Class 6A state track meet. Earlier this year, Fox News posted a video of her performance in a 400-meter race at a meet. The national attention came because Ada is a member of a very small but controversial population: a transgender female athlete. In February, President Donald Trump issued an executive order titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” that aimed to ban transgender women from competing in girls and women’s sports. After Ada’s win in the 400, the Trump administration launched an investigation into Portland Public Schools and the Oregon School Activities Association for allegedly violating Title IX. Bill Oram, sports reporter at the Oregonian, and Ada Gallagher join us to talk about what it has been like to be at the center of national attention, and why she and her family are choosing to leave the country.

In 2017, Portland created a Tribal Relations Program to bridge the relationship between Tribal governments and the city. It was a trailblazing program at the time, but in the years since, it's had three different managers and has been without a leader for seven months. OPB’s Alex Zielinski and Underscore’s Nika Bartoo-Smith join us to talk about the city’s troubled relationship with Tribal governments and its hopes for the future of the program.

For more than 20 years, British author and Cambridge University professor Robert Macfarlane has garnered international acclaim for his writings on nature and our relationships to it, from awe-inspiring wonder and life-giving sustenance to relentless extraction and exploitation. For his new book, “Is a River Alive?”, Macfarlane explores the idea of rivers as animate beings, a concept that is connected to the Rights of Nature movement that has spurred a novel legal framework to protect imperiled waterways, animals and ecosystems around the world. To find out, Macfarlane embarked on a journey that spanned continents and topographies. He trekked through a cloud forest in Ecuador, visited dying and polluted waterways in southeastern India and kayaked down a river in northeastern Canada that was granted legal personhood in 2021 to save it from being dammed. Along the way, Macfarlane introduces us to the people fighting to defend these rivers, creeks and basins while bearing witness to the assaults and threats the waterways constantly face. Macfarlane joins us to discuss “Is a river alive?” and the ideas it explores.

Sometimes a flower or a bird or an overheard snippet of conversation is enough to bring joy. Perhaps especially in a year like this one, focusing on the small things is important. That’s something poet Ross Gay spent a long time doing for his latest collection of essays, “The Book of Delights.” Gay’s definition of delight is expansive and palpable, and his essays range from the smallest of natural wonders to the largest of societal problems. This year, Multnomah County Library is encouraging everybody to read “The Book of Delights.” Ross Gay joins us to talk about his book.

In 2020, the Almeda Fire ripped through Jackson County. The catastrophic blaze destroyed more than 2,600 homes in Phoenix, Talent, Ashland and Medford. The “Think Out Loud” team traveled to Southern Oregon recently and talked to residents about how they're thinking about fire in their communities now. In Ashland, the city and the forest are tied together. The watershed, which provides the source of Ashland's drinking water, is more than 15,000 acres of potentially combustible forestland. Chris Chambers is the city’s forestry officer. He’s been a member of Ashland Fire And Rescue since 2002 and has worked on the city’s wildfire planning efforts. Along with city, federal and tribal partners, the Ashland-based Lomakatsi Restoration Project focuses on ecological resilience in Oregon and Northern California. Its restoration projects are spread throughout the region. Marko Bey is the executive director and founder of the organization. Belinda Brown is the tribal partnerships director. We hear how Chambers, Bey and Brown are thinking about wildfire resilience and how they approach their work in their communities.