J.H. Baxter & Co. has faced numerous fines from the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality for violating state environmental regulations. The Eugene plant treated wood products with creosote and other chemicals from the 1940s until it closed in 2022. Now, the company and its owner are facing federal criminal charges for allegedly boiling off 1.7 million gallons of toxic waste and venting the fumes into the surrounding air.  Christian Wihtol covered the federal charges for Eugene Weekly. He joins us with more details.

Jack Reacher may be one of the most iconic action book heroes of all time. Over 100 million copies of author Lee Child’s books have been sold. But the author who has taken over the series is perhaps a little less well known. Andrew Child, who also writes under the name Andrew Grant, is now carrying on the legacy of Jack Reacher for his older brother. He came to Portland for the 2024 Portland Book Festival to talk about the 29th book in the series, “In Too Deep.”     

In 2024, Oregonians saw a record-breaking wildfire season, the end of drug decriminalization, the start of a new form of government in Portland and more. We’ll look back on the year’s biggest news stories from the Pacific Northwest with a panel of local commentators. Lisa Bates is a professor of Black Studies at Portland State University; Scott Bruun is the president and CEO of the Oregon Bankers Association; and Anna Griffin is the vice president of news, talk and podcasts at OPB. 

In Courtney Gould’s latest young adult love story, “Where Echoes Die,” two sisters travel to a strange desert town to investigate the death of their mother … and find that everything is not as it seems. In Jennifer Dugan’s novel “The Last Girls Standing,” two survivors of a summer camp massacre search for the truth of what happened that terrifying night. OPB’s Jenn Chavez talked to Dugan and Gould at the 2023 Portland Book Festival about psychological thrillers and writing queer love stories for a YA audience.

Chris La Tray didn’t grow up understanding that he was Indigenous. In fact, his father actively avoided the story. But as he got older, La Tray began to uncover the roots of his Indigenous identity. His book, “Becoming Little Shell,” follows his journey to understanding his place as a Métis storyteller, a descendent of the Pembina Band of the mighty Red River of the North, and an enrolled member of the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians.   Sasha taqwšəblu LaPointe grew up surrounded by her Upper Skagit and Nooksack Indian Tribe relatives. Her latest book, “Thunder Songs,” explores what it means to grow up in mixed heritage, and draws inspiration from her coastal heritage as well as her life in the city.   LaPointe and La Tray spoke with OPB "Weekend Edition" host Lillian Karabaic at the 2024 Portland Book Festival.  

In the last few decades, writing about romance has become big business -- from Fabio-adorned paperbacks in the 90’s, to self-published e-books like “50 Shades of Gray” in the early 2000s, to more than 39 million print copies of romance novels sold in 2023 alone. Even Portland public libraries said they’ve seen the number of romance novels being checked out double since 2018. OPB’s Crystal Ligori talked with Lily Chu, author of “The Takedown,” and Katelyn Doyle, author of “Just Some Stupid Love Story,” at the 2024 Portland Book Festival.  

Pull up a map of Portland's urban core, and you'll see a tidy checkerboard of right-angled roads. The city's blocks pack together like snugly fit teeth. Its streets run crisp lines — north to south, east to west. The system's simple, elegant. And then there's Sandy Boulevard. Sandy cuts a wide, reckless scar through Portland's otherwise orderly grid. It scoffs at your roundabouts. It laughs at your stop sign. We wanted to get a better feel for this decidedly punk rock boulevard. And so we decided to walk it — all the way from its origin, near the corner of SE 7th and Alder, to The Grotto, out at NE 85th.

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.

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.

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.