Think Out Loud

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.