Think Out Loud

The indie-folk band Blind Pilot has released its first new album in eight years. The band has been on tour and will perform in Portland in February. The group, which was formed in Oregon, joins us for an in-studio performance and to talk about the album, “In The Shadow Of The Holy Mountain.”  

Donna’s Law is a voluntary registry that lets people flag themselves, prohibiting them from purchasing a firearm. The registry is meant to allow people who are concerned about their own mental health and safety to restrict their own gun rights. At least 20 states have considered the law, while three states have successfully passed the measure. Washington, Utah and Virginia all have Donna’s Law in place, but new reporting from The Trace shows that within the past six years, only about 132 people participated in the program. Agya Aning is an editing fellow with the news organization. He joins us to share more on how Donna’s Law works and the barriers some face when trying to access it.

Oregon middle and high schoolers have a new tool to help them explore career pathways. Sassy, an AI career coach, launched in September as part of the state’s Career Connected Learning initiative. The tool was developed by Ed Madison, an associate media professor at the University of Oregon and executive director of the nonprofit Journalistic Learning Initiative. Madison also developed the JLI’s extensive suite of AI coaches, which help students generate ideas and hone their skills in everything from sports writing to photography to solutions journalism. Madison joins us to talk about the many ways artificial intelligence can be used to help students, as well as the challenges it presents.

Portland author David F. Walker and illustrator Marcus Kwame Anderson have worked together before - on a 2021 graphic novel about the Black Panther Party. This time they’ve teamed up on something a little different: an update of the classic American novel “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” In their version, the escaped slave Jim is more than just Huck’s companion; he’s a fully imagined character. Walker joins us to talk about the work of updating an American classic.

In 2012, photographer Matika Wilbur sold everything in her Seattle apartment and set off to document the 562 federally recognized indigenous tribes in the country. Over a decade and hundreds of thousands of miles later, she released a book called “Project 562.” We talked to Wilbur in June 2023 about her journey, her book, and her mission to provide Native Americans images that are more “useful, truthful, and beautiful.” The Native American sketch comedy group, the 1491s, initially said "no" when the Oregon Shakespeare Festival approached them about writing a play. But eventually the five-member group relented, and tackled Native American history with humor in the play "Between Two Knees" in October of 2019. We listen back to a conversation from that time with Bobby Wilson, a member of the 1491s, and Robert Franklin, the Native American Student and Community Center at PSU, which sent students down to Ashland to see the play.    

Some might argue that pie is the quintessential American dessert. Certainly Stacey Mei Yan Fong makes that argument in her cookbook. Fong’s “50 pies, 50 states” is an “immigrant’s love letter” to this country as told through pie. OPB’s Crystal Ligori talked to Fong at the 2023 Portland Book Festival.

Indigenous author, botanist and professor Robin Wall Kimmerer is best known for her  book “Braiding Sweetgrass,” which was published in 2013 and is about the reciprocal relationships between humans and the land. Her first book, “Gathering Moss,” was published a decade earlier by Oregon State University Press. Kimmerer is in Corvallis to accept Oregon State University’s 2024 Stone Award for Literary Achievement. She will give a lecture on Friday, May 17th at 7pm.  

In 2019, Isabeau Waia’u Walker quit her job as a teacher with the aim of becoming a full-time musician. Despite the disruptions of the pandemic, Waia’u Walker has succeeded.  Waia’u Walker, who sometimes sings in her native Hawaiian, released her second album, “Heavyweight,” last month. Waia’u Walker joins us in the studio for a conversation and performance.

Over the last eight years, Oregon has seen growth in the number of primary care providers, but according to experts, the state will need more than a 40% increase in practitioners to meet growing demand in the next decade. Betsy Boyd-Flynn is the CEO of the Oregon Academy of Family Physicians. Jane Akpamgbo is a family physician for Kaiser Permanente and president-elect of OAFP. Eva McCarthy is a core faculty physician for Samaritan Health Services’ Family Medicine Residency Program and current president of the organization. They join us to share more about the challenges physicians are facing in the state and what could be done to change that.

Just a couple of years ago, agricultural and public health officials were hopeful that they could keep avian flu from thriving in Oregon. But thrive it did, and some Oregonians’ so-called backyard bird farms have been devastated by infections, as the birds must be euthanized if the virus is detected. It wasn’t too long before the bird flu jumped to dairy cows, whose milk must be dumped if infected. Commercial farms are eligible for payments from the the USDA to compensate for those losses, but smaller operations get no such help. Just last month, Washington saw its first case of the virus taking hold in humans. A month later, Oregon had its first case, reported Nov. 15. The symptoms are mild in humans. Testing is relatively robust in states like Colorado, but Oregon and Washington are significantly behind what public health officials say is needed to monitor and maintain a healthy environment. We learn more about bird flu in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest from investigative reporter Rachel Spacek of InvestigateWest.