Think Out Loud

Al Ward is a 65-year-old musician who is hiding out from the wreck of his life in an abandoned mine in the high Nevada desert. Ward spends his days drinking and writing songs until he encounters a half-blind horse, and is forced to reckon with his life. Portland author Willy Vlautin joined host Geoff Norcross at the Pickathon Experiential Music Festival to talk about the compulsion to create art, the power of music, and the possibility of redemption. 

Two-sport athlete Bryce Boettcher may have joined the University of Oregon as a baseball player, but football was also important to him.  In June, the outfielder was named a Rawlings Gold Glove recipient by the company and the American Baseball Coaches Association. Now, he’ll finish out his time as a Duck playing football as UO officially joins the Big Ten conference. And in the spring, Boettcher will report to the Astros after football under an agreement with the MLB team and the university. He was selected by the Houston team with the No. 403 overall pick in July.  We catch up with Boettcher, who grew up in Eugene, about the upcoming football season and his time as a dual-sport athlete at the university.

Trans, non-binary and gender diverse (TNGD) youth often experience harm in child welfare programs, the justice system and homeless services. That’s according to a new national report by Lambda Legal that the Portland-based Unicorn Solutions helped inform. The report focuses on how these youth fare in government-involved systems, and the policies that are needed to help them thrive. We talk with Elliott Hinkle, a former foster youth who founded Unicorn Solutions and who coordinated the contributions of TNGD youth from across the country. 

The birth of a baby is often celebrated as a joyful and natural process, but it can also be physically and emotionally traumatic. The Perinatal Trauma Clinic at Oregon Health & Science University is one of only a handful nationwide that aims to support parents who have experienced trauma around birth or pregnancy. Patients work with both mental and physical health care providers at the Center for Women’s Health to develop a plan that fits their personal circumstances.   Katie Au and Katherine Jorda are both associate professors of obstetrics and gynecology at OHSU. They co-direct the clinic and join us with more details about the care they provide.

Starting in September, HB 4002 will go into effect and will recriminalize possession of small amounts of controlled substances. Portland’s public transportation agency TriMet is hopeful this could bring changes to the system that has faced a number of challenges in recent years, including a historic driver shortage, increased assaults on operators and more. Since 2021, TriMet has been stepping up its enforcement efforts, and in July of this year, it began increasing enforcement of fares and other rules. Andrew Wilson is the agency’s chief safety officer and its executive director of safety and security. He joins us to share more.

Classes at Portland Public Schools begin next week and the district also welcomes a new superintendent. Kimberlee Armstrong began her career as a teacher in the Puyallup School District in Washington and most recently served as deputy superintendent of Evergreen Public Schools in Vancouver. Armstrong joins to share what she’s looking forward to in her first year overseeing the district and goals in her first year.

Nearly 20 years ago, researchers at Oregon State University began leading an effort to collect information about the structure and evolution of the North American continent using electromagnetic energy. That effort is finally complete. The new map can be used to protect the electrical grid during extreme solar storms and identify geohazards. It can also help target locations for tapping natural resources, including geothermal power and critical minerals. Adam Schultz led the effort at OSU and joins us to explain what we can learn from a better understanding of the Earth’s geoelectric properties.

Central Oregon poet, teacher and author Ellen Waterston began her role this month as the state’s official Poet Laureate. Waterston has won many literary awards, including two WILLA awards and the Obsidian prize for poetry. This year she received both the Holbrook and Soapstone award in recognition of her contributions to Oregon’s literary landscape. She began her own Writing Ranch in 2000 in Central Oregon to support and nurture writers, and she was instrumental in the genesis of the low residency MFA program at Oregon State University, Cascades, where she now also teaches. She often writes about the landscape where she makes her home and is currently working on a new collection of poetry that will feature a series of commissioned pieces that celebrate remote locations all over the West. We last talked with Waterston in 2020 when her nonfiction book “Walking in the High Desert” was published. She joins us to discuss her poetry, her teaching and how she plans to meet her self-appointed goal of “kindling creativity and community” around poetry throughout Oregon over the next two years.

The Portland Bureau of Transportation has made it clear, shared electric scooters are here to stay. Two new multiyear contracts with Lime and Lyft have recently been announced that would bring the citywide fleet to upward of 3,500 scooters. Millicent Williams is the director of PBOT. She joins us to share more on this expansion and micromobility in Portland.

A big shift took place over the weekend in the way people buy and sell homes in the U.S. The National Association of Realtors settled a lawsuit earlier this year that changed the way real estate agents get paid. Previously, a home seller would pay for both their own real estate agent and the agent representing the buyer. The two agents would split the commission, which was typically around 5-6% of the home’s selling price. But now, buyers either have to pay for their own representation or negotiate with the seller to pay their agent’s fee. Some agents say the new rules will mean more clarity for consumers, while others say they will drive agents out of the business. Ashleigh Fordham is the principal broker and owner of Windermere Real Estate in Salem. She’s also the current president of the Oregon Association of Realtors. Colin Mullane is a former president of the organization and the principal broker and owner of Full Circle Real Estate in Ashland. They join us to share their perspectives on how these changes are playing out in Oregon.