Think Out Loud

Diagnosed in 2024, Portland resident Christy Scattarella has been using her own journey with Alzheimer’s to uplift others and erase stigma surrounding the disease. She began speaking out about Alzheimer's a year after her diagnosis, and champions her “Optimist’s Guide to Alzheimer's" as a way to combat the fear and shame those with Alzheimer’s often face.

For years now, scientists have shown that daily exposure to bright light therapy, which simulates the intensity of outdoor light, can be beneficial for people with insomnia and other sleep disorders, Seasonal Affective Disorder or other forms of depression. But what if bright light therapy can help people recover from concussions or other traumatic brain injuries? And what if it can also lower the risk of neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s, which people with TBIs are at higher risk for?    Scientists at Oregon Health & Science University were recently awarded a $4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense to explore these questions and possibly unlock more secrets about sleep and its effect on health. The OHSU researchers will recruit nearly 120 military veterans who have suffered a TBI. The participants will be given a light box to use at home for one hour each morning for four weeks. Blood samples will be drawn from participants to look for changes in markers that signal inflammation in the brain and changes in oxygen uptake in brain cells.    MRI scans of participants’ brains will also help reveal if the bright light therapy has improved activity of the glymphatic system - a relatively recent discovery about the role of sleep in reducing toxins that can lead to neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s. Joining us for more details of the study and to share new insights about sleep science is Jonathan Elliott, assistant professor of neurology and co-director of the Sleep & Health Applied Research Program at OHSU.

Last week, President Trump attacked Somali immigrants in the nation during a Cabinet meeting, calling them “garbage” and saying that he didn’t want them in the U.S. Meanwhile, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is ramping up its activity in the Minneapolis metro area in Minnesota. That state is home to nearly 80,000 people of Somali descent, the largest such population in the nation.  In Oregon, there are roughly 12 to 15,000 people of Somali descent, most of whom live in Multnomah County, according to a 2016 county report. Musse Olol emigrated from Somalia to Oregon in 1981 and is the executive director of the Somali American Council of Oregon, which he co-founded in 2011. He says fear has gripped Somalis living in the Portland metro area, even among naturalized U.S. citizens such as himself. He joins us to share his perspective and the heightened tension within the local Somali community.

Five years ago, Joseph-based pianist Seth Kinzie was awarded a Rotary Peace Fellowship to study peace and social change in Uganda. Since then, Kinzie has created the African Peacemaking Database in Ethiopia and Malawi. He has now released a new album, “Bright Violet,” with the Kinzie Steele Octet and will be performing in Portland at Holocene on Dec. 7. We talk to Kinzie and hear a performance of some of the music inspired by his travels.

When we look at the night sky, we can see the moon, stars, planets and sometimes even faraway clouds of gas and dust. All that visible matter — the stuff we can see — has a gravitational force, the same way the moon pulls on our oceans and creates the tides. But for decades, physicists have noticed something weird: There’s more gravity in the universe than we should expect. Why?   Physicists think the answer lies with dark matter, an invisible form of matter that accounts for that extra gravity they're observing. University of Washington physicist Alvaro Chavarria helped build a dark matter detector deep below the French Alps. Chavarria joins us to help demystify dark matter, how the detector works and its potential applications.  

From camping gear to gorpcore, consumers may not realize that the functional, tactical and practical clothing worn today has deep connections to the U.S. military. In the latest season of “Articles of Interest,” host and producer Avery Trufelman takes listeners on a journey to learn more about how civilian and military fashion intersect and the ways in which the uniforms of soldiers have influenced the outdoor apparel industry. Trufelman joins us to share more on the history of military gear, the civilian-veteran divide, Portland’s Functional Fabric Fair and more.

The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted Friday morning to change its recommendation on hepatitis B vaccines for newborns.    For more than three decades, the agency has recommended that all infants receive a hepatitis B vaccine, regardless of their risk status. Now, the vaccine will only be recommended for infants born to mothers who test positive for the infection or whose status is unknown. The committee’s decision still needs approval from the CDC’s acting director.   A group of researchers conducted a modeling study to assess the impacts of delaying the vaccine. The study has not yet been peer reviewed, but it found that delaying the vaccine by even two months could lead to more than 1,400 preventable hepatitis B infections and more than $222 million in additional health care costs.   Eric Hall is an assistant professor of epidemiology in the OHSU-PSU School of Public Health. He led the study and joins us with more details.  

Since 1999, there have been more than 430 school shootings across the nation. Oregon alone has had eight incidents since 2008, according to CNN. With school shootings being a concern for parents, teachers and students, a new industry around school safety has emerged. Estimated to be worth $4 billion, school shooting preparedness and security is projected to continue to grow. From panic buttons and bullet-resistant backpacks to drill simulations and AI gun detection software, the amount of products and services being sold to schools and districts varies wildly. A new HBO documentary, “Thoughts and Prayers,” takes a look at this industry and follows students, teachers and community members during a mass-casualty event drill in Medford, Oregon. Directors Zackary Canepari and Jessica Dimmock join us to share more about the school security industry.

Jeanne Maddox Peterson was 13 years old when she began teaching dance lessons out of her family’s living room in Astoria.     That was 75 years ago. Today, at the age of 89, Peterson is still teaching students at Maddox Dance Studio, which is now located in Warrenton and offers classes ranging from ballet to tap, hip-hop to acrobatic dance. As first reported by The Daily Astorian, Clatsop County Commissioners honored Peterson last month when they proclaimed Dec. 6, 2025 “Jeanne Maddox Peterson Day” in recognition of her many contributions to the community. That day marks the 50th anniversary of “The Nutcracker” this Saturday in Astoria, which Peterson has been producing annual winter performances of since 1975.     Peterson joins us to talk about her remarkable career, which also includes having worked as a professional dancer for companies in San Francisco and Montreal and producing the Miss Oregon pageant for more than three decades. We also hear from Michelle Kischner Rogers, an instructor at Maddox Dance Studio and one of Peterson’s former students who first took lessons from her at the age of 5.  

Law enforcement agencies across Oregon and Washington use automated license plate readers to identify vehicles and manage traffic. Many of those cameras are run by a company called Flock Safety, which has been criticized for sharing data with immigration officials. A new study from the University of Washington’s Center for Human Rights found that U.S. Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement have access to Flock license plate data from at least 18 of 31 law enforcement agencies in WA state. Phil Neff, the coordinator for the UW Center for Human Rights, joins us to discuss the research.

The Ashland Sarcasm Festival is a three-day comedy festival that kicks off this Friday in Ashland. Held in various venues across Ashland, from local bars to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Bowmer Theater, the inaugural festival aims to make the Southern Oregon city a destination for comics on the touring circuit in a place more famous for soliloquies than stand-up.    ASF features headliners like nationally renowned comedian, writer and actor Ron Funches, who graduated from high school in Salem and achieved early success in Portland’s stand-up comedy scene before he relocated to Los Angeles in 2012. But it also shines a spotlight on local and regional talent like Carl Lee, a Medford-based comedian and comedy show producer who is hosting two shows at the festival. There’s also live music, improv workshops, drag queen performances and a celebrity roast of William Shakespeare for the final act.   Funches and Lee join us for a discussion, along with Matt Hoffman, the founder and creative director of Storytown, a local arts nonprofit organizing the Ashland Sarcasm Festival.     

Paul Smith, dean of the Linfield University School of Nursing in Portland, was recently appointed chair-elect of the National League for Nursing. Smith is the first male to ever be elected to the post in the organization’s 132 years.    The National League for Nursing is the oldest nursing organization in the U.S., aiming to create a standardized nursing curriculum since 1893. The organization also advocates for healthcare legislation. Smith joins us to talk about his new role and the responsibility of representing nursing education in the Pacific Northwest on a national and international stage.  

A recently published paper led by an Oregon State University researcher suggests that installing floating solar panels on top of existing reservoirs could have a variety of positive results. Those include cooling the solar panels, allowing for greater energy generation from those panels, and preventing the water in shallower reservoirs from warming to temperatures that are challenging for fish and other aquatic life. According to lead researcher Evan Bredeweg, there are relatively few of these kinds of installations in the U.S., but in countries that have embraced solar and non-fossil fuel energy, they are relatively common. Bredeweg joins us to tell us more about the study and the potential floating solar has for wide-scale adoption.

 The 2024 Lonerock Fire burned over 137,000 acres in Gilliam County, much of it rangeland. Ranchers whose lands were destroyed faced a common yet costly hurdle to wildfire recovery: new fencing. According to the Gilliam County Soil and Water Conservation District, to replace about 300 miles of fence that had burned in the fire would have cost over $9 million. With financial support from Gilliam County, two ranchers, Jason and Anthony Campbell, turned to virtual fencing, which they say is a promising wildfire recovery solution. Now, a year after the fire, they join us to talk about their experience with the technology.

Nutrition Inside is a Portland nonprofit that launched last year to improve the quality of food for adults in custody in Oregon prisons. It delivers between 500 and 3,000 pounds of surplus food obtained from farms and hunger-fighting charities to correctional facilities across Oregon each week. The organization is volunteer-based and led by a group of current and former students from Lewis & Clark College. Co-founder Aidan O’Connor joins us for a conversation about the organization’s work. Also joining us is Noelle St John, an advisor to the organization who was formerly incarcerated at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility.

 The Portland band Møtrik is known for laser lights and fog machines and a driving 4/4 beat. The five piece band pumps out playful, danceable krautrock and has just released its fourth full length album. We talk to Erik Golts, Jonah Nolde, Dave Fulton, Cord Amato and Lee Ritter about their new album “Earth.”

Data from the Sentencing Project, a nonprofit which advocates for criminal justice reforms, shows that Native American children in Washington are nearly five times more likely on average to be incarcerated than their white peers. Furthermore, Native American children are less likely to receive a second chance once they are in juvenile court, according to a recently published series from InvestigateWest about the inequities Native American youth face in Washington’s criminal justice system. Melanie Henshaw, Indigenous affairs reporter at InvestigateWest, joins us to discuss her findings.

This week the board of Prosper Portland votes to finalize a settlement for more than 20 people whose homes and businesses were destroyed in the name of urban renewal from the 1950s through the ’70s. The group of Black Portlanders fought for years to get to this point, and eventually filed a federal lawsuit arguing that the city of Portland, Emanuel Legacy Medical Center and Prosper Portland conspired to destroy a previously thriving Black neighborhood. The original financial settlement proposed to the Portland city council was $2 million. After testimony from a dozen community members recently, all 12 Portland city councilors voted to increase the amount to $8.5 million. As part of the settlement, the lawsuit will be dismissed, and the descendants will get financial and land retribution, in addition to other terms. We hear from plaintiffs Donna Marshall and Byrd, who led the research effort that culminated in this settlement, and from their lawyer Ed Johnson.

Last week, the iconic American documentary filmmaker Ken Burns released his latest series: a six part, 12 hour film on the American revolution. The film follows dozens of figures from various backgrounds, allowing viewers to experience the war through the memories of the men and women who lived through it. Earlier this year, Burns was in Portland for a special sneak preview of the film. We listen back to his conversation with Geoff Norcross in front of an audience at Revolution Hall.

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. We spoke to Kimmerer on May 17, 2024 when she was in Corvallis to accept Oregon State University’s 2024 Stone Award for Literary Achievement and give a lecture on campus.