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OPB's daily conversation covering news, politics, culture and the arts. Hosted By Dave Miller.
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Father Tom Oddo served as president of the University of Portland from 1982 until his death in a car crash in 1989. During his presidency, he helped UP transition to coed housing, oversaw construction of the Chiles Center and reversed the university’s declining enrollment.
Before coming to Portland, Oddo was a key member of the gay rights movement in Boston, advocating for the full inclusion of LGBTQ+ Catholics in the church. From 1973 to 1977, Oddo served as the first secretary of DignityUSA, a nationwide organization that supports LGBTQ+ Catholics.
Portland author Tyler Bieber explores Oddo’s life in the new biography “Against the Current: Father Tom Oddo and the New American Catholic.” Bieber joins us to talk about Oddo’s activism, his time at UP and the legacy he left.
Just over two years ago, Eugene Weekly, the city’s longtime alternative-weekly newspaper, came to a shocking halt. EW’s editor announced that their beloved paper was flat broke — not because of mismanagement, but because their business manager had apparently been embezzling for years. The paper was missing $100,000, with an additional $200,000 in bills that hadn't been paid. Editor Camilla Mortenson said she had no choice but to lay off the entire staff, including herself, just before Christmas in 2023. But with a strong upwelling of community support, the paper resumed printing in February 2024.
In the meantime, a veritable saga unfolded as Elisha Young, the former business manager, was brought to justice. She ultimately pled guilty this week to five felony counts of theft, just weeks before she was set to face a jury trial in May. Mortensen said the paper has been thriving, but is still building back to where it was before the embezzlement began. She joins us to share the more details about the impact these unfolding events have had on the paper, its staff and the community it serves.
New reporting from InvestigateWest finds it’s difficult for parents in Washington to challenge flawed reports concerning guardians ad litem, the court-appointed guardians assigned to children in custody cases, who decide where their children will stay temporarily. If parents do challenge these professionals, they risk hurting their case to regain custody of their children. In Washington, with little oversight and inadequate state-mandated training for guardians, parents are seldom able to hold guardians ad litem accountable for inaccurate or biased investigations. In some situations, children have been placed by these guardians in homes with abusive adults, and some parents have even lost custody of their children to abusers.
Kelsey Turner, a reporter with InvestigateWest, joins us to discuss her reporting, including a few Washington cases that have shaped the call to reform standards for this role.
The Thornburgh Resort is a planned resort in Deschutes County that would provide 950 residential units, 380 overnight lodging units, two golf courses and a luxury hotel, among other offerings. But for more than two decades, the resort has faced continued challenges with the state’s regulatory laws, delaying its progress. A new report from the developer says the continued delays have cost the state and county hundreds of millions of dollars in potential public revenue. Thornburgh Resort founder Kameron Delashmutt joins us to share more on where things stand with the project.
he Pacific Northwest has had an unusually warm winter. This year, Portland saw one of the warmest winters it has seen in the last 88 years. In fact, this February was one of the warmest and driest months in the nation's records. But what do these warmer winters mean for snow? A new study from the University of Washington found that warming temperatures leads to snow crusts happening more often in colder areas. This increase can pose new challenges for avalanche forecasting, ski operations and even for local wildlife. Clinton Alden is a PhD student at UW and the lead author of the study. He joins us to share more details.
Amazon has a big footprint in Morrow County driven by tax incentives, cheap power and available land. A new complaint from the Oregon Department of Justice claims that some of those tax incentives and land sales were approved by people who benefitted from the company’s purchase of internet services from a small company called WindWave. Mike Rogoway, business and technology reporter for The Oregonian, reported the details of this story and joins us to explain.
Artificial Intelligence is impacting business, government, social media — and countless aspects of modern life. Child health and safety advocates say the effects of social media and the rise of chatbots and other AI on children can be devastating and lead to depression, and in the worst cases, suicide. Oregon lawmakers passed a bill in the short session to protect children and youth from these emerging technologies, which will provide guardrails for adults using chatbots as well.
We talk with one of the bill's sponsors, Oregon Sen. Lisa Reynolds (D - Portland). And we hear from Kristin Bride, the executive director of the Carson J. Bride Effect, which she founded to protect kids from predatory tech practices, after the death of her son by suicide in 2020.
The Center for Addiction Science, Policy, and Research, or CASPR, released a nationwide report ranking states based on their ability to protect residents from online gambling harm. Oregon received an “F” grade — among the bottom 10 states for its lack of gambling harm reduction methods.
Gambling is often regarded as an invisible addiction due to its lack of visible physical symptoms or side effects — and it has become more accessible than ever. As people have begun to participate in sports betting, online poker, casino games and lottery from their mobile devices, guardrails protecting against harmful gambling behaviors have seldom kept pace.
We’ll discuss problem gambling in Oregon and recovery methods with Kitty Martz, the executive director of Voices of Problem Gambling Recovery, and Brian Ward, a certified gambling recovery mentor with the state of Oregon.
Note: If you or a loved one is experiencing gambling harm, Oregon’s Problem Gambling Resource call helpline is available at 1-877-MY-LIMIT (1-877-695-4648).
The two unions representing faculty and staff at Portland Community College have been on strike since March 11. It’s the first ever strike at a community college in Oregon. Instructors and staff are negotiating for higher cost-of-living and salary increases, among other issues. With the spring term scheduled to start March 30, the negotiations could delay classes, many of which have taken place remotely or been canceled due to the strike.
Ben Cushing is a faculty member in sociology and president of the PCC Federation of Faculty and Academic Professionals. Aaron Hill is the college’s interim associate vice president for finance. They both join us to talk about where negotiations stand.
Portland storyteller and comic Ash Allen is on something of a roll. She’s won the Moth’s StorySLAM multiple times. Willamette Week recently named her one of its Funniest Five and in 2025 she was a Best of Portland Comedy finalist. Allen has headlined festivals including Pickathon, Fire and Story, and Hell Yes Fest.
She says this debut solo storytelling show “Big Feelings Baby" is “rooted in queer identity, grief, humor, and the act of reclaiming one’s voice.” She explores what it means to “grow up different” in the Mississippi woods, “to be asked to quiet that difference, and to eventually choose to live out loud.”
Allen joins us to share more details about her upbringing and her show that premiers this weekend
Doug Lowell spent nearly 40 years in the world of advertising, from co-owning an ad agency to teaching the subject at Portland State University. But it was only in retirement that he was able to achieve his dream job of opening his own bookstore. As a third-generation Portlander, the business also allows him to play a part in the revitalization of Portland’s downtown, which he recalls once being the envy of other cities.
Lowell began welcoming customers to the store, Kid Hermes the Trickster, about a month ago. Oregon ArtsWatch recently profiled Lowell and his new venture. The 830-square-foot space in downtown Portland is packed with roughly 1,700 books that come mostly from Lowell’s personal library. In addition to literary classics from Jane Austen and Franz Kafka, visitors might find rare first editions and signed copies of titles spanning photography, science fiction or even a 16-volume collection of the Oxford English Dictionary. There’s also a gallery inside the store where Lowell hosts art exhibitions featuring local and international artists.
Lowell joins us to share his vision and hopes for Kid Hermes the Trickster.
The Mt. Adams Institute has announced that it will dissolve and cease operations effective December 31st, 2026. The Southwest Washington nonprofit provides educational and career opportunities in the outdoors through partnerships with agencies such as the U.S. National Park Service and the U.S. Forest Service. It pairs young adults and U.S. military veterans with internship opportunities in outdoor resource management roles, ranging from trail maintenance and construction to environmental education.
Around 95% of its budget came from contracts with federal agencies and through AmeriCorps. Though the loss of federal funding wasn't the only factor in the organization’s decision to dissolve, the budget cuts initiated a ripple effect that left the organization facing layoffs and other financial strains. It’s one example of a wider reaching fallout for nonprofits in the wake of federal funding cuts across the U.S.
Mt. Adams Institute Executive Director Aaron Stanton joins us to discuss how the loss of federal funding has impacted the organization's work.
Spring has sprung! And Hearth and Hollow owner Dusti Arab is passionate about helping people grow their own food. She sells what she cultivates herself in her edible-plant nursery and is also a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) grower. She says planting and growing food isn’t just for spring — it’s an all season activity. Her entire operation is run out of her home in Vancouver, essentially in her backyard. She doesn’t have a brick and mortar retail outlet, focusing instead on selling at the Vancouver Farmer’s Market on Saturdays and growing the edible-plant CSA. Arab also teaches workshops and maintains a food access resource guide for Clark County. She joins us to share more about her edible plant work and her hunger relief efforts.
Danisa McLean has taken the helm of Multnomah County’s Preschool for All program after her predecessor resigned abruptly last summer amid an external investigation into a conflict of interest. The program is funded by a 1.5% marginal tax rate on high income earners which some, including Governor Tina Kotek, have said is having negative effects on Oregon’s economy. In addition, estimates on how many preschool spots are needed and how much money that will cost have been difficult to match up in forecasts. McLean joins us to explain her vision for the program.
Leaders in the Columbia River shipping industry say there’s a growing risk that the 95-year-old Lewis and Clark Bridge will be struck by a large ship and collapse. Ships have doubled in size since the shipping channel was first put into use. Without modern sensor technology, it’s increasingly difficult for pilots to calculate clearance margins when passing through the channel. In the event of a collapse, it would be similar to the magnitude of the 2024 Francis Scott Key Bridge disaster in Baltimore.
Henry Brannan, a reporter at The Columbian newspaper and The Daily News in Southwest Washington, joins us to discuss efforts to prevent the bridge’s collapse, like realigning the channel on the Columbia river and retrofitting the bridge with modern sensors.
Author and journalist Annalee Newitz looks at the history of psychological operations in their book, “Stories Are Weapons: Psychological Warfare and the American Mind.” It explores misinformation, propaganda and how the stories we hear can manipulate us. The book also features a chapter on the work the Coquille Indian Tribe has done to undo damage these operations did to some Oregon tribes in the past. “Think Out Loud” host Dave Miller spoke with Newitz in front of an audience at a Powell’s Books event on June 4, 2024.
“Think Out Loud” wanted to hear how people are navigating the dating scene right now. So we gathered a panel of “experts” to help us break it down.
Sarah Ruby Armstrong is the creator of Dating Profile Tune-Ups, Playdates and Kissing Booth Social Club. Taylor Kravitz is a licensed marriage and family therapist, the CEO of Empowered Fulfillment Therapy, and an adjunct professor at Lewis & Clark College. Margaret Bagan is a marketing specialist in Portland and served as our resident dating single.
They bravely joined us in front of a live audience at Portland’s Revolution Hall to talk about the highs and lows of modern dating.
The city of Bend is considering changing its building code to require fire-resistant roofs, siding and other materials in new homes. As reported in the Bend Bulletin, the proposal comes after a surge of interest in wildfire preparedness assessments after the devastating Los Angeles wildfires in early 2025. The Bend City Council is set to consider the measure at its meeting on April 1.
Melissa Steele is the city’s Deputy Fire Marshal for Wildfire Preparedness. She joins us to talk about how using fire-resistant materials could make Bend more resilient in the face of more frequent and intense wildfires.
For the first time, Clatsop Community College in Astoria is offering a course on the spike in recent years of book bans and challenges. The 10-week course launches on March 30 and will explore the reasons why titles such as “The Bluest Eye,” “Looking for Alaska” and "The Perks of Being a Wallflower” are being targeted in school districts or public libraries. The course will also cover TV shows and movie adaptations of novels that have also been targeted to restrict their viewing in school classrooms and public libraries.
The course is being taught by Kama O’Connor, a writing and English instructor at CCC who also writes romance novels under the pen name Kristine Lynn. O’Connor says whereas in previous years most book bans originated by individuals, the bans and challenges today are increasingly arising from religious and conservative organizations that are targeting works they find objectionable, including those with romantic themes or feature characters who are people of color or identify as LGBTQ+.
O’Connor joins us for more details about the course and her personal motivations for teaching it.
An ambitious plan to develop a shipyard at an under-utilized industrial area near Astoria has come into question recently. Several lawsuits claim that a shipyard project at Tongue Point isn’t living up to promises made to partners, the community and the state. Among other claims, the lawsuits say a boat lift intended to help inspect and repair up to 50 boats a year has only lifted two vessels, even as the project has received $21 million in state funding and a 15-year break in local property taxes. KMUN news director Katie Frankowicz joins us to explain.
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I was impressed by Ms. Hardesty. She had lots of information and data and really seems to know her stuff. The others seemed light on data and heavy on the kind of phrases that don't contain any specifics about policy or plans, unfortunately. Dave Miller, as usual, is a fantastic interviewer. He never fails to ask what I would want to ask. Great episode.
Dave Miller (Interviewer): Let me make sure that we understand the numbers correctly. What I had understood from reporting- Chuck Bennett (the CITY MAYOR WHO AGREED TO THIS INTERVIEW): Well that may be the mistake right there haha Dave Miller: That's not a fair way to talk about the broad world of journalism.
Is this episode the "extended version"? If not where can I find the extended version?
great story Amelia! I can really tell how much work you put into this story