Synopsis
OPB's daily conversation covering news, politics, culture and the arts.
Episodes
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Faith Leaders On How To Support Communities In A Pandemic
09/04/2020 Duration: 18minChurches are among the institutions that have had to completely reinvent the way they carry out their work. We’ll talk to faith leaders in Oregon about the kinds of messages they’re giving to their members in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. Our guests are Jan Chozen Bays of the Zen Community of Oregon, Matt Hennessee with the Vancouver Ave First Baptist Church, and Janet Parker with First Congregational United Church of Christ.
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2nd Congressional District Candidate: Jason Atkinson
08/04/2020 Duration: 17minAfter 20 years representing Oregon's 2nd Congressional district, Greg Walden is retiring. Walden is currently the only Republican in Oregon's congressional delegation and members of his party are lining up to replace him. We'll hear from the most prominent candidates running for Walden's seat in the Republican primary. Next up is Jason Atkinson. He served in the Oregon legislature from 1999 until 2013. He ran for governor in 2006 but didn’t make it past the primary. He also has experience as a filmmaker and an advocate for Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement.
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Willamette Basketball Coach Takes On Toxic Masculinity
08/04/2020 Duration: 16minWillamette University’s head basketball coach Kip Ioane has a very holistic view of his job. Beyond encouraging his players to hone their athletic skills and win games, Ioane sees building character as a big part of his responsibility to his team. Seven years ago, he created a program called Teams of Men. The goal is to teach players about the differences between toxic masculinity and healthy masculinity. We hear about how the program, and Ioane, hold players accountable for their behavior both on and off the basketball court.
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Local Newspapers Suffering Steep Declines
08/04/2020 Duration: 15minLong before the coronavirus, newspapers have shrunk over the last couple of decades. With the pandemic, many are making sudden and major cuts due to loss of advertising — and at a time when reporting itself is critical. We talk with University of Oregon journalism professor Damian Radcliffe and John Schrag, executive editor of the Pamplin Media Group.
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Olympic Competition Delayed For Oregon Fencer Olympic Competition Delayed For Oregon Fencer Olympic Competition Delayed For Oregon Fenc
07/04/2020 Duration: 13minLegendary fencer Mariel Zagunis was set to compete in the 2020 Olympics. That would have been her fifth time competing in the Games and her first time since giving birth to her daughter. The Beaverton native tells us what the Olympics postponement means for her, and what comes next.
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Oregon OSHA Sees Record Complaints
07/04/2020 Duration: 20minWhen Gov. Kate Brown ordered Oregonians to stay at home, she did allow some businesses to keep operating, as long as they could maintain safe distances between people and take precautions to stop the coronavirus from spreading. The Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Administration has received over 2,000 complaints in the last several weeks about employers allegedly violating those mandates. That’s more complaints than OSHA normally fields in an entire year. Michael Wood, the administrator of Oregon OSHA, joins us to talk about what businesses need to do to stay operating and how they will follow up on all the complaints.
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Immigrant Farmworkers Continue To Work During Pandemic
07/04/2020 Duration: 15minImmigrant farmworkers are considered essential employees and are continuing to work during the coronavirus pandemic. But working and living conditions for many mean it’s difficult to take preventative measures like social distancing and quarantining when sick. We hear from OPB reporter Monica Samayoa about her reporting on farmworkers in Oregon impacted by the pandemic. And Dr. Laura Bylerly, medical director for the Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Clinic, tells us how the clinic is working to keep farmworkers safe and healthy.
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2nd Congressional District Candidate: Jimmy Crumpacker
06/04/2020 Duration: 17minAfter 20 years representing Oregon's 2nd Congressional district, Greg Walden is retiring. Walden is currently the only Republican in Oregon's congressional delegation, and members of his party are lining up to replace him. We'll hear from the four most prominent candidates running for Walden's seat in the Republican primary. First up is Jimmy Crumpacker, a former Wall Street commodities trader. He describes himself as a “businessman, not a politician.” This is his first time running for elected office.
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Remembering Oregon Philanthropist Arlene Schnitzer
06/04/2020 Duration: 14minArlene Schnitzer died Saturday after a long illness. She was 91 years old. Schnitzer transformed the Northwest art scene in the 1960s and 1970s and championed the work of local artists. She and her husband, the late Harold Schnitzer, were among Oregon’s most generous philanthropists. They donated more than $80 million to various causes and organizations, including OPB. Her son, Jordan Schnitzer, joins us to remember her.
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Oregon Health Authority Update
06/04/2020 Duration: 17minWe talk with Oregon Health Authority director Patrick Allen to get the latest on how Oregon is doing in our effort to flatten the curve, why we haven’t seen widespread COVID-19 testing in the state, and more.
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News Roundtable
03/04/2020 Duration: 22minWe get opinions and analysis on some of the biggest news of the week with Julie Parish, Eric Ward, and Ryan Haas
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Introducing The 'Think Out Loud' Quarantine Book Club
03/04/2020 Duration: 15minOne tried and true way to pass the time when you’re alone indoors is to read a book. We thought perhaps we could try an experiment with our listeners that would allow us to spend time alone … together. We’d like to try to host a sort of on-air book club. We’ve chosen a book by a Pacific Northwest author that seems to have some resonance with the particular moment we’re living through right now. And we hope you all will read it with us, and then call in to talk about the book with us in a few weeks. Nicola Griffith lives in Seattle. She wrote the book we've chosen, 'Ammonite,' along with a number of others.
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Indigenous People Reimagine The Oregon Trail Game
03/04/2020 Duration: 12minThe Oregon Trail game was created in 1971 to help students learn American history. The game has been played by kids all over the United States. Now it's been reimagined in a project led by more than 30 indigenous people. We talk with Nichlas Emmons, the co-creative director of the game, and Kris Knigge, a contributing writer.
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Portland Writer On How She's Coping With COVID-19 Anxiety
02/04/2020 Duration: 13minPortland writer Sallie Tisdale says finding ways to help others has kept her anxiety about COVID-19 at bay. We hear from Tisdale, author of “Advice for Future Corpses (and Those Who Love Them)” and part-time registered nurse about how she’s coping with the pandemic and social distancing.
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Renters And Landlords Face Hard Decisions
02/04/2020 Duration: 22minWith the start of a new month, many people are concerned about paying rent. Eviction courts are closed and a statewide eviction moratorium is in place. There are some additional protections at the local level, but these are limited. Mostly, these regulations allow tenants to defer rent payments if they can prove that the reason they can’t pay is related to the COVID-19 crisis. And landlords are still legally required to do maintenance and repairs, even if their income is reduced due to tenants’ inability to pay rent. We hear from Coya Crespin, Portland Metro community organizer for the Community Alliance of Tenants, and Jim Straub, legislative director for the Oregon Rental Housing Association and owner of Acorn Property Management.
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Local Bookstore Owners Share Their Recommendations
02/04/2020 Duration: 14minBookstores are closed due to the coronavirus, like all other businesses that are “nonessential.” But many bookstore owners are still at work, and have plenty of suggestions for essential reading during this unique time. They’re providing books online and via curbside pickup. We get some reading recommendations from Stephanie Csaszar of Books Around the Corner in Gresham, and Katie Pryde of Books with Pictures in Portland.
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Understanding How Viruses Jump From Animals To Humans
01/04/2020 Duration: 09minExperts believe COVID-19 is a zoonotic disease that originated in animals before it was transmitted to humans. Bats are believed to have been the source of COVID-19, as well as some other deadly zoonotic disease outbreaks like MERS-CoV and SARS. We hear from Oregon State University professor and veterinarian Christiane Löhr about how infectious diseases can jump from animals to humans.
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Teaching Machines To Be As Smart As Human Toddlers
01/04/2020 Duration: 08minArtificial intelligence can be kind of dumb when it comes to common sense things we usually take for granted as humans. That's according to Alan Fern, the associate head of research at the Oregon State University School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He is working on a project to help machines learn the same way human babies do, in the hopes of making them more intuitive about the world around them.
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Oregon Schools Scrambling To Arrange “Distance Learning”
01/04/2020 Duration: 33minWith Oregon schools closed at least until April 28, schools are trying to figure out how to comply with the “Distance Learning For All” strategy just released by the Oregon Department of Education. Districts had been charged with providing supplemental educational material. Now, they are faced with a more complicated task, where equity and access is an even greater challenge. We are joined by Jennifer Patterson with the Oregon Department of Education, Bandon School Superintendent Doug Ardiana, and John Peplinski with the Beaverton School District.
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What We Can Learn From The 1918 Influenza Pandemic
31/03/2020 Duration: 09minAbout 100 years ago, another pandemic was sweeping across the United States: the influenza pandemic of 1918. It was one of the deadliest events in history: it infected as many as one in every four people on the planet. Christopher McKnight Nichols, director of the Oregon State University Center for the Humanities, recently wrote a column in the Washington Post about the 1918 pandemic. He tells us what we can learn from 1918 pandemic to handle the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.