Think Out Loud

Tiara Darnell created a podcast talking about people of color in the marijuana business. She’ll join us to talk about her thoughts on race and the cannabis industry.

Hemp farmers are pushing back on a USDA rule that sets new guidelines for hemp production. Nick Shown, farmer at Able Hemp LLC, tells us how this could affect his business.

Last week the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission released the first analysis of who police are pulling over in traffic stops, and why. The data collection was mandated by a new law passed in 2017. Senator Lew Frederick pushed for that law. He joins us, along with Ken Sanchagrin, the Research Director at the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission.

We hear from some young Oregonians about how the impeachment proceedings look through their eyes.

Last week the Portland Monthly, in collaboration with ProPublica, reported on the experiences of three women who say Ambassador Gordon Sondland behaved inappropriately towards them. Sondland says the accusations are untrue and politically motivated.

Oregon's only women's prison is the latest to adopt a program designed to help inmates transform the thinking that led them to engage in destructive behavior and rediscover their innate well-being.

In the 1920s, the Osage were considered the richest people per capita in the world, thanks to oil wells on their land. But in the early 1920s, about two-dozen tribal members were killed mysteriously. Author David Grann delves into those deaths and the conspiracy behind them in his book “Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the F.B.I.”Host Geoff Norcross spoke with Grann about the Osage murders, how the investigation into the deaths shaped the early years of the FBI and why we’re so fascinated by true crime stories. This conversation was recorded in front of an audience at First Congregational United Church of Christ during the 2017 Portland’s Book Festival.

Be true to yourself.” That was one of the last things Portland chef Carlo Lamagna’s father told him before he died. Since then, Lamagna has incorporated his family’s Filipino recipes into every kitchen he’s worked in. Now, he is the owner of the restaurant Magna, which is dedicated to his father’s memory. We talk with Lamagna about food’s connection with culture, grief and family.

After her husband’s death in 1931, Irma Rombauer was desperate to earn a living to support her family. So she compiled a cookbook she called “Joy of Cooking.” That cookbook has now sold more than 18 million copies, and Rombauer’s great grandson, Portlander John Becker, just released the 9th edition with his wife Megan Scott.

Seattle writer Lindy West’s new book aims to reclaim the word “witches.” The book is called “The Witches are Coming,” and explores misogyny, the #metoo movement, and what it’s like to grow up female in America. West’s 2016 memoir, “Shrill,” was made into a TV series filmed in Portland.

We get opinions and analysis of the week’s biggest news with Laura Gunderson, Allen Alley, and Kalpana Krishnamurthy.

Fourth graders at Hoover Elementary in Salem have started a school newspaper called The Hoover Journal. We talk to the teacher who came up with the idea and one of the students.

Oregon State University history professor Christopher McKnight Nichols and OPB senior political reporter Jeff Mapes join us to discuss the local implications of Ambassador Gordon Sondland’s testimony and the impeachment inquiry writ large. Kate Davidson fills in as host.

Earlier this year, Jones Hollister filed a petition in court to legally change their gender to nonbinary. The judge in Lane County denied the petition. Hollister has appealed the decision. We hear from them and their lawyer, Lorena Reynolds.

We get high school senior Annabelle Sukin’s take on the arguments made Wednesday before the Oregon Supreme Court, which took place at David Douglas High School.

Last month, the University of Oregon opened the Lyllye Reynolds-Parker Black Cultural Center, named after a UO alumna and former academic adviser. The center was created in response to a list of demands from the Black Student Task Force. We talk with Reynolds-Parker about the center that bears her name.

Mohsin Hamid has lived in Pakistan, the U.S. and Britain. His fiction and nonfiction explores the contradictions and complexities of globalization. His works include the essay collection “Discontent and its Civilizations,” and the novels “How to Get Filthy Rich In Rising Asia,” and “The Reluctant Fundamentalist.” Hamid’s latest book, “Exit West,” was Multnomah County’s 16th annual Everybody Reads book, and PBS News Hour’s book club selection for March 2018. We spoke to Hamid in front of an audience at Literary Arts in April 2018.

Last month, TriMet announced that it would be adding nine new fare enforcement officers to stop riders from using buses and trains without paying. The agency says riders have complained about other riders who don’t pay. But advocates say that fare enforcement unfairly targets people of color and people who can’t afford to pay the fair. Bernie Bottomly, Executive Director of Public Affairs at TriMet, and Huy [HOO-ey] Ong, Executive Director of OPAL Environmental Justice Oregon join us to explain how fare enforcement will work, and what the concerns are with the system.

Public defenders in the Portland metro area are working with a national advocacy organization to reform the cash bail system in Oregon. We talk with two of the people leading the push: Carl Macpherson, the executive director of Metropolitan Public Defender, and Tara Mikkilineni, a senior attorney with Civil Rights Corps. We’re also joined by Washington County District Attorney Kevin Barton.

While she was an environmental reporter, contributing stories to OPB, Ashley Ahearn was based in Seattle. She also had a podcast called Terrestrial. A couple of years ago, she uprooted her life, moved east and became part of a small rural community in Washington’s Methow Valley. She’s continued to report on environmental issues, including climate change, contributing to the local newspaper and public radio outlets, as part of a year-long rural reporting fellowship funded by Ecotrust. That organization provide financial support to the Methow Valley News, but had no control over the selection or content of the stories covered.