Think Out Loud

Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s new artistic director, Nataki Garrett, started her new job at the beginning of August. She’s also directing a play called “How To Catch Creation.” Garrett takes over from Bill Rauch who directed the festival for 12 years.

20-year-old Nick Hazelton always knew he would be a farmer — he just didn’t want to raise cows or chickens. When Nick was 15, he came across yaks while researching exotic farm animals online. Now, he has a herd of 25 yaks. We talk with Hazelton about the highs and lows of the yak business.

The Trump administration announced policy changes that will make it harder for legal immigrants who use public benefits like Medicaid or food stamps to get green cards and U.S. citizenship. We get more on how these changes are likely to impact Oregon residents from Beth Englander, an attorney for the Oregon Law Center, and Estela Munoz Villarreal, Health Policy Coordinator for the Latino Health Coalition.

The Trump administration announced changes to how federal agencies will enforce the Endangered Species Act. Conservationists say that the president is putting the interests of industries like logging above the survival of endangered species. OPB environmental reporter Jes Burns fills us in.

Coops are not just for childcare or food collectives. It’s actually a model that housing advocates are using to help insure the supply of some of the lowest rental housing around. We hear how the Columbia Trailer Court in Longview was transformed after residents bought the park, along with the help of a local Resident Owned Cooperative nonprofit. Our guests are Margaret Vockrodt, manager and resident of the Columbia Court Homeowners Cooperative and Miles Nowlin, with ROC Northwest.

Doctors in Washington and Oregon are starting to prescribe outdoor activity to patients. Research shows that spending time outdoors can improve mental and physical health. Dr. Atoosa Kourosh, a Seattle-based pediatrics and allergy immunology physician, fills us in on the outdoor Rx movement.

We explore what’s behind the dwindling of orcas, their significance and what’s being done to save them. We are joined by The Whale Trail’s Donna Sandstrom, who sits on Washington Governor Jay Inslee’s Orca recovery task force and Kurt Russo, with the Lummi Nation.

Oregon legislature passed a law this session that will create a new district for managing and funding the levees on the Columbia river. Now, everyone who lives in the Multnomah County urban growth boundary could be on the hook to pay for levee upkeep and improvements. Jules Bailey, of Levee Ready Columbia tells us what’s at stake.

This summer, we’re having a series of conversations about Interstate 5. This time, we’re talking about Harriet Tubman Middle School, which sits very close to the freeway. Portland Public Schools invested significant resources in the building before it re-opened last year, but school board members, students and parents are concerned about what a freeway expansion could mean for the future of the school. We hear from Malina Yuen, who will be an eighth grader at Harriet Tubman Middle School this fall and Portland Public Schools board member Scott Bailey.

A judge has approved class action status for the plaintiffs in lawsuit against the city of Grants Pass challenging that city’s treatment of people experiencing homelessness. We hear more about the significance of this legal challenge from Sara Rankin, associate professor at Seattle University School of Law and director of the Homeless Rights Advocacy Project.

Sucker fish in the Klamath Basin were once a primary food source for the Klamath Tribes. But the fish population has severely declined since the 1980s. We hear from the Klamath Tribes chairman Don Gentry and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Sucker Program Supervisor Evan Childress about the sucker’s history, and efforts to save it.

Oregon Governor Kate Brown is signing a new paid family leave law on Friday. The new policy goes into effect in 2023 and proponents are calling it the most progressive law of its kind in the whole country. It will provide 100% wage replacement for low-income workers and will also cover undocumented workers and includes paid leave options for domestic abuse and sexual assault survivors. We hear from Julia Goodman, assistant professor in the OHSU and PSU school of public health who advocated for the new law. She studies the health outcomes and other effects of paid family medical leave.

We hear opinions and analysis of this week’s news from Camilla Mortensen, Eric Fruits and Zakir Khan.

Law enforcement agencies have been actively monitoring and surveilling environmental and tribal activists who are working to stop the proposed Jordon Cove natural gas terminal in Coos Bay. We learn more details from Will Parrish, one of the freelance reporters who broke the story in The Guardian newspaper.

Sheldon High School in Eugene recently unveiled a totem pole to represent its Native students, who come from 60 different tribes. The totem pole is a collaboration between the City of Eugene and the school district’s Natives program. We talk with program director Brenda Brainard about what the totem pole means to the Native community in Eugene.

The second ever African American Footwear Forum is taking place in Portland this weekend as a part of Sneaker Week. Industry professionals, athletes, designers, and others will gather to talk about the challenges of an industry that markets to people of color, but doesn’t include very many people of color. Stephen Green is the director of operations at the footwear design school Pensole. Bimma Williams is the co-founder of Claima, and a former Adidas employee.

After Oregon lawmakers declined to allocate more funding to early warning systems for earthquakes and wildfires, scientists are concerned that the state is falling behind on natural disaster preparedness. We talk with Douglas Toomey, an earth sciences professor at the University of Oregon and director of the Oregon Hazards Lab.

Sherman County, Oregon rakes in $6 to $7 million each year from nearly 600 wind energy turbines. We speak with a retired Sherman County judge about how the extra income for landowners and residents has transformed the local economy.

The Hood River-based company Tofurky is suing the state of Arkansas over a new law the state says is about truth in labeling. The state is the latest to prohibit many plant-based products like Tofurky's from being sold with their current labels. The law says meatless products cannot use the word "meat" in their labels to avoid confusion. We hear from Tofurky CEO Jaime Athos and the ACLU’s Brian Hauss, who are challenging the law in court.

What is kratom? Why is the drug so easy to purchase online and at smoke shops across Oregon? We sit down with Oregon Poison Center Medical Director Rob Hendrickson to learn about the history, science and medical impact of kratom.