Think Out Loud

"Piano. Push. Play.” puts pianos in public places all over Portland in the summertime. Each piano is decorated by a different artist and maintained by a team of volunteers throughout the months of July and August. We hear from Megan McGeorge, the passionate founder of Piano. Push. Play, and artist Gary Hirsch, who decorated one of the pianos that will be on display this summer.

We hear about new developments in treating certain kinds of concussions. The University of Oregon has teamed up with local practitioners to create a Youth Concussion Management Team. UO professor McKay Sohlberg and patient Benjamin Smeltzer join us to explain how the system works and how it’s different from past approaches.

We talk with Oregon State University’s tsunami expert Patrick Corcoran about a bill Governor Kate Brown just signed into law. It lifts a 25-year-old ban on new construction of certain types of buildings (like schools and police stations) in coastal areas that are prone to damage from tsunamis.

Last year’s departure of the Oregon Bach Festival’s artistic director Matthew Halls left fractures in the classical music community in Eugene and big questions about how the festival should move forward. Just days before this year’s three-week-long festival, the University of Oregon’s dean of the music and dance department, which runs OBF, announced the departure of the festival’s controversial executive director, Janelle McCoy. As Eugene Weekly’s arts editor Bob Keefer tells us, this year’s programs are markedly different from past years, and many are hoping the once-world-renowned festival can regain its former glory.

Nossa Familia Coffee started charging an extra 25 cents to customers that used a to-go cup for their drinks this year. We talk to marketing and sustainability director Karen Lickteig on the reasoning behind the charge and how customers have responded to it.

Teachers at Clark College provide GED training at Larch Corrections Center, with help from inmate peer tutors. Those tutors recently received international recognition for their work. Instructor Lauren Zavrel join us with two recently released inmates.

Republican senators are absent from the Oregon state Capitol for a sixth day, denying Democratic lawmakers the quorum they need to pass a cap-and-trade bill or any other legislation. We talk with Republican Sen. Cliff Bentz and hear from Rep. Karin Power, who championed the cap-and-trade bill in the House.

The Trump administration reversed a decision last week to close down nine Job Corps centers, including two in Oregon and Washington. The plan was met with backlash from both Democratic and Republican lawmakers. Politico reporter Ian Kullgren joins us to explain the controversy.

We listen back to our conversations about House Bill 2001, which would increase density in the Portland metro area and cities with a population above 25,000. The bill passed the state House last week. If the Senate ends up doing the same, the bill would allow developers to build up to four units of attached housing, cottage clusters and townhouses in areas that are currently zoned exclusively for single-family homes. We hear from Oregonians about their hopes and fears regarding this change.

Created by Taylor Valdes, The Venderia is a new kind of vending machine. Valdes hand-stocks the machines with condoms, pregnancy tests, Find Your Inner Animal mystery bags and new and different items from local artists each week. We listen back to a conversation with Vales about her eclectic business. This weekend, Vales is organizing a vending machine scavenger hunt Pedalpalooza ride in Portland.

We get opinions and analysis on some of the biggest stories of the week from Beth Slovic, Mike Marshall, and Eric Fruits.

The bronze sculptures on the main street of Joseph, Oregon, are a feature of the town. But although the sculptures depict Native Americans, none of them are made by a Native artist — until now. Nez Perce sculptor Doug Hyde is installing his sculpture, funded by the Josephy Center for the Arts, today.

Kim Bernard has been at Palmer Station in Antarctica for three months now. She’s the leader of a three person team of researchers from Oregon State University studying the diet of a key food species in the region: krill. Bernard and her team are planning a winter solstice celebration this Friday, and will tell us what life is like near the south pole.

Oregon party politics are in full color today at the state capitol, where Republicans walked out, denying Democrats the quorum they need to pass climate change legislation. OPB reporter Dirk VanderHart is there and brings us the latest.

Portland City Commissioner Chloe Eudaly wants to create more dedicated bus lanes in the city. That means using red paint to turn miles of lanes that are currently used for car traffic and parking into bus-only lanes. We’ll hear from Eudaly and Kelly Betteridge, manager of capital planning for TriMet.

The East Moraine of the Wallowa Lake Moraines is a textbook example of a glacial moraine.The glacially formed mass of rocks and sediment is largely untouched and attracts visitors from around the world.Now, it is under threat of being made residential and closed to visitors. The goal of the Campaign for the East Moraine is to raise enough funding so that Wallowa County can buy the property and secure it as a community forest in order to keep the land undeveloped and allow access to the public.

The Portland Thorns FC are one of the most successful teams in the National Women’s Soccer League. This year, they sent nine players to play for various teams in the FIFA Women’s World Cup. We speak to Oregonian sports reporter Jamie Goldberg about the Thorns and U.S. women’s team.

We learn about a new Roosevelt High School student program that focuses on storytelling to build resilience. Students in “I Am M.O.R.E.” have been telling their own stories locally, and they’ve begun sharing their work in national conferences and workshops. The program received funding from the group Education First to continue the program into the next school year. We talk with the program’s founder, Roosevelt High School teacher S. Renee Mitchell, and two participants, Faiza Jama and Rose Vue.

A new U.S. military base being built in Okinawa threatens one of the island’s most precious oceans. Kaiya Yonamine, Roosevelt High School senior, traveled to Okinawa to make a documentary about the opposition to the base from Okinawan locals in hopes of inspiring American students to take action.

Peg Lynch was on TV around the same time as Lucille Ball. But despite being one of the early pioneers of women creating, writing, and starring in TV sitcoms, Lynch just may be just the most famous woman in television history you’ve never heard of. An exhibit at the University of Oregon tells her story and we hear about her — and other unsung women in broadcast history — from University of Oregon professor Carol Stabile and Cynthia Bemis Abrams, host of the “Advanced TV Herstory” podcast.