Think Out Loud

Jacqueline Woodson is the author of “Miracle’s Boys,” “Harbor Me” and many other books for children and young adults. Her bestselling memoir “Brown Girl Dreaming” is written in verse and in 2015, the Poetry Foundation named her the Young People’s Poet Laureate. We speak with Woodson in front of a small audience at Literary Arts in downtown Portland.

We listen back to an interview with Oregon Symphony music director Carlos Kalmar about his personal experience as an immigrant and the Symphony’s “Sounds of Home” series of concerts themed around immigration, the environment, and homelessness.

Oregon has strict standards for what can be labeled a “Willamette Valley” wine. Now some wineries want to make those standards even more stringent. Currently, wines must be 95% sourced from the American viticultural area on the label and must contain 90% of the grape varietal — pinot noir, riesling, etc. — featured on the label. Two bills currently under consideration by the Oregon Legislature would raise both requirements to 100%. Proponents say it will help protect the legacy of Willamette Valley wines but some vineyard owners are concerned, particularly if they’re growing grapes outside the Willamette Valley. We’ll hear from Mike McNally, president of the Willamette Valley Wineries Association and co-owner of Fairsing Vineyard and Winery as well as Michael Moore, who runs Quail Run Vineyards and serves on the board of the Rogue Valley Winegrowers Association.

There have been multiple attempts to bring Oregon into the interstate compact to award electoral college votes based on the national popular vote in the presidential election. So far, these legislative efforts have been blocked by Senate President Peter Courtney. But Courtney has changed his tune and says he will allow a floor vote on the bill, which appears to have the support it needs to pass. We hear from state Senator Michael Dembrow (D-Portland), one of the chief sponsors of the bill.

We discuss the latest regional business news with Suzanne Stevens, editor of the Portland Business Journal.

Since 2008, at least 306 people across the Northwest have died after being taken to county jail, according to an investigation by Oregon Public Broadcasting, KUOW and the Northwest News Network. Conrad Wilson walks us through his findings.

This week, the Oregon Historical Society is hosting a symposium on the crisis facing Rohingya muslims in Burma. There are more than one hundred Rohingya families currently settled in Southeast Portland. Yusuf Iqbal local community leader, and Kyle Wood is a lawyer who has litigated cases involving genocide.

Colson Whitehead won the Pulitzer Prize in 2017 for his novel “The Underground Railroad.” It’s an alternate history of slavery in America from an author who has built a reputation on tweaking the boundaries of reality in order to reveal more about the world we live in. We are in Corvallis to spend the hour with Whitehead, who is in town to accept an award from Oregon State University.

Colson Whitehead won the Pulitzer Prize last year for his novel Underground Railroad. It’s an alternative history of slavery in America from an author who has built a reputation on tweaking the boundaries of reality in order to reveal more about the world we live in. We’ll spend the hour with Whitehead, who is in Oregon to accept an award from Oregon State University.

Colson Whitehead won the Pulitzer Prize last year for his novel Underground Railroad. It’s an alternative history of slavery in America from an author who has built a reputation on tweaking the boundaries of reality in order to reveal more about the world we live in. We’ll spend the hour with Whitehead, who is in Oregon to accept an award from Oregon State University.

Kalpana Krishnamurthy and Jim Pasero join us to share some opinions and analysis of some of the biggest regional stories from the past week.

Portland Police Chief Danielle Outlaw joins us to talk community relations after a recent report commissioned by the bureau found that most Portland residents don’t fully trust police.

Earlier this month the Benson girls basketball team beat the reigning champions to win the state title. The Techsters have come a long way in the last six years since coach Eric Knox has signed on. During his first year, the team lost 6 games by over 60 points. Last year, they were seeded 7th overall. We’ll talk to coach Knox about how he took the team all the way to the top.

Lindy West doesn’t like euphemisms. Call her fat. Call her a feminist. Call her outspoken. Call her “Shrill,” the title of her book, which was just turned into a TV show on Hulu. We’ll listen back to our interview with her from 2016.

The Corvallis-based company NuScale has been working on creating a small nuclear reactor to generate low-carbon power for years now, and it’s finally coming together. Energy consultant and University of Washington faculty Scott Montgomery explains the advantages of nuclear power and why so many other countries are already so invested in it as an energy source.

The University of Oregon women’s basketball team is set to play the South Dakota State Jackrabbits in the NCAA women’s basketball tournament Sweet 16 match-up at the Moda Center this Friday.The UO men’s team also made it to the NCAA finals and the Oregon State University women’s team beat Gonzaga to make it into the Sweet 16. Register-Guard sports reporter Ryan Thorburn gives us a preview of the tournaments.

We talk with peer support specialists who are in uniquely qualified to help people struggling with either addiction or mental health issues because they’ve dealt with those same issues themselves. Braunwynn Franklin is a peer and wellness manager at Cascadia Behavioral Healthcare. O’Nesha Cochran is a peer support specialist in OHSU’s Project IMPACT.

Where do salmon from Oregon’s rivers and coast go when they swim off into the open ocean? A scientist from Newport just returned from a month aboard a Russian fishing boat trying to answer that question. Laurie Weitkamp is a biologist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Researchers at Oregon State University recently found crabs feeding at deep methane vents in the ocean. The crabs were eating bacteria that fed on the methane, meaning they were part of a lifecycle that didn’t need the sun for energy. In a quickly changing ocean, what are the impacts of another food source for ocean life? Andrew Thurber is an Assistant Professor of Oceanography and Microbiology at OSU.