This episode was created by students from the University of Oregon’s Graduate School of Journalism and Communication.

For this episode, we invite listeners into the realities of rural Oregon, where questions of identity, belonging, and resilience are part of everyday life. In this episode, Kristina Path and Leif Olsen travel to Monmouth to meet Amanda Laister, a longtime high school Spanish teacher, whose classroom reflects the challenges and hopes of a changing community. Through Amanda’s story, we explore the complexities facing students and educators—from shifting demographics to the need for cultural affirmation and safety. Tune in for an honest conversation about the power of listening, community, and the work still ahead.

Show notes & links:

Community Podcasting Microcredential - This 12-credit, graduate-level certification helps you build professional skills in podcasting, interviewing, and audio production to tell meaningful community stories.

Thanks to Leif Olsen for composing the music for the series of Oregon Speaks: Voices from this moment.

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This episode was created by students from the University of Oregon’s Graduate School of Journalism and Communication.

Listeners producer Daniel Bloomfield speaks with the Executive Director of the Oregon Humanities, Adam Davis, about the Trump administration’s recent cuts to the National Endowment for the Humanities and how they’ve impacted the work of the Oregon Humanities.

At a time when having respectful and diplomatic conversations, the cuts have forced Oregon Humanities to cancel many of their programs, including trainings for conversation facilitators.

Davis speaks about the many challenges Oregon Humanities faces, but also the ways in which he is hopeful and the unexpected outpouring of community support.

Show notes & links:

Oregon Humanities – Oregon Humanities is a non-profit organization that fosters understanding and collaboration through public programs, conversations, and storytelling across Oregon. 

D.O.G.E. – The Department of Government Efficiency is a federal initiative of the Trump administration which made the decision to cut the funding to National Endowment for the Humanities by nearly half.

National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) – NEH is an independent federal agency that supports the humanities in every state and U.S. jurisdiction.

Mellon Foundation Gift to the NEH – The Mellon Foundation’s decision to give $65 million to the NEH in light of the cuts made by the Trump administration.

Community Podcasting Microcredential - This 12-credit, graduate-level certification helps you build professional skills in podcasting, interviewing, and audio production to tell meaningful community stories.

Thanks to Leif Olsen for composing the music for the series of Oregon Speaks: Voices from this moment.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode was created by students from the University of Oregon’s Graduate School of Journalism and Communication.

Producer Kaiya Laguardia-Yonamine speaks with Duncan Hwang about the importance of local organizing and turning inward to sustain our communities. Duncan reflects on his experience as the Community Development Director at APANO, as well as his role as an elected official for the Metro Council.

Show notes & links:

Thanks to Leif Olsen for composing the music for the series of Oregon Speaks: Voices from this moment.

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Beat Check with The Oregonian is taking a short break for the summer while we work to bring you our next exciting project and reimagine the format of the show.

In the meantime, you can look forward to several episodes of “Oregon Speaks: Voices from this moment,” a limited-series podcast from the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communication.

We’ll also bring around some of our most listened to episodes from the last couple years.

Make sure to also check out The Oregonian’s other podcast offerings at Oregonlive.com/podcasts.

We’ve got sports podcasts and a travel podcast called Peak Northwest where we take you to some of the greatest destination in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest.

And don’t forget to support our local journalism and get the latest news by becoming a subscriber to OregonLive. You can do that by going to OregonLive.com/subscribe.

Thanks so much for listening.

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Therese Bottomly, editor of The Oregonian/OregonLive and a frequent host of Beat Check with The Oregonian, is retiring next month after 42 years in the newsroom. On this episode of Beat Check, Bottomly reflects on the stories that shaped her career, and Oregon. She discusses how the newsroom rose to the challenge of covering some of the most significant news events of the era, her decision in 2022 to apologize personally for the newspaper's historical promotion of racism and xenophobia, and her hopes for the future of local journalism.

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Features reporter Samantha Swindler talks about the hidden gem stories she finds in some of Oregon's smallest towns.

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The Oregonian’s investigative reporter Yesenia Amaro talks on Beat Check about the recent immigration enforcement ramp-up, Trump’s approach to immigration and the impact on Oregon communities.

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Lawmakers in Salem recently enacted a series of substantive tweaks to the state’s beloved Bottle Bill, which allows residents to return cans and bottles for 10 cents apiece.

Those changes have helped amplify a growing and complicated debate about Oregon’s first-in-the-nation program, now more than 50 years old.

Does Portland and some other pockets of the state have a cash-for-cans crisis? What should city and state officials do about the drug, crime and livability problems surrounding some BottleDrops? And will these revisions to the Bottle Bill make the issue better or worse?

On the latest Beat Check, reporters Aimee Green and Shane Dixon Kavanaugh discuss Green’s four-part series that digs deep into these questions and many more.

Read More:
Oregon loves its Bottle Bill, but is it dragging down Portland?
‘At the grocery store, we’re looked down upon,’ say people who collect cans on Portland’s streets
Fentanyl use, drug deals cluster around a few Portland Plaid Pantry stores. Chain’s boss worries it’ll get worse
Do you return cans for 10 cents apiece? Oregon’s Bottle Bill is set to change

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In the digital age, true crime content has exploded in popularity across podcasts, social media and streaming platforms. But with this growth comes a troubling trend: The blurring of verified facts and speculative theories.  

On a recent episode of Beat Check with the Oregonian, guests Emily Reeder and Ashley Desanno from the Books with Your Besties podcast discussed this challenge while reflecting on their coverage of the Kyron Horman case, the 7-year-old Portland boy that went missing in 2010. 

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In 2010, digital tools for journalists were emerging, but the gritty, time-intensive methods of traditional reporting still dominated newsrooms.

The disappearance of 7-year-old Kyron Horman from his Portland elementary school thrust The Oregonian’s journalists into a high-stakes investigation that demanded old-school techniques now increasingly rare in today’s fast-paced media environment.

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