This week we talk with Paul Susi, a theater artist, a social services professional, an educator, and a writer who is also so much more than any blurb could say. He's a person who's trying to live in the world and be fully open to its suffering and darkness as well as to the beauty that it holds. He's trying to reckon clearly with our past and to move toward a more gentle, patient and just future. He's also trying to connect and to trust the power of connection. And in everything he does, he's working to bring more light.

In 2022, on the day before Russia invaded Ukraine, Aleksander Chernousov left Russia for Oregon. He was headed here to study Russian-speaking communities in the Pacific Northwest through the University of Oregon. (Russian is the fourth most common language in Oregon.) Aleks didn't know then that Oregon would become his long-term home. Since getting here, Aleks has talked to hundreds of people from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and other Russian-speaking countries about their departures, their reasons for coming here, and especially their experiences in this part of the world. From recent Ukrainian and earlier Soviet refugees to an insulated sect of Russian Orthodox Christians called Old Believers or starovery, these varied stories are steeped in religion, war, family, geography, art and work.

In this episode, we talk with kids at the Gilbert House Children's Museum, in Salem, and and at Grace Art Camp, in Portland, about learning, creativity, and joy, and also about school and the summer.

In this episode we talk with Chuck Sams, the nineteenth director of the National Park Service, about public lands, relationships between people and the places where they live, and what national parks are for. Sams is Cayuse and Walla Walla and an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.  In addition to directing the National Park Service, he has served as an intelligence specialist in the US Navy, held leadership positions with the Confederated Tribes of Umatilla and the Trust for Public Land, and was recently appointed by Governor Tina Kotek to serve on the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.

Danielle Allen is a professor, author, and former candidate for governor in the state of Massachusetts. Her books include "Justice by Means of Democracy," "Our Declaration," and "Talking to Strangers," as well as a report called "Our Common Purpose: Reinventing American Democracy for the 21st Century." This idea, reinventing our democracy or renovating it, has occupied Danielle for decades. As you'll hear, Danielle has a wide range of thoughts from the micro to the macro and from procedural to cultural about what we can do to improve how we govern ourselves and strengthen the institutions we count on to help with this audacious project.

Why do we welcome some animals and plants into our lives, while we reject others? In this episode, we explore the boundaries of fear and belonging in relation to the other living creatures we share this planet with. Our guests are Wendy Bingham, a cattle rancher; Erica Berry, author of the book Wolfish; and Bobby Fossek, who works on ecosystem restoration, among many other things. This conversation was recorded in Pendleton, Oregon in May 2024.

Built nearly overnight during World War II, Vanport was the second-largest and most integrated city in Oregon until it was destroyed by a flood in 1948. Remarkably, the meaning of Vanport continues to deepen and expand, thanks in large part to the annual Vanport Mosaic Festival. In this episode we hear from Laura Lo Forti, Laveta Gilmore Jones, and Kelly Bosworth, three people whose lives are wrapped up in Vanport and the Vanport Mosaic Festival and whose work has helped show so many of us how our lives, too, are part of what Vanport means to Oregon.

In this episode, we talk with Anis Mojgani, who served as Oregon's Poet Laureate from 2020 to 2024, about the complex relationship between poetry and politics. Recorded live in Portland in January 2025, this conversation between Anis and host Adam Davis examines the unique role of the governor-appointed laureate and the nature of what makes something—a poem or a piece of art—"political." Anis and Adam also read several poems that they'd selected for the evening, and Anis responds to questions from the audience.

In this episode, we talk with Ben Rhodes, a former national security advisor to President Barack Obama and current host of Pod Save the World, about the ways that everyday citizens can understand and engage with our complex global system. Drawing on his eight years in the White House and his work since as an author and podcast host, Rhodes identifies pivotal moments that have shaped our current international landscape and offers a surprisingly human perspective on diplomacy, while reminding us that individuals have more agency in shaping history than we might believe.

We talk with Manu Meel, whose organization, BridgeUSA, works on getting young people to think and talk across political differences. Manu and BridgeUSA are making a bet on democracy—a bet relies on Manu's sense that most people, most of the time, do want to talk with and listen to each other.