The Detour

In this episode, we asked young people at Slater Elementary School in Burns and Highland Elementary School in Grants Pass about how their schools, their towns, the state of Oregon, and the United States shape who they are. In the process, they told us about other places—other countries, states, towns, and schools—that have contributed to how they understand themselves and who they are becoming. You'll also hear from a few school administrators and parents about how places inform our ideas about ourselves.

Sheila Liming is the author of the recent book "Hanging Out: The Radical Power of Killing Time." In both her book and this episode, Sheila argues that hanging out—being with other people, being open to the unscripted and surprising, and taking time back from default expectations about productivity and predictability—is important for our mental health, our relationships, and even our democracy.

In this episode, we share a conversation with Enrique Bautista, a writer and 2024 Community Storytelling Fellow, and Alexis Tadeo, an illustrator and tattoo artist. Both Enrique and Alexis recently moved from the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem back to the relative freedom of civilian life. Much of what they talk about here is their lives in prison, and more specifically, about their efforts to build relationships and collaborate with a broad and diverse group of people in prison, as they, along with a fellow inmate named DePrince Hale, worked to develop the Taking Accountability Group, or T.A.G., which provides at-risk youth tools for better decision-making.

What was the last thing you were wrong about? How did you come to know you were wrong? And how did it feel to come to know this? This episode of The Detour explores these questions with Sarah Marshall, who for several years has hosted a podcast called You're Wrong About. Sarah and her guests often talk about pop culture: Britney Spears, Tonya Harding, O.J. Simpson, satanic panics. Here, we explore what's underneath those stories, and why they matter. And what it means to be wrong or right on our own and especially together.

In this episode, we talk with Father Greg Boyle, who is, in the eyes of many people, a holy person—a person whose presence elevates those nearby and revivifies the world with meaning and hope. He is a Los Angelino, a Jesuit priest, and founder of Homeboy Industries, the world’s largest gang intervention and rehabilitation program. In this conversation, Father Greg reflects on some of the highest and most noble aspirations human beings can imagine: that we can live as if everyone is unshakably good; that we belong to each other; and that we all live in the same house.

Eliot Feenstra is a theater artist, teacher, and organizer who has lived in Takilma, an unincorporated community in Josephine County, since 2012. In this episode, Eliot shares the hopes that drew him from very urban Chicago, Illinois to the very rural Illinois Valley and how those hopes play into the work he does in Takilma and across Oregon in performance, community conversation, and civic engagement.

For the final episode of our series on belonging, we talked with students at Fern Hill Elementary School in Forest Grove and Crestview Heights Elementary in Waldport about where they feel they belong and how to help others feel like they belong. You'll also hear from a few adults who work at these schools about how they create a welcoming community inside and outside of the classroom.

In this episode, the third in our series on belonging, we talk with two people who do a lot of work to help us see a fuller, more accurate, and more racially diverse picture of Oregon: Zachary Stocks runs Oregon Black Pioneers, and Kellen Akiyama teaches African American Studies and other subjects at a small high school in Southern Oregon. We also hear from two of Kellen’s students, Monique and Jasmyne.

Stacey Rice is a speaker, educator, and storyteller who grew up in the rural South and now lives in Portland. In this episode, part of our series on belonging, Stacey shares with us the pivotal role that stories played throughout her journey as a sixty-six-year-old transgender woman and what it has meant for her to gather and share the stories of other elder LGBTQ+ adults in Oregon as a 2023 Community Storytelling Fellow. Later in the episode, we also hear from Sara Wiener of Bend, who sat down with Stacey to talk about some of her experiences over many decades of living in Central Oregon.

In this episode we talk about home, family, and belonging with Putsata Reang, a journalist from Cambodia and Corvallis who has lived and worked in more than a dozen countries. In her book, "Ma and Me," Reang writes with candor, emotion, and insight about the displacement and emotional exile she experienced as a child of refugees and as a gay person.