Imagine a place where the smells of barbacoa and leather from cowboy boots waft through the air, where the sounds of cumbia playing, vendors making aguas frescas and conversations in Spanish carry through the aisles.

M&M Marketplace, a colorful mercado in Hillsboro, gives many of its visitors a sense of community and home. 

At the mercado, podcast producer Mía Estrada was instantly transported to the Texas-Mexico border, where she was born and raised.

In this week’s episode, we explore the meaning of home, how we find it in unexpected places, and how it helps us stay resilient — all within the grounds of an Oregon mercado.

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Portland may not be known as a hub of hip-hop on par with New York or Los Angeles, but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t been a hotbed for sonic experimentation and incredible talent for decades. 

We had all the elements: historic Black neighborhoods in Northeast Portland, jazz dripping out of clubs, funk bands, block parties, dances, and plenty of good ol’ fashioned youthful angst. So why isn’t Portland hip-hop bigger?

Marlon “Vursatyl” Irving, a longtime Portland rapper and founding member of the Lifesavas hip-hop group, says local nightclubs and venues discriminated against artists, denying artists access to performance spaces

“It was hard for us to get into clubs,” he says. “I think had there been more racial diversity in Portland, and just more understanding about hip-hop culture at the time that the foundation was being laid, we would've got to hear some of the greatest, we would've had recordings from the greatest, we would've seen their careers blossom.” 

On this week’s episode, we’re revisiting a story about Portland hip-hop, why it isn’t bigger and what keeps it going. 

A special thank you to J Jackson, who produced the documentary “Beyond the Beats” in collaboration with OPB’s “Oregon Experience,” KMHD Jazz Radio, and Albina Music Trust. 

For more Evergreen episodes and to share your voice with us, visit our showpage.

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The rekindled Portland Fire are wrapping up their inaugural season and, while they didn’t make the playoffs, they did finish fourth in the league for attendance. The team averaged more 14,500 fans per game, which is not all that surprising given how much Portlanders love to show up for women’s sports. Center Megan DiLeo (formerly Megan Gustafson) described the team as “a bunch of overlooked players,” and said she never felt respected as an athlete until she came to the Rose City. Whether the team won or lost, every home game brought good vibes to the Moda Center, which the team nicknamed “The Fire Pit.” 

We break down the joys and challenges of the new team’s first season with two lifelong women’s basketball fans: OPB business reporter, Kyra Buckly and Rev Shines, host of “Today’s Good News” on KMHD.

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For more Evergreen episodes and to share your voice with us, visit our showpage.

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Data centers are at the heart of heated conversations in communities around the country, and Oregon is no exception. These facilities store and process data that make all kinds of connectivity possible — posting updates to social media, streaming movies and TV shows, online banking, telehealth, and of course, artificial intelligence. There are about 125 data centers in Oregon. The AI boom has rapidly increased the demand for this infrastructure. And with that has come increased awareness about the climate and community impacts of data centers, as well as how they could impact Oregon’s aging power grid. 

We dig into the benefits and drawbacks of data centers in communities across Oregon and hear why some of the largest of these facilities could be a threat to air quality in the eastern part of the state. 

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For more Evergreen episodes and to share your voice with us, visit our showpage.

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The history of tattoos dates back thousands of years. In the Northwest, people have been getting tattooed since long before Oregon even existed. Today, more tattooers are getting licensed to practice the craft in the state each year, and Oregon is a destination for people looking to get inked.

From Indigenous tattoo practices that survived colonization to sailor tattoos and Portland icon Bert Grimm, we learn the stories behind Oregon’s ink.

Learn more by watching OPB’s “Oregon Experience” documentary, “Tattoo People.”

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For more episodes of The Evergreen, and to share your voice with us, visit our show page.

Follow OPB on Instagram, and follow host Jenn Chávez too.

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What does it mean to guide someone through one of the most vulnerable moments of their life? What does it take to plan how bus riders get around? What’s it like to walk into restaurants looking for what others might miss?

We’re back with the latest stories from “At Work With,” our series where we interview people from different lines of work about what it’s like to do what they do. In this episode, we meet a doula supporting families through birth, a transit planner at TriMet, and a county health inspector making sure food is safe to eat. 

We’re always open to new ideas for jobs that we can learn about next! If you’ve got a suggestion, email us at [email protected]. 

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For more episodes of The Evergreen, and to share your voice with us, visit our show page.

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In late July, just two days before the first of the month, a line of Oregonians stood waiting for free food. 

At the Dallas food bank in the Willamette Valley countryside, the hunger crisis gripping Oregon was on full display. Alexis Arechiga, 28, struggles to afford snacks for church and sporting events with her two kids. Corrina Campbell, 32, visits the food bank twice a week, and says feeding her two kids means that on some nights she goes to sleep hungry.

The high cost of groceries and the federal government’s cuts to SNAP benefits have left more Oregonians struggling to afford food. Food assistance programs like food banks are stretched thin trying to meet the growing demand for help. 

“Usually it’s pretty full,” said food bank manager Eddie Nelson as she opened a freezer. “But as you can tell our freezers are getting empty.”

In this week’s episode, Evergreen producer Mía Estrada and reporter Bryce Dole spend about 24 hours in Dallas. They bring us along for one day at free, local food programs in rural Oregon. 

For more Evergreen episodes and to share your voice with us, visit our showpage.

Follow OPB on Instagram, and follow host Jenn Chávez too.

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When people think about the Lewis & Clark expedition, they probably think about Meriwether Lewis, William Clark and maybe Sacagawea. But there’s one member of the Corps of Discovery who isn’t as famous: York. 

York was an enslaved Black man who was just as essential to the success of the expedition as anyone else, but didn’t receive credit for his work afterwards. We dive into York’s story and remember one who may have been overlooked in American history. 

You can learn more by watching the Oregon Experience documentary “Searching for York”

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For more Evergreen episodes and to share your voice with us, visit our showpage.

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This is the English version of this podcast episode. Haga clic aquí para escuchar en español.

Luis Lamas left Oregon out of fear. 

“I don't want to find out if they're going to put me in a detention center or if I'm going to live so many more years [here] and be told, you know what, no, you have to go back to your country,” he said in Spanish. 

Lamas is among a growing number of people choosing to leave the U.S. out of fear of arrest or detention, as the Trump administration has promised to arrest or deport anyone without lawful status. Immigrants with lawful status have also been detained.

In this week’s episode of The Evergreen, OPB reporter Alejandro Figueroachronicles the journey of Luis Lamas, a Mexican immigrant who once called Woodburn home.

For more Evergreen episodes and to share your voice with us, visit our showpage.

Follow OPB on Instagram, and follow host Jenn Chávez too.

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Timber Wars Season 2: Salmon Wars

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Esta es la versión en español de este episodio del podcast. Click here to listen in English.

Luis Lamas salió de Oregon por miedo.

“No quiero averiguar si me van a meter a un centro de detención o si voy a vivir tantos años más y que me digan sabes que, siempre no, te tienes que ir a tu país.” dijo.

Lamas se encuentra entre el creciente número de personas que están abandonando los Estados Unidos por temor a ser arrestadas o detenidas, ya que el gobierno de Trump ha prometido arrestar o deportar a cualquier persona sin estatus legal. Inmigrantes con estatus legal también han sido detenidos. 

Este semana en The Evergreen, el reportero de OPB Alejandro Figueroa narra el viaje de Luis Lamas, un inmigrante mexicano que solía vivir en Woodburn.

Para escuchar más episodios de The Evergreen y compartir tu opinión con nosotros, visita nuestra página web. 

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