The Evergreen

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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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.

You can sign up for OPB’s newsletters to get what you need in your inbox regularly.

Don’t forget to check out our many podcasts, which can be found on any of your favorite podcast apps:

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Timber Wars Season 2: Salmon Wars

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And many more! Check out our full show list here.

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.

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OPB has teams of people working tirelessly behind the scenes to support the journalism we do. We are actually the only media organization in the state with an in-house legal team. A big part of their job is defending the public’s right to access information from government agencies by pushing back when reporters are facing denials for public records requests. And our media archivist helps us mine for audio gold so that we can bring you stories from Oregon’s past and present. 

For this episode, you’ll hear from some of the unsung heroes whose hard work helps us make this podcast, and helps all of our colleagues do what they do. First, we’ll visit the OPB archives with archivist Mia Cooper Ferm. Then, we talk with two members of our legal team, public policy counsel Nora Broker and deputy general counsel Jon Bial.

Last fall and winter, after President Trump claimed Portland was “war ravaged” and threatened to send in the National Guard, immigration detentions in Oregon skyrocketed and became more aggressive. We learn what happened next to two families whose loved ones were among more than a thousand Oregonians caught up in what the government called “Operation Black Rose.” 

When part of a family is missing, what gets left behind?

Learn more by watching the latest episode of OPB’s documentary series, “The Crackdown.”

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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.

You can sign up for OPB’s newsletters to get what you need in your inbox regularly.

Don’t forget to check out our many podcasts, which can be found on any of your favorite podcast apps:
Hush
Timber Wars Season 2: Salmon Wars
Politics Now
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And many more! Check out our full show list here.

The CEO of a fast-growing company in Battle Ground is buying and developing properties at a rapid pace. His investments in the Southwest Washington town have raised hopes for some who live there. But others are questioning whether the executive, Camden Spiller, has a specific Christian vision for the city. He has connections to a local pastor who has described his approach as “an experiment in Christian localism.” Spiller recently purchased the local newspaper, and the church he’s involved with has been venturing into local politics. 

OPB’s Southwest Washington Bureau Chief Erik Neumann joins us to talk about what’s happening in Battle Ground. 

You can read Erik’s reporting on Camden Spiller’s growing influence in Battle Ground here. 

Don’t forget to check out our many podcasts, which can be found on any of your favorite podcast apps:

Hush

Timber Wars Season 2: Salmon Wars

Politics Now

Think Out Loud

And many more! Check out our full show list here.

Becky Lange became enamored with all the goodies you could find in a dumpster. 

“You never know what you're going to get,” she said on a 2025 podcast called American Wastepickers.

Lange lived unsheltered on the streets of Portland. Things she found in dumpsters, like nail polish, art supplies and hair dye, were treasures to her. She saw the value in what most people consider garbage. 

“I would like people to reassess the value of the items that they're throwing away, just like I would like society to reassess the value of the people that we tend to throw away because we don't see the value that they have,” Lange said. 

On May 22 2026, an acquaintance allegedly hit Lange in the head with a metal rod and left her crumpled on the sidewalk in Portland’s Old Town. She died 12 days later. Lange was 44-years-old. 

On today’s episode of The Evergreen, OPB reporter Alex Zielinski remembers Becky Lange and the way she fought for the rights of unsheltered people amid a housing shortage and homelessness crisis that have gripped the city for more than a decade. 

Read Alex’s full story here. 

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

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

You can sign up for OPB’s newsletters to get what you need in your inbox regularly.

Don’t forget to check out our many podcasts, which can be found on any of your favorite podcast apps:

Hush 

Timber Wars Season 2: Salmon Wars

Politics Now

Think Out Loud

And many more! Check out our full show list here.

The Deschutes River is a lifeline for Central Oregon. About 90 percent of the river’s water is diverted to irrigation canals during the agricultural growing season. OPB’s Central Oregon Bureau Chief Emily Cureton Cook wanted to know where all that water went, and what it was used to grow. 

Emily teamed up with journalists at ProPublica to zoom in on the Central Oregon Irrigation District, or COID. They did some deep data analysis to find some answers. But this is not a story about numbers. This is a story about people, specifically the people growing the food we eat from Oregon. 

As we’ve talked about before, Oregon water rights rely on a system called “prior appropriation” or “first in time, first in right.” Basically, in a drought, the people who hold the oldest or “senior” water rights get top priority and junior water rights holders have to make do with less. In this episode, Emily shares her reporting to show us what that looks like on the ground during a time when climate change is making drought conditions more severe. 

Don’t forget to check out our many podcasts, which can be found on any of your favorite podcast apps:

Hush

Timber Wars Season 2: Salmon Wars

Politics Now

Think Out Loud

And many more! Check out our full show list here.

Portland is the global epicenter of women’s sports. At least, that’s what some people have been saying lately. The phrase pops up in media coverage of our new WNBA team, the Fire, and our beloved women’s soccer team, the Thorns. And those are not our only professional women’s sports teams. We also have a pro softball team, the Cascade and a pro ultimate frisbee team called the Oregon Soar. The Cherry Bombs are our new pre-professional soccer team. We’ve got women’s tackle football, rugby and a badass roller derby league. 

So, is Portland the epicenter of women’s sports? It’s hard to know how to measure such a thing, but what we can say for sure is that there are countless opportunities for women, girls, trans and nonbinary people to play sports and cheer for teams across the city. We talk a bit about the history behind the Rose City’s enthusiasm for women’s sports and hear from OPB business reporter Kyra Buckley about how the Portland Fire season is shaping up. 

Watch a short video about the history of women’s sports in Portland by OPB’s Emily Hamilton. 

Don’t forget to check out our many podcasts, which can be found on any of your favorite podcast apps:

Hush

Timber Wars Season 2: Salmon Wars

Politics Now

Think Out Loud

And many more! Check out our full show list here.

The shipwreck of the Brother Jonathan is one of the Pacific Coast's deadliest maritime disasters.

In 1865, the ship crashed into a rock and sank off the coast of Crescent City, California, killing more than 200 people and taking a fortune in gold with it to the ocean floor. 

OPB’s Kami Horton takes us on board to understand what happened that day, and learn about the people the ship carried before its demise, from all walks of life and all over the world. 

Watch Kami Horton's "Oregon Experience" documentary, The Wreck of the Brother Jonathan.

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

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

You can sign up for OPB’s newsletters to get what you need in your inbox regularly.

Don’t forget to check out our many podcasts, which can be found on any of your favorite podcast apps:

Hush 

Timber Wars Season 2: Salmon Wars

Politics Now

Think Out Loud

And many more! Check out our full show list here.