At the Oregon Country Fair, there are fairies and gnomes walking around in colorful costumes. A 40-person marching band also bursts out of nowhere and plays down a path. 

“Feels like you stepped into a wonderland or something magical,” one fairgoer told OPB in 2024. 

The fair grew out of a 1960s vision of a better world: a paradise for hippies. But the history of the fair is complex. It takes place on a native ancestral gathering site. 

“I think there's a part of hippie culture that thinks that they can take any culture from any part of the world and make whatever they want of it,” said David Lewis, PhD, Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Indigenous Studies at Oregon State University and a member of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde.

In this week’s episode, we sit down with OPB’s Oregon Art Beat producer Eric Slade and freelance producer Kunu Bearchum to talk about the Oregon Country Fair and how it houses hundreds of artists every year – and its history, from hippies to Native belonging. 

Check out OPB’s hour-long documentary on the Oregon Country Fair. 

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

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At the Oregon Country Fair, there are fairies and gnomes walking around in colorful costumes. A 40-person marching band also bursts out of nowhere and plays down a path. 

“Feels like you stepped into a wonderland or something magical,” one fairgoer told OPB in 2024. 

The fair grew out of a 1960s vision of a better world: a paradise for hippies. But the history of the fair is complex. It takes place on a native ancestral gathering site. 

“I think there's a part of hippie culture that thinks that they can take any culture from any part of the world and make whatever they want of it,” said David Lewis, PhD, Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Indigenous Studies at Oregon State University and a member of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde.

In this week’s episode, we sit down with OPB’s Oregon Art Beat producer Eric Slade and freelance producer Kunu Bearchum to talk about the Oregon Country Fair and how it houses hundreds of artists every year – and its history, from hippies to Native belonging. 

Check out OPB’s hour-long documentary on the Oregon Country Fair. 

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

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

In 1988, Deborah Atrops was reported missing to police by her husband Robert. When she was found dead, police quickly honed in on her husband as the prime suspect, but without enough evidence to charge him, the case went cold. Until more than three decades later, when Washington County prosecutors declared they’d finally solved the case, and charged Robert Atrops with Deborah Atrops’ murder — thanks, in part, to DNA.

Since its introduction, DNA has been considered the “gold standard” of evidence. And advances in DNA testing over the years have sometimes provided the opportunity for a second look at decades-old cases like this one. But DNA evidence isn’t always as simple as it seems on television. Sometimes what it tells us isn’t so clear.

OPB legal affairs reporter Conrad Wilson and public safety and health editor Michelle Wiley have been closely following the Atrops case for months, and join us to explain.

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

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When Rodger Kennedy was 17 years old, he dropped out of high school. He worked to survive on his own.  

Over a decade later, right before Rodger turned 30, he decided to get his GED. He wanted to prove a point to his son Sam. 

“I did it to show them that it's never too late to follow through and finish that goal,” Rodger said.

In this week’s episode, we finish our three-part series on OPB’s “Class of 2025.” It’s a project we created back in 2012 when former Oregon governor John Kitzhaber declared the ambitious goal of one-hundred percent graduation by 2025. 

That’s when OPB decided to document the stories of a kindergarten class on their journey all the way through high school: to capture what it’s like to grow up in the Oregon education system, and all the other life experiences that make us who we are along the way. Thirteen years after Kitzhaber’s State of the State address, one-hundred percent high school graduation is no longer the goal. 

Today, we tell the stories of the unsung heroes we’ve met along the way: the parents and guardians of the class of 2025 students. 

Education reporter Elizabeth Miller tells us the story of Rodger and his son Sam, plus all the other ways parents have impacted their kids in the project. 

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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“High school didn't really go the way I expected it,” said Leyna, who didn’t graduate with her high school class in early June. 

Leyna’s dad died right before her freshman year. Since then, she’s struggled to complete her work, and she switched to online school her senior year. She was dealing with some health issues and helping her mom take care of her little sister. 

School wasn’t her main priority.

In this week’s episode, we continue to tell the stories of OPB’s “Class of 2025.” It’s a project we created back in 2012 when former Oregon governor John Kitzhaber declared the ambitious goal of one-hundred percent graduation by 2025. 

That’s when OPB decided to document the stories of a kindergarten class on their journey all the way through high school: to capture what it’s like to grow up in the Oregon education system, and all the other life experiences that make us who we are along the way. Thirteen years after Kitzhaber’s State of the State address, one-hundred percent high school graduation is no longer the goal. 

Today, we tell the stories of two students who aren’t graduating. Education reporter Elizabeth Miller gives us insight into their lives. 

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

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

In 2012, former Oregon governor John Kitzhaber declared an ambitious goal in his State of the State Address. 

“Next year’s class of kindergarten students is a benchmark,” he said. “They are the class of 2025. And 2025 is the year we’ve set to have 100 percent high school graduation in the state of Oregon.”

OPB decided to document the stories of a kindergarten class on their journey all the way through high school; to capture what it’s like to grow up in the Oregon education system, and all the other life experiences that make us who we are along the way. 

Thirteen years after Kitzhaber’s State of the State address, that once tall order of a one-hundred percent high school graduation rate is no longer the goal. 

“We’re not gonna meet it,” Kitzhaber said. 

Now, it’s both the Class of 2025’s last year of high school and OPB’s last year of this long-term project. 

In the next few weeks, we’ll hear three unique stories from the class of 2025 students we’ve been following. 

In this episode, we present the story of two cousins: Anna and Austin. As little kids, they lived in the same neighborhood and went to the same elementary school. But now they go to different high schools, in two different zip codes.

How did Austin and Anna’s high schools affect their decisions about college? Education reporter Elizabeth Miller finds out. 

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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There’s a population of Northern red-legged frogs that make their home in Portland’s Forest Park. In late winter and early spring, they come down to the nearby Harborton wetland to breed. There’s only one problem: the frogs have to cross Highway 30 to get from Forest Park to the wetland and back. About ten years ago, a local resident saw the road covered with the bodies of frogs who had tried to cross during the night and gotten squished. They alerted some friends and neighbors and that’s how the Harborton Frog Shuttle, also lovingly known as the “frog taxi” came to be. Teams of dedicated volunteers are on-call from late winter to early spring and when the conditions are right for the frogs, they come out with their buckets and headlamps to help the amphibians cross the road safely.

OPB “Oregon Field Guide” producer Jule Gilfillan and OPB cinematographer/editor Brooke Herbert tagged along with the frog taxi volunteers. They join us to share a bit about the experience. And you can see their video 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:

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When you hear the words ‘craft’ or ‘artisan’ mentioned together with Portland, you might tend to think of beer or coffee. But it could also easily be artisan amplifiers and handcrafted cables. From custom-made guitars to individually soldered effects pedals, the city has a vibrant boutique audio manufacturing industry closely intertwined with the local music scene.

Portland writer Marc Young tells us about how Oregon became known as a place where people make a lot of very cool audio equipment.

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.

Right now, there’s a lot happening in the State Capitol that will affect all Oregonians in some way. And because it’s an odd-numbered year, which means the Oregon Legislature has a session that stretches from January to June, we’re nearing the busiest time of the legislative session. This is when lawmakers have to pass a two-year budget and, of course, some other bills that are critical to keep the state running. Podcast producer, and self-described “civics nerd,” Julie Sabatier tagged along with OPB capitol reporter Dirk VanderHart for a day to see what’s going on behind the scenes of our state government. 

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.

World-class cheese is all around us in Oregon. 

From our largest cheese producers like Tillamook and Rogue, who won the world’s best cheese in 2019, to some of our smallest producers like Helvetia Creamery and Don Froylan, who won the best string cheese in the country for two years in a row. 

And while Oregon doesn’t produce the quantity of cheese like Wisconsin, Idaho, or other leading states do today – Oregon punches above its weight class in terms of quality. And the production of cheese has also shaped the history of the state.

Katy Osuna from the Copper & Heat podcast joins us to share the history of cheese in the region and how it became so special.

Osuna also produced a documentary about cheese for OPB’s Superabundant. Check it out.

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

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