We hear about people who got strung out on drugs when they become statistics, like when they die of drug overdoses. Erin Khar offers up a personal story of addiction: her own. Khar had a happy and enviable childhood, but got into drugs when she was 13. She spent the next decade and a half addicted to painkillers and ultimately, heroin. The story is told in Khar's book Strung Out: One Last Hit and Other Lies That Nearly Killed Me .

As coronavirus effects expand, we'll work to take time at the beginning of each day's Exchange to catch up on local effects with JPR reporters. Here, Erik Neumann phones in with news of hospitals and other health care providers bracing for the potential surge in patients.

Even kids who like school will find themselves staring out the window once in a while. They get encouraged to look at the outdoors and really see what's there, in environmental education. This year several Southern Oregon schools plan to join up for the first-ever Southern Oregon Regional Envirothon . It is modeled after the Oregon Envirothon, which pits teams of students in competition with each other, gathering information about ecosystems and the creatures that occupy them.

The concept of a "council of elders" sounds like something from an earlier time, but there is such a thing extant now, in Josephine County. A council of elders, ranging in age from 60 to 90 years old, works to bridge differences between groups over thorny issues. One discussion not long ago brought people of several political stripes together to discuss abortion. The Josephine County Council of Elders works (quietly) under the aegis of Peace House in Ashland.

Life is tough enough for any teenager, with childhood dissolving away and adulthood not yet formed. It's that much harder for a teenager emerging from the foster care or juvenile justice systems, facing adulthood with little guidance. Writer/journalist/lawyer Anne Kim focused on these people who arrive in the adult world more or less alone. Kim's book is Abandoned: America’s Lost Youth and the Crisis of Disconnection . Her work buttresses recent claims that early adulthood is a developmental

Solar storms can have dramatic effects on the Earth, things like auroras in the sky where auroras do not normally appear. Volatility on the sun can also affect some animals. And recent research gives solar storms the blame for gray whales stranding themselves.

Medical science is scrambling to keep up with the speed and intensity of the Covid-19 outbreak. Every day brings new reports of infection, and government efforts to slow the spread of infection. Dr. Chunhuei Chi runs the Center for Global Health at Oregon State University and is following developments closely.

As coronavirus effects expand, we'll work to take time at the beginning of each day's Exchange to catch up on local effects with JPR reporters. Here, April Ehrlich phones in with news of impacts on the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and the larger tourism community.

Terry Longshore and Tessa Brinckman have long pushed musical boundaries with their flute-and-percussion duo, Caballito Negro. They join forces with Left Edge Percussion for a performance of "The Stone Tapestry," a work written for flute and percussion soloists. A performance was planned for Friday evening, (March 13), but the temporary ban on large gatherings in Oregon caused its postponement.

The Digital Cinema major at Southern Oregon University is brand-new this year, but already attracting students and producing some dividends for the public. Those include the creation of a situation comedy pilot episode, with a plan to screen the episode in public on Saturday, March 14th (coronavirus restrictions may cancel). Jim Falkenstein, who has experience in comedy writing and production, is the instructor.