Author and journalist Annalee Newitz looks at the history of psychological operations in their book, “Stories Are Weapons: Psychological Warfare and the American Mind.” It explores misinformation, propaganda and how the stories we hear can manipulate us. The book also features a chapter on the work the Coquille Indian Tribe has done to undo damage these operations did to some Oregon tribes in the past. “Think Out Loud” host Dave Miller spoke with Newitz in front of an audience at a Powell’s Books event on June 4, 2024.

“Think Out Loud” wanted to hear how people are navigating the dating scene right now. So we gathered a panel of “experts” to help us break it down.  

Sarah Ruby Armstrong is the creator of Dating Profile Tune-Ups, Playdates and Kissing Booth Social Club. Taylor Kravitz is a licensed marriage and family therapist, the CEO of Empowered Fulfillment Therapy, and an adjunct professor at Lewis & Clark College. Margaret Bagan is a marketing specialist in Portland and served as our resident dating single. 

They bravely joined us in front of a live audience at Portland’s Revolution Hall to talk about the highs and lows of modern dating.

The city of Bend is considering changing its building code to require fire-resistant roofs, siding and other materials in new homes. As reported in the Bend Bulletin, the proposal comes after a surge of interest in wildfire preparedness assessments after the devastating Los Angeles wildfires in early 2025. The Bend City Council is set to consider the measure at its meeting on April 1. 

Melissa Steele is the city’s Deputy Fire Marshal for Wildfire Preparedness. She joins us to talk about how using fire-resistant materials could make Bend more resilient in the face of more frequent and intense wildfires.

For the first time, Clatsop Community College in Astoria is offering a course on the spike in recent years of book bans and challenges. The 10-week course launches on March 30 and will explore the reasons why titles such as “The Bluest Eye,” “Looking for Alaska” and "The Perks of Being a Wallflower” are being targeted in school districts or public libraries. The course will also cover TV shows and movie adaptations of novels that have also been targeted to restrict their viewing in school classrooms and public libraries. 

The course is being taught by Kama O’Connor, a writing and English instructor at CCC who also writes romance novels under the pen name Kristine Lynn. O’Connor says whereas in previous years most book bans originated by individuals, the bans and challenges today are increasingly arising from religious and conservative organizations that are targeting works they find objectionable, including those with romantic themes or feature characters who are people of color or identify as LGBTQ+. 

O’Connor joins us for more details about the course and her personal motivations for teaching it.

An ambitious plan to develop a shipyard at an under-utilized industrial area near Astoria has come into question recently. Several lawsuits claim that a shipyard project at Tongue Point isn’t living up to promises made to partners, the community and the state. Among other claims, the lawsuits say a boat lift intended to help inspect and repair up to 50 boats a year has only lifted two vessels, even as the project has received $21 million in state funding and a 15-year break in local property taxes. KMUN news director Katie Frankowicz joins us to explain.

The Portland Arts Tax was passed by voters in 2012. It requires those 18 or older to pay the city a flat $35 dollars, if they make $1,000 or more a year and live in a household above the federal poverty line. Residents pay online or by mail separate from their other taxes.  Since it was enacted the tax has drawn criticism for the collection mechanism and how the funds were distributed to public school districts, and large and small arts organizations. As OPB recently reported, the tax has generated a fund of $9 million that has not been spent, even as many local arts organizations lost federal grant funding and are in dire need. Today the city released a new audit of the tax, with recommendations for improvement. We sit down with Audit Services Director KC Jones to get the details.

Since 2022, homeowners have been able to get up to 30% off the cost of installing solar panels through a federal tax credit. But President Trump rolled back those incentives as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The residential credit officially expired on Dec. 31, 2025. The administration also changed how it defines the start of construction for large-scale wind and solar projects, meaning developers have less time to access federal tax credits for those projects.

Angela Crowley-Koch is the executive director of the Oregon Solar and Storage Industries Association. Eric Hansen is the owner of True South Solar, a solar installation company based in Ashland. They both join us to talk about how the rollback of federal incentives are reshaping Oregon’s solar energy industry.

When the Oregon legislative session kicked off last month, state lawmakers had just five weeks to tackle a slate of priorities. One of those was a plan Democratic state and local leaders championed to keep the Portland Trail Blazers’ prospective new owners from moving the beloved basketball team out of Rip City.

Lawmakers in Salem moved closer to that goal with the passage of SB 1501 in the final days of the session. The bill received bipartisan support and allows the state to borrow $365 million by issuing bonds to help pay for the costly renovation of the Moda Center, the aging arena that’s home to the Blazers. The public financing plan has several conditions including: the Blazers’ sale to its new ownership group, led by Tom Dundon, gets approved by the NBA; the team agrees to a 20-year Moda Center lease; and the City of Portland and Multnomah County must also pitch in hundreds of millions of dollars for the renovation.

Joining us for a discussion about the public financing plan are Oregon Senate President Rob Wagner, who sponsored the bill, and Dewayne Hankins, President of Business Operations for the Portland Trail Blazers.

The Alzheimer’s Foundation of America is holding a free one-day conference in Portland on Wednesday designed for patients, families and caregivers. One of the keynote speakers is the co-director of the state’s only Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, Oregon Health and Science University’s Kevin Duff. He says early detection recommendations have changed over recent years and with the emergence of new drugs, many early stage patients can experience dramatically improved outcomes — so catching the disease early is critically important. Duff joins us in studio to discuss the details.

This Friday, a production of “Guys and Dolls” is kicking off at Washougal High School’s performing arts center. But what makes these upcoming performances of this beloved musical different is the cost of admission. It’s entirely pay-what-you-can, which means that cost will not be a barrier for anyone interested in seeing this high-tempo tale of gamblers, grifters and showgirls.

That philosophy is at the heart of Columbia Theater Arts Foundation, the nonprofit theater company staging “Guys and Dolls.” CTAF launched its first production last October, with five performances of “Sound and Music.” According to Michael McCormic Jr., the executive artistic director of CTA Foundation, attendees paid an average of $12 a seat for those nearly sold-out shows. McCormic, who is also starring in “Guys and Dolls,” says that ticket sales cover about half of the cost of CTAF’s productions, with the rest paid for by individual donations and corporate sponsors. 

The Columbian recently profiled CTAF and its pay-what-you-can pricing model, which McCormic says is unique in the Portland metro region among theater companies. He joins us to discuss his vision for making theater more accessible in Southwest Washington where few municipal performing arts venues exist.