Some might argue that pie is the quintessential American dessert. Certainly Stacey Mei Yan Fong makes that argument in her cookbook. Fong’s “50 pies, 50 states” is an “immigrant’s love letter” to this country as told through pie. OPB’s Crystal Ligori talked to Fong at the 2023 Portland Book Festival.

The U.S. Constitution likely would not have been ratified in 1788 without Article 5, which allowed for amendment. Many of the original founders championed the idea that the document would need to change as the country changed. As historian Jill Lepore points out in her newest book most of the 27 amendments to the constitution have happened just after times of war or conflict, and after 33 years without an amendment, we may be headed that way again. OPB’s Geoff Norcross speaks to Lepore in front of an audience at the 2025 Portland Book Festival about “We the People: A history of the U.S. Constitution.”

Stacey Abrams has published more than a dozen books over the last 25 years. Those include thrillers, romance novels, children’s books and political memoirs and manifestos. That would be a full career for most people, but Stacey Abrams seems to have more energy than most people.

While she has always been a writer, she has also been a tax attorney, a Georgia state lawmaker, the minority leader of the Georgia House of Representatives and the first Black woman in U.S. history to become the gubernatorial nominee of a major political party.

Abrams has launched multiple nonprofit organizations and for-profit companies, with a longstanding focus on voter registration and voter’s rights. Her new book is “Coded Justice.” She spoke with “Think Out Loud” host Dave Miller in front of an audience at the 2025 Portland Book Festival.

A new report from Central City Concern highlights concerns around the “housing first” model the Homeless Services Department uses for prioritizing who gets housing. The nonprofit notes that affordable housing providers have faced a number of challenges that are unsustainable and is pushing to add another model to the mix: engaged social housing. Andy Mendenhall is the CEO and president of Central City Concern. He joins us to share more on this report. Multnomah County Commissioner Shannon Singleton also joins us to share her response.

Last week, the Vancouver City Council unanimously adopted a new flag for the city. The flag will be hoisted above city hall for the first time during a flag-raising ceremony on Nov. 28. 

The new flag is a culmination of a months-long process that launched this spring to replace the city’s old flag that has flown for more than three decades, but one that some residents struggled to identify in a video the city released announcing the flag design competition. Nearly 140 entries were submitted for the competition using guidelines provided by the city that were informed by the North American Vexillological Association’s flag design principles.  

For the winning design, the judges on Vancouver’s flag selection committee chose to combine elements from two of the finalists’ entries. The new flag features a white, V-shaped band designed by Nathan Hunter separating fields of green and blue that evoke the city and region’s natural landscape. There’s also an abstract object created by Brooke Nugent that can symbolize Fort Vancouver, other local landmarks or an arrow pointing to the city’s future. 

Nugent and Hunter join us, along with city of Vancouver Communications Director Laura Shepard, to discuss the city’s new flag.

Oregon consistently ranks near the bottom of the country in terms of access to treatment for substance use disorders. Portland-based Boulder Care seeks to address that by providing telehealth and medically assisted treatment options. The company launched in 2017 and has been based in Portland since 2019. Its aim is to normalize this kind of treatment and make it available in the first days or hours when a person with substance use disorder decides they want to get help. Dr. Honora Englander, who directs the Improving Addiction Care Team (IMPACT) at Oregon Health and Science University, says access to telehealth and medication for opioid use disorder is an important part of addressing the huge and multifaceted problem of substance use disorder. Englander and Strong both participated in the industry-wide AMERSA conference held in Portland last week, and they join us in studio to discuss more about evidence-based approaches to in-patient and out-patient care for people dealing with addiction.

Since late August, Oregon has been facing a $373 million budget deficit. But now, the state’s latest economic forecast shows Oregon may only be about $63 million in the hole. A brightening picture for the nation’s economy and some higher-than-expected corporate tax revenues for the state helped close the gap. But that doesn’t tell us much about the health of Oregon’s economy, as the recent government shutdown hampered the collection and release of important economic data. Oregon state economist Carl Riccadonna joins us to make sense of the latest forecast.

The very first Voices Rock choir started in Denver in 2014 by a music teacher who heard from her students’ parents and her own  friends that they wished they had some kind of musical outlet. Jill Teas obliged with a small group of adults who met for several weeks, rehearsing popular songs and performing them at local bars. But the no-audition “come one, come all” ethos of the choir quickly spread to other Colorado cities. And after a few years, Teas chose to quit her teaching job to run the Voices Rock organization full time. This year, three Northwest cities began their own Voice Rock chapters: Seattle, Tacoma and Portland.  We hear from the Voices Rock founder about the idea behind the choir — and from two Portland participants, director Caley Barstow and soloist Courtney Upton, about what they get out of it.

Grandparents for Vaccines is a nationwide nonprofit that aims to educate the current generation of parents about vaccine-preventable diseases. Launched in September, the group has produced videos of grandparents describing what it was like to endure or witness their friends, classmates and relatives battle illnesses such as polio, measles and pertussis before vaccines for them existed.

The group’s launch comes amid rising vaccine skepticism fueled by misinformation about the safety and efficacy of vaccines.  A recent poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation and The Washington Post showed that 1 in 6 parents in the US have delayed or skipped vaccines for their children. Teri Mills is a founding member of Grandparents for Vaccines and a retired public health nurse who was named "Oregon Nurse of the Year" in 2019 by the Oregon Nurse Foundation. She joins us along with Sheri Schouten, a retired public health nurse and former Oregon state lawmaker, to talk about their work with Grandparents for Vaccines.

Over the past decade, the Oregon Department of Justice has tried shifting blame to parents in wrongful death and negligence claims against the Department of Human Services , new reporting from The Oregonian/OregonLive shows. The publication found 10 cases where this was happening. But in half of those, parents were not accused of any crimes yet were still sued by the state . Sami Edge is the assistant breaking news editor for the Oregonian. She joins us to share more on why this is happening and what it means for parents.