Think Out Loud

“Think Out Loud” is joined by the “Politics Now” podcast team on the air and on video livestream. Dirk VanderHart, Lauren Dake, Bryce Dole and Alex Zielinski join us to discuss the outcomes of key races and ballot measures across Oregon and Southwest Washington, what implications they may have and how they might affect the lives of Pacific Northwest residents in the year to come. 

Author Tim O’Brien is best known for his book “The Things They Carried,” about the Vietnam War. His latest book is a compilation of anecdotes and reflections on becoming a parent in late middle age, and what he wants his young children to know about him before he dies. This conversation was recorded in front of an audience at the Portland Book Festival in the fall of 2019.

From homelessness to a budget crisis, Portland officials will have a lot to navigate as they take office. This year, Portlanders used ranked choice voting to decide the next mayor and council. And the city council has expanded from five seats to 12 across four geographic districts. We check in on how the election went and what’s next for the city with Alex Zielinski, OPB’s Portland city politics reporter.

On Wednesday, three Portland Commissioners - Mingus Mapps, Rene Gonzalez and Dan Ryan - decided to pull an ordinance they had filed to end the city’s 8-year partnership with Multnomah County to fight homelessness. The decision was made as Portland is poised to elect Keith Wilson, the owner of a trucking company as its next mayor, who opposes the city leaving the Joint Office of Homeless Services. The newly elected 12-person city council, along with the new mayor, will get to decide the fate of the intergovernmental agreement with the county in just two months.

In a letter she sent on election day, Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson said she was ready to work with Portland’s next mayor and new Multnomah County and Portland city commissioners on “solving the most pressing and challenging issues this community will face in the coming months and years.” Chair Vega Pederson joins us to talk about how new Portland city leaders might affect the future of the Joint Office on Homeless Services.

 After the second release of preliminary election results from Multnomah County on Wednesday night, Keith Wilson maintained his lead in the mayoral race. The Oregonian has already called the race, and opponents Carmen Rubio and Rene Gonzalez have both conceded to him. Wilson is the CEO of a local trucking company and ran on a platform to end homelessness by 2026 by expanding shelter capacity and strengthening the city’s partnership with Multnomah County to tackle the crisis. Wilson joins us now to share more on his recent victory and vision for the city.

The general election is now over, wrapping up months of planning, assistance and coordination among the state’s 36 county clerks. They are responsible for mailing off ballots, registering voters and overseeing elections in local, state and federal races in Oregon. More than a third of them this year also administered a presidential election in Oregon for the first time.   

County clerks have had to do their jobs while facing budget cuts, the spread of misinformation and threats of physical violence and intimidation directed against them and election workers. Some have also had to reassure residents about the safety and security of Oregon’s vote-by-mail system after the recent arson attacks on ballot boxes in Multnomah County and Vancouver, according to Rochelle Long, the Klamath County Clerk and president of the Oregon Association of County Clerks. 

Long joins us to discuss the challenges Oregon county clerks prepared for and confronted during the general election.

Republican Cliff Bentz has won his reelection for Oregon’s 2nd Congressional District, the largest congressional district in Oregon that represents around two-thirds of the state, comprising everything east of the Willamette Valley. We hear from Bentz and others in response to this week’s election results. Meghan Moyer won a position on Multnomah County Commission, representing District 1. Craig Roberts was elected as chair of the Clackamas County Commission. We’ll also hear from Oregon U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley about governing in the minority in a Trump administration.

Members of OPB’s politics team join us to provide analysis and share the latest updates on Oregon races in the general election. They’ll discuss the results of statewide ballot measures and analyze some of the congressional district races, as well as the latest developments in Portland’s historic elections to choose a new mayor and expand the city council from five seats to 12. We’ll also hear from some of the candidates who won or are leading in statewide and US Congressional races.

In the 1970s, some scientists proposed that Earth and its life forms are a single, self-regulating system. At the time, the "Gaia hypothesis" was widely criticized. But since then, the concept of Earth as a vast interconnected living system has gained acceptance. Portland-based science writer Ferris Jabr’s new book, “Becoming Earth: How Our Planet Came to Life,” describes how the living and nonliving components of the planet work together as an integrated whole. Ferris Jabr joined us at the 2024 Pickathon Experiential Music Festival.

The BPA owns 75% of the transmission lines in the Northwest. It has proposed 13 new projects to upgrade and expand the region’s power grid to accommodate growing energy needs. Oregon and other Northwest states have ambitious carbon emissions reduction targets that they can’t hit unless the power grid expands. Those goals will be impossible to meet without much more energy generated from renewables or other alternatives to fossil fuel. CEO John Hairston joins us with all the details.