Think Out Loud

Several days a week, Quinn Brown will head to Goodwill stores in the Portland area to spend hours at a time sifting through blue bins to look for clothes to resell on the secondhand clothing site Depop. Brown launched his business reselling vintage clothes in 2023, when he was a junior at Lincoln High School. He says his items sell on average for $13 and the biggest sale he’s netted to date was $250 for a ‘90s-era t-shirt.  

But all of that is about to change. Earlier this month, Sotheby’s listed for auction Brown’s thrift store find of a lifetime: a warm-up jacket worn by LA Lakers basketball legend Wilt Chamberlain during the 1972 NBA Finals. Brown spotted the warm-up jacket this past January during one of his weekly visits to the Goodwill store in Hillsboro. He paid $3 for the jacket, which Sotheby’s has authenticated and estimates to sell for as much as $250,000 when the auction closes on July 20. 

Brown shares more about his amazing discovery, how he got involved in reselling vintage clothes and the growing popularity of thrifting among Gen Z youth.

Oregon students missed classes, left school and struggled to learn as the fear of ICE undermined the school year. Washington County saw Oregon’s highest number of recorded immigration arrests from July to December. In all, Operation Black Rose led to the detention of more than 1,400 people statewide. That number includes some of the 39 kids who were arrested in Oregon between January 2025 and this February, according to the Deportation Data Project. OPB reporters Holly Bartholomew and Elizabeth Miller join us to talk about what they’ve learned in terms of how immigration enforcement has impacted Oregon students.

After more than 40 years in Portland’s Old Town, homeless services nonprofit Sisters of the Road is moving. Last month, the organization closed on a house in the Lents neighborhood which will serve as the new base of operations for the organization. This comes after the nonprofit closed its physical doors in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and after the organization initially announced their intent to purchase the House of Louie, before walking away from the deal. Nicki Dardinger is the executive director of the nonprofit. They join us to share more on this news.

Last Thursday, Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek announced she had accepted the resignation of the director of the Oregon Health Authority, Dr. Sejal Hathi. As OPB reported, Hathi wrote to OHA employees that she was leaving to focus on her family, health and “personal priorities” without mentioning what she plans to do next. In May, the New York Times published an op-ed Hathi wrote about the lack of postpartum care in the U.S. new mothers such as herself receive, even after complications from childbirth. 

Kotek appointed Hathi in November 2023, making her the first person from outside of Oregon to lead the agency. Hathi is also a part-time assistant clinical professor at Stanford University’s medical school, a position she has held while leading OHA.

Hathi is leaving OHA at the end of this month amid a series of challenges facing the agency, including a nearly 5% cut to the Oregon Health Plan, the state Medicaid  program that covers 1 in 3 Oregonians. OPB health reporter Amelia Templeton joins us for more details.

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.”

Oregon communities have some of the nation’s highest rates of alcohol-related deaths among adults age 65 and older. That’s according to a new study conducted by the Woodlands Grove Recovery Campus in Ohio. It used CDC data from 2020 through 2024 to rank metro areas by both alcohol-induced death rates and total number of deaths. 

Of the top 15 cities with the highest rates, six were in Oregon. Roseburg ranked second, Eugene-Springfield fourth and Medford fifth. Salem, Bend and the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro metro area also appeared in the top 15.

Tom Jeanne is the deputy state health officer and an epidemiologist at the Oregon Health Authority. He joins us to talk about the dangers drinking can pose to older adults and what the state is doing to reduce alcohol-related deaths.

Cathedral Park Cohousing is a mixed-income cohousing development in North Portland that was recently awarded $1.4 million in Oregon State Lottery Bond funds. Along with $2 million in funding previously awarded by Oregon Housing and Community Services and other funding sources, the project is expected to break ground early next year. In cohousing developments, residents typically own their own units but share common areas and participate in decisions affecting their community. 

The nonprofit Our Home Inclusive Community Collaborative has spent several years working to secure the funding and partnerships to develop Cathedral Park Cohousing as an inclusive, mixed-income community. Fourteen units are being set aside for affordable home ownership, which people earning 80% or less of the Area Median Income would typically qualify for. The other nine units are being sold at market rate. Priority is also being given to people who have intellectual and developmental disabilities, a group that often struggles to find housing options that meet their needs.  

Alicia DeLashmutt is the president and founder of Our Home Inclusive Community Collaborative. Shane Boland is the development consultant on Cathedral Park Cohousing and the development director of Owen Gabbert, LLC. They join us for a discussion, along with Abby Braithwaite, a future owner of a market rate unit at Cathedral Park Cohousing.

In just a few weeks, our nation will commemorate the 250th anniversary of its independence.

As we approach this historic milestone, “Think Out Loud” hears from guests whose life experiences and personal histories illuminate different aspects of what it means to be an American.

Noushin Hoshyar came to the U.S. in 2010 and just last month, became a naturalized citizen. She's originally from Iran and had a dream of working in healthcare. After attending school and receiving her license in the U.S., she became a nurse, something she could not have done in Iran. Hoshyar joins us to share her story, what it means to be an American and how she is thinking about the country's 250th anniversary this year.

In just a few weeks, our nation will commemorate the 250th anniversary of its independence.

As we approach this historic milestone, “Think Out Loud” hears from guests whose life experiences and personal histories illuminate different aspects of what it means to be an American. 

Jill Gentry is the recently installed State Regent of the Oregon State Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Gentry is an army veteran and worked for the National Security Agency for over 30 years before retiring to Bend and becoming involved in the DAR. Her mother and grandmother were also active DAR members. We talk to Gentry about her life of service and how she thinks about this country on its 250th anniversary.

The punk organization Volume Bomb has been around in one form or another for the last 10 years. It’s been organizing and promoting local punk bands ever since it began — with one neighborhood block party. Volume Bomb’s mission has gradually evolved since then, says co-founder Jason Rocksmore. Last year, they incorporated as a 501(c)(3) to better fulfill their goals of supporting local punk bands. The nonprofit aims to not only organize shows, but also to pay the musicians.

This weekend, Volume Bomb is launching its newest program called UnMuted, highlighting queer and female-led punk bands. Some of those Unmuted bands will be performing this weekend at the first annual Pride at Full Volume show in downtown Portland. Rocksmore joins us, along with UnMuted program director Jamie Lynne Powell-Herbold, to share more about how the organization has grown and what they hope the next 10 years bring.