Think Out Loud

Westview High School sophomore Abigail Figueroa has loved the Disney movie “Frozen” since it came out when she was five years old. She says she’s seen it countless times in the 10 years since, and loves its focus on adventure and the relationship between two royal sisters — not romance.
Last summer, not long before the first day of school, she came across an essay contest to win the rights to put on “Frozen: The Broadway Musical” on stage at her high school. There would be just one winner per state, and even though the deadline was the next day, and she had no time to consult her theater teacher or her high school, she decided to go for it. And she won! The show opens Thursday and runs through March 11. Figueroa was also cast in the show. She joins us, along with director Justin Hauke, to talk about how they won the exclusive rights and how their show fulfills the theme of the contest, “Love is an Open Door.”

When sea ice melts, it can lead to faster warming because water absorbs more heat than ice does. That’s one of more than 25 climate feedback loops found in a recent study from Oregon State University. Some of these feedback loops aren’t included in current climate models, partly because the science, and the climate, is changing so quickly. Jillian Gregg, co-author of the new report, joins us to explain what we should understand about feedback loops.

The Wild Bunch is a wine fair that celebrates natural wine made using practices like regenerative farming. Dana Frank is the event’s founder and has worked in the wine industry for more than 15 years. She says she hopes the event can be an inclusive environment for wine drinkers to explore natural wine. Nathan Wood is the vineyard manager for Johan Vineyards, and Luke Wylde is an owner and winemaker for Statera Cellars. They join us with details of the event and what the beverage means for different natural winemakers.

“The lesbian community, as far as I was concerned, ran the town.”

That’s a quote from Judy Goldstein’s oral history interview with the Eugene Lesbian History Project. The project uses first-person testimonies from Goldstein and more than 80 other volunteers to document the city’s lesbian community from roughly the 1960s to the 1990s. It's also on display in a new exhibit at the University of Oregon’s Museum of Natural and Cultural History. Goldstein and project director Judith Raiskin join us to talk about the history of Eugene’s lesbian community and why it’s important to document these stories now.

Bowhead whales are an endangered species of whale that spend their entire lives in the icy waters of the Arctic. They migrate north through the Bering Strait in the summer and fall to catch krill and other tiny crustaceans, and then travel south for the winter to the Bering Sea. But now, the rapid rate of melting Arctic sea ice due to climate change appears to be changing those migration patterns. Using 12 years of underwater recordings of bowhead whale songs, scientists at Oregon State University recently discovered that the whales have been delaying their migration through the Bering Strait in the fall, or opting to not pass through it at all during the winter months. Kate Stafford is an associate professor at the Oregon State University Marine Mammal Institute in Newport. She joins us to talk about the findings and what they mean for the health of bowhead whales, the ecology of the Arctic, and the Indigenous communities that embark on biannual whale hunts off the coast of Alaska.

Earlier this month, the Portland city council voted on some of its priorities for the year, including the plan to deploy more contracted cleaners as a part of its Graffiti Program. In the next few weeks, Think Out Loud will host a series of conversations about graffiti in Portland. We start with Bridgid Blackburn, the co-owner of the homegoods store Cargo. She says that she has seen an increase in unpermitted street art over the past 10 years in the Central Eastside. Because of the frequency of tagging she sees on her building, the hefty price tag that comes with a professional cleaner and the less than ideal timeline for a response from the city, she takes it upon herself to paint over any unwanted street art once a week. Blackburn joins us to share what she’s been seeing and what she hopes the city will do in the future.

In Lincoln City, Devil’s Lake provides a picturesque destination for recreation. But a fast-growing water weed known as Canadian pondweed is now taking over the lake, clogging motorboat engines and competing with native plants for nutrients. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has recently adopted rules that allow lake officials to reintroduce a grass-eating carp to the area. Joshua Brainerd is the executive director of the Devil’s Lake Water Improvement District. He joins us to share the issues this weed is causing and how this carp could help control vegetation.

People in Morrow and Umatilla counties have faced nitrate pollution in their drinking water for decades. Last year Morrow County declared an emergency and began distributing clean water and filters, but that order ended in January. The Environmental Protection Agency sent a strongly worded letter to the state encouraging it to take more action against polluters, but the Oregon Health Authority still hasn’t tested any residential wells. We talk to Paulo Lopez and Ana Maria Rodriguez, both residents of Boardman, about what contamination actually means for them on a daily basis.

When Portlanders voted to change to the city’s commission form of government in November, they opted for a complex system designed to be more representative and equitable. But the city’s independent auditor says in order to achieve those goals, a structure for accountability and transparency must be codified as well. Portland Auditor Simone Rede says that’s what led her to propose the creation of a Transparency Advocate to the city council. After nearly three hours of testimony and discussion the five city commissioners voted to “indefinitely table” her proposal. Instead, they passed a resolution put forward by Commissioner Dan Ryan that directed the auditor’s office to conduct a series of transparency inquiries -- a proposal Rede says she had not been consulted on or even been made aware of. She joins us to tell us more about the need for transparency, how her office has been working with community and civic groups to institutionalize it, and how she sees the process moving forward.

African immigrants make up the fourth-largest immigrant community in Multnomah County behind Latino, Asian and Slavic immigrants. The Center for African Health & Education provides community workshops, interpretation services and other resources with the goal of reducing health inequities for African immigrants and refugees in the Portland area. We hear more from Mohamed Ali, the center’s director.