Think Out Loud

Scoliosis is an abnormal curvature of the spine that can cause issues with breathing, back problems and can even lead to noticeable changes such as uneven shoulders and waist. While many cases tend to be diagnosed in adolescence, doctors still have little knowledge of what causes this condition. Now, new research involving zebrafish has shed some light on the origins of scoliosis. Beth Bearce is a post-doctoral research fellow with the University of Oregon's Grime’s Lab. They join us to share what they learned and the broader implications of the research.

Two years ago, the Portland City Council adopted one of the nation’s strictest bans on facial recognition technology. The council passed a policy earlier this month outlining how city bureaus should approach other surveillance technologies, such as license plate readers and traffic cameras. Meanwhile, the Portland Police Bureau is mulling a program to deploy drones at car crash sites. Kate Kaye is a Portland-based journalist covering technology and artificial intelligence. She’s been reporting on these issues and joins to tell us more.

Last Monday, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake ripped through southern Turkey and northern Syria. It was the worst earthquake Turkey has experienced in more than 80 years. Tens of thousands of people have died so far, with that number expected to grow amid the rubble of thousands of destroyed homes and buildings. Humanitarian relief agencies are struggling to provide aid to millions of people in need, especially in Syria, where 12 years of civil war has left 90 percent of the population dependent on humanitarian aid. Portland-based organizations have responded to the crisis by mobilizing earthquake relief efforts in Syria and Turkey. Kieren Barnes is the Syria country director for Mercy Corps, which has a team of aid workers in Northwest Syria, some of whom lost relatives and their homes in the earthquake. Ozcan Ertem is the secretary of the Oregon Turkish American Association which has been collecting online donations and preparing items such as donated clothes and medical supplies to deliver to Turkey.

A national Adderall shortage is affecting patients in Oregon who rely on the medication to manage symptoms related to ADHD. We check in with Craigan Usher, the program director for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Training at Oregon Health & Science University to learn more about how the shortage is affecting patients in Portland.

More than 9,500 Indigenous people were reported missing nationwide in 2021, according to the FBI’s National Crime Information Center. The plight of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls led to a national inquiry in Canada and official acknowledgement of “race-based genocide” against Indigenous people there.

As an act of remembrance and healing, Massachusetts-based Indigenous artist and domestic violence survivor Nayana LaFond created “Portraits in Red,” an ongoing series of more than 100 portraits she has painted of missing and murdered Indigenous people and their loved ones. A red handprint is usually painted on the mouth of each black and white portrait, a symbol that represents the silencing of these Indigenous victims of violence. Forty of those portraits are currently on display at the Pacific Maritime Heritage Center in Newport, including one of Anthony Tolentino, a 17 year-old member of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians who was murdered in Salem in 2021. OregonArts Watch previously wrote about the origins of the “Portraits in Red: Missing and Murdered Indigenous People Painting Project” and the exhibit in Newport, which ends on May 4.

LaFond and Anthony’s mother, Cecilia Tolentino, join us to talk about “Portraits in Red” and the impact they hope the project will have.

Most beachgoers in the Pacific Northwest are familiar with the phenomenon of “sneaker waves” — sudden, unexpected surges of water that can sweep people off their feet or pin them against rocks and dunes. Though they’re known to occur more often along the Pacific coast and during the winter, the waves’ origins remain somewhat mysterious.

Researchers at Oregon State University recently found that far-off storm systems could create the right conditions for sneaker waves to occur closer to home. We learn more from Tuba Özkan-Haller, interim dean of OSU’s College of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences.

Eugene has a long history of house shows. In the 90s, the punk scene and its music could be heard in houses, with basement shows for bands like Black Flag gathering crowds of hundreds. But as reported in the Eugene Weekly, the city’s music community say police crackdowns are hurting local artists, house venues and local music as a whole. Krista Kroiss is a recent intern for Eugene Weekly and is a senior at the University of Oregon. She joins us to share what artists are saying and how local law enforcement is affecting the communities.

For more than 20 years, Oregon Humanities has made a series of college classes available for free to people who either may not be able to afford higher education, or who never saw themselves as a student. The classes are called “Humanity in Perspective,” and provide an interdisciplinary exploration of art, literature, culture and philosophy. Students can earn up to nine college credits from Bard College, a program partner, along with the Clemente Course in the Humanities, and Portland State University. But Rozzell Medina, who directs the program, says the purpose is not about jump starting or furthering academic goals. The classes are also available for those who simply want to learn more about a topic and engage with other members of the community. We talk with Medina and former student Luis Medina (no relation) about these free classes and what they offer.

For people who are incarcerated in Oregon’s prison system, there is an option to be released early if someone is terminally ill, elderly or medically incapacitated. This process is called compassionate release. But as Bolts Magazine reports, with no clear definition of who qualifies and a lengthy application process an inmate must complete themselves, there are many hurdles for those seeking release. Now, SB 520 hopes to reform the system by creating a medical board to review requests, establish a clear timeline and puts the duty of recommending terminally ill people to compassionate release on prison officials, rather than people who are incarcerated. Piper French is a staff writer for Bolts Magazine. She joins us to share what this bill would mean for those incarcerated and how the state’s current system compares to others.

In 2009, Portland-based journalist Erika Bolstad’s mother received a check in the mail from an oil company that was leasing mineral rights she had inherited in North Dakota. After her mother died, Bolstad embarked on a decade-long quest to uncover the history behind those rights, including the story of her great-grandmother Anna, who left little trace of her life as a homesteader in North Dakota in the early 1900s. In “Windfall,” Bolstad constructs a memoir revealing a tale of family tragedy and personal discovery that intersects with the boom and bust of oil derricks and natural gas flares dotting the Dakota prairies, and the price paid for the lure of riches trapped beneath the soil. Journalist and author Erika Bolstad joins us to talk about her new book, “Windfall: The prairie woman who lost her way and the great-granddaughter who found her.”