Think Out Loud

One of the biggest surprises of the midterm elections this past November took place in Southwest Washington, where Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez narrowly defeated Joe Kent, a former Army Green Beret who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump. On Saturday, Gluesenkamp Perez was sworn into the 118th Congress representing a district which was held for six terms by her predecessor, Republican Jaime Herrera Beutler. Rep. Gluesenkamp Perez joins us to talk about adjusting to her new role on Capitol Hill, her legislative priorities and where she thinks she can reach bipartisan consensus with Republican lawmakers on the top issues facing the region and the nation.

Archaeologists at Oregon State University have found projectile points in Idaho that date back nearly 16,000 years — making them the oldest such artifacts found in the Americas. The points were uncovered at the Cooper’s Ferry site along the Salmon River in western Idaho. Though the land is currently held by the federal Bureau of Land Management, it’s the traditional territory of the Nez Perce Tribe and its ancestors.

OSU anthropology professor Loren Davis joins us to talk about the discovery and about what it means to fill in the region’s historical record with physical artifacts. We’ll also hear about the artifacts’ cultural significance from Nakia Williamson-Cloud, director of the Nez Perce Tribe Cultural Resources Program.

With the critical shortage of housing, it might seem to make sense to convert empty office buildings into condos or apartments. But it’s not that simple. From the regulatory and zoning hurdles to the high costs of retrofitting existing structures, in many cases the price of conversion would be far greater than building new housing. The idea is being considered elsewhere in the country, including in California, where lawmakers put $400 million toward grants for developers to offset conversion costs. Willamette Week reporter Sophie Peel has been covering this story and joins us to tell us more.

Kameron Messmer’s plans were upended during the pandemic. He’d moved to Portland to start a career as a variety entertainer under the name “Daredevil Circus Wizard.” But instead, he ended up making balloon art. In fact, his giant balloon sculptures became so popular, he started getting requests for them. In 2022 Messmer created a balloon art installation in an abandoned storefront in downtown Portland. We listen back to a conversation about his work and his exhibit, the Joy Store.

For 20 years, the Confluence project has been highlighting the experiences of Indigenous tribes along the Columbia River. Now it's created a new journal called "Voices of the River." Editor Lily Hart says in some ways it’s the culmination of the organization itself, reflecting both history and contemporary life with poetry, articles and original art. We talk with Hart and with Emily Washines, a Yakama tribal member who wrote about protecting threatened tribal fishing rights.

Seattle Public Schools is suing the parent companies behind TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Snapchat. The complaint alleges that social media has played a major role in the mental health problems faced by young people and that the district has been forced to allocate more resources to combat the crisis. The lawsuit joins other complaints that have been filed by families alleging the companies impacted the mental health of their children.
We hear more on this issue from Amanda Zhou, a reporter for the Seattle Times who has covered this issue. Yoona Park, a Portland-based partner with Keller Rohrback, the law firm representing the school district, joins us as well

Community Counseling Services wants to expand acute mental healthcare in Eastern Oregon. The nonprofit recently purchased the Aspen Springs Psychiatric Hospital, which was previously operated by Lifeways and closed in April 2021. The goal is to have the facility operating again by the end of the summer, but supply chain issues may cause delays. Kimberly Lindsay is the executive director of Community Counseling Services. She joins us to share what access to mental healthcare is like in rural Oregon and the role this facility will play.

The latest assessment from the Oregon Climate Change Research Institute says the state continues to face “new and enduring hazards” related to climate change. OCCRI is housed at Oregon State University, but contributors also come from other institutions around the state, including the University of Oregon, Portland State University and the Oregon Institute of Technology. The biannual climate assessments are mandated by the legislature and are intended to be used as a resource for researchers, journalists and the public at large. The latest report is the sixth such assessment.

The Institute's director, Erica Fleishman, says it details the main hazards posed by climate change, which haven’t changed a great deal in the last two years. But she says Oregonians are responding to many of these challenges, from mitigating the effects of wildfires to investing in sustainable energy, alternative transportation and more. Fleishman joins us to highlight the assessments’ findings and their implications for the continuing response to the effects of climate change in Oregon.

According to the Oregon Tourism Commission, tourism is a $10 billion industry in Oregon, generating $1.2 billion in local and state tax revenue in 2021. But a report from Oregon State University’s Sustainable Tourism Lab found residents often aren’t educated on tourism policies that affect their communities.

The lab was founded in 2021 to help communities create tourism plans that balance the needs of residents and visitors, a key feature of sustainability, according to the lab’s researchers. It recently released its first annual report, which aimed to measure how people in eight locations, including Oregon, Washington and Hawaii, feel about tourism in their communities. Todd Montgomery, director of OSU’s Sustainable Tourism Lab, joins us to tell us more about the report’s findings.