Think Out Loud

A report released on Monday found that abuse and misconduct are systemic within the National Women’s Soccer League.

Last year Coos Bay erected a marker commemorating Oregon’s only known lynching. It was the work of years, and many members of the community, but the marker itself was just the start of a process of restorative justice, says Taylor Stewart. Stewart is the founder of the Oregon Remembrance Project, and he is currently working on more initiatives to remember Oregon’s racist history, and find a way to move forward. Stewart tells us about efforts in Grants Pass and Oregon City.

Several key protections for renters that were enacted during the pandemic ran out at the end of September. Are those efforts still needed? What should renter and landlord protection look like moving forward? We hear from Community Alliance of Tenants Executive Director Kim McCarty and Jason Miller, legislative director for the Oregon Rental Housing Association, a group which represents landlords.

For many people, memories are foundational. Even though they exist in the past, they inform who we are in the present and can help us make future decisions. So what happens when something that seems so fundamental turns out to be false?

Portland writer Sallie Tisdale deals with some of those themes in an essay she wrote for the Oregon Humanities magazine this summer. She joins us to talk about her latest work, the inconsistencies of memory and what it means to write a good memoir.

Cassie, a robot developed by Oregon State University researchers, is essentially just a pair of sophisticated mechanical legs. But those legs just set a Guinness World Record for the fastest 100-meter dash run by a bipedal robot. Running – even quickly – might seem an easy task for a human, but it takes considerably more effort to teach a machine to do so without tripping or veering off course.

Alan Fern is a professor of computer science and artificial intelligence at Oregon State University and the College of Engineering’s executive director of artificial intelligence programs. He explains what Cassie’s accomplishments mean for machine learning and the future of robotics.

A West Linn doctor accused of sexual abuse by more than 100 women and children was not charged with any crimes. That’s despite him having lost his medical license over some of the same claims. When a grand jury was presented with the evidence gathered by police and prosecutors in Clackamas County earlier this year, they decided it was not enough to justify charging the former doctor. The alleged victims of the abuse say that’s because local agencies did not do everything they could to secure charges. OPB reporters Amelia Templeton and Conrad Wilson tried to find out why. Templeton joins us with the story.

When Mira Jacob’s son was 6 years old, he started asking questions about what it meant to be biracial in America. And she found that answering those questions led to some interesting conversations. Jacob started keeping track of those conversations in a graphic memoir called “Good Talk.” The book is this year’s Multnomah County Everybody Reads selection. We talk to Jacob in front of an audience at Lincoln High School. She’ll also be speaking at the Arlene Schnitzer concert hall Thursday, March 10th at 7:30pm.

Some of Oregon's public land features obsolete fencing that's damaged and harmful to animals. The Oregon Natural Desert Association has been working on removing fencing from public grounds for years. In 2012, the association completed an effort to remove barbed wire fencing from the Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge in Lakeview. Since then, the organization has continued removal efforts in the state and also works on building and retrofitting fencing to protect wildlife. The organization has partnered with the Bureau of Land Management on some of this work. Lace Thornberg is the communications manager at the association and Kate Yates is a wildlife biologist for BLM. They join us with details.

When grizzlies and other bear species hibernate, they go months without eating or drinking, living off the fat they accumulated during the summer and fall. They also undergo changes to their metabolism and develop resistance to insulin, a hormone also found in humans that helps regulate blood sugar levels. The development of resistance to insulin can be an early indicator of type 2 diabetes in humans, a potentially chronic condition that left untreated can damage the kidneys and other organs.

Researchers at the Washington State University in Pullman used blood samples and cell cultures taken from grizzlies at the Washington State University Bear Center to identify eight proteins that are responsible for regulating insulin sensitivity in bears. The proteins caused changes in gene expression, leading to insulin resistance during the winter hibernation and insulin sensitivity during the active spring and summer months. Versions of these proteins also exist in humans, revealing a possible molecular roadmap to develop better medications for controlling the insulin resistance that can lead to diabetes. Joining us now is Blair Perry, a post-doctoral researcher in the School of Biology at Washington State University, and a co-author of the study on insulin resistance in bears published this month in the journal iScience.

In the mid-20th century, Canada and the U.S. collaborated together to form the Columbia River Treaty. This agreement meant both countries would jointly develop, manage and regulate the Columbia River. The treaty was intended to last for 60 years which means it expires in 2024. Earlier this month, 32 Pacific Northwest groups sent a letter to U.S. officials urging them to modernize this treaty as that deadline approaches. Barbara Cosens is a member of the Universities Consortium on Columbia River Governance and a university distinguished professor emerita at the University of Idaho College of Law. She joins us to share why this treaty was enacted, what options exist as we approach the 2024 deadline and what’s at stake if agreements to extend the treaty can’t be made.