Think Out Loud

By Oregon Public BroadcastingSociety & Culture News Arts

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Think Out Loud episodes

May 27 PSU graduate program focuses on mental health of infants and toddlers
Conversations about mental health may include adolescents or children, but they rarely focus on babies or toddlers. A graduate program at Portland State University is teaching child care professionals to do just that.

The Infant/Toddler Mental Health graduate certificate is designed to help educators, social workers, counselors and other early childhood specialists foster strong connections between caregivers and their children during the earliest stages of life. Research shows that consistent, loving feedback from caregivers helps build neural connections that support communication and emotional resilience as a child grows up.

We talk with Melissa Williams, an early intervention specialist with the Multnomah Early Childhood Program, and Sally Guyon, the co-coordinator of the Early Childhood: Inclusive Education master’s program and an assistant professor of early childhood care and education at PSU.
20 min
May 27 Washington state Sen. Jeff Wilson responds to chemical disaster at Longview paper mill
Early Tuesday morning, a chemical tank ruptured at a paper mill in Southwest Washington, killing at least two people and injuring eight more.
At least nine more people are still unaccounted for as of Wednesday morning. Hundreds of community members held a vigil Tuesday evening to honor those affected by the tragedy.
Recovery efforts were suspended yesterday evening due to the ongoing threat of corrosive chemicals at the Nippon Dynawave Packaging Company.
We’ll hear from state Sen. Jeff Wilson from Washington’s 19th Legislative District, which covers Longview. Wilson grew up in Longview and ran a private sector waste management firm before going into politics.
He’ll share his experience of working as an environmental cleanup contractor at the Longview paper mill over the years
17 min
May 26 Portland’s Curbside Serenade organizes busking concerts

LONG SYNOPSIS: Playing in a park or on a street corner isn’t new for musician Johnny Franco. Franco and his brother Domenico are buskers, and during the pandemic they started taking requests from people who wanted to be serenaded from outside their windows with concerts. Now, with Curbside Serenade, the two have teamed up with other musicians to organize regular outdoor concerts around the city during the summer. The goal, they say, is for audiences to stumble across music wherever they happen to be. We talk to Johnny and Domenico Franco, along with Dave Pollack, one of the founders of Curbside Serenade.

19 min
May 26 UO coffee scientist shares insights on getting more consistent brews of beloved beverage
There is a lot that goes into a cup a coffee. From beans, to roast, to grind, to water and even temperature, it is incredibly difficult to make one cup of coffee the exact same as the next. But researchers at the University of Oregon may have found a way to make a cup of coffee more consistent. Chris Hendon is a chemist and associate professor at UO. His previous research illuminated how spraying water on coffee beans before grinding saves on waste and makes the espresso shots more consistent. Hendon joins us to share more about his work and the world of coffee.
19 min
May 26 New map helps track pesticide applications around Oregon
A new map from the advocacy nonprofit Beyond Toxics aims to help people identify what kinds of pesticide have been sprayed in communities over the last decade. The nonprofit partnered with the University of Oregon Infographics Lab to compile notices of intent to apply pesticides on state, county and private forestland from 2014 to 2024. Users can filter by location, year, the type of chemical and whether it was applied aerially or on the ground.

Mason Leavitt is a GIS analyst and programs manager for Beyond Toxics. He joins us with more details on how individuals and community groups can use the map.

16 min
May 25 Marking the quirky last chapter of Portland’s Lloyd Center
Portland’s Lloyd Center is scheduled to close Aug. 8 after more than 65 years in business.

The current owner, Urban Renaissance Group, plans to demolish the mall to make way for housing, businesses and a new music venue. Groups such as Save Lloyd Center Mall and the Save Lloyd Ice Coalition are holding out hope that a city hearing in June could prevent the mall’s closure, but it seems likely that the Lloyd Center is in its final days.

After its last anchor stores shuttered in 2021, the mall’s low rents and large usable space attracted a wide array of community groups and independent retailers. In its last incarnation, the mall became a hub for the kind of quirky community that Portland prides itself on.

We’ll listen back to three conversations that capture that recent era: Jason Leivian is the owner of Floating World Comics. We spoke with him in 2022, shortly after he relocated his store from Old Town to the Lloyd Center.

In 2023, we talked about a production of Samuel Beckett’s “Happy Days” that was staged in a former Victoria’s Secret store in the Lloyd Center. It was put on by the Northwest Classical Theatre Collaborative, which aims to bring theater to nontraditional spaces. We were joined by director Patrick Walsh, the collaborative’s executive artistic director, and Portland actress Diane Kondrat, who starred as “Winnie” in the play.

Finally, Krista Catwood joined us last summer to talk about the Food Court 5000. That’s a 1980s-themed mall walk that Catwood leads every Sunday morning in the Lloyd Center.

52 min
May 22 Central Oregon records steep decline in people experiencing homelessness, according to latest count
Central Oregon recorded a nearly 20% drop in people experiencing homelessness compared to last year. That’s according to an annual Point in Time count that took place this year from Jan. 27 through Feb. 2 in Crook, Deschutes and Jefferson Counties and the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs.

Eliza Wilson is the chair of the Homeless Leadership Coalition in Central Oregon and the executive director of RootedHomes, an affordable housing developer based in Bend. Wilson says this has been the largest year-over-year decline she has seen in over 20 years of helping with the annual snapshot of people experiencing homelessness in the region. She attributes this unprecedented decline to opening new shelters and expanding shelter bed capacity in communities like Madras, Bend, Redmond and Prineville, while also providing rental assistance and case management to help people transition into stable housing.

Wilson joins us for more details on the progress that’s being made in Central Oregon to tackle homelessness and the work that still needs to be done.

21 min
May 22 ODOT reflects on failed gas tax and future of transportation funding
Oregonians overwhelmingly voted against Measure 120, a proposal meant to address funding shortfalls for the Oregon Department of Transportation.

Known as the gas tax, the measure would have increased the state’s gas tax by 6 cents per gallon, temporarily hike payroll tax, and double fees for registrations and titles. Without the tax, the agency only has funding to support core services until the end of 2027. Daniel Porter is ODOT's Finance and Budget Division Administrator. He joins us to share how he’s thinking about the future of the agency’s budget.

15 min
May 22 Oregon Community Foundation investing $100 million to build the state’s housing supply
The housing crisis is worse than ever, and it’s one that many elected representatives and nonprofits have been working on for some time. Last month Gov. Kotek signed a package of housing related bills into law. They allow cities to expand their urban growth boundaries, protect existing affordable housing and provide financing to encourage the construction of new housing. Estimates put the need for new homes at 29,500 a year to keep up with population growth and the demand for housing.

Constructing new housing for middle income families is at the heart of the Oregon Community Foundation’s announcement of its $100 million “Building Hope Fund.” OCF says it’s a kind of down payment to spur even more investment from other sources to create a fund that will make affordable loans to developers so they can build middle income housing. OCF’s goal is 10,000 new homes built all around Oregon in the next 10 years.

Lisa Mensah is the President and CEO of the Foundation. She joins us to explain how she sees the loan program working and how it fits into their extensive and longstanding granting program for housing and other community needs throughout the state.
18 min
May 21 OSU and UP researchers on medical mistrust in the age of social media
A recent study by Pew Research showed that half of U.S. adults under 50 get health and wellness information from influencers on social media and podcasts. One in five people surveyed said the information they get from influencers is different than the information from medical professionals. Ashley Hass is an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Portland, who focuses on digital marketing, social media influencers, and the digital wellness of consumers. Jonathan Garcia directs the public health graduate program at OSU. He studies medical mistrust and misinformation. They join us to share more on the impact of the wellness industry on social media and its implications for public health.

23 min