Think Out Loud

As commuters are seeing continuous hikes on gas prices in Oregon and across the nation, some are forced to reevaluate their commuting habits. Public transportation could currently be a vital alternative to commuters in Oregon and the Northwest as a whole. But, how well are public transportation systems in Oregon cities serving the public? How can they serve their communities in more efficient ways?

Jarrett Walker is a transportation consultant based in Portland — and he’s been answering these kinds of questions for public transit agencies across the nation for the last 35 years. We’ll hear his thoughts on the current challenges and opportunities ahead for modes of transportation such as buses, light rail and more.

Amazon has plenty of huge warehouses around Oregon to get goods to online shoppers quickly, including one that’s 3.8 million square feet one in Woodburn, its biggest in the entire Northwest. But the giant retailer has started moving toward smaller facilities in more communities around the state, like Hood River, Eugene and Redmond. Amazon says this will provide better service for rural and smaller communities. But some people aren’t so keen on this idea. We hear more from Mike Rogoway, who covers business and technology at The Oregonian/Oregonlive to hear more about Amazon’s strategy and the variety of reactions it's getting from residents.

The Owyhee Canyonlands area encompasses millions of acres along the Owyhee River on the borders of Oregon, Idaho and Nevada. The land is rugged and remote and beautiful, and efforts to to protect it in some way have dragged out for years. There were pushes for the last two Democratic presidents to designate the area a national monument and most recently, a bill to protect over 1 million acres of the land as wilderness failed in Congress at the end of last year. We traveled to the area and talked to people about the land and the efforts to protect it.

We stopped in Jordan Valley and talked to Mindy Kershner, a lifelong Jordan Valley resident, rancher, and owner of the Ranch Hand Hardware & Mercantile. Then we travelled down to Birch Creek Historic Ranch on the edge of the river to talk to Tim Davis, executive director of Friends of the Owyhee. We spoke to rancher Elias Eiguren on his family’s land in Arock. And then we talked to Reginald Sope, an elder of the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes who lives near the head of the canyon in Nevada.

The Portland-based nonprofit Smashing Barriers works with organizations including the Boys & Girls Clubs of America and Friendly House. It offers free tennis clinics and organizes charity tournaments. Jiya Mehta and Rohan Shah, the co-founders, started the nonprofit while in high school. They aim to bring the organization to each state in the U.S. In addition to Oregon, the nonprofit already has chapters in Arizona, California and Texas. We listen back to a conversation we first aired on Aug. 11, 2025 with Shah and Mehta who shared how tennis has shaped their lives and their plans for growing Smashing Barriers.

LONG SYNOPSIS: Oregon’s Willamette Valley is a major hotspot for webs of mycorrhizal, or network-forming, fungi. Researchers at the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (SPUN) predict that nearly 90% of mycorrhizal networks around the world lie outside of protected areas, including those in the Pacific Northwest. These fungal networks help promote soil health and plant growth by moving nutrients between plants and soil.

Scientists at SPUN say that this hidden vital component of land-based ecosystems is deserving of more protection. But protection for these networks is different from typical land protection, since these fungal species are present in much of the soil in the U.S. Researchers say it’s important to find ways to protect this diverse fungi without keeping humans out of these areas entirely.

Kylie Mohr, a reporter with High Country News, wrote about the presence of these fungal networks in the West, and spoke with several experts who are imagining and calling for ways to preserve them. She joins us to break down the details.

Student debt in the U.S. has risen dramatically in the last few decades, while recent college graduates are having a harder time finding work. For the last five years, the unemployment rate of college graduates is above the national average and students graduate with an average of $40,000 dollars of debt. Meanwhile, students with degrees in technology or finance might find they are facing a work landscape transformed by artificial intelligence. But what about a liberal arts degree? We sit down with students, faculty and administrators at Linfield University to ask whether a liberal arts degree is still worth it.

Grandparents for Vaccines is a nationwide nonprofit that aims to educate the current generation of parents about vaccine-preventable diseases. Launched in September 2025, the group has produced videos of grandparents describing what it was like to endure or witness their friends, classmates and relatives battle illnesses such as polio, measles and pertussis before vaccines for them existed. The group’s launch comes amid rising vaccine skepticism fueled by misinformation about the safety and efficacy of vaccines. A recent poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation and The Washington Post showed that 1 in 6 parents in the US have delayed or skipped vaccines for their children. Teri Mills is a founding member of Grandparents for Vaccines and a retired public health nurse who was named "Oregon Nurse of the Year" in 2019 by the Oregon Nurse Foundation. We listen back to a conversation we first aired on Nov. 19, 2025 with Mills and Sheri Schouten, a retired public health nurse and former Oregon state lawmaker, to hear their work with Grandparents for Vaccines.