Think Out Loud

If you’ve been in Portland for a while, you’ve probably seen Mike Bennett’s artwork: It’s on the facade of the Wonderwood Restaurant & Indoor Mini Golf course. It’s on Trailblazer hats and Portland Timbers banners. It’s on road signs and beer cans. Now, the famous cartoonist and immersive space designer has launched a new video-podcast series that explores the animal kingdom for a youth audience. Every episode of “The Zooquarium Podcast” begins with a listener-submitted question — mostly from young kids — and the video element features animations in Bennett’s whimsical cartoon style. The first episode aired Tuesday, with a silly and science-backed conversation about sloth stool.

Bennett joins us to share more about the origins and details of his new podcast. We’re also joined by his co-host, Chanel Hason, a marine biologist, science communicator and director of outreach and community relations at the Elakha Alliance.

Earlier this month, the Oregon Community Foundation and Oregon Humanities announced the names of four recipients of Fields Artist Fellowships. Each of the winners will be awarded $150,000 during the two-year fellowship to work on artistic projects inspired by the communities and cultural traditions they hail from.  

Ernesto Javier Martínez is a 2026-2028 Fields Artist Fellow based in Eugene. He is also an associate professor and head of the indigenous, race and ethnic studies department at University of Oregon. Martinez is a filmmaker and children’s book author whose award-winning works provide a rare glimpse into the experiences of queer Latinx youth. He joins us to share his plans for the Fields Artist Fellowship, which include producing an animated TV pilot inspired by the real-life tragic story of a man and his child who drowned while attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border.  

Oregon became the first in the nation to legalize psychedelic therapy through psilocybin back in 2020. What soon followed were bans in various jurisdictions, large costs for individuals seeking treatment and other barriers to access. Now, new reporting from The New York Times found that a third of psilocybin service centers have closed and other states have also begun offering this therapy, including Colorado and New Mexico. Andrew Jacobs is a health and science reporter for the NYT. He joins us to share more on where things stand in Oregon’s program and what other states have learned from the state’s first-in-the-nation rollout. 

This weekend the Portland band Typhoon will play two concerts celebrating 20 years of making music together. The band broke out in the early 2010s, with albums like "Hunger and Thirst" and "White Lighter." Two members of the band, Kyle Morton and Shannon Steele, join us to talk about the band’s history and future.

State lawmakers and business leaders have argued high taxes and stringent regulations are hurting Oregon businesses. In 2025, not long after a CNBC report ranked Oregon near the bottom of states to do business, Gov. Tina Kotek announced a plan to change that. Among other goals, it aims to sharpen the state’s competitive edge through changes to permitting and taxation, partnerships with the private sector and incentives to invest in Oregon. 

Angela Wilhelms is the president and CEO of Oregon Business and Industry, the state’s largest business advocacy organization. She joins us to discuss why businesses are leaving Oregon and whether the state can improve its business climate to keep them. We also talk with OPB business reporter Kyra Buckley about Gov. Kotek’s roadmap and the challenges currently facing Oregon’s business community.

Since President Trump took office a year ago, Oregon has sued the administration more than 50 times, often teaming up with other Democrat-led states. Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield has held a series of town hall meetings with other state attorney generals to discuss their efforts and ask for feedback. We ask Attorney General Dan Rayfield about what he has learned from these events.

 There are 27 different species of reptiles and amphibians in Columbia County, Oregon, according to the first ever herpetological-assemblage report of the region. The report is the work of Jon Hakim, who grew up in Columbia County and has been obsessed with reptiles and amphibians his whole life. It took over 15 months and many volunteer hours to visit every possible habitat type in the county and log all the different species, including 6 never seen before in the county. We talk to Hakim about his work and what he’s learned.

 Amid crackdowns by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, some are turning to serve for the U.S. military in order to receive protections for their undocumented family members. The Parole in Place program provides a protection from deportation for undocumented parents and spouses of military members.

New York Times reporter Greg Jaffe, who covers the Pentagon and the U.S. military, spent eight days in The Dalles, reporting on National Guard recruitments in the city and speaking to members of the community. He joins us to discuss his reporting in The Dalles.

After three city council meetings, a dozen rounds of deadlocked voting and hours of debate, the 12 councilors on Portland City Council have officially elected a new council president and vice president. Jamie Dunphy, representing District 1, was elected as the new council president with Olivia Clark, representing District 4, as vice president. Both were notably reluctant to take on the role. As president, Dunphy will be in charge of running council meetings, appointing city committee leaders and will serve as the middle-man between the council and the mayor’s office. Dunphy and Clark both join us to share more on their priorities for the coming year.

Kwame Alexander has written many books and picture books for children, tackling a range of different topics. In 2022, his book, “The Door of No Return,” was published as the first installment in a trilogy starting in Ghana in the 1800’s. The book is written as a series of poems, following a young boy, Kofi, who is eventually captured and sold into the slave trade. Kwame Alexander joined us for a conversation recorded at the Portland Book Festival in 2022 to talk about the 10-year process of working on this book.