Think Out Loud

The Astoria library reopened in the fall of 2025 after a major renovation. When discussions about remodeling the library surfaced, it begged the question: What exactly does a community need from a public space? The same kinds of questions were posed when the original library was designed.

Trailblazing Astorian architect Ebba Wicks Brown, the first woman in Oregon to receive an architectural license, designed the original Brutalist-style building in 1967. Rachel Jensen, the executive director of the Lower Columbia Preservation Society, joins us to discuss Brown’s legacy and the ways the library’s remodel honors the original vision while serving the new needs of its coastal community.

 It’s been one year since Portland welcomed its new 12-member city council, which was a part of a major voter-approved overhaul of the city’s government. Since January 2, 2025, the city has seen 48 council meetings, more than 190 pieces of legislation passed and nearly 40 resolutions. The new council has seen some wins, such as broader representation on the council and bureaucracy for bureaus moving more quickly. But has also brought challenges, such as ethical questions around state public meeting laws and lengthy meetings. Alex Zielinski covers Portland city government for OPB. She joins us to share more about the first year of the new council.

 Wildfires, extreme heat, ice storms and other weather events have Oregonians thinking about climate change in a much more personal way. We talk with clinical psychologist Thomas Doherty, who helps people cope with anxiety, depression and other mental health issues brought on by the climate crisis. His new book, “Surviving Climate Anxiety,” teaches how to cope and heal from the psychological impacts of our environmental crisis.

On Jan. 2, 2016 a dozen armed men took over the headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Eastern Oregon. Today we listen back to a documentary OPB reporters made about the 41 days that followed.

 In 2016, Tara Roberts was living in Washington D.C. and working at a nonprofit when she visited the National Museum of African American History and Culture and a photograph she saw there changed her life. The image was of Black scuba divers from the group Diving with a Purpose which searches for and documents slave shipwrecks around the world. Roberts quit her job, learned to scuba dive and chronicled the work of these scuba divers. Her book about that journey is “Written in the Waters: A Memoir of History, Home and Belonging.”

What can animals teach us about ourselves? That’s part of what poets Reginald Dwayne Betts and Mai Der Vang are both exploring in their new collections. “Doggerel” is Bett’s collection about the relationship between dogs and their humans. “Primordial” by Der Vang tells of a nearly extinct deer-like creature that lives in the jungles of Laos. They spoke to OPB’s Jenn Chavez at the 2025 Portland Book Festival.

 It was a big year in news for the Pacific Northwest. The president attempted to send the National Guard into Portland, plans for a potential ICE facility caused unrest in Newport, and communities across the region saw an uptick in aggressive immigration enforcement activity.

Meanwhile, a significant road funding bill died — then was resurrected — in the Oregon Legislature. And the deadline for Mayor Keith Wilson’s pledge to end unsheltered homelessness in Portland came and went.

Lisa Bates is a professor of Black studies at Portland State University. Jim Pasero is a principal at the public affairs company Third Century Solutions. Nigel Jaquiss is a senior investigative reporter for the Oregon Journalism Project. They all join us to break down the biggest news stories of 2025.

The immigration detention center in Tacoma, WA is one of the largest detention centers in the country. This prison-like facility has rapidly filled to capacity as a new era of ICE enforcement gains steam and brings profound changes for people locked inside detention — many who are longtime residents of Oregon and Washington. Today we bring you a documentary from our partners at KUOW Public Radio in Seattle called “Inside ICE Detention” which opens a window into this time of transition under the Trump Administration. It looks into who is getting detained, how they are treated and some new pressures people are facing as they try to fight deportation.

Sometimes laughter can be the best way to make it through difficult times. And a good joke can go a long way to connecting with another person, no matter how different they are. Those are themes in the two new books “Stop Me if You’ve Heard This One” by Kristen Arnett and “So Far Gone” by Jess Walter. OPB’s Jess Hazel talked to Walter and Arnett about their books at the 2025 Portland Book Festival.

What does survival look like if it comes at the expense of freedom? How can we build safe places in an increasingly unstable world? These questions are at the heart of two new books by authors Leni Zumas and Cleyvis Natera. Zumas’s book “Wolf Bells” tells the story of an intergenerational group home determined to make a space for people who fall through capitalism’s cracks. Natera’s book “The Grand Paloma Resort” tells the story of staff at an exclusive Caribbean resort as they navigate class, race and colonialism. OPB’s Allison Frost spoke to Leni Zumas and Cleyvis Natera at the 2025 Portland Book Festival.