Think Out Loud

The federal government shutdown is now a week old and shows little sign of ending. On Monday, Senators rejected for the fifth time competing proposals from Republicans and Democrats to pass a funding bill to reopen the government. Among other concessions, Democrats are demanding Republicans agree to extend tax credits set to expire for 24 million Americans who get their health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. Republican Congressional leaders insist any negotiations on healthcare take place after Democrats agree to reopen the government. 

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has threatened to lay off members of the federal workforce and to withhold back pay of furloughed federal workers. Active-duty members of the military could miss their first paycheck next Wednesday if Congressional lawmakers fail to reach a deal before then. Shortages of air traffic controllers, who are required to work without pay during a government shutdown, have led to delays of flights at busy airports. Oregon Democratic U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden joins us from Washington, D.C., to discuss the latest developments in the government shutdown.

Multnomah County District Attorney Nathan Vasquez has filed charges against 33 of the 37 people arrested by Portland Police officers in protests in 2025. That’s a much higher percentage than is predecessor, Mike Schmidt, who announced early on in his tenure that he wouldn’t be charging for certain types of behavior at protests. Portland Police have arrested 40 people outside the ICE facility since June. It’s unclear how many arrests federal officers have made. We talk to DA Vasquez about his approach to the challenges of this moment.

Tom Toro has just published a new collection of his New Yorker cartoons, “And to Think We Started as a Book Club.” The cartoons are from the last 15 years his cartoons have been running in the magazine and are grouped in sections, from Life, Love and Family to Work, Tech and Weird. Some comment on modern life wordlessly, like a teenager in the rain holding a mini-umbrella over his phone while he texts. Most combine graphics with commentary, like a man in a ragged suit sitting around a campfire with a few children captioned, “Yes, the planet got destroyed. But for a beautiful moment in time we created a lot of value for shareholders.” Many, like the one pictured above with angels making “snow humans,” are what Toro calls pure palette cleansers, a much needed break from weighty matters of the day.

Toro joins us to discuss how he approaches his art and what it’s been like to comment on the last 15 years for one of the nation’s most illustrious magazines on the occasion of its 100th anniversary. The book is out today, and its official launch is at 7 p.m. this Friday, Oct. 10, at Powell's Books.

On Sunday, the Trump administration sent a memo to Oregon Gov. Kotek authorizing the deployment of 200 members of the Oregon National Guard for 60 days. At the same time, the administration has also named antifa, the left-wing, anti-fascist political movement, as a domestic terrorist organization. What does action mean for the political movement and how do protests happening now compare to other parts of the world and the history of the U.S.? To answer this question and more, we’ll hear from Shane Burley, a Portland-based writer and filmmaker who is author of the book, “Fascism Today: What It Is and How to End It." He is also the editor of “No Pasaran!: Antifascist Dispatches from a World in Crisis.”

This weekend, a federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration from mobilizing the Oregon National Guard to Portland and then issued a second restraining order when the president tried to summon troops from Texas and California to Oregon. The administration has since appealed the decision.

Throughout the back-and-forth, Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek has denounced the president’s actions and his characterization of Portland as “war-ravaged.” She joins us with more details on her response to the attempted deployment and the state’s efforts to block it.

British primatologist and conservationist Jane Goodall died last week at the age of 91. Goodall revolutionized our understanding of chimpanzees, our closest living relatives. She was mentored by the renowned anthropologist and paleontologist Louis Leakey, who helped fund her first trip to Tanzania in 1960 when she was 26-years-old. With no formal scientific training, she made the discovery that chimpanzees were capable of using and making tools – a skill scientists previously thought only humans were capable of doing. Goodall not only founded her own institute to promote the conservation of chimpanzees, she also embarked on a decades-long advocacy for humanitarian causes and environmental protections around the world. 

In 2011, “Think Out Loud” host Dave Miller interviewed Jane Goodall when she visited Oregon. We listen back to that conversation about her remarkable life and more than a half century of studying chimpanzees that has helped shape insights into our own behaviors and evolution within the animal kingdom.

Hatcheries, also known as fish farms, have long been used to supplement fish supplies affected by human activity. But with the 18 dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers, they became more important to maintaining fish populations to fulfill tribal agreements and to meet commercial and sports fishing demands. There are now hundreds of hatcheries in the Northwest, run by federal, state, local and tribal governments. But many of them are aging, in need of repair or replacement.

Zach Penney is the director of strategic initiatives at the The Columbia River Inter-tribal Fish Commission. He says even before the Trump administration’s mass layoffs and broad cuts to the federal government, the Columbia basin had an infrastructure backlog of about $1 billion. Now, many vulnerable hatcheries are only able to survive with the help of volunteers. But Penney says, the hatchery system cannot continue without more sustainable funding, including more staffing and money for basic infrastructure. He joins us to share more about the factors that have led to the current situation and what he sees as the way forward.

An unprecedented weekend put Portland at the center of national headlines, as President Trump continued his push to deploy National Guard members into the city over the objections of city and state elected officials and a federal judge. After his order for an Oregon National Guard deployment was blocked, Trump turned to the National Guard in California and Texas for hundreds of federal troops he could send to Portland. Late Sunday, U.S. District Court Judge Karin Immergut again sided with the state of Oregon. OPB reporter Troy Brynelson joins us to catch us up.

 Portland is well-known for its craft coffee, beer and cocktails. But it’s also home to a number of craft chocolate makers. The city’s first Craft Chocolate Festival will take place Oct. 3-5 at the Olympic Mills Building in the Central Eastside neighborhood. Attendees can sample sweets from makers across the city, while makers can attend informational sessions on how to grow their businesses. 

George Domurot is the founder and CEO of Ranger Chocolate Co. Andrea Marks is the owner of Bees and Beans. They join us to talk about the festival and the evolution of Portland’s craft chocolate scene.

The Portland Art Museum already has one of the most significant collections of modern Japanese prints in North America. On September 27, it burnished those credentials with the opening of the first solo U.S. exhibition of the late artist Yoshida Chizuko (1924-2017).

Born in 1924, Chizuko forged a place for herself in Japan’s male-dominated postwar art world. And though she married into the well-known Yoshida artist family –– which produced three generations of influential woodblock print artists –– critics say her work has been often overshadowed. The new exhibition brings together more than 100 of Chizuko’s woodblock prints and paintings, many of which have never before been displayed publicly.

Portland Art Museum's Asian art curator Jeannie Kenmotsu joins us to discuss the avant-garde artist who pushed the boundaries of both painting and printmaking, her place in the Yoshida family legacy and why her work still feels modern today.