The Portland based-book company “A Kids Co.,” which has created books such as “A Kids Book About Racism” and “A Kids Book About Empathy,” was recently acquired by the British publisher DK. The partnership establishes DK’s first U.S.-based children’s creative team. A Kids Co. began in 2018 when founder Jelani Memory wrote “A Kids Book About Racism” for his six children. Now, A Kids Co. has published over 30 books featuring authors such as Billie Jean King, Jessica Biel and Ashley Graham. The company now also produces podcasts and television shows in addition to books. Memory joins us to talk more about his entrepreneurial journey.

Kids can get free lunches through the Central Curry School District in Gold Beach even during the summer. But workers at the Curry Public Library noticed that some kids were missing out and decided to step in. Throughout the summer, the library offers free sack lunches to children. The program began last year and recently has expanded. We learn more about the service and why it’s needed from Bronwyn Greathead, a library employee and program coordinator for ASCEND, a collaboration between the library and the Central Curry School District.

Last spring, a dozen horses died on the track at Churchill Downs, including two during the world’s most famous horseracing event, the Kentucky Derby. A report later released by the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority found no single cause for the deaths but made several recommendations, including expanding the use of wearable technology to detect potentially fatal injuries. 

Washington State University has been at the forefront to refine this technology through its partnership for the past four years with a company that makes a wearable sensor for horses that weighs less than a deck of cards. A team of WSU researchers recently published the results of a study that tested how that sensor performed while analyzing the strides of hundreds of horses competing at Churchill Downs and another track in Kentucky last year. Abnormal stride movements revealed bone and muscle damage hidden to the naked eye that had a high risk of developing into a fatal injury. Denise McSweeney, the lead author of the study and an equine surgery resident at Washington State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, joins us to share her findings.   

For many years now, medical schools around the country have ceased using live animals to perform procedures as part of the curriculum. But in a minority of surgical residencies, residents operate on animals – often pigs – to practice techniques to be used on human patients. Oregon Health & Science University is in that minority. For years, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has been waging a campaign to get OHSU’s OB/GYN residency program to stop using pigs for doctors in training to practice reproductive surgeries on. At the same time, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine is asking the hospital to stop using the animals in all of its surgical residencies in all branches of the hospital. 

OHSU declined to participate in this conversation, but Dr. Kerry Foley, a retired emergency medical doctor who volunteers for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, joins us to share her views on best practices for surgical training and why those do not include using animals. 

Portland State University has been awarded nearly $2 million in federal funding to continue work tackling microplastic pollution in Oregon’s coastal communities and the Pacific ocean.  The money will go to a collaborative three-year effort to reduce microplastic pollution with groups from a wide range of academic, community, municipal and tribal partners, and will focus on filtering microplastics primarily out of hotels, restaurants, and laundromats. Elise Granek, project lead and professor at Portland State, joins us to share more.

For nearly 40 years, the DoveLewis Veterinary Emergency and Specialty Hospital in Portland has operated a blood bank for cats and dogs in need of blood transfusions for life-threatening injuries and illnesses. According to blood bank coordinator Kelsey Reinauer, it’s the largest such facility in Oregon and possibly now the entire West Coast. Last year, DoveLewis performed nearly 500 transfusions in-house and shipped more than 200 units of blood products to hospitals as far away as Tennessee and Florida. 

As with human blood donations, the need is often greater than the supply, and recruiting new donors can be challenging. The New York Times recently reported on DoveLewis’ efforts to grow a community of “superhero” donors. Their owners bring their cats and dogs to the hospital for regular blood donations which are incentivized with perks such as free treats and toys and personalized trading cards featuring their pets’ photos and interests. Reinauer joins us to talk about the blood donation program, along with Debi Hays, a volunteer at DoveLewis whose dog, Kasha, donates blood four times a year. Her other dog, Kiev, retired from the program earlier this year. 

A team of researchers at the University of Oregon is currently studying the relationships between soccer cleat composition and risk of injury in female versus male athletes. Female soccer players are three times more likely to suffer from major knee injuries than male soccer players, and a recent English study found that ACL injuries are 2-6 times more likely in females than males. This group of students and faculty at UO have been running tests for the past five years testing cleat stud length, traction and stability. They have created a model for a new type of cleat designed specifically for the female foot anatomy, which is in the beginning stages of development. We'll hear more from Emily Karolidis, a PhD candidate and lead researcher in this study, and Mike Hahn, professor of human physiology at UO.

When autumn arrives, reminders typically start going out for people to get their annual flu shot. The vaccine changes each year, based on what strain of influenza is likely to be circulating then. Sometimes it’s a good match and other times, not so good. But what if you could get one vaccine that would confer lifetime protection against the flu and its ever-changing strains? 

Scientists at Oregon Health & Science University are working on advancing that goal by developing a new way to deliver vaccines against flu viruses. The vaccines are delivered through a harmless virus that most people are exposed to at some point in their lives. The technology stimulates the body to release cells that attack the internal machinery of the harmful virus instead of its outer surface which can evolve to slip past immune defenses. Joining us to talk about this research is Jonah Sacha, a professor at OHSU and the chief of pathobiology at the Oregon National Primate Research Center.  

Neal Cummings has owned and run Video Horizons in Astoria for the last 40 years. It’s now the city's only video rental store, and one of only a handful of businesses in Oregon where you can rent movies on VHS or DVD. We talk with Cummings about how he got into this business, what keeps him going and why he thinks people still want an alternative to streaming movies in the digital age.

A sleepaway camp designed for and by Indigenous theater aficionados is being held at Portland State University July 29 through August 2. The 26 students in attendance will live in the dorms and attend daily theater trainings as well as college prep sessions. The students also get to meet and work with Native staff on campus. By the end of the week-long camp, students showcase their work in a variety of ways: some will act in student-written plays, some will create writing or art projects and others will perform in a short media project which is pitched by students then edited by camp staff. This is the fourth year of the camp, which has been held at different college campuses across the west coast. Last year, some of the students had the opportunity to participate in the Broadway production of “The Thanksgiving Play” by Larissa FastHorse. The camp has previously been held at University of Nevada at Reno, UC Berkeley and Southern Oregon University. Jeanette Harrison, co-founder of the theater camp for Native youth and creative director of Bag and Baggage’s Native theater project, joins us to share more. Returning campers Gia Fisher and Niyla Willow also join us. Fisher will be performing in “Diné Nishłį (i am a sacred being) Or, A Boarding School Play” by Blossom Johnson and directed by Harrison. The play will tour throughout the greater Portland area this September.