OPB's Think Out Loud

George Saunders is the author of numerous short story collections, including Tenth of December, In Persuasion Nation, and Pastoralia. His most recent novel, Lincoln in the Bardo, is a New York Times bestseller, and shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Saunders has won a Guggenheim, a McArthur, and many other awards.

Scientists at OHSU recently announced that they’ve made a stunning breakthrough. They have successfully repaired a gene in human embryos to repair a common and serious disease-causing mutation, producing apparently healthy embryos. This technique could potentially be used in the future to edit out inherited genetic mutations – including those that cause Huntington’s, Tay-Sachs, breast cancer or even Alzheimer’s – from human embryos. It also raises the prospect of editing embryos for other traits – in other words, creating “designer babies.” Shoukhrat Mitalipov, director of the Center for Embryonic Cell and Gene Therapy at Oregon Health and Science University, Daniel Dorsa, OHSU’s senior vice president for research, and Paula Amato, associate professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the OHSU School of Medicine, join us for a discussion, along with a live audience.

Leon Speroff joins us to talk about his softball career, which he began more than a decade ago, when he was 71. He’s headed to the Huntsman World Senior Games to defend his team’s 2016 gold medal.

Lily Raff McCaulou, an avid hunter, says owning guns and wanting stricter regulations do not have to be in opposition. Her organization, Gun Owners for Responsible Ownership, advocates for gun safety.

A new prison population forecast from Oregon’s Office of Economic Analysis shows that the number of women inmates in Oregon is set to decline by 8% in the next decade. They attribute it primarily to a new law designed to help Oregon avoid opening a second women’s prison. We hear more about the Oregon Safety and Savings Act - passed in the last legislative session as HB 3078 - from the Partnership for Safety and Justice, which helped create the bill.

Portland artist Stephen Hayes joins us to discuss his new exhibition on display at the Elizabeth Leach Gallery. His latest “In The Hour Before” series portrays locations where violence has occurred in America, as seen from a Google Street View perspective.

The Polybius Conspiracy podcast co-producer Todd Luoto tells us about the story of a 1980s video arcade game that sparked an urban legend that persists to this day.

Amidst increasingly stringent U.S. immigration policies, some international students may feel unwelcome. University of Oregon professor Dennis Galvan discusses an idea to establish “pop-up campuses” for international students abroad.

A number of new Oregon laws passed in the last legislative session went into effect on Friday. We’ll hear about three of them.

Foster youth are unlikely to attend college, and even less likely to graduate. We speak with two former foster youth who’ve made the transition into a college education: college freshman Adonis Lomu, and college sophomore Quintin Nickelson. They’ve gotten help from a New Avenues For Youth support program, funded by the Portland’s Children Levy, called Avenues to College.

Kerry Tymchuk, Beth Slovic and Mike Marshall join us on the news roundtable to talk about some of the big stories in the week’s news.

A US Army enlistment program designed to recruit immigrants with specialized skills in exchange for expedited citizenship has been put on hold, leaving many recruits in limbo. In September, hundreds of enlistment contracts under the program were canceled. We speak with former Oregon recruit Ranj Rafeeq, originally from Iraq, who fled to Canada earlier this summer in fear of being deported if his enlistment contract was canceled.

Multnomah County has been awarded a $2 million dollar grant to help reduce racial disparities in jails. One way they plan on doing this: opening a shelter aimed at African American women with mental health issues.

Christy Delafield of Mercy Corps joins us from Puerto Rico to discuss the organization’s role in ongoing relief efforts there in response to Hurricane Maria.

We talk with Desmond O’Rourke, an agricultural economist and global fruit market analyst, about what Amazon’s recent acquisition of Whole Foods will mean for the organic produce market.