OPB's Think Out Loud

Instead of looking up at the total solar eclipse, teams of high school and college students will use cameras in high altitude balloons to look down at the moon’s shadow as it crosses the earth’s surface. We talk to Catherine Lanier, Associate Director of the Oregon NASA Space Grant Consortium, and Silverton High School senior Isabelle Doan about the nationwide NASA project.

OPB's daily conversation covering news, politics, culture and the arts.

OPB's daily conversation covering news, politics, culture and the arts.

OPB's daily conversation covering news, politics, culture and the arts.

If bigfoot exists, his habitat may be shrinking. Butterfly scientist Robert Michael Pyle wrote “Where Bigfoot Walks,” twenty years ago. He has just re-released the book with updated information about the environment that would be home to the hairy beast, if it exists at all.

Jay’s a teen guy with a sarcastic sense of humor and a driver’s license, about to start his senior year at a Vancouver, WA area high school. He’s also transgender, and he invited The Oregonian reporter Casey Parks into his life to chronicle the yearslong process of his transition. We speak with them both about Jay’s story upon the release of Casey’s three-part series, “About a Boy.”

OPB's daily conversation covering news, politics, culture and the arts.

OPB's daily conversation covering news, politics, culture and the arts.

OPB's daily conversation covering news, politics, culture and the arts.

An American Legion Post in Portland that served as an emergency shelter during this winter’s freezing temperatures is now planning to serve as a cooling shelter. Former Army medic Seth Grant tells us how they balance serving veterans and the community.

Aviator Amelia Earhart disappeared 80 years ago during her attempt to be the first woman pilot to circumnavigate the globe. People are still fascinated by her story and there’s a new effort underway to solve the mystery of what happened to Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan. Rick Pettigrew is the executive director of Archaeological Legacy Institute in Eugene and he participated in a recent expedition to a remote island in the Pacific Ocean in search of evidence Earhart and Noonan landed there.

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler joins us to talk about the new police oversight commission, the latest on the process of choosing the next police chief, and more.

We get the latest regional business news from Suzanne Stevens, editor of the Portland Business Journal.

Oregon State University researcher Harold Bae joins us to discuss what we know about the genetic contribution in aging and what’s known as “exceptional longevity.” His latest study was published this month in the Journals of Gerontology: Biological Sciences.

EarthFix reporter Jes Burns explored the competing interests of fish, fowl, and farms on the Klamath Wildlife Refuges in Southern Oregon.