OPB's Think Out Loud

A mobile clinic funded by a Pinot Noir auction is providing healthcare to migrant and seasonal workers in Oregon’s vineyards. We talk to Leda Garside, services manager for the !Salud! program, and Jose Reyna, a physical therapist who partners with the mobile clinic.

An interesting thing happened when Robin Romm asked a bunch of really successful women (best-selling writers, tenured professors, doctors, lawyers, scientists) to write about ambition. She received enthusiastic responses: “Yes! Great topic, very rich, very current — so much to say.” But she says that, invariably, she’d receive a clarifying, follow-up email saying something like, “I just want you to know that I’m not sure I’m ambitious. Lucky, yes. Hardworking, yes, Disciplined, very. But I’m not sure about ambitious.” We’ll hear from Romm about her essay collection “Double Bind: Women on Ambition” and from Camas Davis, who wrote an essay about her ambition to master butchery.

Laura Gunderson, Scott Bruun, and Aaron Mesh discuss some of the biggest news of the week.

In the wake of the violent attack that occurred on a Portland light-rail MAX train in May, TriMet has increased both armed and unarmed security presence on public transit. On Wednesday’s show we heard from rider advocacy group Bus Riders Unite! about their call for a decrease in armed police presence. Today, we continue the discussion with Trimet’s Chief Operating Officer, Doug Kelsey.

The city has a new plan to to have community oversight on its settlement agreement with the Department of Justice. T. Allen Bethel of the Albina Ministerial Alliance tells us what he thinks of the plan, and about the Mayor’s new ordinance that would compel officers to be interviewed within 48 hours of a deadly force incident.

The Portland City Council is deciding how to treat water from the Bull Run watershed by funding either an ultraviolet light plant, estimated at $105 million, or a water filtration facility costing $350-500 million. The Portland Utility Board, the city’s citizen watchdog group, has recommended the more comprehensive filtration strategy — but what they really want is more time. Board co-chair Allan Warman joins us to discuss the decision-making process.

Republican Secretary of State Dennis Richardson joins us to discuss his perspective on President Trump’s commission on voter fraud and what Richardson sees as the biggest opportunities for improvement in Oregon’s electoral system.

In the wake of the violent attack that occurred on a Portland’s MAX train in May, TriMet has increased security, including transit police. Today we’ll hear from Orlando Lopez, an organizer with the rider advocacy group Bus Riders Unite!, about the group’s perspective on transit security issues and their call for a decrease in armed police presence. Tomorrow we’ll speak with TriMet Chief Operating Officer Doug Kelsey for more about the agency’s security strategy.

Political scientist Paul Gronke and former Oregon secretary of state Phil Keisling join us to discuss their summer conference on election reform.

KUOW reporter Liz Jones toured the Tacoma Northwest Detention Center, a privately-run immigration enforcement facility housing detainees from throughout the Pacific Northwest. She explored detention conditions for women in the system, and spoke with a Portland area woman who suffered a miscarriage while in custody. Jones joins us to discuss her reporting.

University of Oregon assistant professor of journalism Nicole Dahmen joins us to discuss her survey of reporters and editors around the country about the ways different outlets cover mass shootings in the U.S.

In her new graphic memoir, Nicole Georges writes about her relationship with her dog, Beija. “Fetch” chronicles how adopting a difficult dog at a young age shaped Georges’s early adulthood.

The total solar eclipse is less than a month away. We talk with Andrew Phelps, director of Oregon’s Office of Emergency Management about how the state is preparing for an influx of up to a million visitors to the cities and towns in the path of totality.

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

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