OPB's Think Out Loud

Just a few months ago, Portland chef Greg Black was living out of his truck in Laurelhurst Park. Now, he is the executive chef at the recently opened food cart, the Happy Camper. The cart, which is operated by non-profit Operation Off the Grid, donates 60 percent of its proceeds to provide food and supplies for homeless people in Portland.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon is suing the Portland Police Bureau for using a tactic known as “kettling” during a protest on June 4. Officers cordoned off and detained a group of protesters, then photographed protesters’ identification cards. The ACLU says that police violated protesters’ civil liberties. Legal director Mat dos Santos and protester Jenny Nickolaus, who is one of the lawsuit’s plaintiffs, join us.

Reports of sexual harassment by men in positions of power in media, government, and the entertainment industry are a nearly daily occurrence now. We want to hear from you. Have you had a #MeToo moment? What obstacles have you faced as a woman in the workforce? What will it take to change things?

Portland-based comic website The Nib has published a serialized nonfiction comic about a murder case in a small town in Tasmania. Nib deputy editor Eleri Harris joins us to talk about “Reported Missing,” the true crime comic focused on people she grew up with in the small city of Hobart.

A juicy piece of real estate at the base of the Broadway Bridge has the potential to change the profile of downtown Portland. We discuss possibilities for the old post office building and surrounding area with Tiffany Sweitzer, president and partner at Hoyt Street Properties and Ethan Seltzer, professor emeritus of urban studies and planning at Portland State University.

In 2015, Dallas School District officials notified parents that they would allow a transgender student to use the boys locker room. Now, the school district is being sued for its policy. Elliot Yoder, the transgender student at center of the lawsuit, joins us.

In 1992, more than 1,700 independent scientists penned a letter titled, “World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity”. The letter urged humankind to consider its serious impact on the natural world. 25 years later, more than 16,000 scientists have issued a second warning to humanity. Philip Mote, a climate scientist, join us.

Sarah Bendtsen from the Vancouver, WA-based Shared Hope International joins us to talk about the group’s new report that evaluates states based on their laws to protect child sex trafficking victims and to prosecute traffickers.

A new book examines the history of the Ku Klux Klan’s resurgence in the 1920s. There was a big KKK presence in Oregon at that time. We’ll talk with historian and “The Second Coming of the KKK” author Linda Gordon about how the Klan influenced Oregon politics and culture.

In 2009, Ashland police detective Carrie Hull set out to improve the way the police department responded to reports of sexual assault. The program she created, the You Have Options Program, has received praise nationwide for its handling of sexual violence reports. She talks about the success of the program and what other agencies can learn from it.

Carmen Rubio, Scott Bruun and Christopher McKnight Nichols join us on the news roundtable to talk about some of the big stories of the week.

We talk to the director of the Oregon Health Authority, Patrick Allen, about the agency’s overpayment of 75 million dollars to health care providers, and about how OHA is planning for the approximately 80 thousand kids who will lose their coverage if Congress doesn’t reauthorize the CHIP program.

Author Reza Aslan joins us in front of an audience at Literary Arts in downtown Portland. Aslan is the author of several books about religion, including Beyond Fundamentalism, and Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, which was a New York Times bestseller. Aslan is currently a professor of creative writing at the University of California, Riverside. His new book is God: A Human History.

Portland Public Schools’ new Superintendent Guadalupe Guerrero joins us to explain his vision for the district.

A federal jury found the Lake Oswego school district and the Lakeridge High School Principal guilty of negligence after failing to immediately investigate allegations of hazing from 2014. Sabrina Achcar-Winkels said she was hazed and subsequently bullied for speaking out against the issue. Sabrina, and her father, Ray Achcar-Winkels, join us to share their story.

National Public Radio’s afternoon host, Ari Shapiro, is home in Portland this week for his first solo show. He will sings songs that tell stories of the people he has met in his world travels.

A Sports Illustrated article suggested that the University of Oregon might have mishandled a recent Title IX investigation. Sen. Ron Wyden called on the university to clarify elements of the policy. UO has responded and maintains that protocol was followed. Kenny Jacoby, the investigative reporter that launched the story, joins us.

Portland Business Journal editor Suzanne Stevens discusses the latest business news in Portland, including container service returning to the Port of Portland, Prosper Portland’s search for a developer to work on the old post office site in the Pearl and how Congress’s proposed tax reform plan could affect a $3.2 billion wind energy plan by PacifiCorp.

The activist group Portland’s Resistance formed in response to the 2016 presidential election and immediately captured local and national headlines with days of protest in the streets of Portland. Portland’s Resistance members Gregory McKelvey and Chelsea Whipple discuss the group’s work one year later.

Although places like Vienna and New York are known as the epicenters of the classical movements of the 20th century, the West Coast was also home to some of the century’s most influential composers. Henry Cowell, Harry Partch, John Cage, and Lou Harrison helped define the sound of the West Coast avant-garde, and had an impact on musicians not just in the classical world, but also in jazz and rock music. Alex Ross, Music critic for “The New Yorker,” and author of “The Rest Is Noise” and “Listen to This,” joined us in 2015 to tell the story of some of the major West Coast avant-garde composers.