Think Out Loud

 By many measures, political polarization in the U.S. has grown in recent years. It’s reflected in recent surveys which show record high numbers of Americans who identify as conservative or liberal, or the stark differences between Republicans’ and Democrats’ current feelings toward the federal government.     Social media can exacerbate this polarization, especially when algorithms social media companies use feed content that not only aligns with a user’s political views but also attacks the opposing party’s candidates or values. But what if you could bypass that algorithm to make posts that expressed partisan animosity or antidemocratic content less prominent?     Martin Saveski is an assistant professor in the University of Washington’s School of Information who recently explored these questions with researchers at Stanford University and Northeastern University. The scientists developed a tool that used AI to quickly scan social media posts that contained antidemocratic views or political animus, such as support for jailing political opponents. Saveski and his team used this tool in a study with Republicans and Democrats that reordered the participants’ feeds on the social media site X so that antidemocratic or politically hostile content appeared higher or lower on their feeds for seven days during last year’s U.S. presidential election.    Saveski joins us to share the study’s results and the implications of giving users greater control over their social media algorithms.

The WorkSource Oregon Reentry program helps people incarcerated in the state work on resumes, map out career goals and even connect with future employers. The program is funded by a roughly $5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor and from the state, but those funds are set to expire this year. A bill in the Oregon legislature earlier this year would have funded the program, but failed to become law. Danielle Dawson is a collaborative investigative reporter for InvestigateWest and worked on this story with Wesley Vaughan for Bolts. Dawson joins us to share more on the impact this program has had and its future.

 A recent study from the University of Washington School of Medicine reveals a national snapshot of the ways Americans are vulnerable to financial insecurity after undergoing medical procedures.    Surveys showed that about 38% of people who undergo surgery in the United States report experiencing financial hardship after surgery – meaning they have incurred medical debt and have difficulty paying medical bills, or they delay medical care for fear of cost.    John Scott is a trauma surgeon and researcher who studies health policy at the University of Washington. He joins us to discuss his findings.

On Monday, Washington state lawmakers will meet in Olympia to kick off a 60-day legislative session. Last month, Gov. Bob Ferguson unveiled a proposed $79 billion supplemental budget that aims to fill a $2.3 billion shortfall in part by tapping the state’s rainy day fund and making cuts to spending on state programs and services. Lawmakers in both chambers will consider other proposals to shore up the state’s finances, including a contentious plan by Senate Democrats that would impose a nearly 10% tax on Washingtonians making more than $1 million a year. The so-called millionaires’ tax would raise an estimated $3 billion annually, but it faces opposition by Republicans who’ve threatened to sue if it wins passage by the Democratic majority in the Legislature.   Scott Greenstone, a politics reporter at our partner station KUOW and co-host of the Sound Politics podcast, joins us to share more details about that plan and other priorities facing Washington lawmakers during the short session

Yesterday afternoon, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent opened fire on a man and woman during an attempted traffic stop in East Portland, according to local and federal law enforcement officials. Responding to a report of a shooting, Portland Police found the man and woman who were shot and applied first aid before the two were transported to local hospitals for treatment.    U.S. Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the Portland shooting occurred as Border Patrol agents were stopping a vehicle. She claimed the driver and passenger were members of a Venezuelan gang and that the driver attempted to run over the federal agents, prompting one of the agents to open fire in self-defense.    According to Portland Police Chief Bob Day, the FBI is leading an investigation into the shooting. Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield said the Oregon Department of Justice would open its own investigation. Federal, state and local officials, including Portland Mayor Keith Wilson and Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek condemned the shooting. Portland Police said they made six arrests during a protest Thursday night outside the ICE facility in south Portland that attracted hundreds of people.    The shooting in Portland happened just one day after a U.S.  Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed a U.S. citizen, Renee Nicole Good, in Minneapolis.    Joining us for more details is OPB reporter Joni Auden Land.

Do we need art critics? If you ask Bob Hicks, executive editor of Oregon ArtsWatch, he says “critic” is a dumb word. As he argues in his recently published piece, the role of art criticism isn’t to be the final say in whether a piece of work is good or bad, but rather to be the start of a conversation. At the same time, arts journalism as a whole has faced a number of setbacks in the industry this year, including the Associated Press ending its book reviews, Vanity Fair eliminating its reviews and the Chicago Tribune losing full-time movie reviewer Michael Phillips. But as Portland-based arts and culture writer Justin Duyao writes in his piece in response to Hicks, arts and cultural criticism isn’t dead, but has evolved to online spaces, including social media. Hicks and Duyao both join us to share their thoughts on modern day criticism.

Last month, President Trump signed an executive order seeking to reclassify marijuana as a Schedule III drug. Cannabis is currently Schedule I, alongside drugs the DEA defines as having no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse. Trump’s order fast-tracks the reclassification, and it could significantly change the industry, opening new doors for cannabis research and easing a punishing tax burden faced by businesses that grow and sell the product. The order may also act as a counterbalance to the quickly closing “hemp loophole,” a provision in Congress’ shutdown-ending resolution that will ultimately put tighter restrictions on what products cannabis businesses can sell.   Beau Whitney is the chief economist at Whitney Economics, an Oregon-based cannabis and hemp consulting organization. Mason Walker is the CEO of East Fork Cultivars, an Oregon cannabis and hemp business. They join us to talk about how these ongoing changes could shape the future of the cannabis and hemp industries.

 On Jan. 2, 2016, a dozen armed anti-government militants led by Ammon Bundy and his brother, Ryan, took over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters outside of Burns in Harney County. The 41-day siege at the bird sanctuary in rural Eastern Oregon attracted national and international media attention. On Jan. 26, one of the militants, Arizona rancher Robert “LaVoy” Finicum, died during an armed confrontation with the FBI and Oregon State Police. Law enforcement also arrested the Bundys and several of their supporters that day, although prosecutors failed to secure convictions of the Bundys and five other defendants during a trial in the fall.  OPB legal affairs reporter Conrad Wilson and OPB visual journalist Eli Imadali recently traveled to Harney County to see how the Malheur occupation reverberates within the community 10 years later. Wilson joins us to share what he learned and the perspectives of former officials and community members he spoke with about the occupation and the challenges the county grapples with today.

 In September, Olivia Miller returned to Eugene to start her new position as the executive director of the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at the University of Oregon. She earned a master’s degree in art history from UO in 2009 and most recently served as the director of the University of Arizona’s Museum of Art in Tucson.     Miller curated two exhibits at UA’s art museum that featured works selected from Schnitzer’s vast art collection, including “The Art of Food,” which traveled to Portland State University in 2022 and other locations around the nation.   Miller joins us to share her experience so far leading the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at UO, as well as her priorities and future plans for it, which may include offering a class on art theft. It’s a subject Miller has some experience with after successfully leading the return and restoration of a painting by abstract artist Willem de Kooning that was stolen from University of Arizona’s art museum four decades ago.

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife estimates 14.5 million wild vertebrate animals are killed on Oregon’s roadways each year. Data shows it’s difficult to control driver behavior with things like road signs and traffic regulations. A more effective way to mitigate animal fatalities is by redirecting the animals themselves. Wildlife crossings — human-made structures that allow animals to safely pass through habitats near roadways — have been a successful tool in preventing animal-motor fatalities. States like Montana, Colorado and California have over 100 wildlife crossings, while Oregon has only six. Rachel Wheat is a spatial ecologist who serves as the wildlife connectivity coordinator for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. She joins us to discuss her work and tactics for improving transportation infrastructure for wildlife in Oregon.