Think Out Loud

For nearly 40 years, sculptor M.J. Anderson has been making annual trips from her home on the Oregon coast to Carrara, Italy. She spends up to three months there, traveling along a winding road to quarries with towering walls of marble, the same kind of stone that was used to create Michelangelo’s sculpture of David and other timeless works of Renaissance art.   But Anderson isn’t interested in recreating classical, idealized representations of masculine or feminine beauty. Instead, as a recent exhibit of her work in Astoria showcased, a unifying theme of Anderson’s work is “the distillation of what it feels like to be woman.” Starting at her studio in Carrara, she uses grinders and air hammers to carve torsos evoking the female form out of massive blocks of marble, onyx and travertine. The pieces are then shipped, unfinished, to Anderson’s studio in Nehalem where she polishes them while retaining drill marks and other raw reminders of the stone’s past and its “power.” We’ll talk to Anderson about her artistic process and the themes that animate her work today.

Earlier this month, Gov. Tina Kotek declared a drought emergency in Lincoln, Gilliam and Douglas Counties. In Lincoln County, low stream flows and dry conditions have greatly affected the coastal region. The declaration is uncommon there. We learn more about what it means from County Commissioner Kaety Jacobson.

When you go to a museum or visit a science center, it’s not uncommon to see graphs, charts and other visual data displays included in the exhibit. But blind and low-vision visitors don’t get that same experience. Researchers with the Accessible Oceans pilot project are exploring how to turn some of that data into sound so it’s more accessible to all visitors. The project’s team of interdisciplinary researchers has been gathering feedback from visually impaired students and teachers, as well as ocean science experts, on how they can accurately represent ocean data in a series of sound presentations. Jon Bellona is a sound artist and senior instructor of audio production at the University of Oregon, and Amy Bower is a senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. They join us to talk about the project and how they hope to make data more accessible.

You might be an avid crossword solver, but have you ever thought about what it takes to create them? Matt Jones has been making crossword puzzles since his late teens, with one of his first puzzles appearing in The New York Times when he was just 19. His weekly puzzle Jonesin’ has appeared in alt-weeklies across the country, including Willamette Week, since 2001.  Jones joins us to share more about what it takes to be a crossword constructor and what he thinks makes a good puzzle.

LGBTQ youth are more than twice as likely to experience homelessness than their peers, due to a lack of support. Oregon youth in foster care need more options for temporary homes with foster parents committed to creating an affirming and safe environment. We talk with Unicorn Solutions founder Elliott Hinkle, who was formerly in foster care themselves, and  current foster parent Mel Jory-Heywood.

Breena Bard’s new graphic novel “Wildfire” focuses on Julianna, an eighth grader who’s forced to flee her home in rural Oregon and resettle in Portland following a wildfire. Julianna soon joins the conservation club at her new school, though she insists the fires that destroyed her home were caused by local boys with errant fireworks rather than climate change. The story follows Julianna as she processes her grief and learns to engage with climate issues in ways that make sense to her.  Bard joins us in studio to talk about the book and the many ways young people can take action on climate change.

Jeanne Carver and her family have spent decades incorporating sustainable practices into their ranch.  Her brand, Shaniko Wool Company, is certified under the Responsible Wool Standard. The certification includes third-party audits of the ranch and covers sheep welfare and sustainable land management. More recently, Carver has studied how much carbon her ranch has stored in its soil. We check in with her to learn more about sustainable ranching.

Oregon has one of the highest rates in the country for kindergarteners with vaccine exemptions. The state’s 7% rate is only lower than Utah’s (7.4%) and Idaho's (9.8%).  Ryan Hassan is a pediatrician in Happy Valley and also serves as the medical director for Boost Oregon, a parent group working to increase vaccinations overall through education. He says he’s seen coronavirus vaccine skepticism bleed into skepticism towards well-established vaccines against measles, mumps, rubella and pertussis. He says since the pandemic, an industry promoting dangerous disinformation about vaccines has itself spread like a virus. We talk with him about how he approaches conversations with parents of school-aged children, and how Boost Oregon is attempting to overcome disinformation with the truth about the medical efficacy and public health necessity of vaccinating against preventable diseases of all kinds.

Oregon is one of the leading exporters of peppermint oil in the U.S. But a fungus called verticillium wilt, which affects the leading variety of peppermint, is spreading throughout the Willamette Valley. Reporter Berit Thorson recently wrote about the issue for Capital Press, and joins us to talk about what she learned.

The Hermiston Herald recently profiled Jessica Marcum, a community paramedic at Umatilla County Fire District #1, about her job helping patients in the region. Unlike paramedics who respond to emergencies, community paramedics work to keep patients out of emergency rooms by providing in-home health services, from medication management after a hospital stay to making referrals for mental health services. Although community paramedics are found throughout Oregon, their impact is especially felt in rural areas. A recent study by researchers at Oregon Health & Science University found that community paramedics in Central Oregon reduced visits to the emergency department by nearly 14%. We hear from Jessica Marcum and Sabrina Ballew, the Mobile Integrated Healthcare Manager at Mercy Flights in Medford, about the role community paramedics are playing to bridge gaps in care and improve health outcomes in Southern and Eastern Oregon.