Think Out Loud

The Bonneville Power Administration is among the federal agencies currently being gutted by Elon Musk at Pres. Donald Trump’s direction. The ostensible reason for federal government layoffs and buyouts is to save taxpayer dollars. In the case of the BPA, it’s funded by its ratepayers, not taxpayers, but that hasn’t stopped the departure of hundreds of the agency’s skilled and specialized workers. And additional staffers who were considered probationary were let go without notice last week. And that has industry watchers, including two former heads of the BPA, sounding the alarm about the potential catastrophic impacts on the power grid and the people who rely on it. Steven Wright and Randy Hardy wrote a joint article in an industry newsletter Friday detailing those possible threats.The BPA can be thought of as the backbone of the Northwest power grid. It sells wholesale electricity to the utilities, companies and other entities that sell power to residents all over the region. Sources include hydropower from Columbia River dams and the region’s only operating nuclear power plant. It also transmits energy through 15,000 miles of high voltage lines.The thousands of BPA employees perform tasks from engineering and line work to complex demand modeling and resource planning. That planning includes decisions around sources of power and how to prioritize and price the power. Energy consultant and former BPA administrator Randy Hardy joins us to discuss the details and possible impacts of the Elon Musk-led reductions on the Northwest

The James Beard Foundation Awards are considered one of the top accomplishments in the culinary world. For the 2025 season, several restaurants and chefs in the state are semifinalists. Out of the seven Oregon chefs nominated for Best Northwest and Pacific Chef category, only two came from Portland. Kari Shaughnessy is the owner and executive chef of Hayward in McMinnville. Josh Dorcak is the owner and executive chef at MAS in Ashland. They both received a nomination and join us to share what the food scene is like in their respective communities and what it means to have so many chefs outside of Portland recognized for their work.

Donnie Horn started Triangle Productions with an original play he wrote in 1989 that dealt with being a gay man in the midst of the HIV/AIDS crisis. The theatre is now one of the oldest LGTBQ theatres in the country, celebrating its 35th season. The show that’s currently running is another Horn original: a musical he collaborated on with musician Michael Allen Harrison called “JC: Gospel According to an Angel.” Horn is also working on The Umbrella Project, which draws together a wide array of stories focused on Oregon’s LGTBQ history. He joins us to tell us more about that project, the musical he wrote with Harrison and how Triangle Productions has grown over the last 35 years. 

If you’ve passed by the Chess Club storefront in Portland’s Old Town recently, you may have wondered what it sells. A small label in the window gives you a hint — “global magazines.” The store carries hundreds of publications from around the world, with topics ranging from queer periodicals to art and design quarterlies. Owners Andrew Simon and Christy Lai have said that they want the store to serve as a meeting place and conversation starter for people in search of offline connection. Simon and Lai join us to talk about creating physical community in a digital world.

On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order No. 9066, which sent people of Japanese descent – many of them U.S. citizens – from their homes to “relocation centers,” resulting in the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II.  Every two years, people come from all over the country to Klamath Falls to remember the Tule Lake internment camp, just south of the Oregon border. Today, we listen back to a conversation we recorded at the Tule Lake Pilgrimage in 2016. We talked to Satsuki Ina, one of the organizers of the pilgrimage and a former resident of Tule Lake. We also spoke to former resident Jimi Yamaichi, and Akemi Yamane, whose parents were incarcerated there. Also today we listen back to a conversation with Oregon author Mitzi Asai Loftus, who was born in Hood River on a fruit orchard and spent years of her childhood in several different internment camps. After leaving the camps, her family returned to Hood River. Asai Loftus spent much of her adult life in Eugene and Coos Bay and now lives in Ashland. She wrote a book about her experiences called “From Thorns to Blossoms: A Japanese American Family in War and Peace.”

In Courtney Gould’s latest young adult love story, “Where Echoes Die,” two sisters travel to a strange desert town to investigate the death of their mother … and find that everything is not as it seems. In Jennifer Dugan’s novel “The Last Girls Standing,” two survivors of a summer camp massacre search for the truth of what happened that terrifying night. OPB’s Jenn Chavez talked to Dugan and Gould at the 2024 Portland Book Festival about psychological thrillers and writing queer love stories for a YA audience.

Cattle ranching is a nearly $20 million industry in Grant County. But it can take a serious environmental toll on the region’s land and waterways. Jack Southworth, a fourth-generation rancher in Seneca, has been practicing holistic land management since the 1980s. He’s planted willows to restore the streams on his property and worked with the Forest Service to sustainably graze his cattle in the summers, among other measures. Southworth gave us a tour of his land and talked about what he sees as the future of cattle ranching in 2023.

Portland’s sunny days are done and snow has started to fall around the region Thursday. Currently, the National Weather Service has issued a winter storm warning for the Portland area, with current predictions saying the metro area should expect up to 2 inches of snow and sleet. Dylan Rivera is the public information officer with PBOT. He joins us to share how the agency is preparing streets. We’ll also hear from Jes Larson, the assistant director of homeless services for Washington County to hear how workers there are helping people on the street stay warm and safe.

 “Geography is everything” for digital creator Geoff Gibson. The Portlander’s YouTube channel explores population geography and how that affects cities, states and countries. Some of his video essays have millions of views including pieces about the Cascadia Subduction Zone and why some parts of Oregon and Northern California have few people living there.  More recently, Gibson covered Astoria and why it never became a major hub like San Francisco. We learn more about “Geography by Geoff” and how it struck a chord on social media. 

Democrats continue to struggle over how to counter President Donald Trump and the unprecedented governmental power he has given to billionaire Elon Musk, the world's richest man. Recently, Democrats banded together to fight against the unelected "special government employee" through protests and policy proposals. Democrats are among those who say the country is at the brink of a constitutional crisis, as the Trump administration has suggested it may not abide by judicial ruling it disagrees with. U.S. Rep. Janelle Bynum spoke at a “Nobody Elected Elon” rally last week. She joins us to share more about her concerns and what Democrats are doing to