Think Out Loud

In Woodburn, the World Cup and has a lasting significance

When ESPN feature writer Roberto Jose Andrade Franco spent two weeks in Woodburn, Oregon, he met and spoke with a host of community members, from business owners to coaches to artists. Those conversations informed a new piece [https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/49190018/how-mexico-world-cup-run-brought-small-oregon-town-life] Franco wrote about the ways the community came alive and together during the World Cup.   Franco joins us to discuss his reporting and what he found during his time in Woodburn.

In Oregon’s coastal communities, doulas and volunteers are reimagining end-of-life care

In Oregon’s rural, coastal communities, volunteers are coming together to reimagine what end of life care can look like for aging residents outside of medical settings.   Three years ago, Margo Lalich co-founded the North Coast End of Life Collective. She’s a nurse and public health professional who says the COVID-19 pandemic was a “wake-up call” that helped her identify a lack of intentional, communal grieving and gaps in infrastructure surrounding end-of-life care in rural areas. She began hosting educational workshops via Zoom for people who wanted to learn more and be involved in facilitating end-of-life conversations and initiatives for their communities’ aging residents. One of the attendees was Kevin Shluka, a sculptor and landscaper located in Tillamook County who’s been volunteering in community hospice since 2024.   We’ll hear more from Lalich and Shluka about the role the End of Life Collective has filled in these coastal communities, and more on what it looks like to facilitate this unique model of care.

Oregon report has 100 recommendations in responding to the public health crisis of racism

Five years ago, the Oregon legislature declared that racism is a public health crisis. A year later, lawmakers told the Oregon Advocacy Commission’s office to come up with recommendations for how to respond to the crisis. The final report [https://www.oregon.gov/oac/Documents1/FinalReport_updated_June29.pdf] detailing that work was just released. It has information about the status of 100 recommendations, ranging from community safety and social services to education and healthcare. We get the details from Kaj Jensen, the author of the new report and the operations and policy analyst with the Oregon Advocacy Commission’s office.

UO professor shares history of Mahjong in the US 100 years after it first became popular

In the 1920s, Mahjong took the U.S. by storm, rapidly becoming a popular game to play and a household name. More than a century later, Mahjong’s popularity seems to be on the rise again, as Yelp data shows a nearly 4,500% increas [https://trends.yelp.com/2026-yelp-trend-forecast]e in searches for Mahjong in the last year. Annelise Heinz is an associate professor of history at the University of Oregon’s College of Arts and Sciences. She is also the author of “Mahjong: A Chinese Game and the Making of Modern American Culture.” She joins us to share the history.

Community Energy Project says PCEF grants are achieving climate goals and helping vulnerable communities

It’s been five years since the Portland Clean Energy Fund, or PCEF, gave out its first grants. The fund has grown much more than expected, and various interests [https://www.opb.org/article/2026/07/06/measure-to-divert-portland-climate-funds-to-hire-more-police-could-be-headed-to-voters-in-november/] have proposed using some of it [https://www.opb.org/article/2026/06/09/portland-unveils-timeline-for-moda-center-deal/] for non-climate goals. The Community Energy Project is among the local groups that helped create PCEF [https://www.portland.gov/bps/cleanenergy/about#toc-about-pcef] after voters passed the ballot measure in 2018. The Fund was designed to reduce carbon emissions to help get Portland net-zero emissions by 2050, develop a diverse workforce and focus on populations most affected by climate change. Jim Plantico [https://www.communityenergyproject.org/team/jim] is one of the Community Energy Project’s program directors. He joins us to share more about the program, what the money is being spent on more broadly and the specific projects that CEP has implemented with PCEF grants.