Think Out Loud

After raids and arrests, Oregon farmworker union wants to send an expensive message

In October 2025, more than 30 farmworkers were arrested [https://www.opb.org/article/2025/12/16/farmworkers-released-ice-immigration-oregon-woodburn/] outside Woodburn, OR in a raid by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It was one of ICE’s most aggressive enforcement actions that year in Oregon. But it was also one of the moments that led the state’s largest farmworker union to launch a series of monthly boycotts in protest.   Why? Immigrant labor fuels the state’s economic engine, and so do their dollars: 2023 data [https://map.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/locations/oregon/] show immigrants in Oregon hold about $14 billion in spending power and contribute more than $5 billion in taxes. The boycotts, which kicked off in December, urge immigrants to refrain from economic activity, including working, shopping and going to school.   Reyna Lopez is the president and executive director of Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (PCUN). She joins us to talk about the first day of boycotts, as well as the goals they hope to achieve.

Prospective parents lose thousands of dollars after Portland-area surrogacy agency closes

Surro Connections [https://surroconnections.com/] was once a reputable surrogacy agency that operated out of Camas, Washington. The company helped match surrogates with prospective parents and facilitated communication and payments between them. But the agency abruptly closed [https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/10/health/surro-connections-surrogacy-closure.html] late last year, leaving clients without access to the tens of thousands of dollars needed to pay the surrogates carrying their children. The whereabouts of the company’s founder, Megan Hall-Greenberg, are unknown. Investigative health care reporter Sarah Kliff [https://www.nytimes.com/by/sarah-kliff] talked to clients, surrogates and former employees of Surro Connections for the New York Times. She joins us with more details about the closure and the largely unregulated surrogacy industry in the U.S.

Tracking Oregon’s progress in reducing climate impact of its public employees retirement fund

In 2024, former Oregon state Treasurer Tobias Read unveiled a plan to make the state’s public employees retirement fund investments achieve net zero emissions [https://www.oregon.gov/treasury/Documents/Site-Documentation/Landing-Page-Documents/Sustainable-Investing/OST-Net-Zero-Plan.pdf] by 2050. Last September, Gov. Tina Kotek signed into law the Climate Resilience Investment Act [https://apps.oregon.gov/oregon-newsroom/OR/OST/Posts/Post/governor-kotek-formally-signs-climate-resilience-investment-act] which directs the Oregon Treasury to pursue profitable clean energy investment opportunities and reduce fossil fuel holdings in the retirement fund, which is valued at more than $100 billion.    A new report [https://apps.oregon.gov/oregon-newsroom/OR/OST/Posts/Post/Treasury-Releases-Net-Zero-And-Climate-Positive-Progress-Report] released this week by the Oregon State Treasury details the progress Oregon is making to reduce the climate impact of its investment portfolio. It found, for example, a more than 50% decrease in the climate intensity of its investments between 2022 and 2023. Investments in renewable energy, EV charging, carbon credits and battery materials also doubled to $2.4 billion between January 2022 and June 30, 2025.     Oregon state Treasurer Elizabeth Steiner joins us to share more details and discuss the uncertainties lying ahead as the state tries to balance its pension system obligations with climate-cutting goals despite the Trump administration’s embrace of fossil fuels.

Exploring memory, longing and home with author Colm Tóibín

Irish author Colm Tóibín [https://colmtoibin.com/] has written short stories, essays, plays, articles and memoirs. But he’s best known for insightful novels such as “Brooklyn [https://colmtoibin.com/brooklyn/],” which follows Eilis Lacey as she emigrates from her home in Ireland to New York City. When she returns to Ireland for a family member’s funeral, Eilis finds herself caught between the comfort of home and the obligations of her new life in America, forcing her to decide between the two.   Tóibín’s most recent novel, “Long Island,” [https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/colm-toibin/long-island/9781035029464] revisits that story more than 20 years later. Eilis flees to Ireland after her life in America is upended and once again grapples with desire and her sense of duty.   Tóibín joins us in front of a live audience of students at Portland’s Grant High School to talk about both books and his extensive body of work.

What is the purpose - and the future - of public education?

OPB spent over a dozen years following a group of students from Kindergarten through the end of High School in 2025. The result was an amazing body of stories of the real lives and experiences of students, teachers, and families as they negotiate our public education system. One of the questions we have now is: how do you measure the success of education? We’ve gathered a group of big thinkers for a conversation about public education – what it is designed to do, who it is for, and how it might be changing for a new generation of students. We talk to Kali Thorne Ladd, CEO of the Children’s Institute, Ann Ishimaru, professor at the University of Washington College of Education, Jeffrey McGee, Director of Education at Rosemary Anderson Prep, and Ryan Carpenter, Superintendent Of Estacada School District.