Think Out Loud

10 years after the armed occupation of Malheur Wildlife Refuge

On Jan. 2, 2016 a dozen armed men took over the headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Eastern Oregon. Today we listen back to a documentary OPB reporters made about the 41 days that followed.

Searching for slave shipwrecks and healing

In 2016, Tara Roberts was living in Washington D.C. and working at a nonprofit when she visited the National Museum of African American History and Culture and a photograph she saw there changed her life. The image was of Black scuba divers from the group Diving with a Purpose which searches for and documents slave shipwrecks around the world. Roberts quit her job, learned to scuba dive and chronicled the work of these scuba divers. Her book about that journey is “Written in the Waters: A Memoir of History, Home and Belonging.”

Poets Reginald Dwayne Betts and Mai Der Vang in conversation

What can animals teach us about ourselves? That’s part of what poets Reginald Dwayne Betts and Mai Der Vang are both exploring in their new collections. “Doggerel” is Bett’s collection about the relationship between dogs and their humans. “Primordial” by Der Vang tells of a nearly extinct deer-like creature that lives in the jungles of Laos. They spoke to OPB’s Jenn Chavez at the 2025 Portland Book Festival.

Summing up the biggest Pacific Northwest news of 2025

It was a big year in news for the Pacific Northwest. The president attempted to send the National Guard [https://www.opb.org/article/2025/10/20/trump-focus-portland-timeline/] into Portland, plans for a potential ICE facility [https://www.opb.org/article/2025/11/24/ice-newport-helicopter-immigration-detention-center-oregon/] caused unrest in Newport, and communities across the region saw an uptick [https://www.opb.org/article/2025/10/16/ice-high-profile-arrests/] in aggressive immigration enforcement activity.   Meanwhile, a significant road funding bill died — then was resurrected — [https://www.opb.org/article/2025/11/10/transportation-funding-bill-kotek-referral/] in the Oregon Legislature. And the deadline for Mayor Keith Wilson’s pledge to end unsheltered homelessness [https://www.opb.org/article/2025/12/01/homelessness-housing-portland-oregon-keith-wilson-shelter/] in Portland came and went.   Lisa Bates [https://www.pdx.edu/profile/lisa-bates] is a professor of Black studies at Portland State University. Jim Pasero is a principal at the public affairs company Third Century Solutions [https://www.thirdcenturysolutions.com/]. Nigel Jaquiss is a senior investigative reporter for the Oregon Journalism Project [https://www.oregonjournalismproject.org/]. They all join us to break down the biggest news stories of 2025.

Inside ICE Detention in Tacoma

The immigration detention center in Tacoma, WA is one of the largest detention centers in the country. This prison-like facility has rapidly filled to capacity as a new era of ICE enforcement gains steam and brings profound changes for people locked inside detention — many who are longtime residents of Oregon and Washington. Today we bring you a documentary from our partners at KUOW Public Radio in Seattle called “Inside ICE Detention” [https://www.kuow.org/stories/documentary-inside-ice-detention]which opens a window into this time of transition under the Trump Administration. It looks into who is getting detained, how they are treated and some new pressures people are facing as they try to fight deportation.