Think Out Loud

Portlander musician Marisa Anderson explores folk music from around the world in new album

Marisa Anderson has been dubbed as [https://www.npr.org/2018/06/07/615266956/first-listen-marisa-anderson-cloud-corner] one of “this era’s most powerful players,” for her deep and varied interpretations of American music. Her latest album, “The Anthology of UnAmerican Folk Music,” takes inspiration from folk music from around the world. From Vietnam and Syria, to Afghanistan and the Soviet Union, the album is shaped by songs from countries that have been in conflict with the U.S. in her lifetime. Andreson join us to share more on her album and performs live in-studio.

’Death of a Drag Queen’ returns for second run in Portland

“Death of a Drag Queen [https://www.deathofadragqueen.com/]” opens on the 60th birthday of fictional queen Cram Brulee. Her water is shut off, an eviction notice is on the door and the friends who are supposed to take her out to celebrate keep pushing back their arrival. Inspired by “Death of a Salesman,” the play follows Cram as she grapples with her own fading relevance and mortality.   The play opened at [https://www.wweek.com/arts/theater/2025/12/16/sean-browns-death-of-a-drag-queen-vamps-up-arthur-millers-existential-classic-at-echo-theater/] Portland’s Echo theater in December 2025 and moved to Triangle Productions before closing this January. It’s back at Triangle for another two-weekend run starting July 11.    Playwright Sean Brown joins us to talk more about the show and its renewed run.

New draft plan for logging in Oregon’s Blue Mountains goes public

Nearly 5 million acres of forest and grasslands in Oregon could be seeing drastic changes under the federal government's new draft plan for the Blue Mountain Forests. The draft, which was recently released [https://www.fs.usda.gov/r06/umatilla/planning/development-draft-environmental-impact-statement] to the public, proposes tripling the logging happening across three national forests in the state’s Blue Mountain region. While some are hopeful this could boost timber jobs [https://www.opb.org/article/2026/06/18/trump-blue-mountains-forests-logging/] that have declined in the region, others worry about the wider implications it could have on recreation and hunting [https://www.opb.org/article/2026/07/06/as-trump-focuses-on-timber-in-blue-mountains-elk-hunters-fear-habitat-could-diminish/]. April Ehrlich covers lands and environment for OPB. She joins us to share more on plan.

19-year-old Portlander makes Goodwill thrift store find of a lifetime

Several days a week, Quinn Brown will head to Goodwill stores in the Portland area to spend hours at a time sifting through blue bins to look for clothes to resell on the secondhand clothing site Depop. Brown launched his business reselling vintage clothes in 2023, when he was a junior at Lincoln High School. He says his items sell on average for $13 and the biggest sale he’s netted to date was $250 for a ‘90s-era t-shirt.     But all of that is about to change. Earlier this month, Sotheby’s listed for auction [https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2026/summer-sports-classic/wilt-chamberlain-los-angeles-lakers-1972-nba] Brown’s thrift store find of a lifetime: a warm-up jacket worn by LA Lakers basketball legend Wilt Chamberlain during the 1972 NBA Finals. Brown spotted the warm-up jacket this past January during one of his weekly visits to the Goodwill store in Hillsboro. He paid $3 for the jacket, which Sotheby’s has authenticated and estimates to sell for as much as $250,000 when the auction closes on July 20.    Brown shares more about his amazing discovery, how he got involved in reselling vintage clothes and the growing popularity of thrifting among Gen Z youth.

How immigration enforcement has affected Oregon students

Oregon students missed classes, left school and struggled to learn as the fear of ICE undermined the school year. Washington County saw Oregon’s highest number of recorded immigration arrests from July to December. In all, Operation Black Rose led to the detention of more than 1,400 people statewide. That number includes some of the 39 kids who were arrested in Oregon between January 2025 and this February, according to the Deportation Data Project. OPB reporters Holly Bartholomew and Elizabeth Miller join us to talk about what they’ve learned in terms of how immigration enforcement has impacted Oregon students.