British nature writer Robert Macfarlane’s new book asks, ‘Is a river alive?’

New film documents life of West Ham, Timbers soccer legend Clyde Best

Clyde Best [https://clydebest.com/] became one of England’s first Black soccer superstars when he played for West Ham United from 1968 to 1976. Best scored 58 goals in his 218 appearances as a striker for West Ham. He later  went on to play for the Portland Timbers from 1977 to 1981, helping build the foundation for professional soccer in the U.S.    The documentary “Transforming the Beautiful Game: The Clyde Best Story” showcases Best’s life and career, including the racism he had to contend with on and off the pitch. The film will play at the Aladdin Theater [https://www.aladdin-theater.com/#shows-feed] on June 4 and 5, followed by a Q&A with Best and other interviewees in the film.    Clyde Best joins us for a conversation ahead of those screenings.

Portland Book Week celebrates more than 80 independent bookstores in the region

For the third year in a row, the Cascade Booksellers Association [https://cascadebooksellers.com/] has thrown a kind of huge book party for book lovers in the Portland metro area. The idea is to highlight the huge variety of book shops [https://www.wweek.com/arts/books/2025/05/27/the-second-annual-portland-book-week-celebrates-independent-bookstores-of-all-stripes/] and get people out to visit as many of them as they can. More than 80 bookstores are participating in Portland Book Week this year [https://www.portlandbookweek.com/bookstores], including the White Rabbit Book Cafe [https://www.whiterabbit.gifts/] in Oregon City, Maggie Mae’s Bookshop [https://www.maggiemaesbooks.com/] in Gresham and Lost & Bound Books [https://lostandboundbooks.myshopify.com/collections], a mobile bookshop based in Portland. We sit down with owners Danielle Walsh, Sho Roberts and Desirai Vuylsteke to hear more about what led them to start their independent shops, how they see their role in their communities and their fondest hopes for the week.

US Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez on Longview mill disaster, ongoing federal investigation

After the deadly chemical tank rupture [https://www.opb.org/article/2026/05/30/final-victims-remains-recovered-longview-paper-mill/] that killed 11 people last Tuesday at a paper mill in Longview, questions continue to loom over the community — including what environmental impacts [https://www.opb.org/article/2026/05/28/longview-flush-pollution-drinking-water-chemicals-paper-mill/] the chemical spill could have on the city and nearby Columbia River, as well as the potential cause [https://www.opb.org/article/2026/05/30/what-caused-longview-mill-chemical-plant-questions/] of this disaster. It’s Washington’s deadliest workplace incident in nearly a century.   Officials from the U.S. Chemical Safety Board arrived in Longview last Wednesday to investigate the cause of the chemical disaster. The future of the board has been uncertain in recent months after a proposed budget [https://www.opb.org/article/2026/05/31/longview-chemical-disaster-trump-budget-would-eliminate-agency-investigating/]from President Trump would have defunded the federal agency, and a recent house bill restored the board's funding by $8.2 million. But yesterday afternoon, the House Appropriations Committee adopted an amendment [https://gluesenkampperez.house.gov/posts/gluesenkamp-perez-secures-full-funding-for-federal-agency-investigating-mill-incident-in-longview] brought by U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez to add over $5 million to preserve the full funding for the CSB.   We’ll hear more from Gluesenkamp Perez, whose congressional district includes Longview, for more on the investigation and its impact on the Longview community.

British nature writer Robert Macfarlane’s new book asks, ‘Is a river alive?’

For more than 20 years, British author and Cambridge University professor Robert Macfarlane has garnered international acclaim for his writings on nature and our relationships to it, from awe-inspiring wonder and life-giving sustenance to relentless extraction and exploitation. For his book, “Is a River Alive?”, Macfarlane explored the idea of rivers as animate beings, a concept that is connected to the Rights of Nature movement that has spurred a novel legal framework to protect imperiled waterways, animals and ecosystems around the world. To find out, Macfarlane embarked on a journey that spanned continents and topographies. He trekked through a cloud forest in Ecuador, visited dying and polluted waterways in southeastern India and kayaked down a river in northeastern Canada that was granted legal personhood in 2021 to save it from being dammed. Along the way, Macfarlane introduces us to the people fighting to defend these rivers, creeks and basins while bearing witness to the assaults and threats the waterways constantly face. Macfarlane joined us on June 11, 2025 to discuss “Is A River Alive?” and the ideas it explores.

104-year-old donor and her son reflect on fund she created for Astoria cancer patients nearly a decade ago

In 2017, 96-year-old Mary Armington took a trip from her home in Florida to Astoria to visit her son, Dr. William Armington. As a radiologist at the time at Columbia Memorial Hospital, Dr. Armington had diagnosed cancer in hundreds of patients, some of whom had delayed getting care because of financial hardships.    So Mary decided to help by donating $50,000 to start a fund for cancer patients in the North Coast region to pay for expenses like transportation, utility bills, lodging and rent. Nine years later, the Arm-in-Arm Fund has nearly tripled in size and has given grants to dozens of patients at the CMH-OHSU Knight Cancer Collaborative [https://www.columbiamemorial.org/services/cancer-care/] in Astoria.    This year, the Columbia Memorial Hospital Foundation increased to $2,000 the grant money a team of social workers can award to an individual to help them, for example, replace a broken refrigerator or repair a home furnace. Money from the fund has also been used to provide Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday meals for patients and their families. Joining us to discuss the fund and its impact are Mary Armington and William Armington, who is now retired and has also donated to the fund. Mark Kujala, foundation director of Columbia Memorial Hospital also joins us.