Listeners producer Daniel Bloomfield speaks with the Executive Director of the Oregon Humanities about the Trump administration’s recent cuts to the National Endowment for the Humanities, and how they’ve impacted the work of the Oregon Humanities. At a time when having respectful and diplomatic conversations is crucial, the cuts have forced Oregon Humanities to cancel many of its programs, including training for conversation facilitators. Adam speaks about the many challenges Oregon Humanities faces, as well as the ways in which he remains hopeful and the unexpected outpouring of community support.

Show notes & links:

• Oregon Humanities – Oregon Humanities is a non-profit organization that fosters understanding and collaboration through public programs, conversations, and storytelling across Oregon. 
• D.O.G.E. – The Department of Government Efficiency is a federal initiative of the Trump administration, which made the decision to cut the funding to the National Endowment for the Humanities by nearly half.
• National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) – NEH is an independent federal agency that supports the humanities in every state and U.S. jurisdiction.
• Mellon Foundation Gift to the NEH – The Mellon Foundation’s decision to give $65 million to the NEH in light of the cuts made by the Trump administration.

Community Podcasting Microcredential – This 12-credit, graduate-level certification helps you build professional skills in podcasting, interviewing, and audio production to tell meaningful community stories.

Thanks to Leif Olsen for composing the music for the series of Oregon Speaks: Voices from this moment.

Listeners producer Kaiya Laguardia-Yonamine speaks with Duncan Hwang about the importance of local organizing and turning inward to sustain our communities. In a time where federal cuts, mass political chaos, and daily threats are imposed on marginalized communities, it is more important now than ever to advocate for neighbors and what’s happening immediately around us. Duncan reflects on his experience as the Community Development Director at APANO, as well as his role as an elected official for the Metro Council.

Show notes & links:

• APANO – one of the largest nonprofit organizations serving Asian and Asian American communities in Oregon today. Duncan has worked at APANO since the organization’s origin in 2013.
• APANO Action Fund – a sister organization to APANO that focuses on political advocacy, legislative action, and electing BIPOC and progressive leaders into local office.
• Metro Council – the regional government collaborating between Multnomah, Clackamas, and Washington counties. Metro supervises the waste management systems, some housing developments, and major tourist attractions in the Portland Metro area.

Community Podcasting Microcredential – This 12-credit, graduate-level certification helps you build professional skills in podcasting, interviewing, and audio production to tell meaningful community stories.

Thanks to Leif Olsen for composing the music for the series of Oregon Speaks: Voices from this moment.

In this episode of Mutual Aid, Mutual Love, host Ranya Salvant sits down with partners Cat Parkay and Ryan Stimmel to explore how disaster preparedness and mutual aid shape their relationship to the community, especially in the last 100 Days of the Trump Administration. From the hurricanes to the looming Cascadia earthquake, they share stories of finding each other through chance, growing together in crisis, and building resilience through local networks and grassroots solidarity with threats of federal budget cuts to FEMA programs and trainings. It’s a conversation about the power of community, the importance of showing up for one another, and the ways love itself can be a form of mutual aid.

Show notes & links:

• City’s Federal Disaster Relief Funding Could Be At Risk, Emergency Director Tells City Council
• Dark Angel Medical (the in-person Direct Action Response Training is the one that I did earlier this year)
• Stop The Bleed (they have a free online course and it looks like OHSU hosts a monthly 1hr-long in-person class)
• NOLS Wilderness First Responder
• Portland’s NET and BEECN programs (and CERT info to identify similar training and volunteer opportunities in other communities)
• Cascadia Subduction Zone info for Oregonians, including a guide on how to prepare to “Be 2 Weeks Ready”
• Junior League of Portland (as of last week we celebrated our 115th anniversary AND passed the baton to our first Black president, Pleschette Fontenet)
• National Night Out
• The CyberPony Express – Meshtastic radio project

Local Mutual Aid Groups: 

• Portland Mutual Aid Network
• PDX Free Fridge
• Community Free Store
• The People’s Store(mobile)
• Asset to the Resistance (their site also has a list of other local mutual aid projects)

Community Podcasting Microcredential – This 12-credit, graduate-level certification helps you build professional skills in podcasting, interviewing, and audio production to tell meaningful community stories.

Thanks to Leif Olsen for composing the music for the series of Oregon Speaks: Voices from this moment.

Quarantine has meant that we’re having to listen to ourselves and each other as we navigate through new ways of being together for long stretches at a time. It’s near impossible to know how this global pandemic is affecting the quality of our relationships. The stories are endless and varied. Listeners producer Cecilia Brown takes us on a journey into one of these stories asking this question: how do we address changes in relationships when we’re in small clusters of family or friends for months on end?

Photo by Will O on Unsplash

Are you eager to diversify what you’re listening to these days? This episode is for you especially if you’ve been reflecting on and processing what we’re all going through these days. Listeners producer Cecilia Brown talks with her friend Andrea Baron about her process of not only making a playlist of sad songs for her dad but also went the extra length to analyze and categorize them. You too can contribute your favorite sad songs to Andrea’s on-going Sad Song Project.

Listeners producer Cecilia Brown talks with Cleo Davis and Kayin Talton-Davis about homeschooling during COVID-19 and reimagining education by challenging the Eurocentric ideals most educational institutions are built upon. The Portland-based artists and designers have long been using art to tell stories about the Black experience and their current project aims to “create a cultural space of memory, advancement, and artistry for Portland’s Black Community” at Building Cornerstones.

Show notes & links:

• Building Cornerstones – Please consider donating to Cleo and Kayin’s efforts to finish building out the Mayo House, and making it a place for the Black community.
• Root Shocked – a documentary short about generational loss, racial disparity, and the steps taken by one family to force a city to reckon with its history. This doc was also produced by Cecilia Brown.
• Rebuilding Cornerstones: Spatial Justice for Portland’s Black Diaspora – More about Cleo and Kayin’s class at the University of Oregon’s College of Design: Design for Spatial Justice.

New to the Listeners Podcast? Episode piqued your interest? Check out the following previous episodes that are peripherally related:

• #16: August Wilson Red Door Project – Hands Up, Cop Out – Look Within & Evolve
• #14: Bob McKinnon – Headwinds & Tailwinds

Thanks to Cleo & Kayin for sharing their story, experience, and gifts with our community.

It’s all about how issues and individuals string our communities together in surprising ways. Podcast producers Kevin Beasley and Ann Powers take the show on the road starting out in U.S. District Court and sitting down with Judge John V. Acosta’s, which leads them to a ridealong with a Trimet bus operator and ultimately lands them in a psychologist’s office speaking with Dr. Elisa Rudd. 

So, how are these three unique professionals strung together? From the importance of being heard to unlikely safe spaces for those in need, and introducing mental health issues into everyday narratives – listen and find out how these connect to each other.

We’d love to hear your thoughts as well.  Please submit your comments and suggestions on other strings you know of or how we can make this series the best it can be. 

Show notes & links:

• Judge John V. Acosta 
• Trimet
• Dr. Elisa A. Rudd

Last summer, bestselling author and Atlantic magazine contributor Amanda Ripley published an essay, Complicating the Narratives, exploring what journalists could learn from mediators, lawyers, rabbis, and others “who know how to disrupt toxic narratives and get people to reveal deeper truths.” Ripley revealed how she discovered her own shortcomings as a journalist and called on reporters to change how they conduct interviews and cover conflict — in order to do a better job listening and being heard in the current age of outrage. The essay went viral online and was translated into multiple languages.

This episode captures a presentation Amanda did at the University of Oregon’s Agora Journalism Center as well as a conversation with Agora’s director Regina Lawrence. 

Show notes & links: 

• Complicating the Narratives
• Amanda Ripley

Kaitlin Prest is an award-winning podcast artist whose keen ability to blend intricate sound design and distinct narrative storytelling into one-of-a-kind sensory experiences has earned her high acclaim at audio festivals and conferences worldwide. She got her start as a puppeteer, moved onto launch a Canadian radio show called Audio Smut, directed The Shadows for CBC Podcasts and is the co-founder, creative director and host of Radiotopia’s The Heart.

Our conversation with Kaitlin touches on her own personal journey in striving to make it in the radio and podcast worlds, as well as the inspirations and ethics driving her unique creative process that transforms audio into artwork expressing the complexities of intimacy and the human condition.

(Photo of Kaitlin Prest by Eleanor Petry)

Show notes & links:

• The Heart
• The Shadows
• Audio Smut

The August Wilson Red Door Project strives to change Portland’s racial ecology through the arts. It started with a play called Hands Up: 7 Playwrights, 7 Testaments that showcases a powerful set of monologues commissioned by The New Black Fest in response to police shootings and institutional profiling. Then came Cop Out: Beyond Black, White & Blue. This series of monologues portray police of various rank and experience relating to the community, each other, their families and the institutions they represent. Up next for the Red Door Project is The Evolve Experience, a blend of Hands Up and Cop Out.

Kevin Jones and Lesli Mones co-founded the Red Door Project. They sat down with us for a compelling conversation about closing the gap between racial divides by taking center stage. During our talk, you’ll hear us reference findings from the Portland Police Bureau Strategic Insights Report, which is a summary of data collection and outreach efforts on behalf of the Bureau.

Show notes & links:

• About August Wilson
• Hands Up: 7 Playwrights, 7 Testaments
• Cop Out: Beyond Black, White & Blue
• The Evolve Experience
• Portland Police Bureau Strategic Insights Report