Advertise on podcast: The Evergreen

Imagine a place where the smells of barbacoa and leather from cowboy boots waft through the air, where the sounds of cumbia playing, vendors making aguas frescas and conversations in Spanish carry through the aisles.   M&M Marketplace, a colorful mercado in Hillsboro, gives many of its visitors a sense of community and home.    At the mercado, podcast producer Mía Estrada was instantly transported to the Texas-Mexico border, where she was born and raised.   In this week’s episode, we explore the meaning of home, how we find it in unexpected places, and how it helps us stay resilient — all within the grounds of an Oregon mercado.   -   For more Evergreen episodes and to share your voice with us, visit our showpage. Follow OPB on Instagram, and follow host Jenn Chávez too. You can sign up for OPB’s newsletters to get what you need in your inbox regularly.   Don’t forget to check out our many podcasts, which can be found on any of your favorite podcast apps: Hush  Timber Wars Season 2: Salmon Wars Politics Now Think Out Loud And many more! Check out our full show list here.

Portland may not be known as a hub of hip-hop on par with New York or Los Angeles, but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t been a hotbed for sonic experimentation and incredible talent for decades.    We had all the elements: historic Black neighborhoods in Northeast Portland, jazz dripping out of clubs, funk bands, block parties, dances, and plenty of good ol’ fashioned youthful angst. So why isn’t Portland hip-hop bigger?   Marlon “Vursatyl” Irving, a longtime Portland rapper and founding member of the Lifesavas hip-hop group, says local nightclubs and venues discriminated against artists, denying artists access to performance spaces   “It was hard for us to get into clubs,” he says. “I think had there been more racial diversity in Portland, and just more understanding about hip-hop culture at the time that the foundation was being laid, we would've got to hear some of the greatest, we would've had recordings from the greatest, we would've seen their careers blossom.”    On this week’s episode, we’re revisiting a story about Portland hip-hop, why it isn’t bigger and what keeps it going.    A special thank you to J Jackson, who produced the documentary “Beyond the Beats” in collaboration with OPB’s “Oregon Experience,” KMHD Jazz Radio, and Albina Music Trust.    For more Evergreen episodes and to share your voice with us, visit our showpage. Follow OPB on Instagram, and follow host Jenn Chávez too. You can sign up for OPB’s newsletters to get what you need in your inbox regularly.   Don’t forget to check out our many podcasts, which can be found on any of your favorite podcast apps: Hush  Timber Wars Season 2: Salmon Wars Politics Now Think Out Loud And many more! Check out our full show list here.

The rekindled Portland Fire are wrapping up their inaugural season and, while they didn’t make the playoffs, they did finish fourth in the league for attendance. The team averaged more 14,500 fans per game, which is not all that surprising given how much Portlanders love to show up for women’s sports. Center Megan DiLeo (formerly Megan Gustafson) described the team as “a bunch of overlooked players,” and said she never felt respected as an athlete until she came to the Rose City. Whether the team won or lost, every home game brought good vibes to the Moda Center, which the team nicknamed “The Fire Pit.”    We break down the joys and challenges of the new team’s first season with two lifelong women’s basketball fans: OPB business reporter, Kyra Buckly and Rev Shines, host of “Today’s Good News” on KMHD. –   For more Evergreen episodes and to share your voice with us, visit our showpage. Follow OPB on Instagram, and follow host Jenn Chávez too. You can sign up for OPB’s newsletters to get what you need in your inbox regularly.   Don’t forget to check out our many podcasts, which can be found on any of your favorite podcast apps:HushTimber Wars Season 2: Salmon WarsPolitics NowThink Out Loud And many more! Check out our full show list here.

Data centers are at the heart of heated conversations in communities around the country, and Oregon is no exception. These facilities store and process data that make all kinds of connectivity possible — posting updates to social media, streaming movies and TV shows, online banking, telehealth, and of course, artificial intelligence. There are about 125 data centers in Oregon. The AI boom has rapidly increased the demand for this infrastructure. And with that has come increased awareness about the climate and community impacts of data centers, as well as how they could impact Oregon’s aging power grid.    We dig into the benefits and drawbacks of data centers in communities across Oregon and hear why some of the largest of these facilities could be a threat to air quality in the eastern part of the state.  –   For more Evergreen episodes and to share your voice with us, visit our showpage. Follow OPB on Instagram, and follow host Jenn Chávez too. You can sign up for OPB’s newsletters to get what you need in your inbox regularly.   Don’t forget to check out our many podcasts, which can be found on any of your favorite podcast apps:HushTimber Wars Season 2: Salmon WarsPolitics NowThink Out Loud And many more! Check out our full show list here.

The history of tattoos dates back thousands of years. In the Northwest, people have been getting tattooed since long before Oregon even existed. Today, more tattooers are getting licensed to practice the craft in the state each year, and Oregon is a destination for people looking to get inked.   From Indigenous tattoo practices that survived colonization to sailor tattoos and Portland icon Bert Grimm, we learn the stories behind Oregon’s ink.Learn more by watching OPB’s “Oregon Experience” documentary, “Tattoo People.”-   For more episodes of The Evergreen, and to share your voice with us, visit our show page. Follow OPB on Instagram, and follow host Jenn Chávez too. You can sign up for OPB’s newsletters to get what you need in your inbox regularly.   Don’t forget to check out our many podcasts, which can be found on any of your favorite podcast apps:HushTimber Wars Season 2: Salmon WarsPolitics NowThink Out Loud And many more! Check out our full show list here.

What does it mean to guide someone through one of the most vulnerable moments of their life? What does it take to plan how bus riders get around? What’s it like to walk into restaurants looking for what others might miss?   We’re back with the latest stories from “At Work With,” our series where we interview people from different lines of work about what it’s like to do what they do. In this episode, we meet a doula supporting families through birth, a transit planner at TriMet, and a county health inspector making sure food is safe to eat.    We’re always open to new ideas for jobs that we can learn about next! If you’ve got a suggestion, email us at [email protected].  - For more episodes of The Evergreen, and to share your voice with us, visit our show page. Follow OPB on Instagram, and follow host Jenn Chávez too. You can sign up for OPB’s newsletters to get what you need in your inbox regularly.   Don’t forget to check out our many podcasts, which can be found on any of your favorite podcast apps:HushTimber Wars Season 2: Salmon WarsPolitics NowThink Out Loud And many more! Check out our full show list here.

In late July, just two days before the first of the month, a line of Oregonians stood waiting for free food.    At the Dallas food bank in the Willamette Valley countryside, the hunger crisis gripping Oregon was on full display. Alexis Arechiga, 28, struggles to afford snacks for church and sporting events with her two kids. Corrina Campbell, 32, visits the food bank twice a week, and says feeding her two kids means that on some nights she goes to sleep hungry.   The high cost of groceries and the federal government’s cuts to SNAP benefits have left more Oregonians struggling to afford food. Food assistance programs like food banks are stretched thin trying to meet the growing demand for help.    “Usually it’s pretty full,” said food bank manager Eddie Nelson as she opened a freezer. “But as you can tell our freezers are getting empty.”   In this week’s episode, Evergreen producer Mía Estrada and reporter Bryce Dole spend about 24 hours in Dallas. They bring us along for one day at free, local food programs in rural Oregon.    For more Evergreen episodes and to share your voice with us, visit our showpage. Follow OPB on Instagram, and follow host Jenn Chávez too. You can sign up for OPB’s newsletters to get what you need in your inbox regularly.   Don’t forget to check out our many podcasts, which can be found on any of your favorite podcast apps: Hush  Timber Wars Season 2: Salmon Wars Politics Now Think Out Loud And many more! Check out our full show list here.

When people think about the Lewis & Clark expedition, they probably think about Meriwether Lewis, William Clark and maybe Sacagawea. But there’s one member of the Corps of Discovery who isn’t as famous: York.    York was an enslaved Black man who was just as essential to the success of the expedition as anyone else, but didn’t receive credit for his work afterwards. We dive into York’s story and remember one who may have been overlooked in American history.    You can learn more by watching the Oregon Experience documentary “Searching for York” –   For more Evergreen episodes and to share your voice with us, visit our showpage. Follow OPB on Instagram, and follow host Jenn Chávez too. You can sign up for OPB’s newsletters to get what you need in your inbox regularly.   Don’t forget to check out our many podcasts, which can be found on any of your favorite podcast apps:HushTimber Wars Season 2: Salmon WarsPolitics NowThink Out Loud And many more! Check out our full show list here.

Esta es la versión en español de este episodio del podcast. Click here to listen in English.   Luis Lamas salió de Oregon por miedo.   “No quiero averiguar si me van a meter a un centro de detención o si voy a vivir tantos años más y que me digan sabes que, siempre no, te tienes que ir a tu país.” dijo.   Lamas se encuentra entre el creciente número de personas que están abandonando los Estados Unidos por temor a ser arrestadas o detenidas, ya que el gobierno de Trump ha prometido arrestar o deportar a cualquier persona sin estatus legal. Inmigrantes con estatus legal también han sido detenidos.    Este semana en The Evergreen, el reportero de OPB Alejandro Figueroa narra el viaje de Luis Lamas, un inmigrante mexicano que solía vivir en Woodburn.   Para escuchar más episodios de The Evergreen y compartir tu opinión con nosotros, visita nuestra página web.    Síguenos en nuestra página de Instagram y también sigue a nuestra presentadora Jenn Chavez.   Suscríbete a nuestro correo electronico para recibir todas las noticias que necesites directamente en tu buzón.    No olvides explorar nuestros otros programas de podcast. Los puedes encontrar en tu plataforma de podcasts favorita:    Hush  Timber Wars Season 2: Salmon Wars Politics Now Think Out Loud Y muchos mas! Visita nuestra lista completa aquí.

This is the English version of this podcast episode. Haga clic aquí para escuchar en español. Luis Lamas left Oregon out of fear.    “I don't want to find out if they're going to put me in a detention center or if I'm going to live so many more years [here] and be told, you know what, no, you have to go back to your country,” he said in Spanish.    Lamas is among a growing number of people choosing to leave the U.S. out of fear of arrest or detention, as the Trump administration has promised to arrest or deport anyone without lawful status. Immigrants with lawful status have also been detained.   In this week’s episode of The Evergreen, OPB reporter Alejandro Figueroachronicles the journey of Luis Lamas, a Mexican immigrant who once called Woodburn home.   For more Evergreen episodes and to share your voice with us, visit our showpage. Follow OPB on Instagram, and follow host Jenn Chávez too. You can sign up for OPB’s newsletters to get what you need in your inbox regularly.   Don’t forget to check out our many podcasts, which can be found on any of your favorite podcast apps: Hush  Timber Wars Season 2: Salmon Wars Politics Now Think Out Loud And many more! Check out our full show list here.

OPB has teams of people working tirelessly behind the scenes to support the journalism we do. We are actually the only media organization in the state with an in-house legal team. A big part of their job is defending the public’s right to access information from government agencies by pushing back when reporters are facing denials for public records requests. And our media archivist helps us mine for audio gold so that we can bring you stories from Oregon’s past and present.    For this episode, you’ll hear from some of the unsung heroes whose hard work helps us make this podcast, and helps all of our colleagues do what they do. First, we’ll visit the OPB archives with archivist Mia Cooper Ferm. Then, we talk with two members of our legal team, public policy counsel Nora Broker and deputy general counsel Jon Bial.

Last fall and winter, after President Trump claimed Portland was “war ravaged” and threatened to send in the National Guard, immigration detentions in Oregon skyrocketed and became more aggressive. We learn what happened next to two families whose loved ones were among more than a thousand Oregonians caught up in what the government called “Operation Black Rose.”    When part of a family is missing, what gets left behind?   Learn more by watching the latest episode of OPB’s documentary series, “The Crackdown.” –   For more episodes of The Evergreen, and to share your voice with us, visit our show page. Follow OPB on Instagram, and follow host Jenn Chávez too. You can sign up for OPB’s newsletters to get what you need in your inbox regularly.   Don’t forget to check out our many podcasts, which can be found on any of your favorite podcast apps:HushTimber Wars Season 2: Salmon WarsPolitics NowThink Out Loud And many more! Check out our full show list here.

The CEO of a fast-growing company in Battle Ground is buying and developing properties at a rapid pace. His investments in the Southwest Washington town have raised hopes for some who live there. But others are questioning whether the executive, Camden Spiller, has a specific Christian vision for the city. He has connections to a local pastor who has described his approach as “an experiment in Christian localism.” Spiller recently purchased the local newspaper, and the church he’s involved with has been venturing into local politics.    OPB’s Southwest Washington Bureau Chief Erik Neumann joins us to talk about what’s happening in Battle Ground.    You can read Erik’s reporting on Camden Spiller’s growing influence in Battle Ground here.    Don’t forget to check out our many podcasts, which can be found on any of your favorite podcast apps: Hush Timber Wars Season 2: Salmon Wars Politics Now Think Out Loud And many more! Check out our full show list here.

Becky Lange became enamored with all the goodies you could find in a dumpster.    “You never know what you're going to get,” she said on a 2025 podcast called American Wastepickers.   Lange lived unsheltered on the streets of Portland. Things she found in dumpsters, like nail polish, art supplies and hair dye, were treasures to her. She saw the value in what most people consider garbage.    “I would like people to reassess the value of the items that they're throwing away, just like I would like society to reassess the value of the people that we tend to throw away because we don't see the value that they have,” Lange said.    On May 22 2026, an acquaintance allegedly hit Lange in the head with a metal rod and left her crumpled on the sidewalk in Portland’s Old Town. She died 12 days later. Lange was 44-years-old.    On today’s episode of The Evergreen, OPB reporter Alex Zielinski remembers Becky Lange and the way she fought for the rights of unsheltered people amid a housing shortage and homelessness crisis that have gripped the city for more than a decade.    Read Alex’s full story here.    For more Evergreen episodes and to share your voice with us, visit our showpage. Follow OPB on Instagram, and follow host Jenn Chávez too. You can sign up for OPB’s newsletters to get what you need in your inbox regularly.   Don’t forget to check out our many podcasts, which can be found on any of your favorite podcast apps: Hush  Timber Wars Season 2: Salmon Wars Politics Now Think Out Loud And many more! Check out our full show list here.

The Deschutes River is a lifeline for Central Oregon. About 90 percent of the river’s water is diverted to irrigation canals during the agricultural growing season. OPB’s Central Oregon Bureau Chief Emily Cureton Cook wanted to know where all that water went, and what it was used to grow.    Emily teamed up with journalists at ProPublica to zoom in on the Central Oregon Irrigation District, or COID. They did some deep data analysis to find some answers. But this is not a story about numbers. This is a story about people, specifically the people growing the food we eat from Oregon.    As we’ve talked about before, Oregon water rights rely on a system called “prior appropriation” or “first in time, first in right.” Basically, in a drought, the people who hold the oldest or “senior” water rights get top priority and junior water rights holders have to make do with less. In this episode, Emily shares her reporting to show us what that looks like on the ground during a time when climate change is making drought conditions more severe.    Don’t forget to check out our many podcasts, which can be found on any of your favorite podcast apps: Hush Timber Wars Season 2: Salmon Wars Politics Now Think Out Loud And many more! Check out our full show list here.