Essayist Martha Grover reads from her latest collection, “The End of My Career,” an Oregon Book Award finalist for 2017. The music in this episode is by In Love with a Ghost, Hiroto Kudo, and Lucy in Disguise. Photo by Martha Grover.

Voices of people taking positive action followed by an interview with activist Kathryn Stevens. Below are links to some of the organizations mentioned in the episode:  Be The Millers Emergency Houseless Resource Drive Portland's Resistance Boots on the Ground Backpacks...

Shanti Webley, a 2nd degree black belt in Mo Duk Pai Kung Fu, explains how his martial art helps people uncrumple fear and move through it. Marcus Atkins, a 3rd degree black belt in Kenpo Kung Fu, shares the challenges and rewards of a life dedicated to the study of mart...

Skateboarder and artist Chris Johanson in conversation with Skateboarder and poet Jeff Alessandrelli.  Music generously provided by Sunfoot.

On a walk through Forest Park, author Alexis Smith (Glaciers, Marrow Island) talks of loathing summer, the joy of running, and her family's history of agate picking. Music generously provided by Laura Gibson.

Photographer Mercy McNab goes beyond her comfort zone to find herself.   Music provided generously by Toe.  Photo "Pink Roses" by Mercy McNab.

Roy Smallwood was mourning the sudden loss of his parents, looking for comfort in heroin and falling deeper in despair. Then he stumbled upon something that saved his life. And everyone else calls it trivial.

Piano music of Samual Barber carries us into the confined world of short story writer Jacob Aiello who is cooking the same lunch for himself again and again until magically we are transported to Paris and toward the source of his particular disorder.  Music provided gen...

Featuring the quintessential outsider: a Native American living in his Native America. We take a walk through the Whitaker Ponds Nature Park with poet Trevino Brings Plenty who talks about life as a native, life as an American, and how he explores those dualities in vers...

Jo Hamilton was searching for an artistic medium to express the way she saw the world. She tried everything, until one day she discovered that the medium she was looking for had been with her all along. She just never realized it could be considered art. Now she has pion...