As 2019 comes to a close, OPB "All Things Considered" host John Notarianni sat down with several OPB reporters to look back over the most memorable stories they covered in 2019: whether they were moving, surprising, or just fun.
Hear conversations with each reporter in the audio players below.
Annie Rudwick bikes to work with her daughters.
Cheyenne Thorpe / OPB
"I actually caught up to her at stoplight one time. I started to talk to her, but then the light turned green and once again she left me in the dust! She's a fast rider and the e-assist really helped."
— Jeff Mapes on how repeated run-ins with a fellow bike commuter on an e-bike led to a story on the micromobility movement.
Dr. Brian Chesebro estimates that by using sevoflurance for this operation, he emitted the same greenhouse gasses as a 40 mile drive across greater Portland. If he’d used desflurane, he said, it would have been like driving from Seattle to San Diego.
Kristian Foden-Vencil / OPB
"He got up in front of 2,000 of his fellow staff members at Providence and started quoting "The Lorax" by Doctor Seuss. He stands there — in tears — saying 'unless somebody like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing's going to get better: it's not.'"
— Kristian Foden-Vencil on a local anesthesiologist's quest to shrink his profession's carbon footprint.
The Sun Ra Arkestra, a collective of musicians and artists, is responsible for an astonishing range of work — records, of course, but also poetry, avant-garde fashion, and reams of hand-painted original artwork for the ensembles’ albums.
Claudia Meza / OPB
"For a brief moment we saw a group that has been together since the 60’s, led by a 95-year-old playing with the intensity and wild abandon of teenagers who’ve just recently discovered their calling."
— Claudia Meza on the Sun Ra Arkestra's triumphant return to Portland.
Rosie Strange sits in a restaurant after the Women’s March on Jan. 19, 2019 in The Dalles, Ore. Her left arm says "FEMINIST" and her right arm has an anti-fascist symbol on it.
Jonathan Levinson / OPB
"If you think about Rosie Strange, the woman whose sheriff had called her out of Facebook: from her perspective, she had very good reason to think that institutions wouldn’t protect her. So buying a gun makes a lot of sense."
—Jonathan Levinson on why some left-wing activists are embracing armed self-defense.
Avan Garcia rides Blackhat at a wild horse round up on the Warm Springs Reservation on June 22, 2019.
Emily Cureton / OPB
"It was an incredible opportunity; they amazingly lent me a horse to ride, which was this privilege. I mean, I got to see the land from that vantage point and we're talking some of the most beautiful back country between Portland and Bend."
— Emily Cureton on tracking wild horses with 14-year-old Avan Garcia and his family in central Oregon.