The author of the Bakeshop Mystery Series used the city of Ashland for her inspiration, with many real shops and restaurants in the city appearing in the novels, which now number more than 20. And for the third year in a row, Ellie Alexander is partnering with Travel Ashland to bring fans of “cozy mysteries” to the city for the Ashland Mystery Festival, with tours, talks and other events with more than a dozen other authors. Alexander joins us to tell us more about the genre, her own Ashland-based cozy mystery novels and the festival that runs through Oct. 19.

The community transition program is for students with disabilities who have graduated high school with a modified diploma or a certificate of completion. The program serves people ages 18 to 21 and helps prepare them for life after high school through job training and volunteer opportunities.

Sally Golden is a special education transition teacher for the Springfield School District. She was recently named Oregon’s 2025-26 Teacher of the Year. She joins us with more on

working with students in Springfield and what the award means to her.

Protesters at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Portland may have had their identifiable information from their cellphones surveilled, new reporting from Straight Arrow News found. An analysis done by the news organization found evidence that suggests a cell-site simulator was used in the area. These devices mimic cell towers and are able to capture a phone's unique SIM card number known as an International Mobile Subscriber Identity. Mikael Thalen is a tech reporter for Straight Arrow News and used a research tool known as Marlin to report this story. He joins us to share more.

Before colonization and the decimation of Indigenous people, Nez Perce, or Nimíipuu, lands encompassed 17 million acres that would become parts of Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana. The Nez Perce Indian Reservation currently consists of 750,000 acres in North-Central Idaho.

The Oregon Origins Project aims to bring the traditions, art and storytelling of Oregon’s first peoples to a nonnative audience, and to provide additional space for tribal members, or culture bearers, to gather with each other for their own benefit.

This Saturday, Oct. 18, the Project presents its seventh series, called “Earth + Heart, Being and Becoming Nimíipuu” at 6 p.m. at the Reed College Performing Arts Building.

We learn more in conversation with Nez Perce/Nimíipuu tribal members Nakia Williamson-Cloud and Phil Cash Cash, along with Matthew Packwood, the executive director of the Oregon Origins Project.

The threat of a 9.0-magnitude earthquake along the Cascadia Subduction Zone has hung over the Pacific Northwest for decades. Seismologists and emergency managers say “The Big One” could be one of the worst natural disasters in the region’s history, but it may not be the worst-case scenario. New research from Oregon State University suggests the Cascadia Subduction Zone may be linked to the San Andreas Fault in California, with seismic activity on one triggering corresponding activity on the other.

Chris Goldfinger is a professor emeritus at OSU and the study’s lead author. He joins us with more details on what the findings could mean for our region.

Over the weekend, protesters gathered in the buff to speak out against the Trump administration’s attempts to mobilize the National Guard. Last week, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem visited Portland’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility and met with high-profile leaders, including the city’s mayor Keith Wilson. Mayor Wilson urged the defense secretary to stop the use of chemical munitions and force against protesters. At the same time, Mayor Wilson’s one year promise to end unsheltered homelessness in the city is fast approaching. Mayor Wilson joins us to share more on his response to the continued protest, the ongoing threat of the National Guard and where things stand now with the city and homelessness.

With its focus on characters and narratives outside the mainstream, horror is considered by some to be an inherently queer genre. According to the founders of the Stage Fright Festival, horror has “a special and symbiotic connection to queer culture.” The festival celebrates that connection with a lineup of performances that range from campy to creepy to chilling. This year’s festival will take place Oct. 9-19 at the CoHo Theatre in Northwest Portland.

Amica Hunter and Jeff Desautels are the co-founders of the Stage Fright Festival. They join us to talk about how the festival has evolved since it launched in 2022 and what makes horror so queer.

Nearly 30 years ago, Newport resident Kent Gibson headed out with his dog to the beach one day to look for agate and jasper, types of gemstones he collected as a hobby at the time. He picked up what looked like a baseball-sized rock, threw it for his dog to fetch and then took it home for his dog to play with. But it turns out it wasn’t a rock. It was a fossil of a skull from a porpoise that lived 20 million years ago.

That discovery sparked a new calling for Gibson as an amateur fossil collector. The Salem Statesman Journal shared that story and more in its recent profile of the retired Newport harbormaster and his amazing skill at finding fossils, mostly of prehistoric marine mammals and fish. Gibson estimates his collection now numbers between 5 and 6,000 fossils, some of which he can spend 100 hours or more painstakingly cleaning to reveal skulls, vertebrae, ribs or other prehistoric bones encased in sediment and rock.

Gibson hopes to donate his collection some day to the Condon Fossil Collection at the University of Oregon’s Museum of Natural and Cultural History, but the facility doesn’t currently have the space to house it. Gibson joins us to talk about his amazing paleontological finds and tips for fellow fossil hunters.