Listeners is a show about the craft and power of listening. We talk with media and communication experts, thought leaders, doers, and innovators whose ideas can amplify the quality of our dialogue and interactions. Listeners is produced by the Agora Journalism Center, the gathering place for innovation in communication and civic engagement at University of Oregon's School of Journalism and Communication.
#29 The Frontline of Southern Oregon Public Broadcast Service Battle for Funding
Listeners' producer Dakota Runyon-Trapp and Daniel Bloomfield spoke with Floyd Aragon of Southern Oregon Public Broadcast Service in order to figure out what the station is in terms of potential budget cuts. Along with potential roadmaps for the future of the station, what’s going in with the station, and what does PBS mean to the public at large and how they can go about supporting it.
Show notes & links:
Public Broadcast Service - PBS for short, a non-profit TV broadcast for the general public is free to watch.
Oregon Public Broadcasting - OPB for short, Portland, Oregon’s equivalent to a PBS station.
Southern Oregon PBS - SOPBS for short, Southern Oregon’s Publice Broadcast Services, located within downtown Medford, Oregon.
Jefferson Public Radio - Radio Station located on the grounds of Southern Oregon University, located within Ashland, Oregon, could potentially merge with Southern Oregon PBS.
National Public Radio - A publically funded radio station and news outlet, also potentially at risk of losing funding.
Impact on Southern Oregon PBS - Details on Trump’s executive order to end public funding for PBS from a news station located down the street from Southern Oregon PBS.
PBS & NPR’s response to the cuts made to public access funding - an article from deadline cited within the episode, that mentions how both PBS and NPR are responding to the executive order.
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.
12 Aug 2025
#28 Teaching on the Edge
In this episode, host Devon Young talks with first-year educator MJ Poss, who shares an honest reflection on what it’s really like to be a teacher in today’s public schools. From chronic underfunding to emotional burnout, MJ doesn’t hold back about the toll the system takes on its educators—and why, despite it all, they’re still committed to showing up. Through their perspective as a queer, nonbinary special education teacher, MJ also speaks to the importance of community, mutual aid, and visibility in and outside the classroom. It’s a raw, grounded conversation about resistance, survival, and care in a profession too often overlooked.
Show notes & links:
Portland Public Schools
Portland Association of Teachers Union
RFK’s statements on autism
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.
4 Aug 2025
#27 Food Hubbing Emerges as a Solution for Feeding Us All
Listeners producer Kristen Mico speaks with Fiona Conneely and Shelley Sculer about how food hubbing models offer solutions to small farms, markets and food assistance programs. At a time when programs that support access to fresh food and livelihoods of small farmers have been dramatically cut, and food assistance benefits like SNAP are also being cut, social service organizations are scrambling to figure out how to keep families fed. Fiona Conneely is with a Portland organization, Lift Up, trying to do just that. She and Shelley Schular have a lot to talk about, as Shelley operates Lane County Bounty, a Eugene-based food hub that aggregates produce and goods from local farms, offering affordable, fresh food to a range of markets through a convenient online delivery service that provides choice and cultural goods.
Show notes & links:
Lift Up – Lift Urban Portland is a nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing hunger and improving the lives of low-income residents in Northwest and Downtown Portland by providing nutritious food assistance such as pantry shopping, delivered food boxes, and farmer’s-market style distributions.
Lane County Bounty- Lane County Bounty, founded by Shelley Schuler in 2020 as an offshoot of Moondog’s Farm, operates an online marketplace and delivery service designed to connect consumers with fresh, locally grown food from small farms across Lane County
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.
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