The Jefferson Exchange

"We're going to build a wall" were practically the first words of Donald Trump's campaign for president.

The plan for a continuous wall on the Mexican border has many friends, and enemies, and practical obstacles. 

Ronald Rael is an opponent of the wall, but considers it as both architectural and metaphorical construct. 

His book Borderwall as Architecture is a mix of anger, whimsy, and design. 

The news about Oregon's unemployment rate is great, on its surface: the lowest rate recorded since the current accounting system went into place in 1976. 

But if you live in rural Oregon, as many of our listeners do, you might wonder where the prosperity is. 

A new report on "The Employment Landscape of Rural Oregon" shows just how much the rural parts of the state lag economically behind the urban areas. 

What began as an idea for a long bike ride has turned into much more over the years.  30 years, in fact. 

That's how old Cycle Oregon will be this year, and it celebrates with a multiple-day ride through the South Cascades, including Crater Lake, in September. 

Former Oregonian columnist Jonathan Nicholas and Jim Beaver of Ashland were part of the original ride and the growth of Cycle Oregon. 

The race doesn't just collect money from riders, it also hands out plenty through its foundation. 

Will the future be flying cars or robot overlords?  It could be neither, but Vivek Wadhwa and Alex Salkever urge us to make conscious choices. 

Because technology will inevitably advance, and people should have a say in whether our future looks like "Star Trek" or "Mad Max." 

Wadhwa and Salkever are the authors of The Driver in the Driverless Car, a look at how we make such choices. 

Today is election day for voters on the Oregon side, but you might get a blank stare when you ask someone who they voted for. 

Because the majority of ballot items are races for school and fire district boards and similar local positions.  Many candidates run for those positions unopposed. 

And that's one thing Springfield's Jim Cupples would like to change, through his website Run for Office.  It gives people across the country a chance to look up local races where they live, from school board to Senate, and prepare to run for office. 

Flying across the Atlantic in a plane is no big deal these days, apart from the cramped seats in coach. 

90 years ago, it was A Very Big Deal.  Charles Lindbergh took his life in his hands as he flew a single-engine plane from New York to France in 1927. 

Dan Hampton, an accomplished and decorated fighter pilot, tells the story of Lindbergh's dangerous and successful mission in the book The Flight: Charles Lindbergh's Daring and Immortal 1927 Transatlantic Crossing. 

The work of August Wilson has been staged on plays around the world. 

But his poetry takes center stage in a new work at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival called "UniSon."  It is a musical based on Wilson's work and shaped by the OSF company-within-the-company called Universes. 

They wrote and performed "Party People" at the festival a few years back, and that's when we first got to know Steven Sapp, Mildred Ruiz-Sapp, and William Ruiz, who goes by "Ninja." 

The interactive map at the website of Feeding America shows the levels of food insecurity county-by-county across the country. 

And one county in our region stands out: Siskiyou County is the county most likely to contain hungry people, and it is listed as the most food-insecure county in California. 

Siskiyou Food Assistance is one of several organizations working to help feed local residents. 

Some schools are just closer to nature than others. 

So it is with Butte Falls Charter School, nestled in the foothills of the Cascades.  Trees and mountains and streams are all close at hand, and part of the educational curriculum for the school. 

In fact, the school is now in charge of restoring a long-closed fish hatchery to help teach students. 

Baseball has always been a game of numbers, sometimes to the distraction of its less-ardent fans. 

But even diehards are confronted by different SETS of numbers that are increasingly used to measure the capabilities of players. 

RBI (runs batted in) and ERA (earned run average) are moving to the back seat, giving way to OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage) and WAR (wins above replacement). 

Help!  ESPN Senior Baseball Writer Keith Law provides help in his book Smart Baseball: The Story Behind the Old Stats That Are Ruining the Game, the New Ones That Are Running It, and the Right Way to Think About Baseball. 

Our entire region is prone to landslides, and the chances are higher in the rainy coastal areas.  Case in point: Last Chance Grade, on US 101 in Del Norte County. 

The road sits on an active landslide, and road crews are constantly working to shore it up and keep it from collapsing. 

Plans are in the works to move the road to a safer area, but money and environmental laws are keeping the progress slow. 

Few of us are equipped to understand the challenges of mental illness. 

And that's why we hear the voices of people struggling with mental health in our monthly segment "Compass Radio."  It is co-produced by Compass House in Medford, a center that functions on the clubhouse model of mental health care. 

This month, Compass House members talk about hobbies and how those help the members in their progress, in recordings made at the house. 

Aristotle leave you cold?  Epicurus leave a bad taste in your mouth? 

Philosophy is not for everyone... or maybe it is.  If reading the original works of the philosophers does not appeal to you, maybe Jules Evans can interest you in his book Philosophy for Life and Other Dangerous Situations. 

It's all about practical applications in today's world for philosophy, some of it quite old. 

People may sit atop the food chain on Earth, but they can certainly learn things from the other animals. 

The Kerulos Center in Southern Oregon is all about respecting animals and their rights. 

Center director Gay Bradshaw has some ideas about how animals think; she presents her thoughts in a talk at Southern Oregon University. 

One giant TV chain wants to buy another giant TV chain. 

Stephen Colbert's presidential insults draw the attention of the FCC chair. 

Social media "influencers" played a role in the recent Fyre Festival fiasco. 

Yep, always SOMETHING to talk about in the media, and we gather up some highlights for our monthly chat "Signals & Noise" with Southern Oregon University Communications faculty Precious Yamaguchi and Andrew Gay. 

It only took a few thousand years, but Oregon has its first official Native American Poet Laureate. 

Elizabeth Woody was named Oregon Poet Laureate by Governor Kate Brown last year. 

Woody is member of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, a writer in several genres and a visual artist as well. 

She visits Ashland for a speaking engagement (May 11), and drops by the studio for a visit. 

Think of TEK as a combination of the very old and the very new. 

It's an acronym for Traditional Ecological Knowledge, like the knowledge of land management gained by indigenous people over thousands of years.  TEK practices are still very much valid today, including in fire management. 

Margo Robbins is a member of the Cultural Fire Management Council of the Yurok Tribe, and she joins other fire managers at this week's Klamath Fire Ecology Symposium. 

Norma Paulus was a key figure in Oregon politics in the 70s and 80s, and ran for governor in 1986. 

She missed there, but she was Oregon's first female secretary of state and later served as state school superintendent. 

Her years in the limelight are told in her book The Only Woman in the Room: The Norma Paulus Story. 

You have to be a VERY good poet for your work to still be revered hundreds of years after you die. 

Even Shakespeare's work has not been esteemed as long as the work of the Persian poet generally known as Rumi.  He died in the 13th century, but his work is still held in high regard today. 

In fact, several days of Rumi events are planned for this week in the Ashland area.  Andrew Harvey will participate, reading and exploring the poet's work. 

Josephine County voters have a chance to make the public libraries truly public once again in the May 16th election. 

Hard budget times for the county forced it to close the libraries as public entities years ago... they've operated since then with a non-profit organization doing the work. 

The May ballot includes measure 17-79, to form a library district as Jackson County did several years ago, with a property tax rate to support it. 

Voters will also decide on candidates for the library district board, should the measure pass.