Opb's State Of Wonder

This week’s show is a rebroadcast from April 2017. Twenty-two years ago Elliott Smith opened a door into a hypnotic new world. The album, “Either/Or,” released on Kill Rock Stars, marks a turning point in Smith’s transition from Portland rock journeyman to international star. This time had enormous consequences for Smith personally and professionally, but it also gave us heart-stopping music that continues to inspire fans and musicians all over the world.

Sometimes good stories take a while. This week, long-awaited gems from Astoria’s Fisher Poets and an arts outpost in East Portland. Also, a photographer goes the extra 4,000 miles for the literary story she believes in.

This episode originally aired on June 8th, 2019. It’s a weird world that obliges you to negotiate for decades to borrow things your great-grandparents made. And where are we if we can’t recover and know our history? This week, classic stories from the L.A. punk scene, queer punk in the ‘90s Portland music scene and a Native museum’s deal to get some time with their own priceless tribal artifacts.

State of Wonder is bringing back some of our best episodes, and today’s was an easy yes. Some years, you get some good books. And then there are years that deliver great ones. We hope you’ve got room on your shelf for some more winter reads, because this week we have three striking writers. They all talk about connection and relationships, between individuals and within a community, but they take us on vastly different journeys in the making. These books will hit you wherever you’re living.

This episode originally aired on Jan. 12, 2018. Embarrassing situations don’t always result in great inspiration — but we wonder if some artists actually benefit from their fiascos. Doesn’t a debacle make us feel a kind of fearlessness for whatever may come next? This week, creative sparks fly from truly cringe-worthy inspiration.

This episode originally aired on April 13, 2018. We’re playing some of our favorite episodes this fall, looking back on all the things we made over six years of State of Wonder. Today’s is something special we did for Design Week Portland. When you start to pay attention to design, you tune in to all kinds of unspoken rules and understandings that are part of how things are made. If you haven’t spent a lot of time thinking about how Native style gets used - and often mis-used in graphic design, fashion, and other disciplines - I guarantee you won’t be able to un-see it after today’s conversation. Thanks for listening.

Writer, illustrator, podcaster and storyteller Nicole Georges relocated to Los Angeles to upscale her prolific career. We’ve loved her work for years, from her zine, “Invincible Summer” to her band, The Sour Grapes. Georges’ award-winning memoir, “Fetch: How a Bad Dog Brought Me Home,” has been optioned for television, and her other projects are going full-tilt. Georges talks to us about making the transition, and why she still feels like a Portlander.

This episode originally aired on Nov. 3, 2018. If you’ve been feeling like the lines are blurring between the America you imagined and the America we all live with, take a listen. We found some incredible artists and writers addressing the magical thinking and fantasies that shaped our world.

Wash some dishes to Brahms, and for one brief shining moment, you’ll feel like your life is being directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. This week, three stories from the orchestra pit, the rehearsal hall and the studio.

It’s April’s last show before heading off to Michigan … sigh. There WILL be more State of Wonder faves in the weeks to come, but right now we’re delivering some final thoughts on what it means to leave the place you love, and ways for thinking about the work ahead.

This week we are re-visiting a conversation we had in 2018 with author, Tommy Orange. His breakthrough debut novel, titled, “There, There,” unites the stories of twelve Native people, brought together on one momentous day in Oakland. Along with poet, Trevino Brings Plenty, we discuss the depth and breadth of urban Native stories. This conversation was had live at the Portland Book Festival.

As we head toward the end of the year - and a big transition for State of Wonder - we’ve sorted a few key stories about where we’ve been and what we’ve done.

This episode originally aired in April 2019. Who doesn’t love music? You’re not going to believe this, but we actually found someone. JoAnna Wendel experiences musical anhedonia, a condition in which songs read as an over-stimulating pile of melodies and beats — think of the feeling most of us experience when listening to noise. But Wendel notwithstanding, music remains — for most of us — one of the most intuitive tools to work out our feelings. This a music heavy ride but even if you do have anhedonia, we have some pretty great stories for you.

The producer who brought so many classics of queer cinema to life is coming to BendFilm Festival this fall. We talk with Christine Vachon about working with Todd Haynes and other breakout '90s auteurs. Also, Christopher Marley talks about creating astonishing compositions using preserved insect specimens. And we get a PDX Book Fest preview: Mitchell Jackson and Karen Russell on their critically-acclaimed books.

What gets us through those uncertain moments? The speculative story? The daring album concept? The strenuous film shoot? The risky venture? RESOLVE. This week: square-jawed stories from tenacious creators.

This episode is as American as it gets. We got country music, women skateboarding, indigenous youth reconnecting with their land, immigrant and refugee children learning to play music. All we're missing is a recipe for apple pie.

Innovators and icons tend to have something in common, they do things differently. This week we hear stories from a few people changing the game one costume, festival, or ASL gesture at a time.

This week we're going back to a favorite guest curated episode from 2014. Husband and wife Kelly Sue DeConnick and Matt Fraction have each racked up top awards for their comic books. DeConnick has written a run of Captain Marvel that was the basis for last year's big film adaptation that starred Brie Larson. And Fraction has worked on very popular storylines of X-Men, Thor, Iron Man, Fantastic Four… and, we’ll say it, the best dang Hawkeye ever. They walk us through their creative process and introduce us to some cool folks along the way. We even staged readings of some of their work! Comic books on the radio? You betcha.

As much as we may try, we can never leave our younger selves in the dust. This week, three writers mine from their own childhoods to create some powerful storytelling.

Yearning for voices to steer you through the darkness this week? We’ve found stories from places of devastation and salvation: from an artist whose voice harnesses a wild range of human emotion, to a film project that suggests new perspective on gun violence, to an Oregon writer who brings deep understanding in writing about grief.