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Beat Check with The Oregonian

150 episodes listed below

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Oregon stories, explained from the newsroom.

The gist

Beat Check with The Oregonian is a reporter-led news podcast built around the stories Oregon is working through, grieving, or trying to understand. Its episodes move from plain setup to careful context, letting journalists explain what they found and why it matters.

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About Beat Check with The Oregonian

Beat Check with The Oregonian is a local news podcast that treats reporting as something worth slowing down for. It often begins with a clear question. Then it lets the people closest to the reporting describe what they found, what remains uncertain, and why the story matters in Oregon. The show’s strongest mode is explanation. A conversation about school funding becomes a look at labor pressure, special education services, English learners, and the gap between state politics and district budgets. A segment on heat waves becomes a practical account of climate change, public health risk, worker rules, air conditioners, heat pumps, and programs meant to protect people without easy access to cooling. The show can also follow accountability reporting into more obscure corners of public life. Its Oregon Lottery episode traces how winning tickets can be resold, why that worries officials, and how the practice may intersect with taxes, debt collection, and money laundering concerns. Not every episode is policy-heavy. Beat Check also has a taste for odd local stories, including the mystery of Cosmo the talking crow and the newsroom decision to tell that story through short-form video. Its crime-related episodes are careful about the difference between fact and speculation. The Unidentifieds replays use scene detail, forensic work, DNA advances, and family impact to give cold cases weight without turning them into spectacle. A Kyron Horman discussion similarly centers known facts, public attention, and renewed prosecutorial interest. The show is at its best when Oregon-specific details open into bigger civic questions. It is measured, but not distant. It lets the reporting carry the force.

Made for: For Oregon listeners who want context behind major local stories, especially education, climate, public accountability, and unresolved cases. It also fits news followers who prefer calm reporter conversations to opinion-driven debate.

What sets it apart: Its strength is access to the reporting process itself: editors, beat reporters, and guests explain how stories were found, verified, and framed. The show keeps local specificity while connecting each story to broader public stakes.

In their own words

A weekly look inside Oregon's biggest news stories with the journalists at The Oregonian/OregonLive.com.

Why you'd press play

This is where your Oregon headline gets receipts, tradeoffs, and a reporter's view from the scene.

Press play if you want

  • a reporter to walk you from a climate-policy promise to the money and practical tradeoffs
  • firsthand newsroom perspective on covering Portland's 2020 protests when the press badge could become a target
Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →
Oregon education fundingpublic accountability reportingclimate and heat riskcold cases and unidentified remainslocal media storytellingOregon Lottery oversightmissing-person casesquirky Oregon culture

Talks about

News & PoliticsTrue Crime

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Episodes

  1. 1

    Can legislators shield consumers from the cost of powering data centers in Oregon?

    ·30m
  2. 2

    (2023 Replay) The Unidentifieds Episode 2: The unknown baby boy and the reservoir

    ·27m
  3. 3

    (2023 Replay) The Unidentifieds Episode 1: Remains found along the Redwood Highway

    ·34m
  4. 4

    (2024 Replay) The backstory to the mystery of ‘Cosmo the talking crow’

    ·20m
  5. 5

    (2024 Replay) The mysterious shadow economy around winning Oregon Lottery tickets

    ·21m
  6. 6

    (2024 Replay) Why heat waves are growing more frequent, and what’s being done

    ·32m
  7. 7

    Fiona Conneely & Shelley Schuler: Food hubbing emerges as a solution for feeding us all (Oregon Speaks: Voices from this moment)

    ·40m
  8. 8

    More than words: Language and belonging in rural Oregon (Oregon Speaks: Voices from this moment)

    ·22m
  9. 9

    Adam Davis: Humanities resilience (Oregon Speaks: Voices from this moment)

    ·30m
  10. 10

    Duncan Hwang: Advocacy in organizing and politics (Oregon Speaks: Voices from this moment)

    ·30m
  11. 11

    Beat Check is taking a short break for the summer, stay tuned

    ·2m
  12. 12

    Therese Bottomly on four decades in Oregon journalism

    ·43m
  13. 13

    The charm and gossip in reporting in rural Oregon

    ·22m
  14. 14

    How the Trump immigration crackdown is impacting Oregon

    ·43m
  15. 15

    Does Oregon’s cherished Bottle Bill compound Portland’s fentanyl crisis?

    ·28m
  16. 16

    Fact vs. speculation: How true crime podcasters approach the Kyron Horman case (Part 4: Guest podcast: Bookies with Your Besties)

    ·28m
  17. 17

    Long hours, daylong stakeouts: How reporters pursued the Kyron Horman story in 2010 (Part 3: Shane Dixon Kavanaugh)

    ·27m
  18. 18

    How a critical time gap derailed the Kyron Horman investigation (Part 2: Maxine Bernstein)

    ·27m
  19. 19

    15 years later: The haunting disappearance of Kyron Horman (Part 1: Noelle Crombie)

    ·24m
  20. 20

    The Trail Blazers are for sale. What’s next, who might buy them and will they stay in Portland?

    ·30m
  21. 21

    Behind The Oregonian/OregonLive’s headlines about a trucker licensing scheme

    ·21m
  22. 22

    Burning questions on the Portland Public Schools bond

    ·23m
  23. 23

    A perilous moment for Portland mass transit

    ·34m
  24. 24

    How to keep hope alive as Trump upends climate, environmental work

    ·40m
  25. 25

    Trump’s tariffs and his trade war’s ‘sobering’ impact on Oregon small businesses

    ·22m
  26. 26

    Everything you ever wanted to know about polls, because we are not afraid to ask.

    ·21m
  27. 27

    Is Portland ready for a large wildfire in Forest Park?

    ·32m
  28. 28

    How officials at one Oregon sewer agency scored years of lavish trips and lots of meals

    ·33m
  29. 29

    Scandals plague Oregon’s adult prisons, youth detention facilities

    ·16m
  30. 30

    The fight to keep Mt. Bachelor ski resort local

    ·22m
  31. 31

    The effort to land a baseball team in Portland is swinging for the fences

    ·29m
  32. 32

    How dangerous are wood stoves and fireplaces to human health and the planet?

    ·36m
  33. 33

    Are Portland’s stubbornly high homicide numbers a new normal?

    ·38m
  34. 34

    How The Oregonian/OregonLive is covering Trump orders, policy changes

    ·13m
  35. 35

    Recreational marijuana and Oregon’s cannabis economic crisis

    ·25m
  36. 36

    Putting together the pieces of Oregon’s affordable housing puzzle

    ·19m
  37. 37

    Unpacking pre-election poll results with John Horvick

    ·27m
  38. 38

    Oregon lawmakers report to work. Here’s what they’re up to

    ·19m
  39. 39

    The ‘Starfish’ surveys that rattled the highest echelons at Nike

    ·20m
  40. 40

    What happens when Oregon approves massive thousand-acre solar farms?

    ·34m
  41. 41

    A conversation with the superintendents of Oregon’s 3 largest school districts

    ·26m
  42. 42

    UFOs, mysterious red lights in Oregon skies and perplexed pilots

    ·25m
  43. 43

    How the largest U.S. supermarket merger in history imploded

    ·20m
  44. 44

    How Oregonians can support Season of Sharing, our holiday campaign

    ·19m
  45. 45

    The stolen identity of Roger Pearce

    ·35m
  46. 46

    An end to Oregon’s record-breaking kicker tax rebates?

    ·24m
  47. 47

    How Oregon’s foster system failed to protect a Portland teen from sex trafficking

    ·53m
  48. 48

    Unpacking Election Day 2024 with The Oregonian’s politics team

    ·21m
  49. 49

    Oregon’s cutthroat race for congress and its national implications

    ·28m
  50. 50

    A makeshift cell, a daring escape: Oregon trial brings kidnapper to justice

    ·30m
  51. 51

    Do tribes see a way forward for Oregon’s offshore wind?

    ·44m
  52. 52

    Who will be Portland’s next mayor?

    ·35m
  53. 53

    Election 2024 help for Oregon, Portland voters is here

    ·23m
  54. 54

    Connie Chung on her new memoir, the future of women in journalism and Richard Nixon

    ·30m
  55. 55

    Portland area schools work to address climate impacts

    ·37m
  56. 56

    Chronicling Portland’s historic elections for mayor and City Council

    ·28m
  57. 57

    Will Oregon spark new clean energy boom at wave energy test site?

    ·42m
  58. 58

    The mysterious shadow economy around winning Oregon Lottery tickets

    ·21m
  59. 59

    Oregon’s record-setting wildfire season

    ·26m
  60. 60

    Can Portland solve its housing crisis?

    ·23m
  61. 61

    Reporter Zane Sparling takes you behind the headlines of the Nancy Brophy podcast

    ·22m
  62. 62

    Should Oregon add an environmental rights amendment to its Constitution?

    ·28m
  63. 63

    Remembering renowned Portland chef Naomi Pomeroy

    ·21m
  64. 64

    Nike’s ‘sustainability bloodbath’

    ·25m
  65. 65

    Why heat waves are growing more frequent, and what’s being done

    ·32m
  66. 66

    A closing conversation with a longtime Oregonian reporter Tom Hallman Jr.

    ·21m
  67. 67

    Why is eastern Oregon’s groundwater contamination crisis still unresolved after 30 years?

    ·50m
  68. 68

    Oregon’s transportation system is ‘hemorrhaging.’ Is there a fix?

    ·21m
  69. 69

    Diving into why college going rates are declining in Oregon

    ·24m
  70. 70

    BONUS episode: How the Portland airport carpet design became a civic icon

    ·30m
  71. 71

    ‘Happily Never After’ pulls back curtain on a Portland murder

    ·30m
  72. 72

    What the spate of wolf poisonings says about Oregon’s co-existence with wolves

    ·45m
  73. 73

    Will Multnomah County DA Mike Schmidt dodge voters’ wrath?

    ·45m
  74. 74

    New poll sheds light on Portland area’s attitudes, sentiments and biggest concerns

    ·46m
  75. 75

    The backstory to the mystery of ‘Cosmo the talking crow’

    ·20m
  76. 76

    Why semiconductor manufacturers have a pollution predicament

    ·42m
  77. 77

    Oregon’s troubling track record with treating teens for mental illness, addiction

    ·17m
  78. 78

    How PERS became the behemoth that consumes public budgets

    ·29m
  79. 79

    Are electricity rate increases fair to customers?

    ·48m
  80. 80

    The Oregon police chief fired by two small towns

    ·30m
  81. 81

    What Intel’s $8.5 billion federal subsidy means for Oregon

    ·26m
  82. 82

    Why does Oregon plan to divest from coal?

    ·29m
  83. 83

    What might happen with drug courts now that legislators recriminalized some drugs?

    ·21m
  84. 84

    Why are Oregon electric, gas rates going up so fast?

    ·51m
  85. 85

    Two in-depth articles examine Oregon’s fentanyl crisis

    ·22m
  86. 86

    Oregon Legislature takes on housing, drug decriminalization

    ·23m
  87. 87

    What’s the mental health impact of fallen trees, other climate disasters?

    ·51m
  88. 88

    Will Oregon finally get big money out of politics?

    ·19m
  89. 89

    How does The Oregonian/OregonLive’s editorial board work?

    ·25m
  90. 90

    Reporting on a midflight near-disaster

    ·37m
  91. 91

    What Portlanders wish for themselves and their city in the New Year

    ·23m
  92. 92

    It’s Season of Sharing time, and you can help make this a better place

    ·18m
  93. 93

    What Oregon leaders, mulling Measure 110 changes, learned from a trip to Portugal

    ·32m
  94. 94

    Will your family qualify for generous home energy rebates?

    ·38m
  95. 95

    Portland needs a new sobering center. Politics keeps one from opening

    ·40m
  96. 96

    ‘Lost Women of Highway 20′ resurfaces interest in original Oregonian series

    ·26m
  97. 97

    How the owner of several well-known Portland brands ran into trouble

    ·20m
  98. 98

    The trouble at Crater Lake National Park

    ·24m
  99. 99

    How should Portland deal with the surplus money flowing into the Clean Energy Fund?

    Portland's Clean Energy Fund is expected to generate $540 million in unexpected revenue over five years, four times original projections.

    ·41m·4 clips
  100. 100

    Five years on, Portland journalists reflect on 2020 protests

    Therese Bottomley hosts Oregonian journalists Beth Nakamura, Zane Sparling, and Ryan Fernandez to reflect on covering the 2020 Portland protests after George Floyd's killing.

    ·31m·3 clips
  101. 101

    (2023 Replay) The Unidentifieds Episode 2: The unknown baby boy and the reservoir

    Hidden gem

    In this episode of The Unidentifieds from The Oregonian and OregonLive, hosts Regan Mertz and Dave Killen trace a cold case beginning July 11, 1963, when a fisherman found a two-year-old boy's body on a ledge in southern Oregon's Keene Creek Reservoir, wrapped in a gingham quilt and weighted with iron.

    Sep 8, 2025·27m·2 clips
  102. 102

    (2023 Replay) The Unidentifieds Episode 1: Remains found along the Redwood Highway

    Hidden gem

    In the debut episode of The Unidentifieds from The Oregonian and OregonLive, hosts Regan Mertz, reporting remotely from pandemic-era Missouri, and Dave Killen, on the ground in Oregon, open with the 2018 Golden State Killer arrest to explain how genetic genealogy is transforming cold cases.

    Sep 1, 2025·34m·2 clips
  103. 103

    (2024 Replay) The backstory to the mystery of ‘Cosmo the talking crow’

    Hidden gem

    Cosmo was said to be "attacking her kids for months" and making them wear bicycle helmets.

    Aug 25, 2025·20m·1 clip
  104. 104

    (2024 Replay) The mysterious shadow economy around winning Oregon Lottery tickets

    Hidden gem

    Ted Sickinger says Oregon Lottery discounters buy winning tickets at a discount and cash them anonymously.

    Aug 18, 2025·21m·1 clip
  105. 105

    (2024 Replay) Why heat waves are growing more frequent, and what’s being done

    Hidden gem

    Beat Check with The Oregonian examines the 2024 Oregon heat wave with environmental reporter Gosia Wojniacka, starting from the 2021 event that reached 116 degrees and killed about 100 people in Oregon.

    Aug 11, 2025·32m·2 clips
  106. 106

    Fiona Conneely & Shelley Schuler: Food hubbing emerges as a solution for feeding us all (Oregon Speaks: Voices from this moment)

    Jul 28, 2025·40m
  107. 107

    More than words: Language and belonging in rural Oregon (Oregon Speaks: Voices from this moment)

    Jul 21, 2025·22m
  108. 108

    Adam Davis: Humanities resilience (Oregon Speaks: Voices from this moment)

    Jul 14, 2025·30m
  109. 109

    Beat Check is taking a short break for the summer, stay tuned

    Jul 7, 2025·2m
  110. 110

    Duncan Hwang: Advocacy in organizing and politics (Oregon Speaks: Voices from this moment)

    Jul 7, 2025·30m
  111. 111

    Therese Bottomly on four decades in Oregon journalism

    Jun 30, 2025·43m
  112. 112

    The charm and gossip in reporting in rural Oregon

    Jun 23, 2025·22m
  113. 113

    How the Trump immigration crackdown is impacting Oregon

    Jun 16, 2025·43m
  114. 114

    Does Oregon’s cherished Bottle Bill compound Portland’s fentanyl crisis?

    Jun 9, 2025·28m
  115. 115

    Fact vs. speculation: How true crime podcasters approach the Kyron Horman case (Part 4: Guest podcast: Bookies with Your Besties)

    A special episode discussing the unsolved disappearance of Kyron Horman with hosts from another true crime podcast.

    Jun 6, 2025·28m
  116. 116

    Long hours, daylong stakeouts: How reporters pursued the Kyron Horman story in 2010 (Part 3: Shane Dixon Kavanaugh)

    Jun 5, 2025·27m
  117. 117

    How a critical time gap derailed the Kyron Horman investigation (Part 2: Maxine Bernstein)

    Jun 4, 2025·27m
  118. 118

    15 years later: The haunting disappearance of Kyron Horman (Part 1: Noelle Crombie)

    Jun 3, 2025·24m
  119. 119

    Five years on, Portland journalists reflect on 2020 protests

    Jun 2, 2025·31m
  120. 120

    The Trail Blazers are for sale. What’s next, who might buy them and will they stay in Portland?

    May 26, 2025·30m
  121. 121

    Behind The Oregonian/OregonLive’s headlines about a trucker licensing scheme

    May 19, 2025·21m
  122. 122

    Burning questions on the Portland Public Schools bond

    May 12, 2025·23m
  123. 123

    A perilous moment for Portland mass transit

    May 5, 2025·34m
  124. 124

    How to keep hope alive as Trump upends climate, environmental work

    Environmental journalist interviews author Alan Wiseman about his book on scientists and activists repairing ecosystems and combating climate disaster.

    Apr 28, 2025·40m
  125. 125

    Trump’s tariffs and his trade war’s ‘sobering’ impact on Oregon small businesses

    Apr 21, 2025·22m
  126. 126

    Everything you ever wanted to know about polls, because we are not afraid to ask.

    Apr 14, 2025·21m
  127. 127

    Is Portland ready for a large wildfire in Forest Park?

    Apr 7, 2025·32m
  128. 128

    How officials at one Oregon sewer agency scored years of lavish trips and lots of meals

    Mar 31, 2025·33m
  129. 129

    Scandals plague Oregon’s adult prisons, youth detention facilities

    Mar 24, 2025·16m
  130. 130

    The fight to keep Mt. Bachelor ski resort local

    Mar 17, 2025·22m
  131. 131

    The effort to land a baseball team in Portland is swinging for the fences

    Mar 10, 2025·29m
  132. 132

    How dangerous are wood stoves and fireplaces to human health and the planet?

    Mar 3, 2025·36m
  133. 133

    Are Portland’s stubbornly high homicide numbers a new normal?

    Feb 24, 2025·38m
  134. 134

    How The Oregonian/OregonLive is covering Trump orders, policy changes

    Feb 17, 2025·13m
  135. 135

    Recreational marijuana and Oregon’s cannabis economic crisis

    Feb 10, 2025·25m
  136. 136

    Putting together the pieces of Oregon’s affordable housing puzzle

    Feb 3, 2025·19m
  137. 137

    Can legislators shield consumers from the cost of powering data centers in Oregon?

    Jan 27, 2025·30m
  138. 138

    Oregon lawmakers report to work. Here’s what they’re up to

    Jan 20, 2025·19m
  139. 139

    The ‘Starfish’ surveys that rattled the highest echelons at Nike

    Jan 13, 2025·20m
  140. 140

    What happens when Oregon approves massive thousand-acre solar farms?

    Jan 6, 2025·34m
  141. 141

    A conversation with the superintendents of Oregon’s 3 largest school districts

    A roundtable discussion with superintendents of Oregon's largest school districts about education funding and policy challenges ahead of the 2025 legislative session.

    Dec 30, 2024·26m
  142. 142

    UFOs, mysterious red lights in Oregon skies and perplexed pilots

    Dec 23, 2024·25m
  143. 143

    How the largest U.S. supermarket merger in history imploded

    Dec 16, 2024·20m
  144. 144

    How Oregonians can support Season of Sharing, our holiday campaign

    Dec 9, 2024·19m
  145. 145

    The stolen identity of Roger Pearce

    Dec 2, 2024·35m
  146. 146

    An end to Oregon’s record-breaking kicker tax rebates?

    Nov 25, 2024·24m
  147. 147

    How Oregon’s foster system failed to protect a Portland teen from sex trafficking

    Nov 18, 2024·53m
  148. 148

    Unpacking Election Day 2024 with The Oregonian’s politics team

    A roundtable discussion with Oregonian reporters analyzing local election results in Oregon.

    Nov 8, 2024·21m
  149. 149

    Oregon’s cutthroat race for congress and its national implications

    Nov 4, 2024·28m
  150. 150

    A makeshift cell, a daring escape: Oregon trial brings kidnapper to justice

    Oct 28, 2024·30m