Bend's civic life, one conversation at a time.
Bend Don't Break brings Source Weekly's local-news sensibility into long, conversational interviews with community figures around Bend and Central Oregon. Guests come from arts, trails, journalism, mental health, film, wellness, medicine, and local craft culture.
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Bend Don't Break is a local interview show powered by The Source Weekly, built around the people and institutions that shape Bend and Central Oregon. It sounds close to the ground. The show is less interested in polished talking points than in how a person actually arrived at the work, what they learned along the way, and how that work fits into the region's changing civic life. Recent conversations move across opera, local journalism, trail stewardship, film programming, wellness, mental health support, women's health, and craft beer. That range is part of the point. Bend is treated as a living community rather than a single lifestyle brand, and the guests help fill in the social map. An Opera Bend conversation turns into a story about New York, Central Oregon, performance history, and local arts infrastructure. A reporter's interview becomes a look at small-town newspaper work, general assignment reporting, and the difference between waiting for stories and learning to find them. A COTA episode opens up the patient, collaborative world of trails, public lands, Forest Service relationships, BLM partnerships, volunteers, and recreation culture. The NAMI Central Oregon conversation brings the focus to grassroots mental health support and the realities of serving communities beyond Bend. Even lighter episodes keep a local frame. Film, ballet, wellness, and brewing are discussed through the people building those scenes in town. The pacing is measured. The interviewer often uses short prompts, clarifying restatements, and bits of banter to keep a wandering answer understandable without sanding off its spoken texture. That makes the show feel like community journalism with a front-porch rhythm. It is not investigative in every episode, and it is not trying to be a national culture show. Its strength is scale. Bend Don't Break gives listeners a way to hear how local leaders, workers, artists, advocates, and reporters describe the place from inside their own work.
Made for: For listeners who care about Bend and Central Oregon as a working community, not just a destination. It especially suits people interested in local journalism, arts, public lands, nonprofits, wellness, and civic change.
What sets it apart: The show keeps big local subjects at human scale, letting guests explain the backstory, relationships, and practical work behind public-facing institutions. Its Source Weekly connection gives it a newsroom backbone while keeping the tone conversational.
Podcasts powered by The Source, a weekly newspaper in beautiful Bend, Oregon.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Bend Don't Break connects local television and performance to the people, institutions and working relationships that shape Central Oregon.
Bend Don't Break treats Central Oregon as a network of people who make its news, culture and public life run. Aaron Schweitzer favors conversational interviews built around work and experience: Emily Kirk discusses local television news and the pressures of being recognizable,…
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A local arts conversation moves from New York rent to PDQ Bach and Opera Bend's community stage.
Jason Steinberg's move from New York to Central Oregon gives the episode a clear path: a visit to a friend, a job offer, a look at rent and costs, and the pull of a better quality of life.
A reporter's early career becomes a grounded look at how small newsrooms teach people to find the story.
Clayton Frank's path into local reporting gives Bend Don't Break a clear center: how a journalist learns to go looking for stories instead of waiting for an assignment.
A grounded conversation about the partnerships that keep Central Oregon's trails moving.
Casey Andrews arrives at Central Oregon Trail Alliance with 15 years in public lands and a clear, practical sense of how trail ideas become actual dirt. The conversation follows her work with the National Park Foundation, National Park Service, and U.S.
A grounded look at how a small organization and its volunteers bring mental-health support to communities across Central Oregon.
Casey Monk describes how NAMI Central Oregon provides mental-health support with two full-time staff members and volunteers who teach classes and lead programs. Its reach beyond Bend gives the episode its clearest focus.
A Crux brewer connects bocce bocce, Mexican lagers, and the social life of a Bend beer.
Grand Craft Bend's conversation with Crux brewer Ryan Itaghi works best when it treats beer as a social ritual rather than just a product. Brian Yeager begins with Crux as the place he brings out-of-town friends, then follows Itaghi into the story behind bocce bocce, a name tied…
Emily Kirk discusses staying relatable as a recognizable Central Oregon TV personality while keeping parts of private life off limits.
Emily Kirk's familiar place in Central Oregon TV news gives this episode a clear center: how a publicly recognized person decides what belongs online and what should stay private.
A local writer gives Bend's overlooked oddities a fresh look.
Joshua Savage looks at Bend with a visitor's curiosity, giving a longtime resident reason to reconsider the city's odd and overlooked corners. The best example is Worthy Brewing's observatory.
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Bill Lynch, board president of COTA, discusses his background and passion for mountain biking in Bend, Oregon.
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Interview with Michael Gesme, conductor of the Central Oregon Symphony and professor at COCC, discussing his 30th and final season.
Erin Schweitzer interviews Emily Kirk, a Central Oregon Daily News anchor, about her career and life in Bend.
Aaron Schweitzer interviews Joshua Savage, a writer, educator, and creator of The Ultimate Scavenger.
Bend Don't Break host Aaron Sweitzer asks Bend Film Festival programming director Selin Sevinç about the October 7–11 festival.
Jason Steinberg says an opera audition once meant one of four tenors, while musical theater could mean 250 people in the room.
Aaron Schweitzer interviews Clayton Frank, a Source reporter whose path ran from the Daily Emerald Sports Desk at the University of Oregon to The Bulletin, Eugene Weekly, and Ethos Magazine.
Bend Don't Break talks with Casey Andrews, the new executive director of Central Oregon Trail Alliance, about how a local trail nonprofit keeps 600 miles of trail usable in Central Oregon.
An interview with Selin Sevinc, managing director of Bend Film Festival, discussing her background in filmmaking and her role in programming the festival.
Preview of a new podcast 'Bend Into Balance' where host Adriana Moreno combines her passion for storytelling and wellness to highlight health and fitness professionals in Bend, Oregon.
Bend Don't Break host Aaron Schweitzer interviews Casey Munck, regional director of NAMI Central Oregon — the National Alliance on Mental Illness affiliate covering Deschutes, Jefferson, and Klamath Counties — about the organization's growth from 1,000 to 4,000 community members under her two years of leadership.
Grand Craft Bend host Brian Yeager sits down with Ryan Atagi, head brewer at Crux Fermentation Project in Bend, Oregon, to discuss the rise of Japanese rice lagers and the story behind Bochy Bochy, Crux's flagship rice lager.
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Erin Schweitzer interviews Emily Kirk, a Central Oregon Daily News morning anchor, about her career in local journalism and her connection to the Bend community.