NPI's Cascadia Advocate

Offering commentary and analysis from Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, The Cascadia Advocate provides the Northwest Progressive Institute's uplifting perspective on world, national, and local politics.

Wednesday, June 23rd, 2021

NPI launches a new podcast examining issues through a regional lens: PNWcurrents

Cas­ca­dia Advo­cate read­ers, get ready to be PNWcur­rents listeners!

For almost eigh­teen years, our team at NPI has offered thought­ful com­men­tary, insight­ful research, and imag­i­na­tive advo­ca­cy through our pub­li­ca­tions and projects, includ­ing The Cas­ca­dia Advo­cate, In Brief, and the Ever­green Con­nec­tion. Today, we’re launch­ing a new pub­li­ca­tion to join them.

PNWcur­rents is our first new pod­cast since the mid-aughts. Pre­sent­ed in a pan­el for­mat, it brings togeth­er thinkers, activists, elect­ed rep­re­sen­ta­tives, and top­i­cal experts to have con­struc­tive con­ver­sa­tions about local and region­al pol­i­tics, pol­i­cy, major issues, and ideas that impact the Pacif­ic Northwest.

New episodes will be released month­ly, with a run­time of about an hour.

Each show fea­tures one guest each from Wash­ing­ton, Ore­gon, and Ida­ho, the three juris­dic­tions that NPI pri­mar­i­ly serves. It’s a unique for­mat you won’t find any­where else, and one that allows for a tru­ly region­al exam­i­na­tion of issues.

Our inau­gur­al episode (Assess­ing Our 2021 State Leg­isla­tive Ses­sions) is out now, and you can lis­ten to it on demand using the play­er below. You can also down­load it to lis­ten any­where using your favorite pod­cast­ing app or service.

Want to read the tran­script and get more details on the episode’s production?

Just launch the ded­i­cat­ed page for Episode I!

I’m hon­ored to be the host of PNWcur­rents and I’m look­ing for­ward to facil­i­tat­ing many per­cep­tive con­ver­sa­tions about the chal­lenges that our region and coun­try face in the months to come. Upcom­ing top­ics will include pub­lic health, elec­toral reform, and redis­trict­ing, among oth­ers. Please feel free to leave a com­ment and let us know if there’s a top­ic you’d like PNWcur­rents to cov­er below!

Com­mu­ni­ty and coop­er­a­tion are impor­tant val­ues at NPI, and they inspired us to under­take this project. Wash­ing­ton, Ore­gon, and Ida­ho are not just indi­vid­ual states, but neigh­bors. We want to bring togeth­er rep­re­sen­ta­tives from each state to cre­ate meet­ings of the minds where issues can be dis­cussed thoughtfully.

What sets PNWcur­rents apart from the many oth­er polit­i­cal pod­casts out there is that region­al lens. Our pod­cast isn’t focused on the nation­al land­scape or con­fined to the pol­i­tics of a sin­gle state or metro area; its focus is on Cas­ca­dia as a whole. As men­tioned, the show uti­lizes a pan­el for­mat, bring­ing togeth­er three guests: one from Wash­ing­ton, one from Ore­gon, and one from Idaho.

What­ev­er the issue — envi­ron­men­tal jus­tice, rev­enue fair­ness, the strug­gles fac­ing Indige­nous peo­ples, or the future of our agree­ments with Cana­da and its west­ern provinces British Colum­bia and Alber­ta — PNWcur­rents will take state­craft beyond state lines, pro­vid­ing a region­al forum for per­cep­tive discourse.

By lis­ten­ing to PNWcur­rents, you can sig­nif­i­cant­ly broad­en your polit­i­cal knowl­edge. Think about it: how much do you know about the pol­i­tics of the two Pacif­ic North­west states you don’t live in? Escape the lim­i­ta­tions of state-based silos by mak­ing PNWcur­rents part of your media rounds.

As men­tioned, our inau­gur­al episode is ready for your lis­ten­ing enjoyment.

As we are com­ing to the end of the leg­isla­tive ses­sions in our region, we thought there was no bet­ter top­ic to focus on for our first episode than our state leg­is­la­tures. What are they up to? How are they serv­ing peo­ple in our region?

Join­ing me for Episode I are:

  • Joan McCarter, senior polit­i­cal writer for Dai­ly Kos, rep­re­sent­ing Ida­ho. Through her work with Dai­ly Kos, Joan offers crit­i­cal cov­er­age of impor­tant issues fac­ing Amer­i­cans. Though born in Ida­ho, and a cur­rent res­i­dent of the Gem State, she’s actu­al­ly lived in all three PNW states.
  • Kari Chisholm, pres­i­dent of Man­date Media, a media-cen­tered polit­i­cal con­sult­ing firm, rep­re­sent­ing Ore­gon. Kari is a polit­i­cal con­sul­tant, cam­paign staffer, and media strate­gist, as well as the founder of Blue­O­re­gon, an online gath­er­ing place for news and pro­gres­sive commentary.
  • Crys­tal Finch­er, founder and prin­ci­pal of Finch­er Con­sult­ing Firm, rep­re­sent­ing Wash­ing­ton. Finch­er Con­sult­ing han­dles cam­paigns along the West Coast, and Crys­tal has led may suc­cess­ful cam­paigns through engage­ment, strate­giz­ing, and build­ing pow­er for under­served and mar­gin­al­ized communities.

As I not­ed above, because PNWcur­rents is a pod­cast avail­able on demand, you can lis­ten to episodes any­time: while gar­den­ing, while jog­ging, while run­ning errands, while work­ing on a home improve­ment project, or (one of my favorites) play­ing video games. The choice is yours!

Pro­duc­ing PNWcur­rents requires mon­ey as well as time and energy.

We think it’s worth it, and we hope you will, too.

We invite you to sup­port the pro­duc­tion of PNWcur­rents by becom­ing a mem­ber of the North­west Pro­gres­sive Insti­tute if you aren’t already!

You can donate month­ly as a Com­mon­wealth Bond­hold­er, or annually.

Thank you for lis­ten­ing, and I hope you enjoy Episode I!

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