From Friendly House. People often blame the chaotic precarious political landscape in the US on polarization and culture wars, with the wars playing out in the classrooms and campuses. Instead, Whitney Phillips and Mark Brockway argue that the seeming left-right battle is the result of 80 years of densely overlapping religious and secular messages that have transformed how we see education. Whitney Phillips is Ass’t Prof. of Inf. Politics and Media Ethics at the U of O, and author of You Are Here and Share Better and Stress Less. Mark Brockway is Assistant Teaching Professor in Pol. Sci. at Syracuse University.

From Friendly House. Forest Park, one of the world’s largest city parks, is the nation’s premier urban natural sanctuary, supporting essential habitat for hundreds of native plants and animals, some at risk. While extending critical ecosystem services to the region, it offers 80 miles of outstanding hiking trails within minutes of the downtown core. Wildlife biologist and award-winning author Marcy Houle, in her new book Forest Park: Exploring Portland’s Natural Sanctuary, showcases this treasure, it’s history, trails and outstanding qualities, and why it is being considered an exciting model for a future Urban Biodiversity Reserve.