Leah Sottile

After working in podcasting for several years, I have complicated feelings about "true crime." I've never heard a show directly address those before until Hush season 2, episode 2 by @ryanjhaas.bsky.social & @leahsottile.bsky.social. It's worth listening, to understand what we're participating in.

At the South Portland ICE facility, after pushing back the crowd to let some vehicles leave, agents gassed the street for approximately 10 minutes solid. S Bancroft was opaque with gas; agents also threw flash grenades and shot pepper bullets.

Portland Police Police estimate so far is 40,000 to 50,000 at downtown Portland No Kings today @statesnewsroom.com @oregoncapitalchronicle.com

The war zone in Portland is out of control.

Episode 2: Don’t Speak Ill of the Dead

This season of Hush is something increasingly rare in podcasting as the industry has consolidated toward celebrity chat.

If you miss the old days of deep reporting, great narrative storytelling and a focus on craft, consider subscribing to Hush!

Latest episode here:

Anti-Communist Club Is Formed by Coughlin ROYAL OAK, Mich., Sept. 17.-(U.P.)—The Rev. Charles E. Cough-lin today announced formation of a children's anti-Communist club in which communism will be taught to "expose its fallacies." "We take the candy from the pill and show what's inside," the priest said "It is the first such club to be formed and we hope it will spread all over America." The club will function in the school maintained by Father Coughlin's parish of the Shrine of the Little Flower.

My Anti-Communist Club is live & Inbox * President Trump <contact@win.donaldtrump.com>…. Unsubst 6:55PM (1 hour ago) # to me • 中 ANTI COMMUNIST CLUB 9 Gr WELCOME TO MY BRAND-NEW CLUB FOR TOP MAGA PATRIOTS ANTI COMMUNIST CLUB After careful consideration, I want to present you with the ANTI-COMMUNIST CLUB Membership! It's the highest honor I can bestow upon such an important supporter who DESPISES the radical left!

Left: Father Coughlin's anti-communist club, September 1935
Right: Donald Trump's anti-communist club, October 2025

The GOAT

V5s are the only pen

One media outlet has not ended remote work, and in fact went remote in order to cover our region better back in 2019. That media outlet is @highcountrynews.org and if you aren’t subscribed, you are missing out on amazing journalism from all the places big media outlets overlook. www.hcn.org

Today in stupid media decisions: Rolling Stone ending remote work means losing a brilliant political reporter living in Portland, Oregon in the year 2025.

I'd like to imagine there's a future where media leaders stop thinking the sun rises and sets only in New York, DC and LA. I'm not optimistic.

Episode 2: Don’t Speak Ill of the Dead Podcast Episode · Hush · S2 E2 · 46m

I really don’t like true crime. How could we tell the story of Sarah Zuber’s mysterious death in 2019 without being called a true crime podcast? That‘s at the heart of this week‘s new Hush episode, out now.

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/h...

Oriana Korol, a clarinetist with the Unpresidented Brass Band, was arrested after a man and federal agents barreled into band members who were standing across the street from the ICE office and playing the theme from “Ghostbusters.”

Read more: www.oregonlive.com/crime/2025/1...

Portland’s ICE building closed for 22 days this summer, but immigration arrests and detentions hardly slowed Justice Department attorneys argue the facility was “inoperable.” Some public functions were halted. Bookings were not.

Attorneys for the DOJ argue Portland's ICE building closed for 22 days this summer, halting operations. Reporting by @troywb.bsky.social and @tonyschick.bsky.social shows that's... not exactly accurate.

www.opb.org/article/2025...

‘Hush’ Episode 2: Don’t speak ill of the dead OPB journalists Leah Sottile and Ryan Haas attend True Crime 101 at Oregon State University and speak with Professor Justin St Germain, whose life has been shaped by violent crime. They learn who typically dictates a true crime story: the police, the community and the media.

The tragic death of 18-year-old Sarah Zuber offers a chance to examine the cultural obsession with true crime media. Understanding the tropes of that genre may offer new insight into what happened.

I don’t like true crime either. I tend to avoid true crime shows & podcasts tbh, because I often find them exploitative, extractive & salacious. That’s why I appreciate Hush’s interrogation of the genre so much, which they lean into in this episode:

Episode 2 of Hush's second season is out this morning!

@leahsottile.bsky.social turn true crime on its head in this one, and start to poke at what went wrong in Sarah Zuber's death investigation.

Episode 2: Don’t Speak Ill of the Dead Podcast Episode · Hush · S2 E2 · 46m

I really don’t like true crime. How could we tell the story of Sarah Zuber’s mysterious death in 2019 without being called a true crime podcast? That‘s at the heart of this week‘s new Hush episode, out now.

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/h...

What really is antifa? - High Country News Effie Baum, an ‘everyday anti-fascist,’ talks about President Trump’s threat to designate the movement as a terrorist organization, and corrects the record.

"When we were at war with fascists in Europe, everyday people, everyone would have been an anti-fascist. Being an anti-fascist should not be a controversial thing. It should be controversial to be a fascist."

Wrote this five years ago. It shouldn't hold up this well.

www.hcn.org/articles/nor...

Dan Ozzi is a gem and I love this essay so much.

‘The Evergreen’: What happened to Sarah Zuber? In 2019, 18-year-old Sarah Zuber died 400 feet from her front door in rural Columbia County. To this day, no one — not the police, citizen sleuths, or the local media — has been able to figure out wha...

Today on @opb.org's The Evergreen:
In 2019, 18-year-old Sarah Zuber died 400 feet from her front door in rural Columbia County. To this day, no one has been able to figure out what happened to her.
We're sharing the 1st episode of Hush Season 2, by @leahsottile.bsky.social & @ryanjhaas.bsky.social:

What The Hell Is Going On, a thread:

I’ve seen some thinkpieces and posts about Portland protests that fail to understand the long-term hyperspecificity of Portland culture/humor, and frame it as a sort of shitposting meme-pilled ironic thing. Which is wrong.

So I’m gonna give you my breakdown.

Fierce, unruly joy in Portland at the emergency naked bike ride

Eight!

Listen: OPB's 'Bundyville' Podcast From Longreads and Oregon Public Broadcasting,&nbsp;&ldquo;Bundyville&rdquo; returns for a second season to pick up where the first season left off. "Bundyville: The Remnant" is a seven-part series th...

And if you’re wondering how the eff we got to where we are today, the Bundyville podcast is artful and unflinching in its examination of the self-righteous, grievance-fueled sovereign citizen movement.

The persecution that never was.

longreads.com/bundyville/s...

www.opb.org/news/article...

Already hooked on the new season of Hush, an investigative OPB podcast from @leahsottile.bsky.social and @ryanjhaas.bsky.social. A reason to look forward to Wednesdays!

(Definitely give season one a listen too if you haven’t already)

Thank you, friend!!

It’s the weekend. We have a new podcast. You know what to do.

O Rhombus king, he who sees through our souls, we avert our eyes in fear, we are not worthy.

It's gonna fuck him up if he finds out we have a store called Mr. Plywood.

ICE in Portland is coming off like Gargamel getting repeatedly rolled by the Smurfs