Hosted by well-known Australian actor, commentator and DJ, Faustina Agolley, “Portland, Unpacked” is a new six episode podcast revealing the diverse layers that make up Oregon’s largest city. Portland, Unpacked goes beyond the city’s well-earned “Keep Portland Weird” reputation, with Agolley “unpacking” the city’s vibrant food, music, coffee, design and cannabis culture.
Learn how the city came to be and discover how Portland’s change in planning rules in the 1950s helped it carve out its own identity.
Listeners will explore Portland’s history, diversity, sustainability and ethos of collaboration, and be inspired to visit this creative capital of the Pacific Northwest. “Portland is the town the U.S. watches” states local Proud Mary cafe owner, Nolan Hirte, in the engaging first episode of Portland, Unpacked. Hirte, an Australian who fell in love with Portland, is one of many colourful characters featured in this dramatically different travel podcast launching today.”
L-R Trish White, Katie Cahill, Faustina Agolley, Jill Collins
From and by Portland, the podcast is produced entirely on the streets of the city, a place of “many stories, many shades and many perspectives” according to Agolley, who introduces listeners to a diverse range of people who have chosen to call Portland home.
Zoe Vrabel, who hosts pinball competitions in bars throughout city, is one of the many fascinating locals who appear in the series as story-tellers, taking listeners on a mission to uncover what makes the city tick and ultimately what excites people to travel to what Agolley calls a “progressive, eccentric, sustainable, music-obsessed, rainbow city. An Un-America.”
Go on a journey covering the city’s fascinating history of jazz through to today’s eclectic music scene from alt-weekly reporter, Jenni Moore at the Portland Mercury and hip-hop front liner, KayelaJ who states “We don’t have a specific sound. All our artists don’t sound alike. You’ll never come to Portland and be like, this is what Portland sounds like.”
Hear how Portland is a place of reinvention and the ideal place to change the status quo. It’s also a city where people follow their passions.
Meet Jill Kuehler who is challenging the male-dominated beverage industry with Freeland Spirits, an all women-run gin and rye whiskey distillery. There’s also Broccoli Magazine, an independent magazine created by and for women who use cannabis, and Wildfang, the apparel company describing itself as “F*cking with Gender Norms Since 2013”. Founder Emma McIlroy, sums it all up by saying “I’ve got a funny accent, I’m queer, I’m a woman, I don’t totally fit into most of the rooms I walk into but Portland’s accepted me and given me massive opportunity.”
And then there’s Ian Williams, the former ‘ambitious janitor’ at Nike who designed shoes inspired by “slippery when wet” floor cleaning signs, and who now runs a coffee shop where the clientele bond over a love of sneakers.
Even the theme music for Portland, Unpacked is local – composed by Ben Landsverk, musical director of Low Bar Chorale, a twice-a-month “pub choir” that transforms Portland bars into a drop-in/indie sing-along backed by a live band of rotating musicians.
If you’re hooked with episode one, you’ll be able to binge listen to the whole series of Portland, Unpacked on your favourite podcast platform as all episodes are being dropped simultaneously today.
“More Australians than ever are listening to podcasts but travel is an unexplored area of podcasting. We felt there was an opportunity to lean into that and explore rich story telling through the people and the soundscapes of the city,” says Ajay Date, Vice President of Marketing for Travel Portland.
The concept for Portland, Unpacked was created for Travel Portland by Sydney-based communications agency, Barking Owl Communications. It was brought to life through the talents of leading podcast production company, Audiocraft. The series was made possible with the support of American Airlines and Jupiter NEXT, a boutique hotel in Portland.
