All this week, Soundside is interviewing the most competitive candidates for Seattle Mayor ahead of the August 5th primary election. Today, we hear from Joe Mallahan, a former T Mobile executive and candidate for mayor in 2009. Guest: Joe Mallahan, candidate for Seattle Mayor Links: Sound Politics: Bruce Harrell vs. Everyone Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/soundsidenotes Soundside is a production of KUOW in Sea...
Jul 22, 2025•19 min
The war in Ukraine is causing tremendous and likely lasting psychological damage to generations of its young people. One of those traumas is caused by what’s tantamount to kidnapping by the Russian government. According to a new report by the think tank GlobSec, there have been nearly 20,000 (19,546) cases of what it calls “forcibly transferred or deported children.” These children are taken from their homes and placed in camps or with Russian families. I’m talking with two people who are associ...
Jul 21, 2025•26 min
All this week, Soundside is interviewing the most competitive candidates for Seattle mayor ahead of the August 5th primary election. Today, we hear from Ry Armstrong, an actor, union chair, and co-director of the non-profit of Seattle. Guest: Ry Armstrong, candidate for Seattle Mayor Links: Sound Politics: Bruce Harrell vs. Everyone Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/soundsidenotes Soundside is a production of KUO...
Jul 21, 2025•18 min
All this week, Soundside is interviewing the most competitive candidates for Seattle Mayor ahead of the August 5th primary election. Today, we hear from Katie Wilson, the co-founder and executive director of the Transit Rider's Union. Guest: Katie Wilson, candidate for Seattle Mayor Links: Sound Politics: Bruce Harrell vs. Everyone Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/soundsidenotes Soundside is a production of KUOW...
Jul 21, 2025•19 min
All this week, Soundside is interviewing the most competitive candidates for Seattle Mayor ahead of the August 5th primary election. Today, we hear from current Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell. Guest: Bruce Harrell, Mayor of Seattle Links: Sound Politics: Bruce Harrell vs. Everyone Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/soundsidenotes Soundside is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network. See omn...
Jul 21, 2025•20 min
Local and national organizations alike are still absorbing the historic implications of the Republican tax and spending law known as the One Big, Beautiful Bill. President Trump signed the legislation on July 4th. The law makes the Trump tax cuts of 2017 permanent, and increases spending on border security and energy production, among many other measures. It also includes significant cuts to government assistance programs, like SNAP and Medicaid. Soundside reached out to several local leaders to...
Jul 17, 2025•24 min
You might have noticed that Mount Rainier’s been looking a little…. Bald lately. People on social media have been posting about how Washington’s favorite sight looks less snowy than usual. Some of them are saying they’ve never seen the mountain look this bare in their lives. Rainier definitely sheds some snow in the warmer months. And Washington has been getting hit with some pretty serious heat lately. Many of us know that climate change is a thing, so how much of that is playing into the mount...
Jul 17, 2025•13 min
Imagine a cartoon show where the characters talk back to you. That's the premise for "Cartoon Mess Live", a live comedy show by Seattleite Tom DesLongchamp . DesLongchamp is basically a puppeteer, doing improv alongside a cohost named Duck. It’s like if you could see the person operating Elmo, and the pair of them had a late night talk show. But also Elmo is a 2-dimensional cartoon. DesLongchamp sat down with Soundside host Libby Denkmann to discuss his show, and why it's so hard to describe. Gu...
Jul 17, 2025•7 min
The weekend is upon us, and Soundside producer Jason Burrows is here with all the events fit to broadcast. LINKS: SPORTS! Seattle Mariners vs Houston Astros Seattle Sounders vs San Jose Earthquakes Seattle Reign vs Japan’s Urawa Red Diamonds Sandsations Sand Sculpture Festival - Long Beach, WA Seattle Arab Festival 2025 Seattle Bon Odori Seafair Chinatown Parade Indian Days Powwow CAPITOL HILL BLOCK PARTY Darrington Bluegrass Festival Cartoon Mess LIVE King County Fair - Enumclaw Seattle Boba Fe...
Jul 17, 2025•6 min
We’re closing in on the deadline for President Trump’s rescission package. Senate Republicans have until this Friday to pass the package with a simple majority. If they don’t, they’ll face a Democratic filibuster that they’ll need 60 votes to overcome. On Tuesday, the Senate voted to advance rescissions with a 51-50 vote – Vice President JD Vance was the tie breaker. Republican Senators Collins, Murkowski, and McConnell all voted no. Today, Senators will have up to 10 hours of debate before the ...
Jul 16, 2025•28 min
Marie Gluesenkamp Perez represents Washington’s 3rd District, which encompasses Clark, Cowlitz, Lewis, Pacific, Wahkiakum, and Skamania counties and a smidge of Thurston County. It’s a relatively rural district that has voted for President Trump three times. Somehow, she has been able to convince a good number of those Trump voters to ALSO send her, a Democrat, to Congress. And that’s put Gluesenkamp Perez in a unique and small club of Democrats being asked to diagnose their party’s problems and...
Jul 16, 2025•23 min
Yesterday, a King County Judge ordered the city of Seattle to come up with a plan to end “nudity as constituted” at the park. Denny Blaine has been the city’s most well known nude beach for decades – and is a beloved LGBTQ+ community gathering space. This order follows a series of attempts by neighbors of the park to end nudity at Denny Blaine. And it’s a move supporters of the nude beach say would be a “sanitization of queer spaces” in an increasingly gentrified city. Guests: Seattle Times City...
Jul 16, 2025•8 min
Actor Matthew Law has walked the halls of ABC's Abbott Elementary, piloted a spaceship in an episode of Star Wars: Ahsoka and played "The Cynic" in the "This Is Me... Now: A Love Story” the Jennifer Lopez movie musical. Law hails from Washington. He was born in Yakima and grew up in Seattle, where he attended Greenwood Elementary and Ballard High School. And he's a filmmaker too, directing and writing several short films for his “True Story” series. Soundside caught up with him during a break in...
Jul 15, 2025•38 min
King County’s health department has published innovative and educational comic strips about public health issues for more than 15 years. The county hires local comics artists to tackle issues such as long term covid, preparing for a natural disaster and how to deal with a failing septic system. Meredith Li-Vollmer is the heartbeat behind this popular project, which she founded in 2008. She says the visual and hand drawn style of storytelling helps make potentially dry information palatable. The ...
Jul 15, 2025•8 min
The Seattle City Council recently approved a $2 million dollar loan for the city’s social housing developer. That’s a public development authority that will manage publicly financed housing in the city. It can serve people who make up to 120% of the area median income. Voters overwhelmingly supported the creation of the social housing developer in 2023. They also approved a funding plan for the developer in February that pays for it by putting in place a new tax on companies with high income ear...
Jul 14, 2025•24 min
Seattle hockey fans rejoice! There is a new professional women’s team to root for, starting this fall. The name of the team? Well … that’s yet to be determined, but there are many things we DO know about this upcoming third season of the Professional Women’s Hockey League. This year, for the first time, the league is expanding into the Pacific Northwest, with teams in Vancouver and Seattle. There’ll now be 8 teams total vying for the “Walter Cup.” And things are moving FAST at PWHL Seattle: Play...
Jul 14, 2025•18 min
Soundside is taking a break this week. Don’t worry - we’ll be back with new episodes next week. Until then, we’re bringing you some of our favorite stories from the show. Relevant Links: Pacific Drive captures the creepy of the Olympic Peninsula Hear Ye, Hear Ye, there's trouble brewing at the Renaissance Faire! Touring the history of Black music at MoPop's "Never Turn Back: Echoes of African American Music" WEEKEND WARMUP LINKS: 2025 Queer and Trans Film Festival — Three Dollar Bill Cinema Ball...
Jul 10, 2025•51 min
Soundside is taking a break this week. Don’t worry - we’ll be back with new episodes next week. Until then, we’re bringing you some of our favorite stories from the show. Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/soundsidenotes Soundside is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network. Relevant Links: Can you solve the mystery of the Oakville blobs? The new food that has beekeepers "buzzing" How a S...
Jul 10, 2025•51 min
It's summer vacation week on Sounside. But that doesn't mean we're out of your podcast feed. Senior producer Gabrielle Healy shares some of her favorite recent Soundside segments. We’re talking about everything from the unsung heroes of the early Seattle rap scene with music writer Novocaine132 to your rights if you encounter ICE. Plus, Seattle Eats talks about the Emerald City's best slice of pizza. Guests Novocaine132, author of "The Birth of Seattle Rap." Henry Hwang, a directing attorney for...
Jul 10, 2025•50 min
Soundside is taking a break this week. Don’t worry - we’ll be back with new episodes next week. Until then, we’re bringing you some of our favorite stories from the show. Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/soundsidenotes Soundside is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network. Relevant Links: Seattle's new Civic Poet finds parallels between political language and verse Deciding to See: The ...
Jul 09, 2025•50 min
Have you ever walked into a bookstore, lonely and single, and hoped you’d meet the love of your life? We know there are at least a few of you out there. That's part of the setup for Moira Macdonald’s debut novel “Storybook Ending.” It’s a story about loneliness, friendship, reading – and of course, the singular pleasure of spending time between the shelves of a cozy book shop in Seattle. The spot in question, titled “Read the Room”, is based on Ravenna’s Third Place Books, one of Macdonald's reg...
Jul 04, 2025•19 min
From new statewide legislation freezing rent hikes at up to 10 percent for most tenants, to the Seattle City Council banning the use of algorithmic rent fixing, there's a lot of news to keep in mind if you’re a renter or a landlord. And summer is moving season – prompting lots of questions about the rights for renters regarding repairs, fees and beyond. We review some frequently asked questions for renters in Seattle. Guest Teo Popescu, design, graphics, and data editor at KUOW Related links Wha...
Jul 03, 2025•23 min
Libby may be out today, but … We’ve made it to the end of the work week! And since tomorrow is a holiday, you’re probably trying to figure out what to do with a whole THREE DAYS of free time in front of you… But don’t worry, I’ve got the big list of everything to do on the 4th of July and BEYOND! WELCOME to the Weekend Warmup! LINKS: FIREWORKS!!! Arlington — Quake Park 10 p.m. Bellevue — Downtown Park 10:05 p.m. Carnation — Remlinger Farms 9:45 p.m. Everett — Port Gardner Bay 10:15 p.m. Federal ...
Jul 03, 2025•6 min
The Senate passed the Big Beautiful Bill, sending it back to the House of Representatives for a final vote on Donald Trump’s sweeping spending package.Aside from extending Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, the legislation includes cuts to Medicaid and food assistance, caps on student loans, and higher fees on people going through the legal immigration process. It also increases spending on defense and border security, limits taxes on workers who earn tips and increases the child tax credit.Republican lawma...
Jul 02, 2025•33 min
On Friday, the Supreme Court ruled that a Maryland couple could pull their child out of classes where the material involved books with LGBTQ themes. The six conservative justices ruled that parents should not be required to expose their children to class materials that go against their religious beliefs. Coincidentally, almost exactly one hundred years ago – in July 1925 – there was another famous legal debate over what kids learn in the classroom that took place in Tennessee. The so-called Scop...
Jul 02, 2025•17 min
2025 has been a busy year for Danni Askini. As Executive Director of the Gender Justice League, Askini is involved in multiple lawsuits fighting Trump Administration policies related to trans rights. She’s also the co-chair of the Washington Families for Freedom coalition, created this year to fight potential state ballot measures that could impact trans youth. And – by the way – she’s the Executive Director of Trans Pride Seattle, which just hosted its annual celebration at Seattle’s Volunteer ...
Jul 02, 2025•54 min
Idaho’s governor has ordered that flags be flown at half-staff following the killing of two firefighters, and wounding of a third, in Coeur d’Alene yesterday. Firefighters were responding to a grass fire in a natural area with hiking and mountain biking trails. When they arrived, a man opened fire, in what the local county sheriff is calling an ambush. And a note: this interview was taped at 11:30am. Information may have changed by the time you're hearing this. Guest: Kaye Thornbrugh is a report...
Jul 01, 2025•7 min
Skamania County Sheriff Summer Scheyer says she has a problem. As more visitors get into the great outdoors in her rural Washington county, more and more people are calling for help, and requiring search and rescue operations. Scheyer says things need to change: She’s announced plans for an ordinance that would impose a fine on anyone who requires a search and rescue due to what she terms “reckless” or “negligent” actions. But is it fair to expect hikers in need of help to pay for assistance? We...
Jun 30, 2025•20 min
Civil rights groups are scrambling to get ahead of a looming change to the status of babies born to immigrant parents without permanent legal status. Unless additional legal actions are successful, there are just a few weeks until the Trump administration’s restrictions on birthright citizenship are set to take effect in a majority of states across the country, following a Supreme Court ruling on Friday. Washington was one of several states challenging President Trump’s executive order limiting ...
Jun 30, 2025•16 min
Voters will pick a new King County Executive this November. And the race has taken a dramatic turn as candidate and current King County Assessor John Wilson has been repeatedly accused of stalking and harassment. Last month his ex fiancee and domestic partner Lee Keller was granted a second restraining order against him. Members of the King County Council have called on Wilson to resign, which he has rebuffed. Wilson has vehemently denied all allegations of domestic violence and stalking. He say...
Jun 26, 2025•16 min
