In 2023, Bellevue organizer Mubarak Elamin made the decision to bring his mother to the United States. At the time, she was living in Sudan, where a brutal war had broken out between the country’s army, the Sudanese Armed Forces, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. The situation deteriorated into what the U.N. has called one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises. Thousands have been killed and millions displaced. Some regions are suffering from famine. In January, the United States d...
Nov 18, 2025•18 min
Unionized Starbucks workers have started their fourth day on strike. Workers walked off the job in over 40 cities last week . And this year’s strike has gotten attention from high-profile politicians. Both Seattle mayor-elect Katie Wilson and New York's mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani called on customers to boycott the coffee chain. Last week, Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) urged Starbucks to cut a deal with the union. So what’s holding up negotiations? GUEST: Casey Martin, KUOW reporter covering the st...
Nov 17, 2025•9 min
You’re probably heard the term “microplastics.” And you’ve probably also heard that they’re bad for you. A write up from Stanford Medicine says, quote, “they’re in the water we drink, the food we eat, the clothes we wear and the air we breathe.” But what exactly are they? A local doctor is helping us understand what exactly these particals are, and how or if we should avoid them. GUEST: Dr. Sheela Sathyanarayana, a professor of pediatrics and adjunct professor of environmental and occupational h...
Nov 17, 2025•19 min
In early October, film buffs around the region received some bittersweet news… The historic Egyptian Theater in Capitol Hill – which had been closed for repairs – would not reopen as a public theater. The Seattle International Film Festival decided to end its lease, saying it was a difficult decision but that it just wasn’t financially feasible. This comes on the back of the closing of the Grand Illusion and AMC 10 theaters in the U-District. In an era of streaming services and movie studio cons...
Nov 13, 2025•29 min
Here at Soundside, we've got lots of plans this weekend. Paige Browning is playing in a Kickball tournament, while Jason is planning on cheering for her... Supervising Producer Sarah Leibovitz is doing LAUNDRY... What joy! As for YOU, here are all your options from this week's Weekend Warmup... LINKS: SIFF Cinema Italian Style 2025 Sew, Quilt, Needlework, Craft, Expo & Festival in Puyallup Gobble Up Northwest! - Urban Craft Uprising Seattle International Auto Show The 2025 DB Cooper Conferen...
Nov 13, 2025•5 min
Seattle has been a target of anti-car activism since at least the early 1960s, when the construction of I-5 carved up the Chinatown International District. Washington architect Paul Thiry said the creation of the freeway signaled when Seattle started to lose its identity as a city. But what would a less car-centric Seattle actually look like? Whom would it benefit? And is it even feasible? The hosts of "The War on Cars" podcast join "Soundside" for more. They’ve co-written a new book: “Life Afte...
Nov 13, 2025•36 min
Seattleites have been closely watching election results for nearly a week since polls closed. That’s because the city’s mayoral candidates were in a tight race. Longtime Seattle politician and current Mayor Bruce Harrell is trying to win a second term. His challenger is Katie Wilson, a Democratic socialist who has never held elected office before. Last night’s vote tally gave more clarity about who is likely to lead the city next year. GUEST: Cat Smith, KUOW Politics Editor RELATED LINKS: KUOW: ...
Nov 12, 2025•10 min
Bruce Lee holds a special place in Seattle’s heart – and Seattle played a key role in Bruce Lee’s life. He attended the University of Washington. He taught martial arts around the city. And after his tragically young death, at the age of 32, Lee was buried at Lake View Cemetery on Capitol Hill. A biography by author Jeff Chang traces this journey alongside the cultural and political context in which Lee was becoming the international icon he is today. It’s called “Water Mirror Echo: Bruce Lee an...
Nov 11, 2025•50 min
After a monthslong search, the Seattle Public Schools district finally has a new superintendent. The Seattle School Board voted to name Ben Shuldiner as the lone finalist for the role. Shuldiner is currently the superintendent of the Lansing School District in Michigan. He’ll be the fourth superintendent in the last decade. Back in March, former superintendent Brent Jones announced he was planning to step down from the position … and would have left in September. Instead, he went on medical leav...
Nov 07, 2025•20 min
Seattle's pro women's soccer team have returned to the National Women's Soccer League playoffs. Seattle Reign play the Orlando Pride on Friday in a win-or-go-home match. But do the Reign have the potential to make a deep playoff run? Soundside producer Gabrielle Healy gets into it. Plus, everything you need to know about coach Laura Harvey and ChatGPTgate . Guest Susie Rantz , writer for Sounder at Heart covering Seattle Reign Related Links All even in Orlando, 1-1 - Sounder at Heart The constan...
Nov 07, 2025•15 min
It’s weekends like these where you WANT a solid plan for what to do, so you’re not just stuck sulking about the weather. And while Soundside Producer Jason Megatron Burrows may be on his way to sunny Florida AS WE SPEAK for a weekend in Tampa, he still left us with a smattering of potential options: LINKS: Port Gamble Ghost Conference Best of the Northwest Fall Show 2025 - Seattle NW's Largest Garage Sale & Vintage Sale Brew: A Clue-Themed Winter Beer Festival America's Test Kitchen Live at ...
Nov 06, 2025•6 min
It’s getting harder for unhoused people in Tacoma to find a place to spend the night. Last week, the city council there voted narrowly, 5-to-4, to expand buffer zones where encampments are not allowed. The new ban, which went into effect this week, includes areas within two blocks of public schools, parks, libraries, and most of downtown and Hilltop. Critics say this only makes it harder for people to find a place to sleep. Guest : Tacoma News Tribune reporter Cameron Sheppard Related Links : Ho...
Nov 06, 2025•15 min
In April, 25-year-old Alex Kuhnhausen died of a bacterial infection he contracted at Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla. This isn’t unheard of – last year, there were 39 deaths reported in Washington prisons. But the details of Alex Kuhnhausen’s decline and death raise questions about decisions by prison officials and medical staff; decisions that many believe contributed to his death. Guest : Reporter Brandon Block Related Links : How a WA prison turned a treatable ailment into a deat...
Nov 05, 2025•19 min
When you step into the Seattle Asian Art Museum’s new exhibit… you feel small. You’re surrounded by light, blocks of color reaching across the floor, creeping up the walls. The art takes up space, immersing you in light and shadow, as though you’ve entered another world. Steel cubes carved with meticulous designs hang from the ceiling. Papercraft covered in embroidery line the walls. What looks like a giant doily hangs from strings by the entrance. All lit to project intricate patterns across th...
Nov 05, 2025•20 min
As voters head to the polls amid a contentious mayoral race in Seattle, we’re looking to the past to try to answer a lingering question. It’s hard to win reelection as a Seattle mayor. The last time it happened was nearly two decades ago. Why has it been so long? We're going directly to the source for more: Democrat Greg Nickels was mayor of Seattle for two terms, between January 1, 2002 and December 31, 2009. He served on the King County Council for 14 years prior to his election. KUOW's politi...
Nov 04, 2025•12 min
TRIGGER WARNING - SELF HARM INVOLVING CHILDREN In 2022, the body of 13-year-old Jay Taylor was discovered behind a grocery store in Gig Harbor. Jay had died by suicide, a tragedy that only grew more shocking when police realized he’d livestreamed the act on Instagram, encouraged by the people watching. Jay Taylor was a victim of 764, a global online group of predators that victimizes kids, some identified to be as young as nine years old. They coerce them to send nude photos, commit self-harm an...
Nov 04, 2025•21 min
The immigration detention center in Tacoma, Washington has quickly reached capacity this year under the Trump administration’s push to scale up deportations. The population inside nearly doubled in a matter of months, raising some concerns about staffing levels and reported delays for detainees accessing lawyers or medical care. The experience for those inside detention has also shifted in some profound ways due to new policies, including cuts to legal aid programs, restrictions on who is eligib...
Oct 31, 2025•45 min
Can you believe that we’re already at the end of October? Time is a weird soup. This week has been jam packed with things, AND we have an election next Tuesday. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Let’s enjoy the weekend!! LINKS: Seattle Short King Contest Seattle Kraken vs NY Rangers - Sat 11/1 Short Run Comix Festival Seattle Opera - The Pirates of Penzance Brewallup 2025 Washington State Toy Show Sea-Meow Convention 2025 MLS Cup Playoffs - Seattle vs Minnesota - Mon 11/3 Seattle Kraken vs C...
Oct 30, 2025•7 min
Like so many others, Jas Ikeda struggled with the images and stories coming out of Gaza – of the widespread destruction and the growing starvation. Like others, she felt frustrated that more wasn’t being done to help the people caught in the conflict. Unlike most others, Ikeda has a lot of sailing experience. So when she heard about the Global Sumud Flotilla, she jumped at the chance. The flotilla consisted of 42 small to mid-sized vessels, setting out from Spain, carrying food, supplies, and hu...
Oct 29, 2025•20 min
Washington State highways and bridges are in need of a serious refresh. That’s according to a WSDOT official who told the Washington State Transportation Commission this month: “We are in the early stages of critical failure due to lack of funding.” - Troy Suing, Director, Capital Program Development and Management, Washington State Department of Transportation “Preservation” generally refers to the long-term work needed to sustain already existing infrastructure. WSDOT says it’ll need an additi...
Oct 29, 2025•17 min
Update, 11:45 am, 10/31: Two federal judges have ordered the Trump administration to fund SNAP using the USDA's contingency funds. Read more from The Associated Press . _________________________________________________________________________________ 10/29: More than 1 in 10 people in Washington state rely on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. Most of those recipients are in households with children. And all of them will get cut off from those benefits on October 31st if ...
Oct 29, 2025•13 min
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed U.S strikes on four more boats in waters near South America. The attacks happened Monday off the coast of Colombia in the eastern Pacific Ocean. Hegseth claimed without citing evidence, “the four vessels were known by our intelligence apparatus, transiting along known narco-trafficking routes, and carrying narcotics.” Including this week’s, the strikes have killed nearly 60 people. Democrats say the President is using the military to carry out extrajudici...
Oct 28, 2025•17 min
Amazon confirmed this morning it is cutting 14,000 employees from its corporate workforce. In a letter sent to employees earlier today, the Senior Vice President of “People Experience and Technology” – basically, HR – at Amazon quoted CEO Andy Jassey, saying “we want to operate like the world’s largest startup… by reducing layers, increasing ownership, and helping reduce bureaucracy.” This may only be the beginning of cuts within the company. According to Reuters , this round of workforce reduct...
Oct 28, 2025•21 min
It’s Day 28 of the federal government shutdown – just a few days away from this becoming the longest-running shutdown in U.S. history… And air traffic controllers working without pay are feeling it. Today, the nation’s roughly 13,000 air traffic controllers are getting their first zero-dollar paycheck since the government shutdown began on October 1. Some of them say they’re considering side gigs, like driving for Uber or DoorDash, to make up for lost income. And thousands of flights have been d...
Oct 28, 2025•13 min
If you’ve ever hung out in Oregon’s Fort Stevens State Park, you’ve probably come face to face with the Peter Iredale shipwreck. The British vessel crashed onto the coast in 1906 and has stayed there ever since. Today it has become quite the tourist attraction. But for all its notoriety, the Peter Iredale is just one of more than 2,000 shipwrecks that happened along a dangerous stretch of coastline in the Pacific Northwest. And with many of these wrecks came conflict. A new documentary explores ...
Oct 28, 2025•14 min
At a time when Starbucks is closing 200 of its stores and Amazon plans to replace half a million jobs with robots, one Seattle business has been surprisingly resilient: Costco. In 1983, Costco opened its first store in Seattle and today it’s the third largest retailer in the world, with more than 900 stores globally. But while Costco is known for its devoted customer base and generosity towards its employees, how long is that kind of growth, and good will, sustainable? Guest : New Yorker reporte...
Oct 28, 2025•28 min
We may not be watching the Mariners in the World Series this weekend, but that doesn't mean there aren't awesome things to do... LINKS: Tacoma Holiday Festival Dustin Nickerson at the Neptune Seattle Kraken vs Edmonton Oilers 2025 PSMS Annual Wild Mushroom Show Seattle Coffee Festival AI & Democracy - Women’s University Club SPOOKY STUFF: Washington State Horror Con Fashionably Undead: The Goopening KEXP Kids' Halloween Dance Party Pumpkin Bash - Woodland Park Zoo The Museum of Fright GWAR |...
Oct 23, 2025•6 min
It can be easy to make jokes about the split realities of the “Portlandia” sketch you could make out of those images, and the scene President Trump describes when he talks about the Rose City- a place, quote, “where they kill people and destroy the city.” But, with an appeals court ruling this week clearing the way for Oregon National Guard troops to deploy to Portland – what are things like in the city right now? And what can we learn from the people attempting to find common ground between the...
Oct 23, 2025•24 min
Consider yourself cordially invited to Brendan Healy’s memorial service. That’s because the Seattle playwright is sharing his experience of living with, and dying from, a terminal illness. His newest play is called "Eulogy, or How to Plan Your Own Funeral (and have fun doing it!)" If you go, you’ll get a front-row seat to remembrances of Healy’s life. But the play also promises audiences pictures of puppies, so there’s a little bit of something for everyone. He’s putting the production on throug...
Oct 23, 2025•20 min
Today, we heard an announcement of a proposed Seattle Police union deal that could open the door to expanded use of police alternatives. There’s also been some positive news on the city budget – to the tune of about $14 million in unexpected revenue on the horizon. And the City Council recently approved a sales tax increase to fund public safety priorities . Lots of City Hall business to review with Seattle Times reporter David Kroman — and we also talk elections. Guest David Kroman, reporter, T...
Oct 22, 2025•16 min
