Cascade of History

Feliks Banel's guest on this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY is Dr. Amanda Van Lanen, author of “The Washington Apple: Orchards and the Development of Industrial Agriculture.” The book was published in 2022 by University of Oklahoma Press and details the rise of the apple industry in the Evergreen State beginning in the early 20th century. I spoke with Dr. Amanda Van Lanen by phone on Friday,...

Feliks Banel's guest on this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY is Frederik Larsen, Deputy Director of the Greenland National Museum & Archives in Nuuk, Greenland. CASCADE OF HISTORY reached out to the museum in Greenland to find out what steps staff there are taking to collect the artifacts and stories of the very recent - and very turbulent past - as the President of the United States has, at t...

Feliks Banel's guest on this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY is Devlin Donnelly, a Seattle man who modestly calls himself a "history enthusiast." Donnelly recently put two-and-two together and figured out that a demolition and construction project not far from the Seattle waterfront is underway near what may be the location of an old ship buried there in the 19th century. The ship is the bark...

Feliks Banel's guests on this LIVE BROADCAST of CASCADE OF HISTORY include Eric Ulis, our resident "D.B Cooper-ologist" who shares his opinion on the latest tranche of FBI documents about the skyjacker, and we listen to some audio from the night of the hijacking from Minneapolis radio station (and CBS affiliate) WCCO recently shared by RadioTapes; plus we speak with Brad Holden, Seattle author and...

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel speaks with Marc Stiles for the latest in our series of "Exit Interviews" with people who've had long careers in media and/or history in the Pacific Northwest. Marc Stiles recently retired after 13 years at the Puget Sound Business Journal. Prior to that, he spent decades at other newspapers in Washington and Oregon as well as in his native...

Feliks Banel's guests on this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY are Patricia Fels of Friends of Gas Works Park and Barbara Swift of the Gas Works Park Alliance. The City of Seattle Department of Parks & Recreation (SPR) will, this coming Wednesday, January 21, 2026, ask - once again - for permission from the City of Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board (LPB) to make significant changes to the hi...

Feliks Banel's guest on this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY is Dr. Kate Burrows, founder and lead organizer of a grassroots preservation organization in North Seattle called "Save Crown Hill Cemetery." Dr. Burrows founded the group in December 2025. In this conversation, Dr. Burrows shares some of the history of Crown Hill Cemetery and explains the recent origins of the preservation group. Ba...

Feliks Banel's guests on this LIVE BROADCAST of CASCADE OF HISTORY include Janet Gallimore, executive director of the Idaho Historical Society on 2026 programs and exhibits; Ken Johnsen of Yakima Valley Trolleys on the ongoing effort to work with the City of Yakima to preserve the trolley tracks; historian and blogger Robin Adams on her search for mystery bridges crossing the Cedar River near Mapl...

Feliks Banel's guest on this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY is Mike Shirts, longtime – and recently retired - Chief Operating Officer of Rosauers Supermarkets, the Spokane-based regional grocery store chain. Shirts worked for the company for more than 50 years, starting out bagging groceries as a teenager in 1974. In this conversation, we go deep on the history of the chain, which traces its...

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, we present complete audio from Part One of "Bomber Down," a miniseries researched, produced and hosted by Feliks Banel in 2025 for the KSL Podcasts project known as "Unsolved Histories." "Bomber Down" is about a B-52 Stratofortress on a training mission with eight crew members aboard that went missing in the Gulf of Mexico in February 1968. Now, thanks...

This BONUS ENCORE of CASCADE OF HISTORY was one of our LISTENER FAVORITES in 2025: when Feliks Banel spoke with Alex Silverman of KNX News 97.1 FM, the legendary commercial newsradio station in Los Angeles, about the station's coverage of the January 2025 wildfires in Southern California. Silverman was serving as Director of News and Programming in January 2025 when a series of devastating wildfir...

This BONUS ENCORE of CASCADE OF HISTORY was one of our LISTENER FAVORITES in 2025: a special three-hour "FLAGSHIP FAREWELL" episode hosted by Feliks Banel and broadcast LIVE from the now closed original Burgermaster location in University Village/Laurelhurst in Seattle on its final Friday of operation. Guests included Eugenia Woo from Historic Seattle; former journalist and Seattle City Councilmem...

This BONUS ENCORE of CASCADE OF HISTORY was one of our LISTENER FAVORITES in 2025 - and one of the most popular episodes EVER: when Feliks Banel spoke with Deborah Horne in our series of "Exit Interviews" with people who've had long careers in media and/or history in the Pacific Northwest. Deborah Horne retired in October 2025 after 34 years at one station in Seattle - KIRO TV - under three differ...

This BONUS ENCORE of CASCADE OF HISTORY was one of our LISTENER FAVORITES in 2025: the STAN BORESON-TENNIAL EDITION with radio personality Tim Hunter, Steve Wilson of Almost LIVE!, and Stan Boreson's daughter Ann Boreson. The occasion was the 100th anniversary of the birth of legendary entertainer and broadcaster Stan Boreson, born May 5, 1925. Stan passed away in 2017 at age 91. With new intervie...

This BONUS ENCORE of CASCADE OF HISTORY was one of our LISTENER FAVORITES in 2025, when Feliks Banel spoke with Jim Dever in a long and far-ranging conversation about Jim's career, local broadcast media, and his decision to step down from EVENING Magazine after 34 years at KING 5 TV in Seattle. Jim Dever and Kim Holcomb's recently launched UPPER LEFTERS Digital Content Stream (via Instagram): http...

This BONUS ENCORE of CASCADE OF HISTORY was one of our LISTENER FAVORITES in 2025, when Feliks Banel spoke with Lee Reynolds, public affairs officer for the U.S. Army's Center of Military History, the part of the Army that funds and manages Lewis Army Museum at Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM) near Tacoma. In this interview from Tuesday, July 8, 2025, Mr. Reynolds said that Secretary of the Army Da...

For Christmas 2025, Feliks Banel presents a BONUS EPISODE from the archives: a special Christmas 2022 broadcast of CASCADE OF HISTORY, drawing on the archives of “The Holiday Express,” a live Christmas Eve show he produced and hosted live on Christmas Eve on KBCS 91.3 FM in Bellevue, Washington from 1999 to 2004. Highlights include beloved kids' KIRO TV show host J.P. Patches reading “The Night Be...

Feliks Banel's guests on this LIVE BROADCAST of CASCADE OF HISTORY include Moira Nadal of the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation with this year's winners of Sivinski Preservation Grants; Derek Nguyen of the Washington State Historical Society in Tacoma with details about this year's model train exhibit; Malcolm Crockett of Crofton, BC on the history of that Vancouver Island community and h...

Feliks Banel's guest on this BONUS “O Tannenbaum” EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY is Gary Chastagner, Professor Emeritus of Plant Pathology at Washington State University. He’s an award-winning and much honored academic scientist with the enviable nickname of "Dr. Christmas Tree." We spent almost an hour and a half on December 19, 2025 talking with Dr. Christmas Tree – aka Gary Chastagner - about hi...

Feliks Banel's guest on this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY is Martin Hansen, an attorney and vintage railroad expert based in Bend, Oregon. Much of the 1986 film "Stand By Me" was filmed 40 years ago in Oregon. Rob Reiner, director of the film, was found dead along with his wife a few days ago. One iconic scene in the film involves a steam locomotive bearing down on a bridge over a body of w...

This episode of CASCADE OF HISTORY features a live broadcast of a performance of “We Hold These Truths," a radio play written by Norman Corwin and originally performed on December 15, 1941 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the ratification of the Bill of Rights. This live broadcast was performed before a live audience at Town Hall Seattle on December 15, 2025 - the 234th anniversary of the B...

Feliks Banel's guests on this LIVE BROADCAST of CASCADE OF HISTORY include Jessica Stoller of the Leavenworth Chamber of Commerce on how the Christmas capital of the Northwest is bouncing back from last week’s storms and how you can help; Maggie Cogswell of the Washington State Archives on efforts to digitize historic images and how you can help identify people and places pictured; Ken Johnsen of...

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, we dig into the archives for an interview with the late Stuart McLean, host of “The Vinyl Café” for CBC Radio in Canada. Feliks Banel interviewed Mr. McLean in the lobby of the Paramount Theatre in Seattle on the afternoon of December 11, 2013. That night, Mr. McLean would present a special holiday touring edition of his radio show to a sold-out theatre...

News broke on Thursday, December 11, 2025 that the City of Des Moines, WA Hearing Examiner has denied the appeal of a coalition of groups working to halt the demolition of the Masonic Home of Washington. The Masonic Home is a sprawling hotel-like complex built in the 1920s south of Seattle as a retirement home for Freemasons in a park-like setting with a commanding view of Puget Sound. Feliks Bane...

Feliks Banel's guest on this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY is Joe Wright, CEO of Replogle Globes, an American manufacturer based near Chicago, Illinois. Replogle Globes was founded nearly a century ago in Chicago by Luther Replogle. In an era when online mapping dominates daily navigating, the company is considered the world’s largest manufacturer of globes, and most of their products are st...