Cascade of History

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel presents his archival interview from 2009 with the late Bryan Johnson, longtime KOMO Radio and TV journalist in Seattle whose passing at age 89 was announced on December 8, 2025. Just a few weeks ago, we featured a 2013 interview with Bryan Johnson about when he was on the radio in Seattle in 1963 breaking the news about the Kennedy assassi...

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel presents vintage audio – recorded by him by holding his Sanyo tape recorder near the radio speaker on the night of December 8, 1980. Former Beatle John Lennon had been assassinated in New York City. In Seattle, on FM rock station KISW, legendary DJ Steve Slaton was on the air. Within minutes of the news reaching Seattle, he did what live an...

Feliks Banel's guests on this LIVE BROADCAST of CASCADE OF HISTORY include Lt. Colonel Erik Flint (retired) LIVE from Pearl Harbor Day commemorations in Honolulu; Roving Correspondent Ken Zick with multiple LIVE UPDATES from Candy Cane Lane in Seattle; meteorologist Scott Sistek on storm history and his new Emerald City Weather Blog; and Frank Abe on Rachel Maddow's new podcast about Japanese Amer...

Feliks Banel's guest on this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY is Elisa Renouard, Lecturer at the University of Washington Architecture Department and Associate at Olson Kundig Architects in Seattle. After hearing about our conversation earlier this week with landscape architect Laurie Olin – where Mr. Olin described an assignment he did as a student at the University of Washington 65 years and...

On this BONUS HOLIDAY EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel shares archival audio from his 25th annual holiday radio play. "Northpole PM News" was conceived of, produced and directed by Feliks Banel in his role as founding director of Seattle Radio Theatre, a volunteer group he created in 2000 at the old Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI) in Seattle's Montlake neighborhood. The festive pla...

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel tours the historic "U.S. Immigrant Station and Assay Office" on the south edge of downtown Seattle with Brian Lane, one of the many artists who have studio spaces inside the former U.S. government facility. Brian Lane is a printmaker and letterpress artist who's had a studio in the building for 12 years. He's an arts educator, and is deeply...

Feliks Banel's guest on this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY is world-renowned landscape architect - and renaissance man - Laurie Olin. Laurie Olin has been associated with many high profile projects around the world, and taught at the University of Pennsylvania for decades. Earlier in his career, Olin studied architecture at the University of Washington, and spent several years in Seattle fro...

We kick off December 2025 with this ARCHIVAL ENCORE BONUS EPISODE from December 2024. Feliks Banel's guests on this recording of a magical live broadcast of CASCADE OF HISTORY from Candy Cane Lane in Seattle on December 15, 2024 include roving correspondent/field producer Ken Zick; Vincent "Mister Candy Cane Lane" Miller on the origins of the grassroots decoration project; Phil Edlund with an upda...

Feliks Banel's guest on this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY is Todd Scott, Preservation Architect and Planner with King County. In a BONUS EPISODE conversation earlier this year with Todd Scott (about the Masonic Home in Des Moines, Washington) he spoke briefly about rising property values creating additional historic preservation challenges in a few specific communities in King County – and...

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel presents archival sound from two radio stories he produced in search of the "Magic Radio Santa" of Centralia, Washington. The Magic Radio Santa appeared for decades on radio station KELA in the southwest part of the Evergreen State from the late 1940s until the 1970s, reading Christmas letters and wish lists of presents from local children....

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel presents an archival episode from the local history podcast "Seattle Rewind" from the holiday season of 2010. "Seattle Rewind" was a series produced by Feliks Banel and Casey McNerthney for the old Seattle-PI news website. This episode of "Seattle Rewind" was originally released at Thanksgiving 2010. It focuses on two downtown Seattle holid...

Feliks Banel's guest on this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY is Eleanor Boba, a public historian based in Seattle who recently discovered that the large bronze commemorative plaque for the Interstate 90 Homer Hadley Bridge across Lake Washington is missing. Homer Hadley is the Seattle-based engineer credited with the idea for a concrete floating bridge, and for the design of the original 1940...

Feliks Banel's guests on this LIVE BROADCAST of CASCADE OF HISTORY include Paul McClintock of Whidbey Island, who created many 18th century documents for Ken Burns' "American Revolution" documentary series currently airing on PBS; Mitsy Hunter of Spokane Preservation Advocates on the recent successful grassroots campaign to defeat a city ordinance which would have created a moratorium on historic...

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel presents his 2021 D.B. Cooper skyjacking 50th anniversary special "COOPER FIVE-OH." "COOPER FIVE-OH" includes an all-star lineup of D.B. Cooper experts and witnesses. We interview the FBI’s Larry Carr, lead agent on the case when it was closed several years ago. We also talk with Cooper skyjacking passenger Larry Finegold, and Seattle Times...

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel presents an archival interview with Danny Swanson, grandson of the founder of historic Swanson's Shoe Repair in Seattle's Wallingford neighborhood. Swanson’s Shoe Repair is the subject of a long feature story in the Seattle Times this weekend. Reporter for the Seattle Times is David Gutman, and the piece is called “How one Seattle cobbler e...

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel presents his archival interview from 2013 with Bryan Johnson, longtime KOMO Radio and TV journalist in Seattle. Johnson describes his early career at KOMO Radio in the late 1950s, and the morning he was on the job - Friday, November 22, 1963 - and had to break the news that President Kennedy had been assassinated in Dallas. During the inter...

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel tours Metsker Maps at historic Pike Place Market on First Avenue in downtown Seattle, Washington on the eve of the 2025 holiday shopping season. Guest and "tour guide" is Walker Willingham, longtime Metsker employee and knowledgeable expert on maps and cartography. Mr. Willingham gives a tour of the store, tells about its history, and descr...

Feliks Banel's guest on this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY is Bill Willingham, whose book, "Oregon Gold: A History of Mining from the Civil War into the Progressive Era" was just published by OSU Press in Corvallis, Oregon. The history of gold mining in Oregon is not widely known and appreciated. Bill Willingham grew up in Eastern Oregon, and says his new book was about 70 years in the makin...

Feliks Banel's guests on this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY are Ilyssa and Dave Kyu, authors and editors of the "CAMPFIRE STORIES" series for Mountaineers Books. Their most recent volumes in the series focus on specific regions of the United States, and present collections of place-based essays and poems along with carefully curated information for the thoughtful traveler. Their latest is ca...

Feliks Banel's guest on this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY is author and radio historian Michael C. Keith. He’s a retired academic, and prolific author and editor of fiction and non-fiction. Among his titles are the iconic text book THE RADIO STATION, and the collection of essays RADIO CULTURES: THE SOUND MEDIUM IN AMERICAN LIFE. Michael C. Keith also worked closely with the late Norman Corw...

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel presents an archival interview with the late Gene Casey from November 2015. It was late on the snowy night of November 17, 1955 when an aging DC-4 full of soldiers on their way home from Korea took off from Boeing Field in Seattle. Within minutes, the plane crashed and burned in a residential neighborhood in the community of Burien, Washing...

Feliks Banel's guests on this LIVE BROADCAST of CASCADE OF HISTORY include Danny Westneat of The Seattle Times on his column about Seattle's socialist mayor of a century ago - Edwin 'Doc' Brown - and Seattle's Mayor-Elect Katie Wilson; explorer and historian Matt McCauley describing his dives in Lake Washington on the wreck of the old Lacey V. Murrow Floating Bridge - which sank 35 years ago on No...

Feliks Banel's guest on this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY is Bob Muckle, whose book, "Once Upon This Land: Archaeology in British Columbia and the Stories it Tells" was recently published by UBC Press in Vancouver, British Columbia. Robert J. "Bob" Muckle has been an archaeologist and educator in British Columbia for decades. His new book provides a comprehensive look at key archaeological...

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, we present archival audio from a November 13, 2024 live remote radio broadcast from Alki on a dark and rainy morning in West Seattle. The broadcast marked the 173rd anniversary of the arrival of the Denny Party - the founders of the City of Seattle. Feliks Banel's guest is Ken Workman, whose great-great-great-great grandfather is Chief Seattle of the Du...

Feliks Banel's guest on this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY is Jason Miller, publisher and editor of The CONCRETE HERALD newspaper in Concrete, Washington. Miller provides an update on a debate in Concrete about the future of the office building of the old Superior Cement Company, a historic structure on the west end of Concrete just north of State Route 20. A private business operator wants...