Soundside

It has been three days since the United States captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in an audacious military raid.  It was a sudden and intense escalation of an ongoing campaign by the United States to oust Maduro. Maduro, and his wife Cilia Flores, appeared in a Manhattan court yesterday in an arraignment hearing over drug trafficking and weapons charges. Those charges were ce...

Being a movie buff in Seattle feels a little… unsettled right now. That’s because there’s been a lot of changes at SIFF, the Seattle International Film Festival, which has been the vanguard when it comes to all things movies. The organization announced Monday, it was undergoing an organizational restructuring, including some layoffs. This follows a somewhat tumultuous year for S...

There are plenty of headwinds affecting affordable housing construction and maintenance right now. Building costs are going up, and federal funding is uncertain. Affordable housing providers in Seattle and beyond have struggled as COVID-era rent subsidies disappeared. Colleen Echohawk has been thinking about these issues a lot. She is the new CEO of Community Roots Housing, a Public Development Au...

Every Monday on Soundside we catch you up on the top stories that are fascinating right now – and what they say about the Pacific Northwest. It’s our chance to talk about the latest news with a rotation of plugged-in journalists and guests, taking a look at the headlines from the weekend and the stories that we'll be following as the week moves forward. Guest: Geekwire contributing edi...

It’s New Year’s Eve. At midnight, many of us will be raising glasses, kissing loved ones, and trying to remember the words to “Auld Lang Syne.”  That song, if you don’t recall, begins with a question: “Should old acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind?”  We here at Soundside say, NO! We will remember.  This year, we brought on a co...

This week, we’re revisiting some of our favorite segments of the year.  And today, we're talking about transit. And translators.  A now-former King County Metro Bus driver tells us what passengers should know when they ride the bus. But more importantly, we got some insight into why the 8 in downtown Seattle is so often called the late bus. Plus, we sat down with a Seattle-based tr...

It’s the holidays and, to round out 2025, the Soundside team is sharing some of our favorite conversations we had on the show this year. For this episode, we devoted the entire hour to a conversation we originally aired last month on Bruce Lee.   This year, author Jeff Chang published an in-depth biography on Lee’s life. It's called “Water Mirror Echo: Bruce Lee and the...

Christmas Eve begins our holiday break here on Soundside. We’re taking some time off to enjoy the holidays with our friends and family… or to just eat lots of good food while staying indoors. But we’ve still got plenty of jam packed shows ready for you. Today - we’re focusing on local businesses here in the Pacific Northwest. RELATED LINKS: A tech startup helping the visua...

A lot has changed during Sara Nelson’s time in Seattle government. She was a centrist outlier on a progressive city council when she was first elected in 2021. But the dynamics changed: Nelson became the center of power, and ended up running the show as council president, after a moderate slate of candidates swept the 2023 election.  She helped oversee pandemic-era recovery, worked with...

Every Monday on Soundside we catch you up on the top stories that are fascinating right now – and what they say about the Pacific Northwest. It’s our chance to talk about the latest news with a rotation of plugged-in journalists and guests, taking a look at the headlines from the weekend and the stories that we'll be following as the week moves forward. GUEST: Former KIRO-FM host Dave...

The holidays: a time to gather with friends and family, to enjoy one another’s company as we light candles or sit by a tree and contemplate the year’s passing. It’s also a time to argue with said friends and family about some really dumb stuff. Is Die Hard a holiday movie? Should Mariah Carey officially be crowned “Queen of Christmas?” Has there ever been a good Hanuk...

Seattle may have to say goodbye to a longstanding vintage shop in the new year.  Red Light Vintage & Costume sits in the heart of the University District. It has been a fixture in Seattle’s fashion scene since it opened in the mid 90s. Now the shop could close because owner Niz Marar is retiring. He’s hoping to sell the business before his lease expires at the end of January....

There are only a few weeks left in 2025. That means for those of you who resolved, at the beginning of the year, to do more reading — it's crunch time.  Did you actually put down your phone long enough to get through a book this year? It's not too late.  Many great books came out this year. If you need suggestions for something to read or to give to someone who really ought to be r...

The end of the year is just around the corner, and with the next two Thursdays each being holidays, this is the final Weekend Warmup of the Year! LINKS: TNF! Seahawks vs Rams Thurs 12/18 The 29th Annual Model Train Festival - Washington State Historical Society Opens Fri 12/19 - runs through Jan 1, 2026 2025 Winter Beer Fest – WA Brewers Guild   Fri/Sat - 12/19-20 Hell’s Belles at...

Skagit County has been hit by multiple waves of catastrophic flooding over the past week.    Amid the devastation, there is a bright spot: A floodwall in Mount Vernon successfully held off the Skagit River as it rose to a record 37.7 feet . That floodwall only exists because it sits in an area determined by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to be at highest risk of flooding.&n...

Approximately 10,000 people are still under evacuation notice after multiple levee failures across Western Washington. In King County: flood controls have breached in the last 48 hours. As of this morning, residents in the city of Pacific, east of Tacoma, are under a "go now" evacuation order after a flood control breach on the nearby White River. A levee was breached yesterday in Tukwila and Kent...

The Department of Homeland Security may be shifting its approach to deportation flights by ICE.  According to reporting by the Washington Post, DHS recently signed a contract to purchase six Boeing 737 planes. Currently, ICE primarily uses charter planes for deportations. This purchase suggests the agency has plans to expand its capacity to deport people using its own fleet. What implications...

Every Monday on Soundside we catch you up on the top stories that are fascinating right now – and what they say about the Pacific Northwest. It’s our chance to talk about the latest news with a rotation of plugged-in journalists and guests, taking a look at the headlines from the weekend and the stories that we'll be following as the week moves forward. GUEST: KUOW Politics Editor Cat...

It’s been a busy year for the Seattle Police Department.  A new chief was sworn in, the longstanding federal consent decree ended and the city reached a new contract with the Seattle Police Officers Guild that changes how it can approach unarmed crisis response. Plus, a new mayor will take office in January. Mayor-elect Katie Wilson announced this week that she planned to retain Seattle...

Catastrophic flooding continues to threaten Washington.  Around 100,000 people in Western Washington have been advised to evacuate.  Hundreds of Washington National Guard members have been tapped to help with response efforts. And Gov. Ferguson declared a statewide emergency in response to the flooding.  We talked to three KUOW reporters about what they're seeing on the ground and w...

Hey Soundside Listeners! Because our entire show was focused on flood coverage with the Governor's press conference, and live conversations with KUOW reporters Joshua McNichols, John Ryan, and Casey Martin, we decided to skip the Weekend Warmup on the air this week, and drop it here on the podcast feed instead. Stay safe, check KUOW.org for updates, and look in on your neighbors.  With that s...

At 38 years old, Girmay Zahilay is King County’s youngest-ever executive. He’s coming in after the long tenure of his predecessor Dow Constantine, who ran the county for nearly 16 years. Zahilay was sworn in early to replace the temporary acting executive who’s been in charge since Constantine stepped down in March. He says he’s ready to “ completely change ” th...

On Wednesday morning, we spoke with the mayor of Auburn and the city manager in Carnation about flooding in their cities and what they expect to happen next. GUESTS: Nancy Backus, mayor of Auburn, WA Rhonda Ender, city manager, Carnation, WA RELATED LINKS:  ‘Catastrophic’ flooding expected in King, Snohomish, Skagit counties -The Seattle Times Western Washington faces 'catastrophi...

Washington, like the entire country, has been hit hard by fentanyl.  So far this year, King County has recorded more than 650 overdose deaths involving the synthetic opioid, which can be 50 times stronger than heroin .  650 is a devastating number but it’s actually down from a peak in 2023, when more than 1,000 people died from fentanyl-related overdoses in the county. The dro...

For weeks, King County homelessness service providers have been staring down a majorly disruptive change to how they currently operate.  The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development said in November that it intended to redirect billions of dollars in grants that house homeless people. This was in line with President Trump’s rejection of “housing first,” the practi...