Cascade of History

Feliks Banel's guests on this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY are Lisa Renouard, Lecturer at the University of Washington Architecture Department and Associate at Olson Kundig Architects in Seattle, and the architecture students in a class Ms. Renouard is teaching Spring Quarter 2026. The students have created and are continuing to add to an exhibit called "CITY ERASED: Mapping Seattle's Highw...

Feliks Banel's guest on this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY is David Nicandri, retired longtime director of the Washington State Historical Society, and prolific author on the era of explorers and exploration. For anyone who's ever wondered about the Missouri River and its impact on Pacific Northwest (or "Old Oregon Country") history, David Nicandri fills in the gaps, connects the dots and pr...

Feliks Banel's guests on this LIVE BROADCAST of CASCADE OF HISTORY include Bob Antone, Snoqualmie Valley-based musician, artist and UFO/UAP scholar and Steve Edmiston, "Maury Island Incident" filmmaker on last week's government release of UFO/UAP documents; and Kevin Arnold, who recently digitized a treasure trove of audio recordings of "Northwest Barn Dance," a radio program broadcast live from n...

Feliks Banel's guests on this LIVE BROADCAST of CASCADE OF HISTORY include David Jepsen, author of the new novel "Unbelonging" about post-WWII Seattle; author David Norman Lewis on his new non-fiction history book "The Burning of Moses Seattle," about the death of Chief Seattle's grandson in 1905; and listener memories of Expo '86, the Vancouver, BC world's fair which kicked off 40 years ago this...

Feliks Banel's guest on this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY is Barbara Swift of Gas Works Park Alliance with an update on the demolition currently underway at historic Gas Works Park in Seattle, and ongoing frustration with documents prepared by Seattle Parks and Recreation. Demolition began on Tuesday, April 28, 2026 with a ladder and cage being removed from one of the west towers just befor...

Feliks Banel's guest on this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY is Sam Litzinger, longtime radio journalist who spent many years at the CBS Radio Network, and who happens to be an accomplished radio historian as well. Sam Litzinger grew up in Titusville, Pennsylvania and took his first job in radio at age 16 at a local station. He went on to a long career as a radio journalist, and someone who to...

Feliks Banel's guest on this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY is Barbara Swift of Gas Works Park Alliance with an update on plans by the City of Seattle to begin demolishing and removing portions of the historic "cracking towers" at the landmark park. This conversation was recorded on the evening of Wednesday, April 22, 2026. A visit to Gas Works Park earlier this afternoon revealed no apparent...

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel digs into the audio archives for his interview from October 28, 2020 with Kathi Rennaker, spokesperson for Tacoma-based Brown & Haley, longtime local makers of Almond Roca and Mountain Bars. On Tuesday, April 21, 2026, the Seattle Times reported that Brown and Haley has officially merged with its “longtime import and distribution partner in...

Feliks Banel's guests on this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY are Elke Hautala and Cari Simson of Invisible Histories, a group that produces a monthly podcast and a series of history-themed performance events around Puget Sound. The pair spoke with CASCADE OF HISTORY on Monday, April 20, 2026 to share some of their origin story, as well as preview an event called “History Comes Alive at Harbor...

Feliks Banel's guests on this special LIVE REMOTE BROADCAST of CASCADE OF HISTORY from in front of the soon-to-be-fully-open Burgermaster in Issaquah, Washington include the folk duo Larkwing (featuring Andrew and Bee); Alex Jensen, CEO of Burgermaster; Corby Casler, executive director of the Downtown Issaquah Association; Paul Winterstein of Issaquah History Museums; Hannah Rudin, board member of...

Feliks Banel's guest on this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY is John R. Dichtl, President & CEO of the American Association for State and Local History. On April 16, 2026, the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) announced the History & Democracy Initiative (HDI), an effort to help mobilize museums and historical societies to play a more intentional and robust role in putti...

Feliks Banel's guest on this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY is Eugenia Woo, Director of Preservation Services for the non-profit preservation group Historic Seattle. An article in the Seattle Times on Monday, April 13, 2026 by Catalina Gaitán ("Seattle officials seek permit to fix Gas Works Park ‘hazard’") characterizes a move made by the City of Seattle Department of Construction and Inspect...

Feliks Banel's guests on this LIVE BROADCAST of CASCADE OF HISTORY include Baxter Brugos and Phil Duff of Seattle's Save Russell House grassroots preservation group with a preview of a public meeting being held by the Seattle Department of Construction & Inspections on Tuesday, April 21, 2026; Dylan High of the Washington State Historical Society with information about the "Saving Local History Ro...

Feliks Banel's guests on this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY – originally broadcast LIVE from the Museum of Vancouver in Vancouver, British Columbia in April 2025 in the early days of the Trump Administration’s trade war on Canada – include Vivianne Gosselin, director of the museum; Coll Thrush, University of British Columbia (UBC) professor and author of "Wrecked: Unsettling Histories from t...

Feliks Banel's guests on this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY – originally broadcast LIVE from the 2024 First World Flight Centennial Celebration at Magnuson Park - include guest co-host and aviation historian Lee Corbin; Elisa Law of Friends of Magnuson Park; General Frank Goodell of the Centennial Committee; and longtime Lake Washington underwater explorer and aviation historian Matt McCaule...

Feliks Banel's guests on this SPECIAL BROADCAST of CASCADE OF HISTORY include Heather Bosch, Tim Haeck, Gregg Hersholt, Steve Knight, Andy Ludlum and Dave Ross. The group gathered to hold a wake - or "celebration of life" - for CBS Radio News, which will shutdown for good after May 22, 2026. Each member of the panel - an "AUDIO MOUNT RUSHMORE" for many longtime radio listeners - has decades of exp...

Feliks Banel's guest on this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY is Ruth Leonard of Lacey, Washington - the granddaughter of Mabel of Lebam. Ruth's grandmother's full name was Mabel Pearl Goodell Thompson. Mabel's father, Jotham Goodell founded the community of Half Moon, in what's now Pacific County along Highway 6, about midway between the communities of Frances and Holcomb . When the US Post Of...

Feliks Banel's guest on this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY is Michelle Plumb, Secretary/Treasurer of the Washtucna Heritage Museum and Community Center in Washtucna, Washington. The non-profit group is owner and steward of the historic 1901 Bassett Hardware Building, which was donated to them in 2018. On Monday, March 30, 2026, the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation announced that th...

Feliks Banel's guest on this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY is civic leader Karen Munro Ellick. March 2026 marks the 50th anniversary of a violent orca capture Ms. Munro Ellick witnessed in Budd Inlet near Olympia, Washington with her then-husband Ralph Munro, future five-term Washington Secretary of State. It was a momentous occasion that changed history, and a special online commemoration p...

Feliks Banel's guests on this LIVE BROADCAST of CASCADE OF HISTORY include Kate Burrows of Save Crown Hill Cemetery with the latest on the group's effort to protect a longtime cemetery in Seattle - including a public meeting taking place online on Monday, Aprii 6, 2026 which will be convened by the City of Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections; retired longtime journalist Steve Knight...

Feliks Banel’s guest on this BONUS ENCORE EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY is Bob Blackburn, Jr., son of legendary "Voice of the Sonics" Bob Blackburn. The NBA Board of Governors voted Wednesday, March 25, 2026 to “explore” expanding the league to Las Vegas and Seattle. Explore? Really? EX-PLORE?!?! The original Sonics left Seattle in 2008 and became the OKC Thunder. Anyhow, despite the NBA's goofy w...

Feliks Banel's guest on this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY is Andrew Smalldon, Education Technician at the Bureau of Land Management's Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area near Newport, Oregon. Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area is operated by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and is open to visitors year-round. It features the tallest historic lighthouse on the Oregon Coast, an interp...

On this BONUS ENCORE EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel speaks with three-term Republican former Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed about the history and origins of voting by mail in Washington state. This conversation was recorded in September 2025. Secretary Reed was in office from 2001 to 2013, and previously served as the elected auditor of Thurston County. In this earlier role, h...

Feliks Banel's guests on this special LIVE REMOTE BROADCAST of CASCADE OF HISTORY from historic Fort Steilacoom in Pierce County, Washington include Walter Neary, board secretary, and Claire Keller-Scholz, board president, of Historic Fort Steilacoom Association, on the history of the fort; Lt. Colonel Erik Flint, president of the Friends of Lewis Army Museum at JBLM on the recent reversal by the...

Feliks Banel's guest on this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY is Chuck Taylor, longtime Pacific Northwest journalist for The Seattle Times, Seattle Weekly, Everett Herald and other newspapers and radio stations. Chuck Taylor recently shared images on Facebook from a hitchhiking trip he took to Washington's Olympic Peninsula in 1976 as a student at Whitman College in Walla Walla. CASCADE OF HIST...