Soundside

A disturbing image shared by Senator Patty Murray has been reverberating across the internet.  It shows a man’s torso, his right side covered in wounds - lacerations, scratch marks, bite marks - after he was mauled by an immigration agent’s canine. Blood splatters the sheets below him. The man, Wilmer Toledo-Martinez of Vancouver, Washington, was detained outside his home last mon...

We could tell this next story with numbers. There is a lot of data.  But at its core: This is a story about Native American kids.  And how year after year, law enforcement and lawmakers in Olympia allow these children to be arrested and jailed at far higher rates than their white peers. Those experiences as children have lasting consequences well into adulthood.  State officials and...

It’s June 26th, 2020, and a group of protesters stands in the midst of the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest. They’re talking to another group of people, including a city employee, about city sanitation workers getting access to the area. Towards the front of the group stands a 16 year old boy, wearing a grey baseball cap, a hoodie, and a surgical mask. He taps a protest organizer’s...

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: Seattle Times city hall r...

GLP-1 drugs that are commonly used to treat diabetes and obesity, like Ozempic and Wegovy – are in big demand. And they’re going to be more affordable.  The Trump administration recently negotiated deals to lower the prices of these drugs. It seems like some details still need to be ironed out ….  but from the looks of it, many Americans who use Medicare will be able t...

It’s already the first weekend of December, and I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for some holiday cheer to lighten up these cold, rainy days. Thankfully, like Santa soaring past with his reindeer, here with all the stuff that’s worth doing this weekend is Soundside Producer Jason Megatron Burrows!! LINKS:  Year in Review 2025 | Town Hall Seattle WTO/99 - Northwest...

Shortly after the shooting of two national guard troops in Washington, D.C., the Trump Administration said it was pausing asylum decisions and halting visas for Afghan immigrants.  The alleged shooter is Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a Bellingham resident who came to the U.S. from Afghanistan in 2021. The motive for the attack is unknown. One victim – 20 year old Sarah Beckstrom – was kil...

Have you ever wanted a pet raccoon?  Well, here’s a possible sign that dream is slowly approaching:  a new study published in the journal Frontiers in Zoology suggests raccoons are getting closer to domestication.  The study is not definitive yet, and more research is required. But it all has to do with researchers observing a shorter snout on the animals we affectionately ref...

Seattle’s brand new Professional Women’s Hockey team, the newly christened Seattle Torrent , faces off against the New York Sirens tonight at Climate Pledge Arena…  Tonight’s game is the third ever for the team, and their growing fan base has both high hopes and big expectations as the season gets started. Soundside Producer Jason Burrows sat down with Libby Denkmann...

Twenty-six years ago, this week over 40,000 people came to Seattle to protest at the World Trade Organization's ministerial conference. Labor organizers, farmers, and environmental groups planned and executed peaceful action against what many saw as anti-democratic elements of the WTO, and the profound risks from the unfettered expansion of global trade.  At events from Memorial Stadium to th...

Some rare bipartisanship is emerging in congress: it focuses on questions about the legality of a September 2nd U.S. strike on a boat in the Caribbean. 11 people were killed, including two men who initially survived the first strike, but were killed by a follow-up attack. This operation was the start of a campaign of strikes the Trump Administration says it is waging to protect Americans from...

We have a new thing we’re trying out on Mondays on Soundside. We're calling it Front Page. 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 reporter Scott Greenstone. TODAY'S TOPICS: National Guard Sho...

Dr. Robert Jones is the new president of our region’s largest educational and research hub. He took the helm at the University of Washington in August, and when we sat down recently, he shared a bit about his background and path to Seattle. Jones says his parents were sharecroppers farming peanuts and cotton in southwest Georgia. “Where most people would tell you the last thing you sho...

On the show today, we’re getting you ready for Thanksgiving leftovers with a little leftovers of our own. We’re pulling some of our favorite segments from Soundside past out of the fridge, and warming ‘em up for you. Up first: edible plants are all around us in the Pacific Northwest. We'll hear how one local author became obsessed with helping people identify tasty greens and sta...

This week we’re going back into the archives to dig up some of our favorite Soundside segments. And with Thanksgiving just days away, this episode is all about food and drink!  We'll revisit conversations we had this year on the trend of people drinking less alcohol these days....  .... The sweet apple variety that has left a bitter taste in some farmers’ mouths (spoiler: it'...

This week, we’re re-airing some of our favorite stories from the past year.  First up on today's show: The Seattle Torrent played their very first professional women’s hockey game on Friday night, but before they even had a name, we talked with their General Manager Meghan Turner about bringing the team to the city. Later, we’ll play an interview with the author of the liter...

A big controversy is gripping many Washington towns right now: automated license plate readers. Flock Safety, a technology and surveillance company, operates cameras in cities and counties across the nation.  Those license plate readers take pictures of vehicles and their license plates – pictures that can be used by police to solve crimes.  But questions about who has access to th...

Yes, turkey is an iconic centerpiece. But it’s a challenge.  Turkeys take hours to cook (let alone, defrost!). The results can be dry, flavorless slabs of meat.  If you believe online discourse , a growing number of bold omnivores are calling it quits on Thanksgiving turkey.  And from an animal welfare perspective, there’s a lot of waste and carnage associated with "the...

On Monday, Representative Marie Gluesenkamp Perez stood on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives and fought her own party. The subject of the disagreement? Whether or not a fellow Democratic member of congress, Chuy Garcia of Illinois, had crossed ethical lines and rigged the 2026 election for his chief of staff. By, among other things, announcing his retirement after the filing deadline....

While it has been so nice being back behind the microphone this week after a little time off, we’ve got Thanksgiving ahead of us!  And since we won’t have a show NEXT Thursday, Soundside Producer Jason Megatron Burrows is doing double duty this week with an extra large Weekend Warmup… THIS WEEK: Seattle Christmas Market Julefest 21+ Night Market Renegade Craft Fair - Seattl...

In the week since Katie Wilson officially became Seattle’s mayor-elect, there have suddenly been a lot of think pieces about her from the national press. Editorial boards at the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal have taken a certain “doom mongering” stance on another socialist winning office. The President of the United States added his two cents, and called her a communist...

Earlier this year, researchers at the University of Washington published a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on the spotted ratfish, sometimes called a ghost shark.  It’s one of the most common fish you’ll find in the Puget Sound and it has teeth in an unexpected place. The study’s authors say that, not only is this unusual, but it also tells us so...

Air traffic controllers are getting paid again, now that the longest government shutdown in U.S. history is over. Air traffic controllers dominated headlines during the shutdown as they continued to work their stressful jobs without pay. Some of them took on side gigs to make up for lost income. And as the shutdown dragged on, controller shortages led to flight delays and cancellations around...

If you purchased or rode an e-bike in the last 10 years, there’s a good chance it was a Rad Power Bike.  The company, based in Seattle, was one of the first to popularize e-bikes with the general public, and grew to be the largest electric bike company in North America. But now, the company is on the brink of collapse. A spokesperson told Geekwire last week that Rad faces potential clos...

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. Thous...