Soundside

Huckleberries appear in any number of Northwest products like ice cream, syrups, jams, teas, pies, tinctures, and vodka, but they are incredibly difficult to grow on farms.  Instead, huckleberries grow at high elevations in fields, and are found mostly in forests that have recently burned.  Native people have been picking huckleberries for generations and huckleberry harvests in the moun...

The Washington state House on Tuesday approved $100 million in funding aimed at helping local police departments hire more officers.  House Bill 2015 aligns with Governor Bob Ferguson’s priorities, and he’s threatened to torpedo any state budget that doesn’t include increased police funding.  It’s been a contentious budget cycle in Olympia. The state’s facin...

Behold the Rain-beers, a herd of giant bottles with human legs galloping majestically across the Cascade foothills.  This motif was part advertisement, part cinema — the brainchildren of Heckler Associates, a local ad agency that made Rainier Beer’s personality and brand into the stuff of Seattle legend.  Today Rainier is no longer an entirely local product — it’s...

The government’s about to run out of money. There’s an ongoing, multi-fronted showdown in the courts over who has the power to cut federal spending after it’s been appropriated. And also a little bit of a trade war brewing with new U.S. tariffs on Canadian steel just announced. Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal shares her view from the House of Representatives with Soundside. *Note:...

On March 10, 2025, Soundside aired a segment about a high number of deaths among people detained at the South Correctional Entity, commonly known as SCORE. After it aired, our staff was contacted by a SCORE official, who objected to two claims made in our broadcast.  One, was an assertion that reports regarding unexpected fatalities that occurred at the facility were not posted within the req...

Artificial intelligence is starting to underpin everything we do, whether we like it or not. And at the highest levels, companies like Google and Open AI are saying their AI is on the verge of crossing a humanlike threshold that we’ve only seen in science fiction. This is prompting all kinds of conversations about sentience and the possible dangers of a superintelligent computer system.&nbsp...

It’s the end of the week for us here at Soundside, and we’ve been making our weekend plans.  That means if you’re searching for something to keep you occupied this weekend, you’re in the right place.  Soundside Producer Jason Megatron Burrows is here in the nick of time to give you all the highlights. LINKS: Emerald City Comic Con Sequim Sunshine Festival Penn Cov...

70,000. That’s the number of jobs the Department of Veterans Affairs will cut over the next six months. This comes from an internal VA memo leaked to the public this week. It’s the latest in a series of mass layoffs conducted by the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. In a video released yesterday, VA Secretary Doug Collins said that the changes are necessary to make the depa...

In the 1980s, Seattle's music scene was hooked on disco. The success of "Saturday Night Fever" meant venues opted for groovy vinyl over live band performances, and songs like Chic's "Good Times" were on constant rotation. That made room for a similar but modified version of the song's simple breakbeat by a group called The Sugarhill Gang, who quickly brought "rapping" to a nationwide audience. As...

Surge pricing. When there is a lot of demand for rideshares, fares can double or triple their usual rate – or even more.  But a first-of-its-kind bill is looking to slow the surge in Washington State. SB 5600 would cap surge pricing and make sure drivers get more of a share of those extra dollars.  The bill was inspired by the expected flood of attendees Seattle will be handling du...

On Sunday, comedian Bowen Yang joined other actors onstage at the Academy Awards, dressed in his costume from the movie 'Wicked' -- to praise the artist who dreamed it up. It’s hard to list all the projects the award-winning costume designer Paul Tazewell has been responsible for on Broadway, but here’s a sample:  Bring in Da Noise, Bring in Da Funk, The Color Purple musical, In T...

President Trump will address a joint session of congress tonight – it is his first major speech since his inauguration.  Washington Democrats have been reeling since he took office a month and a half ago. The latest issue they are sounding the alarm on is tariffs: taxes on Mexican and Canadian goods went into effect this morning. President Trump ordered a 25% tax levied on foreign goods...

The Democratic Republic of Congo is a country in the center of Africa. It’s home to spectacular things, like: a majority of the Congo Basin rainforest, the second largest in the world, with magnificent flora and fauna found nowhere else on earth, and a population of one hundred million people belonging to 250 ethnic groups who speak more than 200 languages. The country also has an estimated...

As a Mariner’s fan, it’s tradition to quibble with offseason moves.  But there has been ONE personnel change that the majority of longtime fans are cheering. Not on the field, mind you… but in the Broadcast booth.  Angie Mentink is joining a roster of former players providing color commentary during TV broadcasts, becoming the first woman in Mariners history to have th...

How much will Seattle change under the Trump administration? And what options does the city have to keep the policies it prioritizes? The city depends on the feds for millions of dollars in funding -- impacting services like transportation, law enforcement and emergency preparedness. Threats to cut off federal grants have left some local politicians considering how to prepare for an uncertain futu...

There is a lot going on in D.C. right now, and elected officials are working overtime to negotiate ahead of a looming government shutdown deadline. As the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee and the senior senator from Washington state, Senator Patty Murray is leading the charge on funding negotiations.  At the same time, budget talks are happening about how much the federal g...

Clad in a big, bulky menswear suit, “Julia” Mozhdeh Rahmanzaei stomps around the stage at the Theater off Jackson in Seattle’s Chinatown International District.  She glares over a fake beard, holding audience members’ gazes, and shakes the program for this very play in one hand. The actor and playwright is channeling the censorship she experienced in her home coun...

It’s the end of the week, the sun is shining, and maybe you’re thinking “I’m ready to get out there and explore! Meet new people, make new friends… at least until it starts raining again.”   Well, rain or shine - If you’re searching for something to keep you occupied this weekend, you’re in the right place.  Soundside Producer Jason M...

Seattle Public Schools is considering closing Stevenson Elementary School amid declining enrollment.  One longtime parent there is pushing back and trying to change its name to better reflect the school’s Japanese-American history.  That’s the kind of opening line you might hear on Soundside if the events of the book Supersonic were real. The book is fiction, but it reflects...

What do The Brutalist, Emilia Pérez, Dune Part II, and A Complete Unknown have in common? Yes, they’re all films nominated for Oscars at this Sunday’s ceremony. But they share something else – all of these films used Artificial Intelligence tools in some form during production. For the Brutalist and Emilia Pérez, AI was employed to alter actor’s voices wh...

Earlier this year Edmonds state Representative Strom Peterson put forward a bill to potentially change the state’s flag.  HB 1938 would have created a committee tasked with redesigning the Washington’s iconic green and yellow banner – which is the only one with a presidential profile on it. According to the bill’s language, the due date for a new design would be someti...

Imagine if, after being convicted of a crime as an adult, you were forced to serve additional time for crimes you committed as a minor. That is the reality for many incarcerated people in Washington state.  You might remember hearing about the passing of a state law back in 2023 that prevented people’s juvenile felonies from increasing their sentence terms as an adult. Well, that bill h...

Have you checked your mail today? It’s that special time, every two years, when Seattleites get 100 bucks from the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission. I’m talking about democracy vouchers! That money’s not for you, though. It’s for political candidates you want to support in November’s election.  And it’s a big one: Not only is the Mayor up for reelect...

Washington State Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal has made clear he has no intention of changing course based on one of the new directives from the Trump Administration. Earlier this month, the Department of Education issued a so-called Dear Colleague letter, which stated that any institutions receiving federal funds from that Department would be required to eliminate all race-ba...

Today marks the third anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. More than 500 Ukrainians and supporters gathered this weekend in Downtown Seattle to show solidarity and share their fears about Ukraine’s future. The third anniversary of the war comes as President Donald Trump has mused over upending America’s commitment to Ukraine’s defense. U.S and Russian officials met in...