Soundside

In 2019, the remote plains of Harney County, Oregon made national news. Scattered amongst groves of ponderosa pine were a handful of mutilated cattle. The cows had an almost surgical removal of their tongues and other organs. But the most astounding thing is that the scenes where these cattle were found were pristine. No tracks. And not one drop of blood – the carcasses were drained dry.&nbs...

Universities, cancer centers and hospitals will soon go under the knife, if the Trump Administration gets its way. Last Friday, the National Institutes of Health announced they would immediately slash four billion dollars of funding for research institutes across the country.  This would directly impact at least 70 research facilities in Washington State.  Critics of the plan have said i...

It’s Valentine’s Day weekend,  So if you’re looking for a great idea for something to do with your sweetie, OR you just want to avoid the love-birds as much as possible, Soundside Producer Jason Megatron Burrows has you covered…  EVENTS: Wonderland Gear Exchange — Pitch-A-Trailmate Psychic Medium: Travis Holp FUN & FLIRTY - The Crocodile Science After D...

On the campaign trail last year, Dave Upthegrove promised that if elected to Commissioner of Public Lands, he would preserve forests starting on day one.  Well, Upthegrove is now in charge of the state’s Department of Natural Resources – sworn in last month – and he held true to his promise. On Jan. 15 – day one – Upthegrove announced he would be pausing log...

The Urban Raptor Conservancy's Ed Deal and Patti Loesche are running a decades long study on the population health of Cooper's Hawks in Seattle. What does that involve? Spending a lot of time looking for and observing the city's hawks. This piece originally aired in October of 2024. Guests: Patti Loesche, co founder of the Urban Raptor Conservancy Ed Deal, co founder of the Urban Raptor Conservanc...

Have you tucked into a romance novel lately? If not, you might be in the minority of readers. Romance sales are soaring. Last year, they grew twice as fast as the rest of the fiction market. In the past, the genre’s commercial value was widely accepted - romance books have always been big sellers. But now, its literary merit is being recognized, too. So this Valentine’s Day, there&rsqu...

Local author David B. Williams’  Seattle Walks: Discovering History and Nature in the City leads readers through loops and one-way strolls, traversing terrain ranging pockets of downtown, to North and West Seattle.  Each walk tells a story, exploring how Seattle came to be the city it is today through both big and small details. But in the years since it was first published in 2017...

The Trump Administration’s moves to downsize the federal workforce and reshape agencies around the president’s “America First” agenda are repeatedly running into stop signs as challenges to these policies hit the courts.  But at least one federal judge says it’s not playing out that way in the case he’s overseeing – the Administration is not fully com...

For years, Grant County sat on enough clean hydroelectricity to power more than a million homes. Then came the tech companies, interested in the cheap and plentiful electricity. They built data centers all over rural Washington to help fuel the modern internet. The data centers use so much energy that in the next few years, Washington state could struggle to keep up with local electricity needs.&n...

A growing body of research shows that cell phones inhibit learning and distract students in class. But should they be banned in schools? It’s a question that districts across Washington state are struggling with.  Last year State Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal issued guidance that basically said… yes. It  encouraged districts statewide to adopt policies t...

Mark Solomon might be a new name to you. But it’s time to get to know him if you live in Seattle. Because last month, he was appointed to fill the District 2 seat on the City Council.  He’s taking over from Tammy Morales, who stepped down in January - two years before the end of her term.  After five rounds of voting, Solomon beat out six other finalists for the seat. He will...

Residents of Altadena, California are facing difficult choices in the wake of the devastating Eaton fire, which started just over a month ago in the foothills northeast of Los Angeles. Rebuild, or sell their properties to developers and leave the neighborhood?  Angela King is KUOW’s host of Morning Edition, and she grew up in Altadena..  She recently took a trip back to her hometow...

For over 50 years, the little theater at the corner of 50th & University Way has been showing movies to passionate filmgoers. And in that span, it’s changed owners, it was renamed, and for the past 20 years, has been the longest running completely volunteer run cinema in the country. But like all good things, the Grand Illusion’s time at its current location has come to an end. The...

He just may be the most celebrated travel writer and show host of our time.  When he’s not touring the hidden gems of Europe, Rick Steves spends a lot of his days in Edmonds, his hometown since he was 12. Did you know he was in the Husky marching band in college?  Steves may not have known back then that he would dedicate his life to travel writing, but there were hints. One was a...

U.S. foreign aid is in the crosshairs of the Trump administration. Workers at USAID woke up on Wednesday to an order putting nearly all personnel of the foreign assistance agency on administrative leave starting Friday. This follows a day-one executive order by the President to “reevaluate” foreign aid the United States sends so that it aligns with his “America First” agend...

After just a few years on the market, a new wave of GLP-1 drugs approved for weight loss have upended what we know about obesity. By now, these are household names: Mounjaro. Wegovy. Zepbound… and yes, Ozempic. A Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that one in 8 American adults reported trying a GLP-1 medication . “Body by Ozempic” has become a punchline on red carpets. Doc...

On Tuesday the Senate Finance Committee voted to move forward with Robert F Kennedy Jr.’s nomination for Secretary of Health and Human Services.  His nomination now heads to the Senate floor, where he’s expected to be confirmed.  As the secretary of the HHS, Kennedy would have oversight over 11 agencies including the FDA, the CDC and the National Institutes of Health. Kennedy...

The United States is drastically retooling its foreign aid to meet a new presidential administration's “America First” goals. The State Department will reportedly absorb the foreign aid agency USAID, which is also a target of Elon Musk’s government efficiency agency, DOGE. Democrats say this move by the Trump Administration is illegal and unconstitutional and congress would need...

The threat of a trade war against the United States' nearest neighbors is off for now. Last week President Donald Trump said he was placing a 25% tariff on goods from North American trading partners Mexico and Canada. In an executive order, Trump said he was using the United States’ economic leverage to push the countries into better border enforcement. He also said he was seeking to balance...

When Brian Niccol took the helm as CEO of Starbucks last fall, his mandate was to reverse a decline in customer traffic.  He’s been rolling out changes in recent weeks. Niccol announced last month that the coffee chain would be reversing its open-door policy as part of something called the “Coffee House Code of Conduct.” That means no more sitting on the coffee house Wi...

In his storied career, Paul Tazewell has dressed American revolutionaries, a scarecrow and a tinman, and witches with a penchant for pink and green. It’s hard to list all the projects the award-winning costume designer has been responsible for on Broadway, but here’s a sample:  Bring in Da Noise, Bring in Da Funk, The Color Purple musical, In The Heights, and Hamilton, for which h...

Shon Barnes stepped into the role last week, officially taking the reins from interim Chief Sue Rahr. Barnes was previously the Chief of Police in Madison, Wisconsin. You may have seen him on the news late last year, when a shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School in Madison thrust the community, and its police department, into the spotlight. In Madison, Barnes was known for his advocacy for...

For decades, the Hanford Site in central Washington produced plutonium for the United States’ nuclear arsenal. But since its operations were shuttered, starting in the 1960s, the site has become an ongoing headache for regulators in charge of cleaning up its radioactive waste.  Today, there are 177 underground storage tanks housing 56 million gallons of the country’s most toxic ra...

The weekend is tantalizingly close to being a reality, only a FEW hours away... So, why not get started making plans RIGHT NOW!? Fortunately, Soundside Producer Jason Megatron Burrows is here as usual to give you a sneak peek at what's happening around town! LINKS: 5th Annual Fremont Soupocalypse - Thursday through Sunday Fatlesque Fest NW - Thursday through Saturday at the Triple Door Strange Bre...

Sue Rahr’s tenure as Seattle’s Chief of Police is coming to an end. The interim chief took over the office during a rocky moment for SPD: she inherited a police officer staffing crisis and a workplace where senior staff had filed legal complaints over their treatment, alleging discrimination and sexism on the job .  Rahr’s appointment to the position happened the same week,...