Soundside – Details, episodes & analysis

At the turn of the 20th century, Asahel Curtis was a prolific photographer who traveled throughout Washington. His work captured the state as it underwent big changes, owing to rapid industrialization. For decades, a massive collection of Asahel’s glass plate negatives has been held at the Washington State Historical Society in Tacoma.

The plates, however, are aging. In the 1980s, historians and staff were able to digitize around 3,000 of his most essential photographs. That left about 58,000 to go. Now, thanks to renewed interest and funding, historians are working on preserving the rest of the Curtis images.  

Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/soundsidenotes

Soundside is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network. 

Guests:

• Margaret Wetherbee, Head of Collections at the Washington State Historical Society

Recommended Links:

• Asahel Curtis Collection - Washington State Historical Society (washingtonhistory.org)
• ASAHEL: The Curtis Collection | Cascade PBS

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If someone asked you to name three Rock musicians that are Black, could you?

Some people might be able to, but in general there aren’t a lot of them.

This is despite the fact that the genre traces its roots back to Black blues, gospel, and rhythm and blues artists in the United States. The rock music industry and academic scholarship of the genre instead tend to focus on white voices. That’s according to research from the University of Ottawa. 

Cameron Lavi-Jones says that’s part of what inspired him to create the band King Youngblood, which he fronts. It’s also why, along with co-founder Anthony Briscoe, Lavi-Jones created Black & Loud Fest.

The Fest celebrates Black-fronted bands - especially those in genres that don’t  typically feature many Black performers.

And it’s returning to Seattle for its third year: next Saturday, September 14th at the Crocodile.

Guests:

• Cameron Lavi-Jones, frontman of King Youngblood, and co-founder of Black & Loud Fest

Relevant Links:

• Black & Loud Fest Website

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Last year, the Yakima City Council made a landmark decision by passing a proclamation to designate the month of June as LGBTQ+ Pride month. 

Less than a year later, the council voted to reverse that decision. 

The move was celebrated by far right religious leaders like Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk and Sean Feucht, who took to X to applaud the decision. 

And while pride celebrations defiantly went on in the city, it’s raised a lot of concerns about the ties between public officials and prominent Christian Nationalist figures. 

GUESTS: 

• Mai Hoang - Central and Eastern Washington reporter for Cascade PBS.
• Dominick Bonny - investigative journalist based in Wenatchee.

RELATED LINK: “Under God: How Christianity Permeates Yakima City Politics.”

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For many Washington students, and parents, the school year is just about to start - if it hasn’t already.

And they're not the only ones gearing up for the new year. Teachers and school staff are about to step into a new year with all sorts of new questions about how their respective school systems will be run.

So, we wanted to check in with a panel of education experts, to hear about how they’re preparing for both an incoming class  of students, and the realities of working in the Washington education system right now.

Guests:

• Ibijoke Idowu, a special education teacher with Seattle Public Schools

• Hilda Lail, Vancouver Public Schools Bilingual Family and Community Engagement Partnership Coordinator

• Julianna Dauble, president of the Renton Education Association

Relevant Links:

• Cell Phone and Smart Device Use in Schools - OSPI
• SPS, city of Seattle announce safety plan before new school year - Seattle Times
• Seattle school closures: Why almost every student would be affected - Seattle Times
• More school resource officers coming to Renton - Kent Reporter

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Earlier this month, City of Seattle workers were told most of them will have to return to the office at least 3 days a week starting this fall. Meanwhile… a certain large tech and online retail company (named after a river in South America) has reportedly started a mulling the minimum number of hours employees must stay on site to count towards its three day in-office mandate.

These changes had us wondering – is remote work gradually eroding in the Puget Sound region?

One study looking at 2022 Census data found that a quarter of workers in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metro area worked at least part of the week remotely, away from the office.

But the past year has brought a lot of changes to employer policies around where employees have to put in their hours – and for policymakers, that’s coinciding with concern about the lasting effects of remote work on Seattle’s struggling downtown core. 

For a vibe check on remote work and what the numbers tell us about its effects on Seattle, Soundside host Libby Denkmann caught up with Tracy Hadden Loh, fellow at the Brookings Institute, and Joshua McNichols, growth and development reporter for KUOW and co-host of the "Booming" podcast.

Guests:

• Tracy Hadden Loh, fellow at the Brookings Institute in Washington, D.C.
• Joshua McNichols, growth and development reporter for KUOW and co-host of the "Booming" podcast.

Related Links:

• How to break the doom loop: Actionable insights from the Brookings Future of Downtowns learning exchange
• Amazon cracks down on ‘coffee badging,’ amid return-to-office push | The Seattle Times
• KUOW - Seattle ticks through to-do list to revive downtown
• Seattle mayor mandates 3 days of in-office work for city employees (komonews.com)

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In the early 90s, Seattle was at the center of a sonic revolution. Grunge, a homegrown sludgy rock sound, became a global commodity. At the same time, another sound was making its mark on Seattle.

The Gits were a band on the precipice of national stardom, standing out with their punk sensibility and charismatic female vocalist, with music labels circling. But the promise of a big break came to a violent end. The band’s lead singer, Mia Zapata, was murdered in 1993. It happened in the early morning hours after a show at the Comet Tavern. 

For years, in media accounts, the band was defined by that tragic night. Today, the Gits’ drummer, Steve Moriarty, says he doesn’t want an act of violence to overshadow their full story. His book, Mia Zapata and the Gits: A True Story of Art, Rock, and Revolution, tells a fuller story of the band's existence.

Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/soundsidenotes

Soundside is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network. 

Guests:

Steve Moriarty, drummer and author of Mia Zapata and The Gits: A True Story of Art, Rock, and Revolution

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Addressing homelessness is looking a little different in Thurston County these days.

The county, which includes Olympia, just became the fifth community in the nation to collect data on every single adult experiencing homelessness.

The county’s partner organization says that data includes the names and circumstances of each person counted. And the county vows to update the information monthly.

It’s part of a model called “Built for Zero”. 

Guests:

• Keylee Marineau, homeless response program manager at Thurston County's Office of Housing & Homeless Prevention
• Garrett Grainger, Research Associate at Manchester Metropolitan University

Relevant Links:

• Olympia, Wash. Becomes Fifth U.S. City to Collect Data on All Single Adults Experiencing Homelessness - PR Newswire
• Blog: Five Questions Housing Analysts Should Ask About "By-Name Data" - HSA: The Forum for Housing-Related Research and Debate

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We know a few things about the woman known as Lou Graham, for sure: 

She was a brothel madam in Seattle at the turn of the century. And she’s immortalized in one of the city’s popular ghost tours. 

Maybe you’ve even felt her spiritual presence while passing through tunnels underneath Pioneer Square.

Beyond that, facts are sparse. But plenty of legends about Graham’s life and impact on Seattle are served up to tourists and YouTube viewers who care to search her name.  

From Geographics: “Technically sex work was illegal, so Graham made sure to have the ladies registered as “seamstresses” on the books.

From Women Being Podcast: “Graham was an advocate for women’s rights and social justice, and supported the women’s rights movement, including the Seattle chapter of the NAACP. She died in 1903 a feminist icon.”

It turns out, most of that is TOTAL BUNK.

But the truth behind those fables – and a journalist’s search to find it – may be even more illuminating.  

GUEST: Hanna Brooks Olson, author of “Notoriously Bad Character: The True Story of Lou Graham and the Immigrants and Sex Workers Who Built Seattle”

RELATED LINKS:

• https://hannabrooksolsen.com/ 
• The Many False Histories of Lou Graham | Medium

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Last winter, federal officials with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced a program to save the perpetually threatened northern spotted owl.

The problem? Invasive barred owls are crowding out our local forest -- they're bigger, and more aggressive. The solution? Culling half a million of those owls over the next 30 years.

On its face, the issue seems pretty straightforward: barred owls are invasive, and because of them, Northern spotted owls are disappearing. 

But for Jay Odenbaugh, a philosopher and ethicist, the issue brings up a bigger question: how we as humans try to intervene in a problem we're also responsible for creating.

KUOW's Diana Opong spoke with Odenbaugh about a recent op-ed he co-authored for the New York Times about how we can think more ethically about conservation. 

Guests:

• Jay Odenbaugh, professor of humanities at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, OR.

Related Links:

• KUOW - Why the feds want to cull barred owls in the Pacific Northwest
• Opinion | To Save Some Endangered Owls, Would You Kill 500,000 Other Owls? - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
• Feds propose shooting one owl to save another in Pacific Northwest | The Seattle Times

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At this point, most of Washington’s primary election results have been called.

Bob Ferguson will face Dave Reichert in the race for governor. Tanya Woo and Alexis Mercedes Rinck are vying for a spot on the Seattle City Council. Goodspaceguy once again failed to get onto the November ballot.

But – in one race, the drama has remained at a fever pitch as votes trickle in.
Nearly 2 million people cast ballots, but in the end, just 51 votes separated second and third place in the race to be Public Lands Commissioner.

And the fun’s not over yet.

Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/soundsidenotes

Soundside is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network.

Guest:

• Northwest News Network state government reporter Jeanie Lindsay

Relevant Links:

• KUOW: A recount is coming in race for WA public lands commissioner

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