Seattle Now

Seattle needs more housing, that’s a widely accepted reality. How and where we build that housing is a lot thornier. Enter: the One Seattle Plan, the city’s proposal to address our housing shortage.  The details are still getting worked out, and some people don’t want these changes in their neighborhood, while others argue it doesn’t go far enough. We hear from Ryan Packer, the Contributing editor of The Urbanist and Queen Anne resident Michael Lapin. We can only make Seattle Now because listeners support us. Tap here to make a gift and keep Seattle Now in your feed.  Got questions about local news or story ideas to share? We want to hear from you! Email us at seattlenow@kuow.org, leave us a voicemail at (206) 616-6746 or leave us feedback online.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Orca mom still carrying her dead calf around Puget Sound, 2024 broke records for evictions in WA, and Whitman College grapples with the legacy of its namesake. It’s our daily roundup of top stories from the KUOW newsroom, with host Paige Browning. We can only make Seattle Now because listeners support us. Tap here to make a gift and keep Seattle Now in your feed. Got questions about local news or story ideas to share? We want to hear from you! Email us at seattlenow@kuow.org, leave us a voicemail at (206) 616-6746 or leave us feedback online.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week… Southern Resident killer whale J-35 is in mourning after losing a days-old calf. And Amazon’s Return To Office mandate began Thursday, and it’s going to change a whole lot in Seattle. Author and blogger Geraldine DeRuiter and Your Last Meal host Rachel Belle are here to ring in the new year.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Amazon workers return to the office, flu cases are spiking in WA, and parking tickets in Seattle just got more expensive. It’s our daily roundup of top stories from the KUOW newsroom, with host Paige Browning. We can only make Seattle Now because listeners support us. Tap here to make a gift and keep Seattle Now in your feed. Got questions about local news or story ideas to share? We want to hear from you! Email us at seattlenow@kuow.org, leave us a voicemail at (206) 616-6746 or leave us feedback online.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's 2025...  And a new year means a new job for one of the longest-tenured members of the Seattle Mariners. Not on the field, but in the broadcast booth. After 18 years, Mariners TV broadcaster Dave Sims is heading home to call games in the Bronx, for the New York Yankees. He’s here today to reflect on his time in Seattle, and some of his most iconic moments behind the mic.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We have one more lookback on our 2024 reporting, as we transition into the new year. Severe mental illness is a very visible problem in Seattle. In 2023, police responded to almost 10 thousand scenes of people experiencing mental health crises. Investigative reporters spent the past year asking big questions on the show Lost Patients about why so many people with severe mental illness end up untreated, and on the streets. And as they did, Seattle continued to pass legislation against one of the connected elements, public drug use. The newest laws are stay out of drug areas, also called SODAs, in hot spots for drug use and sales. Those went into effect in October. And the problems are still visible. Today we re-visit an episode from earlier in the year because this question, of how the problem got so severe, is as relevant as ever. We talked to Lost Patients host Will James back in March. Listen to Lost Patients: KUOW - Lost Patients We can only make Seattle Now because listeners support us. Tap here to make a gift and keep Seattle Now in your feed.  Got questions about local news or story ideas to share? We want to hear from you! Email us at seattlenow@kuow.org, leave us a voicemail at (206) 616-6746 or leave us feedback online.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We’re nearing the finish line of 2024, and wow what a year.  Boeing’s year started with a bang, but not in a good way. In January, a door-sized panel blew off of a Boeing 737 Max 9 jet mid-flight.  They also got a new CEO and endured a 53 day machinist strike.  The Seattle Public Library, SeaTac Airport, and the Highline school district all got cyber attacked. Seattle Public Schools went from planning to close 20 schools to planning to close zero, University of Washington joined the big 10, and some zebras broke loose near North Bend. There’s a lot to reflect on, and thankfully our friends over at Week in Review took time to look back on the year for their Year in Review event.  Here’s a portion of their conversation, hosted by KUOW’s Bill Radke. We can only make Seattle Now because listeners support us. Tap here to make a gift and keep Seattle Now in your feed. Got questions about local news or story ideas to share? We want to hear from you! Email us at seattlenow@kuow.org, leave us a voicemail at (206) 616-6746 or leave us feedback online.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We’re rounding out a week of re-airing our favorite episodes of the year, and somehow just couldn’t go without putting in some pickleball. Pickleball continues to be both popular and controversial in Seattle. This episode we're returning to the Green Lake pickleball courts which were officially declared a pickleball hub by Seattle in June. And the upwards of 100 diehard fans would agree, as they meet regularly to dink pickleballs back and forth. Yes, that’s the technical term. But, not everyone is a fan of the pickleball takeover. Producer Matt Martin checked it out last summer. It may no longer be ideal pickleball weather, but you can reminisce about summer sun as Matt takes us back to August at Green Lake. We can only make Seattle Now because listeners support us. You have the power! Make the show happen by making a gift to KUOW: https://www.kuow.org/donate/seattlenow And we want to hear from you! Follow us on Instagram at SeattleNowPod, or leave us feedback online: https://www.kuow.org/feedback See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 2024, we’ve talked to and learned from some of the region’s boundary pushing authors. One of them is local automotive journalist Victoria Scott. Victoria loves cars – as models of freedom, style, and engineering. She also thinks car culture doesn’t have to be so male-dominated.  Those two things drove her to write about and photograph trans women, nonbinary people, and their relationship to cars. Her book is We Deserve This. See more info and order We Deserve This (also available at Elliott Bay Books, Amazon and Barnes and Noble: https://www.carrarabooks.com/store/p/we-deserve-this  We can only make Seattle Now because listeners support us. You have the power! Make the show happen by making a gift to KUOW: https://www.kuow.org/donate/seattlenow And we want to hear from you! Follow us on Instagram at SeattleNowPod, or leave us feedback online: https://www.kuow.org/feedback See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This episode we're dreaming of a white Christmas, because White Christmas singer Bing Crosby was a local.  He's Tacoma born and Spokane-raised. Crosby’s PNW connection is one of the many dazzling details in the book The Sound of Seattle: 101 Songs that Shaped a City. Eva Walker and Jacob Uitti talk to Patricia Murphy about musical influences that came out of our region – especially those that get little cred. We can only make Seattle Now because listeners support us. Tap here to make a gift and keep Seattle Now in your feed. Got questions about local news or story ideas to share? We want to hear from you! Email us at seattlenow@kuow.org, leave us a voicemail at (206) 616-6746 or leave us feedback online.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.