Soundside

All this week, Soundside is interviewing the most competitive candidates for Seattle mayor ahead of the August 5th primary election. Today, we hear from Ry Armstrong, an actor, union chair, and co-director of the non-profit of Seattle.  Guest: Ry Armstrong, candidate for Seattle Mayor Links: Sound Politics: Bruce Harrell vs. Everyone 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.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Local and national organizations alike are still absorbing the historic implications of the Republican tax and spending law known as the One Big, Beautiful Bill. President Trump signed the legislation on July 4th. The law makes the Trump tax cuts of 2017 permanent, and increases spending on border security and energy production, among many other measures. It also includes significant cuts to government assistance programs, like SNAP and Medicaid.  Soundside reached out to several local leaders to ask how the One Big Beautiful Bill will affect their work.  Guests: Gloria Hatcher-Mays, executive director of the Rainier Valley Food Bank Malou Chávez, executive director of Northwest Immigrant Rights Project Bob Ferguson, Washington governor  Jacqueline Barton True, vice president of advocacy and rural health for the Washington State Hospital Association Cathy Bambrick, administrator for Astria Toppenish Hospital Related stories: Potential for 'pretty dire consequences' for WA health care due to Trump's budget bill - Kitsap Sun  WA officials warn ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ will wreak havoc on Medicaid system - Tacoma News Tribune 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.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You might have noticed that Mount Rainier’s been looking a little…. Bald lately.  People on social media have been posting about how Washington’s favorite sight looks less snowy than usual. Some of them are saying they’ve never seen the mountain look this bare in their lives.  Rainier definitely sheds some snow in the warmer months. And Washington has been getting hit with some pretty serious heat lately.  Many of us know that climate change is a thing, so how much of that is playing into the mountain’s sleek peak? (Basically, how much dread should we be feeling about this?)  Soundside asked a glaciologist to explain what's happening up there.  Guest: Dr. Mauri Pelto, director of the North Cascade Glacier Climate Project.  Related stories:  The mountain is out: Mount Rainier shows rocky face after record-breaking heat, snow melt - seattlepi.com Mount Rainier’s glaciers are disappearing. What happens when they’re gone? - Tacoma News Tribune 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.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Imagine a cartoon show where the characters talk back to you. That's the premise for "Cartoon Mess Live", a live comedy show by Seattleite Tom DesLongchamp.  DesLongchamp is basically a puppeteer, doing improv alongside a cohost named Duck. It’s like if you could see the person operating Elmo, and the pair of them had a late night talk show. But also Elmo is a 2-dimensional cartoon. DesLongchamp sat down with Soundside host Libby Denkmann to discuss his show, and why it's so hard to describe. Guest: Tom DesLongchamp, creator of "Cartoon Mess Live" Related links: Cartoon Mess Live at The Rabbit Box 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.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The weekend is upon us, and Soundside producer Jason Burrows is here with all the events fit to broadcast. LINKS: SPORTS! Seattle Mariners vs Houston Astros Seattle Sounders vs San Jose Earthquakes Seattle Reign vs Japan’s Urawa Red Diamonds Sandsations Sand Sculpture Festival - Long Beach, WA Seattle Arab Festival 2025 Seattle Bon Odori Seafair Chinatown Parade Indian Days Powwow CAPITOL HILL BLOCK PARTY  Darrington Bluegrass Festival Cartoon Mess LIVE King County Fair - Enumclaw Seattle Boba Fest GeekFest West - Everett TRAFFIC ALERT - NB I-5 totally closed from I-90 to 45th Ave (U-District) 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.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We’re closing in on the deadline for President Trump’s rescission package. Senate Republicans have until this Friday to pass the package with a simple majority. If they don’t, they’ll face a Democratic filibuster that they’ll need 60 votes to overcome. On Tuesday, the Senate voted to advance rescissions with a 51-50 vote – Vice President JD Vance was the tie breaker. Republican Senators Collins, Murkowski, and McConnell all voted no. Today, Senators will have up to 10 hours of debate before the final floor vote – if they pass the package, it will then head back to the House for a vote, before going to the President’s desk. Again, this all needs to happen by the end of Friday. So that’s a lot of procedural details, but let’s get to the nitty gritty: If this passes, the Administration would claw back $9 billion dollars in previously approved funding – most of which is intended for global health programs and foreign aid projects. It would also rescind more than $1.1 billion dollars currently budgeted for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, or CPB. You’re listening to public radio right now - so you’re probably well aware that  those dollars include funding for KUOW, as well as other local public radio and TV stations, which receive support from the CPB. What exactly would the impact of rescission be for Seattle stations? Can public media survive these cuts? And, with news becoming increasingly fragmented, should taxpayers still pay for public media?  We’re putting those questions to leaders of local public media organizations. Guests: Kerry Swanson is interim CEO of KUOW Rob Dunlop is CEO and President of Cascade PBS Ethan Raup is CEO and President of KEXP 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.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Marie Gluesenkamp Perez represents Washington’s 3rd District, which encompasses Clark, Cowlitz, Lewis, Pacific, Wahkiakum, and Skamania counties and a smidge of Thurston County. It’s a relatively rural district that has voted for President Trump three times.  Somehow, she has been able to convince a good number of those Trump voters to ALSO send her, a Democrat, to Congress.  And that’s put Gluesenkamp Perez in a unique and small club of Democrats being asked to diagnose their party’s problems and come up with a vision for the future. So what does it take to lead from a vulnerable seat, and what are the lessons Democrats can draw from what’s happening in Southwest Washington? One of those might be – figure out the solution to the gerontocracy in Congress. GUEST: Rep. Marie Gluesenkam Perez RELATED LINKS: House Democrat floats radical solution to Congress' age problem  Gluesenkamp Perez Statement on Senate Passage of Budget Reconciliation Bill How a Red-District Democrat Is Navigating Trump | The Ezra Klein Show Yes, Car Headlights Are Too Damn Bright 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.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Yesterday, a King County Judge ordered the city of Seattle to come up with a plan to end “nudity as constituted” at the park. Denny Blaine has been the city’s most well known nude beach for decades – and is a beloved LGBTQ+ community gathering space. This order follows a series of attempts by neighbors of the park to end nudity at Denny Blaine. And it’s a move supporters of the nude beach say would be a “sanitization of queer spaces” in an increasingly gentrified city. Guests: Seattle Times City Hall reporter David Kroman Related stories: Judge orders an end to nudity at Seattle’s Denny Blaine Park, for now - Seattle Times Community members give Denny Blaine Park play area proposal a dressing down - KUOW ‘I share your disgust.’ Texts show Seattle Mayor Harrell, rich neighbor discussing Denny Blaine - KUOW 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.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Actor Matthew Law has walked the halls of ABC's Abbott Elementary, piloted a spaceship in an episode of Star Wars: Ahsoka and played "The Cynic" in the  "This Is Me... Now: A Love Story” the Jennifer Lopez movie musical.  Law hails from Washington. He was born in Yakima and grew up in Seattle, where he attended Greenwood Elementary and Ballard High School. And he's a filmmaker too, directing and writing several short films for his “True Story” series.  Soundside caught up with him during a break in his shooting schedule.  Guests Matthew Law, actor Links  ‘Abbott Elementary’ actor Matthew Law on Seattle upbringing, ‘True Story’ -The Seattle Times 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. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

King County’s health department has published innovative and educational comic strips about public health issues for more than 15 years. The county hires local comics artists to tackle issues such as long term covid, preparing for a natural disaster and how to deal with a failing septic system.  Meredith Li-Vollmer is the heartbeat behind this popular project, which she founded in 2008. She says the visual and hand drawn style of storytelling helps make potentially dry information palatable. The county has also found that comics are an effective way to communicate with people who speak English as a second language. In fact, some of King County’s comic books have been printed into more than 20 languages.  But the program almost didn’t happen. Had  Li-Vollmer listened to her high school art teacher who was unkindly critical of her artwork. Guest: Meredith Li-Vollmer, Risk Communication Specialist at Public Health - Seattle & King Countt Related stories: A comic-book approach to public health. King County's winning formula - KUOW King County Health comics 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. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.