Soundside

A brand new contemporary art space opened up this week in downtown Seattle.

It's called Cannonball Arts, and Soundside recently got a sneak preview.

GUESTS:

• Brent Watanabe, a Seattle based artist who specializes in computer-controlled installations
• Greg Lundgren, Creative Director of New Rising Sun

RELATED LINKS:

• Cannonball Arts
• Downtown Seattle’s Bed Bath & Beyond building to become an arts center
• Re...

What does the Pacific Northwest sound like to you? 

Is it the tide rolling over a rocky beach? The wind across the Palouse? Or maybe a ferry horn echoing across the Puget Sound?

On Soundside, we occasionally ask field recordists about THEIR iconic sounds of the northwest. Today, we hear from Gordon Hempton, also known as the Sound Tracker.

He sent us a recording of snow melting on Hurricane Ridge on the Olympic Peninsula. ...

It’s Thursday, and on Thursdays, we hear from Soundside Producer Jason Megatron Burrows with everything worth doing this weekend!

LINKS:

• A Clarinet Concert with Cameron DeLuca

• Bend It Like Booker
• WA State Garlic Fest
• The Evergreen State Fair
• Get Sauced!
• ZooTunes Comedy
• What the Funk Fest
• Makah Days in Neah Bay
• Everfree Northwest
• Dragonflight GameCon

Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show po...

A group of current and former Microsoft employees briefly occupied part of the company’s Redmond campus yesterday to protest the relationship between the tech giant and Israel’s military. 

The protest was led by a group called No Azure for Apartheid. Their name refers to a cloud computing service that has been contracted for use by Israel’s government.

The demonstration follows recent reporting that Israel us...

For college students, saying you majored in computer science used to be code (excuse the pun) for a six-figure salary and job stability. 

Now some fear those days are behind us. 

Since 2014, the number of undergraduates majoring in computer science has more than doubled, but the job offers aren’t flowing like they used to. 

Natasha Singer, a technology reporter at The New York Times, tells us about her recent s...

In many ways, the homicide of Barbara Innis was a clear cut case. There were witnesses, a weapon, and a suspect immediately taken into custody. 

The complication: the suspect, Barbara’s husband, can’t remember the crime.

87 year old George Innis had shown signs of dementia for years prior to the killing of his wife at their Bellevue assisted living center.

His journey through the legal system highlights the questio...

If you got your coffee from a Seattle Starbucks this morning, it may have been prepared by a unionized barista. 

At least 33 Starbucks in Washington have unions, including the cafe at the company’s headquarters in Sodo and the Reserve Roastery on Capitol Hill, according to The Seattle Times.

It’s the result of an organizing effort that began in 2021 in Buffalo, New York. Starbucks workers across that city kicked of...

Across Washington, student vaccination rates have fallen slightly over the past few years, but those statewide figures gloss over some parts that saw pretty big declines --- especially in one southwest Washington school district.

The data showed the Naselle-Grays River Valley School District saw student vaccinations for diseases like tetanus, polio and rubella drop by more than 46%, making it the district with the lowest immunizati...

It’s not just your imagination: There are more shared bikes and scooters zipping around the streets of Seattle.

Data collected by the city's Department of Transportation shows that between January and early August of 2025, the number of trips recorded on shared bikes and scooters jumped nearly 75 percent compared with the same time period last year. 

As streets and sidewalks get more crowded – how are cities like S...

Last week, actress Bindi Irwin made a viral post on Instagram. Bindi is the daughter of the late Steve Irwin – the famed “Crocodile Hunter.” 

Bindi is also, herself, a conservationist, but her post didn’t have to do with wildlife health. Rather, it was about her own. She said she was recovering from surgery to remove 51 lesions, a cyst, and her appendix. Prior to this, Irwin had suffered 13 years of pai...

For years, Seattle residents have known that several city police officers attended the ‘Stop the Steal’ rally in Washington D.C. on January 6th, 2021.

But the names of most of those police officers were unknown until recently.

After a lengthy court fight, the city in late July disclosed the identities of all the officers who attended the rally. 

The city also released records from an investigation of the officers' ...

An ex-county clerk in Kentucky who drew nationwide attention for denying marriage licenses for same-sex couples is back in the news. 

Kim Davis is asking the Supreme Court to overturn its landmark decision that legalized same sex unions nationwide.

Obergefell v. Hodges was issued in 2015. It officially recognized that queer Americans have a constitutional right to get married. 

Hundreds of thousands of people have...

On days like today, it’s nice to sit back, enjoy the cloud cover, and think about all the things you want to do this weekend. 

Here with a smattering of events to keep you busy is Soundside Producer Jason Megatron Burrows!

LINKS:

• Movies at the Mural: Say Anything
• Seattle Tattoo Expo
• The Washington Midsummer Renaissance Faire
• Seattle Worldcon 2025
• Chief Seattle Days
• Arlington SkyFest
• CHOMP!
• Celebrate Shoreline
• A Touc...

If there’s a sci-fi movie or TV show that you enjoy, there’s a good chance it’s based on a book, and there’s an even better chance that book has won a HUGO AWARD. 

From Afrofuturist Octavia E Butler to Sci-Fi legends Frank Herbert and Ursula Le Guin, the Pacific Northwest has been home to several winners of one of the most prestigious honors in speculative fiction, fantasy and sci-fi. 

What you may...

There’s a war being waged in Seattle right now.

But you won’t see it out on the streets, among your fellow citizens.

Instead – look to the sky. 

For years, two airlines: Delta and Alaska have battled for supremacy at Seatac.  Now, The Wall Street Journal says Alaska Airlines is making a big play to expand international flights – and Delta is striking back. 

Guest:

• Alison Sider, a reporter...

The Trump administration is trying to restrict access to a substance you might find at your local smoke shop. 

The FDA in late July announced plans to crack down on 7-OH. Commissioner Marty Makary described it as an opioid that can be more potent than morphine and the agency's pushing to get it classified as a Schedule 1 substance -- like ecstasy or heroin. 

You may not have heard of 7-OH, but you’ve probably heard ...

So far in 2025, Seattle is on track for a decline in homicides for the second year in a row. 

The city’s finally catching up to other parts of the country that started to see drops in lethal violence a few years ago, according to a new story published in The Seattle Times. 

The country saw a surge in homicides when the pandemic hit. Seattle was no exception, and the violence continued. The city experiencing one of i...

Pre-season football is here. The Seattle Seahawks have a rejuvenated roster, but they are far away from being a pre-season favorite for the Superbowl. So, let’s remember some good times: I’m talking a Superbowl win, a Superbowl loss, the Legion of Boom, Beast Mode ... in the early 2010s, the Seahawks were a football juggernaut.

And now, they’re the subject of a new book called The Franchise: Seattle Seahawks:...

Two familiar Republican names from last year’s election are back in the news: Joe Kent and Pete Serrano.

They’re not running for election, but they may be finding success instead with federal appointments. 

Kent is a former Green Beret who ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. House twice in District 3. The Senate approved his appointment as director of the National Counterterrorism Center late last month. 

Serrano ...