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For state Rep. My-Linh Thai, the recent images and sounds from Afghanistan have hit close to home. “I turned on the news and I turned off the news, and I turned the news back on and I turned it back off,” she said. “It was hard, very hard.”

Ever since the Seattle SuperSonics left town in 2008, Tacoma's Kris Brannon spent every waking moment making sure the NBA knew he wanted to “Bring 'em Back.” His message was ubiquitous across the region until Brannon — widely known as Sonics Guy — died in February from heart failure . He was 47. But thanks to a mural in Brannon's hometown, his message lives on.

Editor's note: This story was produced in partnership with The Seattle Times . Read an in-depth investigation into the law enforcement response to the charging decision from investigative reporter Patrick Malone.

Josephine Ensign is a professor at the University of Washington and the author of a new book called "Skid Road: On the Frontier of Health and Homelessness in an American City." The book digs through layers of Seattle history to reveal the stories of overlooked and long-silenced people who live on the margins of society.

Seattle's Central District once was a Black neighborhood. New arrivals and rising property values have pushed African Americans out, but many who have stayed hope to preserve and grow the Black culture that remains.

It's every fashion designer's dream to see their work prominently featured on a magazine cover, especially if it's worn by someone prominent themselves. That's the case with Korina Emmerich, who grew up in Eugene, Ore., and now lives and works in New York City. A dress of hers adorns Interior Secretary Deb Haaland on the upcoming August cover of InStyle magazine .

Amber Becerra traveled from Los Angeles to Tacoma for a short 24-hour trip ahead of the holiday weekend. She wanted to see an old friend get his happy ending.

A longer verson of this story originally aired July 25, 2015. Air conditioning would provide some welcome relief right now. But what if you are out of luck finding any? We dug into our archives to find you an alternative to your standard AC.

The lifting of most pandemic restrictions in Washington state is just days away, set for June 30. Ahead of it, KNKX has been talking with people in the health-care community about how they feel. Today, we focus on what reopening means for people who are unsheltered.

It's been a decade since I cooked my first salmon, while living in Alaska — three hefty filets from some Chinook I'd caught and saved, frozen, to impress my Michigan parents on their first trip to visit me. I baked it in foil with garlic and lemon, and when we were done, my mom put her fork down on her clean plate, looked at me across the table and said, “I hate salmon.”

As the state prepares to lift COVID restrictions at the end of this month, KNKX is talking with health-care leaders about what they're anticipating.

When she learned that the police officers charged with killing her son were arrested, Marcia Carter-Patterson’s heart jumped. “It feels good that they are in custody,” Carter-Patterson told KNKX Public Radio moments after she learned the news. “But we have a long way to go.”

Friday was the last day on the job for the head of Public Health – Seattle & King County. Patty Hayes retires after seven years in charge of the agency and after 30 years in public health.

Washington state is on track to fully reopen its economy by June 30. The state has been under some form of pandemic-related restriction since mid-March of 2020. The plan to return to business (mostly) as usual follows surprise guidance from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention earlier this month, saying fully vaccinated people no longer need to wear masks.

A new graphic novel is being released called “We Hereby Refuse: Japanese Resistance to Wartime Incarceration.” It’s part of a three-part series of graphic novels from the Wing Luke Museum in Seattle about the Japanese American wartime incarceration. It’s the story of three people who refused to submit to imprisonment in American concentration camps without a fight in the 1940s and presents a vision of America’s past with links to the American present.

The COVID-19 pandemic took students out of school for most of the last year – away from friends and activities, and away from resources that can connect them to help when they’re struggling with a behavioral health concern. A new law drafted by teens aims to change that.

If you spend any time in the Northwest, it isn’t long before you start hearing about “the big one.” That’s the giant 9.0 earthquake and tsunami predicted for our part of the world.

The use of Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine remains paused this week as U.S. regulators study a possible link to rare blood clots. They’re expected to review the pause on Friday. In the meantime, there are a lot of questions. To help us think through some of them, KNKX got in touch with bioethicist Thomas May of the Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine at Washington State University.

The King County Council is spending $2 million for gun violence prevention. The recently approved money creates a grant program and comes from a larger $94 million pool of funds for COVID-19 relief measures.

This story focuses heavily on suicide, and it might not be appropriate for everyone. Dr. Pamela Wible is a family physician in Oregon. After learning that physicians have a higher rate of suicide than most professions, she set up a free suicide hotline for physicians. She's spent years counseling doctors and those who have lost a colleague to suicide. COVID-19 has put her in even greater demand.

Communities in western Washington have grappled with how to address homelessness for decades. And Claudia Balducci, chair of the King County Council, says local governments, like the one she's part of, must “start and lead with the humanity of trying to help people who are suffering.”

Black History Month is being celebrated around the region through a series of programs and events, mostly virtual this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Like many festivals over the last year, the Sundance Film Festival has had to rethink how to present its event during the pandemic. This year, Sundance decided to team up with about 30 “satellite” partner organizations to deliver the festival virtually. Northwest Film Forum is the only satellite partner in the Pacific Northwest.

When Steven González was first named to the Washington state Supreme Court, as an associate justice in 2011, he brought his family to the Temple of Justice – that large, sandstone building in Olympia where the court meets. They were in a hallway looking at portraits of the previous justices – black-robed white men with serious expressions on their faces, staring out from the walls.

Hip-hop music is taking top honors. That’s according to the list of best local music albums of the year that the Seattle Times has releases annually. It’s voted on by local music writers, radio personalities and others who keep their finger on the pulse of local music.

Author’s note: Valentine’s Day, first-graders, typewriters and an enchanting teacher, Kelye Kneeland, deftly orchestrating it all. This is one of my favorite stories from 2020. I remember driving to Bellevue that day in February to gather the interviews, listening in the car to news headlines about COVID-19. At that point, there were 15 confirmed cases in the United States. We knew the dark clouds were gathering on the horizon but had no idea of what was to come. In normal times, this typewriter story is a charming piece about how one teacher uses old technology to engage students. But listening to this story well into a global pandemic is an incredibly vivid reminder of all of the magic and connection that happens when students and teachers are in the same room, and of all that is lost when school is carried out in little boxes on computer screens. I am hopeful that in the not-too-distant future, small fingers will once again be straining to press down on the typewriter keys in

This story originally aired Dec. 22, 2017. This week, many parents will read “The Night Before Christmas” to their children. Well, KNKX has something special for you: a reading of an abridged version of the almost 200-year-old poem by many of the voices you hear on the air here at KNKX, and some you don’t normally get to hear on the air. Enjoy.

They briefly occupied an abandoned middle school, hoping to make it into housing. They dumped trash on the steps of Tacoma’s city hall, urging trash collection at encampments. And now a group pushing for better housing in the city says it plans something on Christmas Day, too.

2020 was a challenging year for a lot of us, and the film industry was no exception. But some local filmmakers were able to get their work completed and out to the public. Vivian Hua, the executive director of Northwest Film Forum , joined us to share some of her favorite locally produced films of 2020.

Three decades ago, KNKX's Dick Stein was in the chimney sweeping business, and thought he was done with radio. Boy was he wrong. After 30 years on the air here, Dick is broadcasting his last show today. As he heads into retirement, he sat down with KNKX's Kevin Kniestedt to look back at his career.

Washington state's Employment Security Department has been hit hard during the pandemic. There was a dramatic increase in jobless claims when businesses were forced to shut down in the spring. And a crime ring used stolen identities to take hundreds of millions of dollars from the unemployment insurance program.

There are only a few lesbian bars left in the United States and one of them is in Seattle. The Wildrose opened on New Year’s Eve in 1984 in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. Now, the bar is facing an unknown future. The Rose, as it's known, is a part of the Lesbian Bar Project , a fundraising campaign to help the remaining bars around the country survive the pandemic.

Since its founding more than a century ago, Washington state has seen few changes to the way sudden or unusual deaths are investigated. And experts from every corner of the system acknowledge it’s far from perfect.

A new law going into effect in 2021 will, in part, provide more funding for training in the state's system of death investigation. The change is the first small step toward improving education for chief death investigators statewide, especially elected coroners — who serve about a third of Washington’s population and have a wide array of experience .

Black Lives Matter activists gathered in Seattle on Wednesday night, calling for every vote to be counted in the presidential election. But they stressed that their work does not end with the election. Leaders of the rally in the Pioneer Square neighborhood, titled “Count Every Vote, Protect Every Person,” tried to channel concern over the election into local causes they’ve been advocating for years. They made the argument that every vote cannot truly count if some people are disenfranchised or killed.

The predictions turned out to be true — that we would not know the result of the presidential contest on Election Night, and that there would be false claims in the meantime. Last night, President Donald Trump incorrectly claimed victory, with no basis for doing so. At the time of his remarks from the East Room of the White House, neither candidate was close to the threshold of 270 electoral votes needed to claim the presidency. To understand the national picture, we turn to a voice right here in the Northwest.

Saying goodbye is hard. But sometimes, it’s an opportunity to celebrate. Today, we celebrate nearly six years and 214 episodes of Sound Effect with one final episode. For our finale, we’ll spend two hours looking back at some of the most memorable stories from the show, which has showcased hundreds of stories that the people from our region have shared with us — and with you. We’ll meet a gay man defiantly carving out space for himself in the country music world, when — to his shock — a record label called . We’ll hear how an unlikely friendship drew a Seattle man to leap out of his comfort zone . And we’ll hear the tale of a family cat who wanted nothing to do with her family , and many other stories today . There will be some laughs and some tears. But most importantly, this episode will be a celebration of this place we live — and all the hard work that went into sharing what makes the Pacific Northwest unique.

This story originally aired Dec. 22, 2018. Olympic National Park, with its temperate rainforests and stunning views, exerts a natural pull on many Pacific Northwesterners. But it repelled Seattle writer Rosette Royale. To Royale, the park seemed like a damp, mucky, inhospitable place. "I couldn't figure out why anyone would want to haul a 50-pound pack into the wilderness and camp there for days," he said. "It didn't make sense." Then he met Bryant Carlin. Carlin was a vendor for Real Change, the Seattle weekly sold on the street by vendors who are homeless or low-wage earners. He was also a skilled outdoorsman and a nature photographer who would take weeks-long photographic journeys to the park. The two men connected in the fall of 2011 when Royale interviewed Carlin for a feature story in Real Change about Carlin's photography. That first time they met - and for years afterward - Carlin invited Royale to go camping with him. Each time, Royale said "Thanks, but no thanks." Until one

This story originally aired on February 13, 2016. In mid-December of 2006, a vicious wind storm hit Western Washington. Gale-force winds knocked out power, knocked down trees and knocked Charlene Strong onto a different life path. When Strong arrived home she found her wife, Kate, trapped inside the basement of their home. Water was rushing in, and as each moment passed, it seemed less and less likely that Kate would survive. Charlene Strong did lose her wife that night and then went on to advocate for equal rights, playing an integral role in getting marriage equality passed in Washington state. In this interview, senior producer Arwen Nicks sits down with Strong to discuss the night that changed her life and broke her heart. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wqiqvitm3jk

This story originally aired on March 31, 2018. In 1973, in the midst of the Stonewall era, a Seattle band called Lavender Country released an eponymous album. The album delivered radical politics with a country twang, and became known as the world's first openly gay country album. In this interview, Patrick Haggerty tells Gabriel Spitzer how the album lived, and died, and lived again. He also explains why the album might never have existed if it weren't for his father--a "hayseed" of a dairy farmer who gave his son permission to be exactly who he was. "I ask you," Haggerty said, "what sissy in 1958 in what hayfield in America got that from his father? Everybody else was getting the [expletive] kicked out of them ... That's what was happening to country sissies in 1958. But it wasn't happening to me, because of my father." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1mvQt50UMU

This story originally aired on September 2, 2017. Robbie Luna is a man of many hats, a Seattle area carpenter by day, and by night he fronts two bands, one of which is a Prince cover band called " Purple Mane ." With Prince's 2016 death the band suddenly found themselves carrying the weight of being both a fun sexy party band, while also being a respectful tribute to a beloved musical genius. No one is better suited for that challenge than Robbie. His performance as Prince is impeccable, he even built a guitar to match the Purple One's, but nothing could have prepared him for one absurdly fateful chance encounter with a fan. Robbie, being a carpenter, was working on an apartment's windows when a woman emerges from the building. Robbie braced himself, assuming he was about to receive an earful for causing a ruckus at an early hour, but instead she asked if he was in Purple Mane. What happened next is the kind of thing that one might call supernatural, eerie, serendipitous, kismet...at

This story originally aired on November 5, 2016. So when we get emotional about something, we often have to weigh the risks and rewards of acting on those emotions. If someone upsets us, we need to decide if there is enough of a reward in confronting that person, while potentially facing the risks of upsetting that person as well. I found myself in one of those situations at small-town bar in the middle of Washington, upset at a very, very famous young man, and wrote this essay. I feel like I never, ever get out of town. So when I do take some time off, I just want to relax. And the best way I know how to truly relax is to go camping. This last Labor Day weekend, I went to this little tucked-away bit of land in Salmon La Sac, a handful of miles away from Cle Elum, Washington. It was beautiful and perfect, even with a little rain. As the weekend came to a close, my friends and I decided that on our way out of town, we would make one last stop for a cocktail before facing the reality of

This story originally aired on June 22, 2019. I was born into the Love Family, a culty commune that existed in Seattle in the 1970s and '80s. The family had a leader, a patriarch named Love, and 300 to 400 brothers and sisters. Their first names represented the virtues that Love saw in them — Purity, Solidity, Imagination, Devotion — and their last names were all Israel. I call it a culty commune because "commune" explains why people joined it, and everything positive they left with. "Cult" explains all the things that went wrong, and why it eventually ended. This story is about one of the things that went wrong. And the woman who made it right. I almost didn't have a birthday, because the Love Family didn't believe in them. People in the family didn't keep track of their ages, and they didn't celebrate birthdays. They didn't mark the years. They didn't even keep calendars. So, that’s how it happened that, on the day I was born, my parents had no idea what day it was. I almost didn't

If you've ever lost a pet and were lucky enough to find it, you know the sharp pain of expecting the worst and then the huge wave of relief when you are reunited with animal. I experienced this roller coaster so many times I lost count. These searches and reunions involved the same animal; a cat named Snowdrift. This clever little cat was technically lost, a lot, and I’m not so certain he ever really wanted to be found, by me.

Nearly six years ago, before the show that eventually became Sound Effect first aired, the team cycled through a lot of rejected names: Northwest Corner, Public Market, Face for Radio, to name a few. Now, 214 episodes later, the household name that has brought you hundreds of stories from people and places across the Pacific Northwest signs off for good.

This year, Washington voters have a say in who they'd like to see on the state Supreme Court. The two justices most recently appointed by Gov. Jay Inslee drew challengers in this election. Two incumbents are running unopposed. Hugh Spitzer teaches state and federal constitutional law at the University of Washington. He also has the perspective of having run for a seat on the court in 1998. He spoke with KNKX All Things Considered host Ed Ronco about who is on the court, why it matters, and how he thinks about this choice.

Nicole MacMaster remembers her mom, Frankie "Ellen" Schmitz, as a doting grandmother who loved to crochet. Christmastime was her favorite, and she always kept her house spotless. Nicole says she can practically smell bleach just thinking about her mom’s home, even all these years later. “She had a really good heart,” she said. Mother and daughter had their ups and downs, but they spent time together right up until the end. Nicole says she wouldn’t trade her for anything.

This week on Sound Effect, it’s all about music. We take a look back at some of our favorite stories about musicians, their work and what inspired it. First, we meet a software engineer who created a map of Seattle bands and their connections . Then, a bassist for the band Great Grandpa discusses the intersection of nursing and art . We meet the Mariner who blew a ball foul and made a funk hit about the Kingdome . A country star talks about how bullying motivated him on field and on stage. And finally, one Seattle rapper talks about artistry as an outlet for processing heartbreak . And we have an announcement. After nearly six years of bringing you stories inspired by the place we live, Sound Effect will sign off for good Oct. 31. Next week, we will air a special two-hour finale looking back at the incredible stories we’ve been privileged to share with listeners over the years. Don’t miss it.

This story originally aired on January 17, 2o20. Former Mariners infielder Lenny Randle is best remembered in Seattle for a single play. On May 27, 1981, he got on his hands and knees and blew a slow rolling ground ball out of bounds. It was one of the few notable things that happened to the Mariners in their early years. That year was a mediocre season, in a series of other mediocre seasons by a mediocre baseball team, but Randle was involved in another notable off-field incident in 1981 — the recording of a funk song about the Kingdome. Randle had always been interested in performing, starting during his childhood. He thought his family was like The Four Tops or The Temptations. “We thought we were musicians and artists and singers,” Randle says. He assumed he would be a musician when he grew up, but was pretty good at baseball and was instead drafted by the Washington Senators. His song about the Kingdome started as a joke between players during batting practice, but during the 1981

This story originally aired on November 22, 2019. At first glance, “hidden” is not the word you’d use for Chance McKinney’s talents. As an athlete in high school and college, he got plenty of recognition. “I got a track scholarship to throw (javelin), and went to a Pac-12 school...I mean I kept qualifying for the Olympic trials,” said McKinney. But this very capable guy has a whole other set of gifts that weren’t so obvious. They emerged years later, when he was teaching high school math in Mukilteo. On a whim, he’d submitted an original song to a music contest. And somehow, to his shock, McKinney’s country song blew up. “I’m sitting there, in a math class, with ABC television, and radio stations, and newspapers and everybody...and my kids from that class, finding out that I had a No. 1 on CMT," he said. "I had no band, no nothing. It was just 'here I am, Chance McKinney, number one unsigned singer songwriter.'” Chance is now a successful, full-time country musician. But his motivation

This story originally aired on November 9, 2019. Rachel Ratner is in a band called Wimps. She’s also a software engineer and a brand new mother — and the creator of the Seattle Band Map . “I was in a band called Partman Parthorse, and that’s where the idea started," Rachel says. "I remember I was talking to one of my friends about the band and how I was able to, through other people I played music with, connect my band to my friends’ bands, and we started to diagram them out, like a six degrees of Kevin Bacon, just to see how we were all connected.” Eventually, Rachel had mapped out hundreds of connections. “I showed it to my friend Keith Whiteman, who is an artist, and he thought it would be neat to make it into an actual art show, like an art project. So he took it, my little paper sized map, and he blew it up huge — it was like 10 feet by 10 feet." In November 2009, they invited people to view, and add to, what they created. "I knew there were a lot of things I was probably missing,