Meet Me Here

Latest Episodes:

Has Star Trek jumped the shark? Mar 11, 2026

Show notes

You've heard “Beam me up,” “Resistance is futile,” and “Live long and prosper.” You live in a world with automatic doors and you can talk to your handheld computer. Star Trek has been influencing our culture for the past six decades with a unifying view of humanity, inspiring generations to create a better future. But recent series like "Star Trek: Discovery" and "Starfleet Academy" have many fans wondering if Star Trek has boldly gone off the rails. Will future generations be talking about today's Star Trek like we talk about the series from the 1990s and 1960s? Or has Star Trek finally jumped the targ?

Meet Me Here beams in fellow journalists / Star Trek fans (Libby Denkmann and Essex Porter) to debate if Star Trek is still the cultural force that it once was. Or, is something else going on?

Check out Star Trek meet up groups in Western Washington:

Have you gone to an event you heard about on Meet Me Here? Tell us how it went! Email us at meetmehere@kuow.org.

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Become a KUOW member today

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Weekend Warmup for Mar 3-5 Mar 06, 2026

Show notes

Meet Me Here listeners, if you still don't have any plans for this weekend, fear not. The Weekend Warmup is here to help with a whole bunch of ideas for fun things to do around the region this weekend.

Hosted by KUOW's Jason Megatron Burrows.

LINKS:

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

Meet Me Here is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Art of Judging Book Covers Mar 04, 2026

Show notes

Artists who design book covers want you to judge the covers. The goal of the cover is to make you look twice...and, hopefully, pick the book up, open it, and walk it over to the cash register. Host Katie Campbell talks to Elisha Zepeda, a book cover designer based on the Northwest, about what it takes to make a cover, and why you should consider the cover art of your next read.

Your support helps create shows like Seattle Now, Soundside, and Meet Me Here!

Become a KUOW member today.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

BONUS: How shipwrecks transformed the PNW with Coll Thrush Mar 01, 2026

Show notes

When you think about shipwrecks in the Northwest, what comes to mind? Bad weather? Old English paintings? Maybe a Kraken?

What about settler colonialism? That may not be one of the first things exactly, but author and historian Coll Thrush wants to change that.

The KUOW Book Club read Coll’s latest book “Wrecked: Unsettling Histories of the Graveyard of the Pacific” in February, and KUOW’s Katie Campbell sat down with him in front of a live audience at the Seattle Central Library to talk about how shipwrecks brought settlers and Indigenous peoples suddenly, violently together — and how we’ve made sense of time and space through the wreckage.

Sign up for the next talk in our Book Talks series in partnership with the Seattle Public Library at kuow.org/events.

Plus, help keep KUOW's local podcasts going strong! Donate now at kuow.org/meet.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Weekend Warmup for Feb 27 - Mar 01 Feb 27, 2026

Show notes

Hosted by KUOW's Jason Megatron Burrows.

LINKS:

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

Meet Me Here is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Artist Barbara Earl Thomas holds hands with the past and the future Feb 25, 2026

Show notes

The artist Barbara Earl Thomas has made a promise: to keep the artistic legacy of her mentor Jacob Lawrence alive and growing.

Barbara met the Black modernist painter Jacob Lawrence as his student at the University of Washington in the 1970s. As her career and artistry developed, so did her friendship with Jacob and his wife Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence, who’ve now both died.
Last fall Barbara contributed four of her own portraits of Jacob to accompany his debut in the Netherlands–his first solo show in Europe. The exhibit, and being there at the opening, were part of her promise. Barbara enlisted the help of her friend, the arts journalist and cultural strategist Leilani Lewis–to go on the trip, and to be part of stewarding Jacob and Gwendolyn’s artistic legacies. In this episode of Meet Me Here, Leilani and Barbara are in conversation about their trip, friendship, and art.

Barbara Earl Thomas’ website

Leilani Lewis’ article: The Barbara Earl Thomas’s High-Frequency Art Method
Leilani Lewis’ article: As the US Slides Into Tyranny, Europe Champions Black American Artists

Jacob and Gwen Knight Lawrence Information Center

MoMA profile of Jacob Lawrence
Your support helps create shows like Seattle Now, Soundside, and Meet Me Here!
Become a KUOW member today

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Weekend Warmup for Feb 20-22 Feb 20, 2026

Show notes

Hosted by KUOW's Jason Megatron Burrows.

LINKS:

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

Meet Me Here is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hot tips for Emerald City Comic Con and other events in March Feb 18, 2026

Show notes

We look ahead to March and the awesome arts and culture coming up, and we convince each other to go check out one new thing.

Event Recommendations:

Emerald City Comic Con - March 5-8 at the Seattle Convention Center
KUOW Book Talks with Author Sasha taqwšəblu LaPointe - March 23 at Seattle Central Library
Frye Parlor x Jayme Yen - Until January 2027 at Frye Art Museum

Have you gone to an event you heard about on Meet Me Here? Tell us how it went! Email us at meetmehere@kuow.org.

Your support helps create shows like Seattle Now, Soundside, and Meet Me Here!
Become a KUOW member today

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Weekend Warmup for Feb 13-15 Feb 13, 2026

Show notes

Hosted by KUOW's Jason Megatron Burrows.

LINKS:

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

Meet Me Here is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What do Heated Rivalry and Sasquatch have in common? Feb 11, 2026

Show notes

Seattle readers are loving romance books. From heated hockey players to… yes, Bigfoot romance. Seattle bookstores can't keep them on the shelves. Katie Campbell chats with Ashley Adair, an owner of Beguiled Books, about why Seattle readers have caught the love bug for romance books. Hint: It’s rough out here.

And… if you need some help filling that book shaped void, here’s Ashley’s and Katie’s Recommended If You Liked (RIYL):