Ross Files with Dave Ross

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Melodie Reece, Do Sex Workers Really "Enjoy the Work?" Oct 10, 2019

Show notes

At a recent Seattle City Council meeting, chief deputy Marc Garth Green made a comment that shocked councilmembers Teresa Mosqueda and Kshama Sawant: that some of the sex workers on Aurora Avenue have told him they "enjoy" what they're doing.

So Dave Ross and reporter Hanna Scott consult a local expert, Melodie Reece. She's the co-founder of a harm reduction and sex worker’s rights organization in Seattle (POC- SWOP) that hands out snacks, water, and offers services to street-based sex workers and drug users on the Aurora corridor in north Seattle. She has a masters in public policy from the University of Washington.

They discuss the reasons behind the visible increase in sex work on the streets of Seattle in the last six months.

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Rep. Derek Kilmer, Impeachment and Partisan Bickering in Congress Oct 08, 2019

Show notes

Dave Ross talks with Derek Kilmer, representative of Washington's 6th Congressional District, about a recent poll that says Congress is less popular than head lice, colonoscopies and Nickelback. They discuss what Kilmer has been doing to bridge the partisan divide (which includes flying to Arkansas) and actually pass some legislation.

And finally - what is the mood in Washington D.C. around impeaching President Trump?

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Julie Blacklow, Badass Reporter Oct 02, 2019

Show notes

Julie Blacklow, a well-known Seattle broadcast journalist with KING-TV and one of the first women to work in television news in America, has written her autobiography - Fearless: Diary of a Badass Reporter.

Badass may be an understatement. Julie sits down with Dave Ross to recount her interactions with famous names over the years - Richard Nixon, Oprah, Tina Turner, and Chuck Berry, among others. She once stormed out of an interview with a surly Jennifer Lopez, and partied with porn stars on a yacht in California after being seduced by a source.

And that barely scratches the surface!

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Shelly Klier, The Inspiring Success Story of a Former Repeat Offender Sep 24, 2019

Show notes

The odds are stacked against former inmates the day they're released from prison. Opportunities for a job, let alone a new career path, are few and far between.

Dave Ross talks with Shelly Klier, a former inmate and addict with 14 felonies, who had been to prison three times. Now, she's a successful welder and graduate of the Post Prison Education Program, a local nonprofit that provides funding for former prisoners to attain a post-secondary education.

Shelly tells the story behind her addiction, repeat offenses and incarceration, and how she managed to turn her life around completely, in spite of it all.

This episode is part of ongoing coverage on the work of the Post Prison Education Program. You can listen to an interview with Ari Kohn, founder of the program, here.

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Don MacKenzie, The Future of Self-Driving Cars - Will People Actually Use Them? Sep 20, 2019

Show notes

A new nationwide study shows that Americans would rather drive themselves than use autonomous cars. Even in traffic!

Don MacKenzie is a senior author of the study and an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Washington, where he also leads the Sustainable Transportation Lab. He talks with Dave Ross about the implications of his study as the development of self-driving cars seems to move full speed ahead. What does the future of transportation look like - and what's a transportation researcher's dream scenario?

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Saul Cornell, Don't Ban Assault Weapons - Tax Them Sep 19, 2019

Show notes

Dave talks with Saul Cornell, chair of the history department at Fordham University and former director of the Second Amendment Research Center, to discuss his idea for gun control: tax them!

We hear from the historian himself that there was a time when the US government told you not only where you were allowed to carry your gun, but also how to store your gun, who could buy a gun, and even took people's guns away!

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Jodi Kantor, Breaking Harvey Weinstein and Igniting the #MeToo Movement Sep 18, 2019

Show notes

Dave Ross and Colleen O'Brien talk with Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor, who, alongside reporter Megan Twohey, uncovered 25 years of sexual harassment allegations against Harvey Weinstein and precipitated the #MeToo Movement.

Jodi Kantor details their investigation: how they booked secret interviews with A-list actresses, the clandestine ways Weinstein fought to bury and discredit the story, and the system of silent settlements for sexual harassment that women are still pressured to sign every day across the country.

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Jim Downs, Sick from Freedom: The Politics of Disease Sep 17, 2019

Show notes

Jim Downs, a historian and professor at Connecticut College, talks with Dave Ross about a devastating but little-known smallpox epidemic that affected former slaves immediately after the Civil War. The widespread illness was minimized for political reasons - and Jim argues we see the same rationale repeating today in our healthcare policy debates.

How do politics and policy actually affect real people in their daily lives? Dave and Jim discuss the Democrat's 2020 campaign towards universal healthcare, and the crisis at our southern border.

You can purchase Jim's book, "Sick from Freedom: African American Suffering During the Civil War and Reconstruction" here.

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John Kirkwood, Google's Antitrust Problem - What's Going On? Sep 13, 2019

Show notes

Does Google bias its search results, putting its own services first and monopolizing ... well, the internet?

Dave Ross asks a lawyer - professor John Kirkwood from the Seattle University School of Law. They discuss the massive investigation launched against Google this week, and what this antitrust action means for other tech giants, like Amazon and Facebook. All in less than 15 minutes!

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Ibram X Kendi, How to Be Anti-Racist Sep 12, 2019

Show notes

Ibram X Kendi is a historian, a New York Times bestselling author, the founding director of the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University, and a columnist for The Atlantic.

His latest book, How to Be an Antiracist, upends the idea that most people today aren't racist. In fact, you're probably racist. But don't panic, and don't delete this podcast episode - everyone's racist, Kendi says, including, at one point, himself. Racism is deeply embedded in our society and even our personal relationships, and we can't just ignore it and hope it will go away. We have to confront it. We have to be anti-racist.

Ibram X Kendi has an event at Seattle's Town Hall on Saturday, September 14th with Ijeoma Oluo. It's currently sold out - but we have it on good authority that there will be a standby line at the door.

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