Sound Effect

Latest Episodes:

Island Time: Sound Effect, Episode 109 Aug 29, 2020

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This episode originally aired on June 17, 2017. This week on Sound Effect , we head out to the islands. The Good Ship Issaquah Marsha Morse was one of the first women captains in Washington’s ferry system. She’s been navigating the waterways since 1975. And while she captains the ferry Issaquah , she considers her office the entire Puget Sound. The One Lonely Island All of the available islands in the San Juan’s were snatched up by homesteaders by 1919. All but one. A lonely, rocky, 15-acre dot close to San Juan Island. This rocky mound became the object of one young couple’s obsession. It drew them across the country. Canadian Homes Get A Second Life Affordable housing —and not enough of it — is a headline we read and hear on a regular basis in the Seattle area. This challenge also exists in the San Juan Islands, where people tend to either be incredibly wealthy or they’re in line at the food bank. A non-profit in Friday Harbor is bringing affordable housing to the island. This

The Awards Show: Sound Effect, Episode 213 Aug 22, 2020

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In this episode of Sound Effect, we’re featuring stories from this show and the KNKX newsroom that earned regional and national recognition. Youth and education reporter Ashley Gross talks about a quirk in state policy that is giving an artificial boost to graduation rates across the state. KNKX’s Will James dives into the turmoil that, up until recently, plagued the Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office . Producer Posey Gruener shares the story of a beloved professional boxer whose life was tragically cut short . Gabriel Spitzer introduces us to a man who is helping his homeless neighbors, one makeshift toilet at a time . And producer Kevin Kniestedt shares what he learned after rediscovering a box of old love letters from past girlfriends. (KNKX's Ed Ronco and Geoffrey Redick also earned recognition for long-form storytelling about the five-year anniversary of the Oso landslide, part of the station's regional reporting project KNKX Connects.)

The Concert: Sound Effect, Episode 212 Aug 15, 2020

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There is nothing like standing in the crowd, watching your favorite musician take the stage, playing your favorite song live right in front of you. Well thanks to a little global pandemic, going to a concert has been more or less impossible. Well, those of us at Sound Effect miss hearing live music, and we are willing to bet that you do to. Today on the show, we are going to bring the concert to you. We're going to be playing live music recordings that were performed and recorded just for Sound Effect over the years. Singer songwriter Lydia Ramsey channels her ancestors in a haunting folk tune. Also some political satire in song form from Long Winters front man John Roderick . And get out the Kleenex... Kimya Dawson performs a real tear jerker. Plus live recordings from Chastity Belt , Ben Union , Naomi Wachira and Skerik’s Bandalabra . Click the play button above to listen to the show.

Farewell, Gabriel: Sound Effect, Episode 211 Aug 08, 2020

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Today on the show, we say goodbye to our host Gabriel Spitzer. This is the last show Gabriel will host, as he transitions to a new job in public health. He celebrates some of his favorite stories from past shows in this episode. We’ll meet a punter who thought he was a linebacker for a minute, a cowboy who “met” Bigfoot and a Balkan rock star who staged an antiwar musical in a war zone. Sound Effect contributors share emotional best wishes to wrap up his last show. Johnny Hekker is a punter for the Los Angeles Rams, though he grew up in Bothell. A few years ago he was back home playing against the Seahawks, when, in a moment of exuberance, he took the burly Cliff Avril to the ground . Cliff’s teammates weren’t pleased. When you picture Sasquatch, chances are you imagine a specific image of a bipedal humanoid, mid-stride, arms swinging and head turned back to look behind it. Bob Gimlin, one of the men behind the iconic Patterson-Gimlin film footage, says Sasquatch was looking back at

Work in Progress: Sound Effect, Episode 194 Aug 01, 2020

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This show originally aired on November 9, 2019. First, we learn about a map that shows the vast web of connections among Seattle bands. Then, we meet the chief of equity for Seattle Public Schools, whose work is informed by her own past experience as a black student in the district. We meet a performance artist who explores how expectations of beauty killed her mother . We travel to a ridgetop observatory where young adults are working out who they’re going to be. And we learn how a Tacoma woman went from “cult” to college . BAND MAP 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 . Learn how the effort materialized , and which bands are connected to Green Day. IMPROVING EQUITY Back in 1988, the Seattle school district had a problem on its hands. Black third graders were underperforming their white classmates in reading by 29 percentage points. It was a glaring inequality, and it was getting

You Can't Choose Your Family...Can You? Sound Effect, Episode 193 Jul 25, 2020

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This show originally aired on October 26, 2019. This week on Sound Effect, our theme is “You Can’t Choose Your Family...Can You?” We’re bringing you stories of family ties that go beyond blood, but still help define who we are and where we come from. First, a middle-aged woman learns she was conceived using an unexpected sperm donor . A bookseller searches for someone to take over his business and learns something surprising about himself. A resilient young woman balances college and guardianship of her younger siblings. Finally, a local doctor shares his journey of adopting a daughter from Kazakhstan. DOCTOR DONOR Suzan Mazor was in her 40s when she found out that she had been conceived using donor sperm. It was the first she had ever heard of it. She’d never felt a strong connection to the man she thought was her father, so it didn’t feel like she was losing something. If anything, it had opened up a world of possibility. She decided to do a little digging. And she started to learn

Gatekeepers: Sound Effect, Episode 192 Jul 11, 2020

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This show originally aired on October 19, 2019. The theme of this week’s Sound Effect is “Gatekeepers” — stories about people with power over who comes and goes. First, we hear what it’s like for a prison guard to be locked in with the inmates. Next, a story of escape and betrayal in one of the world’s most repressive countries. Then, the chilling words of a man ready to confront his fate — and his complicated journey to execution. Finally, we hear from a woman who once was tasked with helping determine who was approved to resettle from Vietnam to the U.S. PRISON GUARDS Chris Hubert, a longtime guard at the now-defunct McNeil Island Corrections Center , talks about what it was like to hold the keys — and sometimes, be locked in along with the inmates. NORTH KOREA RESCUE It's miraculous that Grace Jo is alive. She owes her life to Seattle-area Pastor John Yoon. And so do hundreds of other North Korean refugees. Yoon was a conductor on the North Korean underground railroad. He helped

The Collector: Sound Effect, Episode 189 Jul 04, 2020

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This show originally aired on September 21, 2019. Collections come in all shapes and sizes. Whatever it is, a collection can take on a life of its own. And it says something about the person behind it. That’s our latest theme — The Collector: why we’re drawn to collect stuff, and what we’re willing to do in pursuit of it. First, the co-owner of a Tacoma bar shares how he came to acquire a small collection of glass art from Dale Chihuly. Then, we meet a woman who makes jewelry out of animal bones . A man shares how his obsession with a certain tree led him on an intense trip to Chile in pursuit of seeds . We meet a Seattle librarian who is helping catalogue more than 30,000 zines from across the country. Next, we learn about the man who collected — among many things — recordings of ferry horns. Finally, one of our own shares what he’s learned from a collection of letters from past girlfriends. CHIHULY GLASS On top of the old bar inside The Swiss in Tacoma — towering above 31 tap handles

Transmission No. 4: Sound Effect, Episode 210 Jun 27, 2020

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We have all been dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic in our own ways. And the Sound Effect team has been doing our best to cover it in a podcast called Transmission. Today on Sound Effect, we share some more stories that have stood out to us from the series. First, we make the rounds with Gino Jevdjevic — a Bosnian pop star-turned-punk-frontman-turned-social-services-provider — as he checks in on his clients with developmental disabilities. Then, we hear the story of Thomas Lopez , the beloved proprietor of a taco truck business and restaurant in Algona who died from COVID-19. We meet a young woman named Aminata Kamara, who is living through her second run-in with a deadly virus after experiencing a terrifying outbreak of Ebola while living in Sierra Leone. We learn about a model that can help predict behavioral health responses to the pandemic. And KNKX’s Kevin Kniestedt takes advice from a psychiatrist to reconnect with people he’s lost touch with. Be sure to subscribe to both our

Watch Your Language: Sound Effect, Episode 173 Jun 20, 2020

Show notes

This show originally aired on March 30, 2019. We start with a man translating traditional blues into Yiddish . Next, we join "the Jane Goodall of the whales," as she eavesdrops on orcas . Then, an effort is made to rethink how an endangered native language should look on the page. A lso, a story of a musician with autism who uses music as a language . Finally, a rabbi uses modern music to help save a language from extinction. Sound Effect showcases stories inspired by the place we live. The show is hosted by KNKX's Gabriel Spitzer .

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