Conversation

Unless lawmakers in the other Washington can come to an agreement, the US is facing $85 billion of automatic spending cuts. How will sequestration hit us here in the Evergreen state?

Ross Reynolds talks with Governor Jay Inslee's budget director, David Schumacher, about how the looming federal budget cuts will impact Washington state.

Have you been listening to The Conversation this week? Ross Reynolds tests the knowledge and power of recollection of one lucky listener in the second ever Conversation News Quiz.

Sony rolled out their next generation video game console, the PS4, this week. But gaming has steadily been moving away from consoles to phones. What’s the future for video games? Ross Reynolds talks to Universtiy of Washington Professor Ken Rufo.

Today marks the last day for policy bills to leave committee in the state Legislature. That means the House and the Senate will swap bills and decide which ones to send to the governor.

It sounds shocking, but earworms are an epidemic that affect at least 90 percent of people as often as once a week. That’s according to a Goldsmiths University study. But before you go logging onto WebMD, fear not! These earworms are more commonly referred to as songs, regular old songs — often radio hits or catchy grooves that burrow deep within the human brain. For instance, maybe you've been visited by this hungry earworm:

A new House bill proposed by State Representative Marko Liias would establish a panel to investigate the effects of sexual orientation conversion therapy -- also known as 'straight camp' -- for minors in Washington state. Liias is one of several openly gay legislators in Washington, and he said in a press release that conversion therapy has “no basis in science or medicine, and it is vital that we bring together the proper health experts to better understand the impacts.”

The Everett Herald reports Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon will resign, effective May 31. Reardon has been dogged by allegation he misused county funds and  had his staff anonymously harass critics. Ross Reynolds talks with Everett Herald reporter Scott North about Reardon's announcement.

When science fiction author and casual prophet Isaac Asimov wrote about his visit to the World’s Fair in New York in 1964, he imagined what the world would be like in 50 years. Almost 50 years later he seems to have gotten a few things right: “Robots will neither be common nor very good in 2014, but they will be in existence. The IBM exhibit at the present fair has no robots but it is dedicated to computers, which are shown in all their amazing complexity, notably in the task of translating Russian into English.”

Google translate anyone?

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jared Diamond joins Ross Reynolds in front of a live studio audience. For decades he has studied Papua New Guinea cultures. He writes about what we can learn from traditional social organizations in his new book "The World Until Yesterday." Below are highlights from the interview.

Coming up on The Conversation, February 20 at noon.

Why do some children succeed and others fail? Paul Tough went looking for the answer to that question, and in the process learned the answer is changing. He joins Ross Reynolds for a conversation about childhood success.