Arts & Life

A  Metro bus ride inspires poet, novelist and teaching artist Karen Finneyfrock to find a delightfully surprising personification for Northwest springtime in her poem "Monster."

According to Nicco Mele the Internet is the great leveler and the age of "big" has ended. Who has power and control when almost everyone has access? Ross Reynolds talks to Nicco Mele about the Internet, the distribution of power and his new book, "The End of Big." 

Mark Arm and Steve Turner founded Mudhoney years before the national music press catapulted Seattle onto the national stage. Their 1988 debut single, “Touch Me I’m Sick,” was the first major hit for Sub Pop Records. While they’ve also had careers outside of music-making, the band has remained together for more than 25 years, continuing to record and go on tour. We talk with singer and guitarist Mark Arm about Mudhoney’s latest album, "Vanishing Point."

Two Seattle-based adventurers — one a scientist, the other an artist — are on an expedition to study and document narwhals in Arctic waters off the west coast of Greenland. 

There’s an old joke among saxophone players: The instrument, they say, comes from the factory out of tune.  Dr. Michael Brockman is a professor of saxophone at the University of Washington. He actually thinks the saxophone can be tuned, and he’s determined to do something about it. 

Our spring membership drive rolls along with two of our favorite interviews: two-time Grammy winning musician Taj Mahal joined us late last year to celebrate 40 years in music and a new retrospective album, "Maestro." Plus, we listen back to a conversation with Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker about his book, "The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window Into Human Nature."

As a former Dominican nun in the Roman Catholic Church, Annette Spaulding-Convy is intimately aware of the complex messages the institution sends about women's bodies. Her poem "Bonsai Nun" finds an apt metaphor in the severe pruning required to make a tree fit the aesthetic and spiritual ideal.

Daemond Arrindell wants to change the world. Not through the ballot box or protest marches. Arrindell’s weapon is poetry. He uses his words to touch individual lives, particularly the lives of young people.

Greg Proops is a comedian who is best known for his appearances on the improv comedy show Whose Line Is It Anyway? In addition to his stand-up and improv work, he’s acted in film and television and has done voice work for such projects as "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and Bob the Builder. Greg is currently the host of the weekly podcast The Smartest Man In The World, a podcast he records live around the US and parts of Europe.