John Ryan
Reporter
About
Environment reporter John Ryan welcomes tips, documents and feedback from listeners. For secure, confidential communication: he's at 1-401-405-1206 on the Signal messaging app, you can use KUOW’s SecureDrop portal, or you can send snail mail (but don't put your return address on the outside!) to John Ryan, KUOW, 4518 Univ. Way NE, Seattle, WA 98105.
Good thing John was a clumsy traveler.
Otherwise his cheap microcassette recorder wouldn't have fallen out of his pocket in an Indonesian taxi, a generous BBC stringer wouldn't have lent him some recording gear, and he wouldn't have gotten the radio bug. But after pointing a mic at rare jungle songbirds and gong-playing grandmothers for his first radio story, there was no turning back.
He spent several years freelancing for most of the major public radio news shows (as well as newspapers including Christian Science Monitor and Los Angeles Times). John also did an award-winning documentary for KUOW on the side from a day gig covering transportation at the Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce.
In 2009, John moved back to Seattle to become KUOW’s first investigative reporter after two exciting years covering avalanches, political intrigue and just about everything in between for KTOO, the NPR station in Alaska's capital city. He returned to Alaska for a 4-month stint in the Aleutian Islands in 2015 and won awards for KUOW and KUCB-Unalaska for his coverage of Arctic oil drilling from two states.
John’s stories have won multiple national awards for KUOW, including the Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Delta Chi awards for Public Service in Radio Journalism and for Investigative Reporting and national Edward R. Murrow and PRNDI awards for coverage of breaking news.
John is a shop steward of KUOW’s SAG-AFTRA newsroom union.
He believes democracy only works when journalism holds the powerful accountable for their words and actions.
Stories
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KUOW Newsroom
Trump admin retreats from Postal Service overhaul
Postal workers in Tacoma say mail is being delivered faster in recent weeks as the Trump administration retreats from its efforts to overhaul the U.S. Postal Service.
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KUOW Newsroom
Smoke in the water: wildfire soot doesn’t just disappear once it rains
Rain has knocked down the smoke plaguing the Northwest, but smoky hazards linger.
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Grief-stricken orca has a new baby in Salish Sea
"I definitely cried."
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Covid cops do thousands of undercover ‘spot checks’ to protect public health
A small squad of inspectors go undercover into businesses that people have complained are not taking Covid-19 seriously.
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KUOW Newsroom
Rare treat: endangered orcas return to home waters in search of scarce salmon
After six weeks away from its usual summer splashing grounds, the southern resident killer whales’ J pod returned en masse to the west side of San Juan Island Tuesday morning.
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KUOW Newsroom
‘Fierce urgency’ on climate needed, county exec says
King County aims to cut climate pollution in half this decade and prioritize the needs of communities of color as it does so.
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KUOW Newsroom
Bremerton hospital workers: St. Michael, protect us from Covid-19
Washington state’s labor and health departments have launched separate investigations of conditions at the Bremerton hospital now suffering a Covid-19 outbreak.
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KUOW Newsroom
Don’t reconnect mailing machines, Postal Service tells plants. Tacoma does it anyway
An order from Postal Service headquarters didn't stop mail-processing plants in Tacoma and Wenatchee from hooking up their high-speed letter-sorting machines again.
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KUOW Newsroom
40% of letter-handling machines dismantled in Seattle-Tacoma area
The US Postmaster General says no more postal equipment will be dismantled until after the November election. Yet 40% of the mail-sorting machines in the Seattle area have already been disconnected, which could put a dent in the post office's ability to handle mail-in ballots.
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Mail machines removed from Washington state post offices, workers worry about November ballots
The U.S. Postal Service is removing 15 high-speed letter-sorting machines from facilities in Washington state, according to internal documents obtained by KUOW.