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
Air agency: Tacoma gas plant not a climate threat. Science: yes it is
Environmentalists have soured on natural gas. It used to be viewed as a promising step in the transition from dirtier fuels like coal and oil toward a climate-friendly future.
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KUOW Newsroom
Baby wipes, tree roots led to 165,000-gallon sewage spill at Golden Gardens
Wading at Golden Gardens? Safe again. Flushing baby wipes? Never safe
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KUOW Newsroom
Endangered orcas have been missing for 8 weeks. This is unprecedented, researchers say
It all comes back to chinook salmon.
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KUOW Newsroom
Sedan overboard! How the sea floor got littered with cars off the Northwest coast
Dotting the sea floor is something you wouldn’t expect in this remote and watery wilderness: crushed cars, with Canadian bumper stickers and license plates.
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KUOW Newsroom
Washington tribes and Inslee alarmed by Canadian pipeline approval
Expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline to the Vancouver, B.C., area would boost tanker traffic in Washington waters, poses threat to orcas.
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KUOW Newsroom
What are that new baby orca’s chances of surviving?
The calf, still ruddy and wrinkled from its time in the womb, brings the endangered population of southern resident killer whales up to 76.
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KUOW Newsroom
Meet Washington's newest endangered species
Some endangered species in Puget Sound are almost as big as a school bus. Others can fit in the palm of your hand.
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KUOW Newsroom
Deaths of 75 West Coast gray whales declared 'unusual mortality event'
Scientists have recorded 75 gray whales washing up dead from California to Alaska this year, with 25 of those in Washington state.
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KUOW Newsroom
Outlook: above-normal temps, below-normal precipitation.
Washington state’s snowpack is down to less than a third its normal levels for this time of year. The early meltdown leaves the state's main storehouse of water for the summer a shadow of its usual self.
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KUOW Newsroom
'One-day shipping won’t matter if our homes are under water,' Amazon workers tell Jeff Bezos
Amazon employees held placards, gave speeches and confronted their boss at the company’s annual meeting .