John Ryan
Reporter
About
Environment reporter John Ryan welcomes tips, documents and feedback from listeners. Reach him at jryan@kuow.org or for secure, confidential communication: he's at 1-401-405-1206 on the Signal messaging app or heyjohnryan@protonmail.com.
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.
Two decades later, he has freelanced for most of the major public radio news shows as well as newspapers and magazines and covered transportation at the Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce. He’s been a reporter at NPR stations in southeast and southwest Alaska (KTOO-Juneau and KUCB-Unalaska) as well as Seattle. He became KUOW’s first full-time investigative reporter in 2009 and one of the first shop stewards for KUOW’s SAG-AFTRA newsroom union, as well as KUOW’s full-time environment reporter, in 2018.
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, national Edward R. Murrow and PMJA/PRNDI awards for coverage of breaking news and a Society of Environmental Journalists award for in-depth reporting.
He believes democracy only works when journalism holds the powerful accountable for their words and actions.
Stories
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Makah Tribe takes big step toward resuming gray whale hunt
The Makah Tribe has gained a victory from a federal judge in its 16-year-quest to resume hunting gray whales.
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Lapping Mount Rainier to map its withering ice
A specially-outfitted plane documented the decline of the biggest collection of glaciers in the lower 48 states. For the first time in six years, Mount Rainier National Park is measuring its glaciers from the air.
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Climate activists shut down Seattle's Fourth Avenue, two banks
Climate activists shut down Fourth Avenue in downtown Seattle and the downtown branches of two banks on Friday.
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Officials demand answers after apparent sabotage of oil train
Some legislators are calling for action in the wake of a federal report on the apparent sabotage of an oil train north of Bellingham last year.
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3 pregnant orcas could boost endangered whales’ numbers
More babies are on the way for the endangered southern resident killer whales.
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Federal investigation points to ‘possible’ sabotage of oil train in Custer crash
Federal investigators say someone apparently tampered with the brakes and couplers on an oil train before it derailed north of Bellingham.
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KUOW Newsroom
Hidden wireless technology keeps buses moving in this rural Washington town
Washington state has more electric buses than any state except California.
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Hotels could become home for many Afghan refugees in Seattle area
Relief organizations in the Seattle area are having to get creative to find housing for an expected influx of refugees from Afghanistan. With affordable housing in scarce supply, they're asking King County to make some county-owned hotels available for arriving refugees.
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Nest with nearly 1,500 Asian giant hornets destroyed near Blaine
A team outfitted in sting-proof foam suits eradicated a nest of the world’s largest hornets near Blaine, Washington, and the U.S.-Canada border on Wednesday. It is the first Asian giant hornet nest to be destroyed in 2021.
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KUOW Newsroom
Nation's first hydrogen-powered ferry launches in Bellingham
A hydrogen-powered ferry, the first of its kind in the United States, has launched in Bellingham.