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.
To see more of John's past KUOW work, visit our archive site.
Stories
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Elections
Big soda really, really wants to stop govs from taxing bevs
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The Record
Should you vote for a carbon fee?
This year, voters will decide whether or not to instate a first-in-the-nation fee on carbon emissions in the state. We invited groups for and against the ballot measure to talk about why they support and oppose I-1631.
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Tax polluters says the UN — but much more than WA carbon fee
“The next few years are probably the most important in human history.”
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EPA head touts Duwamish cleanup project
Other Trump EPA actions are expected to be less beneficial for Washington waters.
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Uh oh, coho! Something's killing suburban salmon. Car tires a prime suspect
New study points at chemicals from tiny bits of car tires as a prime suspect in the untimely deaths of salmon in Seattle-area creeks
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Toxic PCBs threaten orcas around the world
Killer whales can be found around the world, and more than half of those populations are threatened by toxic chemicals called PCBs, according to a new study in the journal Science.
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Another Puget Sound Orca Is In Bad Shape. 3 Others Are Pregnant
Since last November, three members of the long-endangered population have died, most recently an emaciated young female known as J50.
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Another ailing orca – and three pregnant ones
Governor's task force seeks comments on its recommendations to save 74 whales from extinction as three of them are found to be pregnant.
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One way to watch orcas without disturbing them? On land
LISTEN to giddy-sounding orca vocalizations (are they laughing??)
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Lithium batteries blamed for starting toxic Tacoma fire