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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KUOW Newsroom
Inslee unveils new plan to tackle climate change 'head on' in WA
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee says there’s no silver bullet for the climate, so he’s pushing a sweeping package of policies to lower the state’s carbon footprint, economy-wide.
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KUOW Newsroom
Top WA elections official threatened, doxxed after challenging Trump campaign's election misinformation
Secretary of State Kim Wyman's office confirmed on Monday that it has notified the Department of Homeland Security and the state’s own counterterrorism center, the Washington State Fusion Center, about a death threat against one of her employees.
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14 baby sea stars are tiny bundles of hope for their critically endangered species
To save a critically endangered species, sometimes you have to cut off one of its arms.
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KUOW Newsroom
Washington's carbon footprint keeps growing. This time, buildings and planes are to blame
Despite efforts to tame it, Washington state’s impact on the climate keeps growing.
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Scientists pinpoint chemical that’s been killing coho salmon. It comes from tires
Want to avoid poisoning salmon with your toxic tire dust? Here's how
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KUOW Newsroom
Thousands of these small green crabs are invading Puget Sound shores
Lummi Nation crews trap 2,600 of the unwelcome invertebrates, more than anywhere in Washington
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West Seattle Bridge to be repaired, not replaced
Mayor Jenny Durkan said a repaired bridge could reopen to traffic by “mid-2022.”
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Washington restaurants brace for thousands of layoffs with ban on indoor service
"It is definitely a hard pill to swallow when it comes to your business."
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U.S. out of global climate pact — an 'appalling' move, WA leaders say
“We're really concerned about the crab and clams and oysters and all those things that are extremely important to our way of life.”
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KUOW Newsroom
Expensive choice: Fly home to Texas or your vote doesn't get counted
University of Washington junior Carson Bryant joined a surge of college students and others who have descended upon Texas.