Joshua McNichols
Reporter
About
Joshua has been the "growing pains" reporter since 2015, documenting the region's growth and change. Joshua “took the long way” to radio, working in architecture firms for over a decade before pursuing his passion for public radio in 2007. By "long way," he means he's also been a writer, bicycle courier, commercial fisherman, bed-and-breakfast cook, carpenter, landscaper and stained glass salesman. He’s detailed animal enclosures to prevent jaguars from escaping the Miami Zoo. Once, while managing a construction site in Athens, Greece, he was given a noogie by an Albanian civil war refugee in his employ. “You do not tell those guys how to place stucco,” he said. All of which has no doubt made him the story-teller he is today.
Podcasts
Stories
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KUOW Newsroom
Sawant hopes to make good on promise to tax Amazon
Most of Amazon’s preferred candidates for city council lost the election. And next year, the senior-most member of the Seattle City Council – will be Amazon’s biggest critic.
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Primed
What Alexa can learn from a heart attack on the moon
Minutes after the Apollo 15 lunar module blasted off the surface of the moon, Astronaut James Irwin’s heart began to stutter. Down at Mission Control, Dr. Charles Berry watched the astronaut’s EKG. He saw a series of rapid double beats with long pauses in between. If Irwin was on Earth, Dr. Berry said, “I’d have him in ICU being treated for a heart attack.”
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Primed
There's a neighborhood of Amazon 'smart homes' south of Seattle
This week's Primed podcast explores Amazon's smart home technology. You can listen to the episode here. In the first part of the story, we baked muffins with Alexa in Amazon's smart home lab. Here, we talk to people who live in an Amazon smart home development in Black Diamond, WA. We also explore some very troubling consequences of having a fully wired home.
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KUOW Newsroom
The Seattle super hacker will be released Tuesday. But she won't be free
On Tuesday, the Capital One hacker will be released to a halfway house to await her trial. Paige Thompson stands accused of stealing records from 106 million Capital One customers. Thompson’s attorneys argued that as a transgender woman, she should not be held in an all-male jail. A judge agreed.
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Primed
Amazon has a 'secret apartment.' What's in it? We found out
There’s a secret apartment on the 30th Floor of Amazon’s Day One building in Seattle. We’ve wanted to get inside for months. This week, we finally did.
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Primed
We’re living longer. Can Alexa help us live better?
On this week’s episode of Primed, we explore how smart speakers like Amazon’s Echo fit into the lives of older people. Some elders find Alexa annoying or intrusive. But others interact with the technology in practical, creative ways. Here are a few of their stories.
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SoundQs
How is Amazon changing our lives?
Over the last year or so, the SoundQs team has gotten a lot of questions about one Seattle-based company. Amazon. Happily, KUOW's podcast Primed is finding answers to questions about how Amazon is changing our lives. Here's the first episode of their newest season, about Alexa and kids.
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KUOW Newsroom
Amazon can track you by your voice print
Parents are suing Amazon, alleging the company records children without their consent. A trial could come next year. But the case brings up issues beyond those recordings.
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Primed
Parenting in the age of Alexa? It’s complicated
This week’s episode of Prime(d) talks about the relationship between children and Alexa, Amazon’s AI-powered virtual assistant. Kids love to ask Alexa questions. And Alexa is listening.
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Primed
Preview: Primed Season 3
Amazon is ending up in more and more of our homes. But are we asking the right questions when we invite Amazon and Alexa into our lives?