Will James
Host, Lost Patients
About
Will James is a Seattle-based writer, reporter, producer and host whose audio documentaries delve into some of the most complex and polarizing issues in the U.S. He developed, co-reported, and produced the podcast Outsiders, chronicling unsheltered life in one city for more than a year, with KNKX Public Radio and The Seattle Times. TIME called Outsiders a “narrative feat” and one of the 10 best podcasts of 2020. He also worked on KNKX podcasts The Walk Home, investigating the death of Manny Ellis in Tacoma, and Transmission, chronicling the COVID-19 pandemic in the Pacific Northwest. His journalism career started in newspapers in his home state of New York.
Podcasts
Stories
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Vulnerable patients caught in ‘churn’ between Washington mental health care systems face life and death circumstances
Lost Patients is a deeply-reported, six-part docuseries examining the difficulties of treating serious mental illness through the lens of one city's past, present and future. With real-life testimonials from patients, families, and professionals on the front lines, Lost Patients provides a real, solutions-oriented look at how we got stuck here...and what we might do to break free.
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50 years ago, many psychiatric hospitals closed. Did that cause today's mental health crisis?
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Who was Lillian Massey? A journey to Northern State psychiatric hospital
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His mom worried he’d wind up dead. But getting him committed was nearly impossible
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A boy named Adam: When psychosis spills onto Seattle streets (Lost Patients podcast)
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National
Tenants at risk of homelessness were evicted from a building. Here's what happened
The former tenants of the Merkle Hotel in Tacoma, Wash., struggled to find housing after they were forced from their building in 2018. Many didn't have a place to go.
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The Merkle Hotel in Tacoma was 'an unofficial safety net' for its tenants. Then it was taken away
Before October 31, 2018, the Merkle Hotel in Tacoma was home for tenants who couldn’t afford much else. That is, until a developer decided it was time to cater to a crowd that could pay more and evicted those who could not.