Seattle Now
Seattle Now is a smart, daily news podcast for a curious city, from KUOW and the NPR Network. New episodes every weekday morning and evening.
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Episodes
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Expand your summer reading boundaries with SPL Book Bingo
Tomorrow is the first official day of summer, which means it's beach book season. If you need a little help or you don’t know where to start, the Seattle Public Library’s got you covered with their adult Book Bingo program. Seattle Now producer Clare McGrane explains how the program works and how it's building a community of readers across the city.
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Casual Friday with Hannah Weinberger and Clare McGrane
This week… Amazon’s return-to-office mandate is making things busier downtown… and commutes are getting longer too King County is mulling whether or not to require businesses to accept cash. And how much is too much for a really fancy burger? Science journalist Hannah Weinberger and KUOW Producer Clare McGrane are here to break down the week.
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Orcas v boats: It's complicated.
You’ve probably seen the headlines or maybe even video of orcas tearing the rudders off boats on the Iberian coast. It’s easy to jump to conclusions about the motives of these apex predators but don’t panic… let’s take a step back. We wanted to get some insight into what may be going on so we called up the Orca Behavior Institute and talked to Monika Wieland Shields to get into the complexity and culture of our neighbors in the sea.
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Healthcare bumps tech in new jobs
For more than a decade, tech has dominated Seattle’s job market. A scroll through job listing sites would call up a long list of openings for software engineers and developers. Recent data from the Washington Employment Security Department says the market is shifting. And healthcare has moved into the top spot for hiring. Seattle Times reporter Paul Roberts is here to talk about what changes in the job market mean for the city.
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Washington's late-night luxury cherries
Summer cherry season is right around the corner. Literally… the fruit is making its way to your grocery store and farmers market right now. One Washington grower is pulling out all the stops to whip up an extra special batch of cherries. It means harvesting the fruit in the middle of the night in a greenhouse. Northwest News Network correspondent Anna King is here to tell us about the luxury cherry industry cropping up in the state.
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Rethinking Seattle’s ‘regressive’ taxes
City Council member Alex Pedersen is proposing a capital gains tax in the city. It’s part of an effort to rethink regressive taxes, and it if it's successful, it'll shave some money off your water bill. Seattle Times reporter Sarah Grace Taylor explains the proposal, and why the city is looking for new tax ideas.
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Casual Friday with Bill Radke and Naomi Ishisaka
This week… Things got heated as the Seattle City Council debated Legislation aimed at drug possession. The east coast is learning what it’s like to live through smoke season. And WSU researchers are tinkering on a crisp new apple. We’ll break it all down with KUOW’s Bill Radke, and Seattle Times columnist Naomi Ishisaka.
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Seattle City Council strikes down drug enforcement policy
The city council narrowly rejected a proposal that would give the city attorney the power to prosecute public drug use and possession. The slim margin suggests there’s a lot of division in the city about how to approach the crisis. Publicola journalist and editor Erica C. Barnett will tell us how the vote went down and what happens next.
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Rising cost of groceries drives more need
Seattle residents are paying a lot for groceries. It adds up to about $75 more a month than the national average according to cost of living database Numbeo.com. And that’s putting increased demand on food banks. We’ll talk to Rainier Valley Food Bank Executive Director Gloria Hatcher-Mays about how the organization is working to manage the growing need.
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It’s tidepool time! How you can explore Puget Sound’s shoreline during the lowest tides of the year
The sun is out and the tide is low — the lowest it’s been all year. That means the crabs, sea anemones and urchins that normally live just under the surface are hanging out on the beach for the day. We visited Alki with John Meyer, co-author of the book Between the Tides in Washington and Oregon, to spot some critters and learn his tips for tidepooling successfully and responsibly.
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Is the right to strike in danger?
Last week the US Supreme Court got into the mix of a local labor dispute over striking teamsters and lost concrete. The high court's ruling in favor of Glacier Northwest, was a victory for business. But was it a huge blow for labor?
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Casual Friday with Mike Davis and Rachel Terlep
This week… Amazon employees walked off the job in protest of several company practices. Experts in the AI industry warned that things might be advancing a bit too fast. And we learn that none of us are very good spellers. We’ll break it all down with KUOW Arts and Culture Reporter Mike Davis and Rachel Terlep, the senior social media manager for Washington's Department of Natural Resources.