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Soundside

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Get to know the PNW and each other. Soundside airs Monday through Thursday at 12 p.m. and 8 p.m. on KUOW starting January 10. Listen to Soundside on Spotify, iTunes, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Additional Credits: Logo art is designed by Teo Popescu. Audio promotions are produced by Hans Twite. Community engagement led by Zaki Hamid. Our Director of New Content and Innovation is Brendan Sweeney.

Mission Statement:

Soundside believes establishing trust with our listeners involves taking the time to listen.

We know that building trust with a community takes work. It involves broadening conversations, making sure our show amplifies systemically excluded voices, and challenging narratives that normalize systemic racism.

We want Soundside to be a place where you can be part of the dialogue, learn something new about your own backyard, and meet your neighbors from the Peninsula to the Palouse.

Together, we’ll tell stories that connect us to our community — locally, nationally and globally. We’ll get to know the Pacific Northwest and each other.

What do you think Soundside should be covering? Where do you want to see us go next?

Leave us a voicemail! You might hear your call on-air: 206-221-3213

Share your thoughts directly with the team at soundside@kuow.org.

Join the Soundside Listener Network

Enter your number below or text SOUND to 206-926-9955 to get your questions in front of local government officials and share your thoughts on issues in the Puget Sound region. We’ll text you 1-2 prompts per week, and your response may be featured on the show!


Episodes

  • caption: Patrol cars and ambulances are shown at the intersection of Third Avenue and Pine Street on Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2020.

    Is Seattle's new drug law working?

    It's been about six weeks since Seattle's new law against public drug use and possession went into effect. The ordinance was written to bring the city in line with a new state law that treats things like having or using fentanyl in public as a gross misdemeanor. One of the directives handed down to Seattle Police is to emphasize diversion when enforcing the law. So how does that work? And how is the effort going?

  • caption: An elections worker feeds ballots into a ballot sorting machine on Wednesday, October 28, 2020, at King County Elections in Renton.

    Why didn't more Washingtonians vote in the 2023 election?

    Turnout for this year’s November election was the lowest on record since Washington started keeping track in 1936. Statewide, 36.41% of registered voters returned their ballot in 2023. That beats the previous low of 37.1%, held in another odd-year election — 2017, and the one before that, 38.52% in 2015. So, what is it with odd-year elections and low voter turnout?
  • caption: Alaska Airlines planes parked at gates with Mount Rainier in the background at sunrise, on March 1, 2021, at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in Seattle.

    Will regulators stop the Alaska Hawaiian merger?

    Seattle-based Alaska Airlines announced over the weekend it plans to buy Hawaiian Airlines. The $1.9 billion merger would solidify Alaska's position as the nation's fifth largest carrier, if federal regulators don't block the deal.
  • ferry seattle generic

    WA's ferry network is stretched thin, how will it recover?

    If you’ve tried to catch a boat regularly lately, you know Washington state’s ferry system is struggling. Many vessels are 40 to 50 years old. The Tilikum is 63 years old. Just 14 of the agency’s 21 ships are currently sailing. A third of the fleet is out of service. Several routes are on reduced service or running smaller boats.

  • caption: Scott Welton (left), Suzanne Elshult (right), and Kili (center) stand in a field as the group searches for potential remains at Mool-Mool, or Fort Simcoe Historical State Park.

    With dogs and radar, volunteers search for remains at Mool-Mool, or Fort Simcoe State Park

    Since time immemorial, Native Tribes in the Columbia Basin met at a village crossroads called Mool-Mool. In the wake of the Yakama Treaty of 1855, the site was of continual use as a U.S. military outpost, and for decades, the grounds included a boarding school operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, where children from the Yakama Nation were forced to attend. Today, volunteers and Yakama descendants are searching the 200-acre park for their relatives' remains.

  • caption: The SS Dix in Puget Sound, 1904-1906.

    Local explorers believe they've found Puget Sound's deadliest shipwreck

    In 1906, the Steamship Dix was shuttling passengers from Colman Dock to Port Blakely when it crossed the path of the SS Jeanie. After the SS Jeanie rolled the SS Dix, the latter's passengers scrambled for safety, with dozens tragically sinking aboard the vessel. More than 100 years later, local shipwreck enthusiasts believe they've found the steamer's resting place in Elliott Bay.

  • caption: A cyclist rides along Harbor Avenue Southwest in the rain on Thursday, November 3, 2022, in Seattle.

    What happens when El Niño rolls into Seattle?

    If you’re in the Pacific Northwest right now, it’s cold outside. There’s frost on the ground in the morning — sometimes a freezing mist in the air. And lately, very little rain. Winter doesn’t technically start for another three weeks. But if this is all feeling off to you, you may need to prepare for more weirdness; it’s an El Niño year.