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Soundside

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: Tree canopy over Seattle, Wash.

    After more than a decade, Seattle passes new rules to protect more city trees

    Seattle is known as the Emerald City, but over the past couple decades it’s been losing a lot of what makes it green. The city’s most recent tree canopy assessment, released in 2021, found that Seattle’s tree cover had dropped to 28.1 percent -- short of a goal set nearly 15 years earlier of getting canopy coverage to at least 30 percent. To protect more trees from development, many urban forest advocates have spent years asking for an update to rules for removing and replacing trees in Seattle. On Tuesday, those rules were finally updated.

  • caption: A quiet scene outside Amazon's Seattle headquarters.

    Amazon employees prepare to walk out... if they can get enough people

    On Monday, a group of Amazon workers at the company’s Seattle headquarters announced they would be walking off the job. In messages and emails sent to fellow employees, the group said they would be walking out on May 31, one week after the company’s annual shareholder meeting.

  • Farewell Tour

    Hear it again: When WA was a country music capital — Stephanie Clifford's 'The Farewell Tour'

    When you think about country music, places like Texas, Appalachia and Nashville probably come to mind. Maybe you even know about The Bakersfield Sound, a sub-genre of country music that sprang from California. But the Pacific Northwest has a long country tradition, from honky tonks in Tacoma to radio shows in Walla Walla and dances at Whatcom County meeting halls.

  • caption: KUOW and Northwest News correspondent Tom Banse (right) interviews then Washington Governor Gary Locke in 1997.

    KUOW salutes reporter Tom Banse

    It's a bittersweet day for us here at KUOW as we say goodbye to a legend. For the last 37 years, one reporter has brought listeners to what’s felt like every corner of the state – as he’s broken news, covered politics, the environment, and told countless stories about the fascinating people around us. But after 37 years of diligent reporting, Tom is retiring.

  • caption: The Washington Capitol in Olympia.

    WA Legislature votes on a Blake fix. Now drug courts have to adapt

    In the hours before Washington’s legislative session ended last month, House Democrats called a vote. It was for a fix to what’s called “The Blake Decision” -- a 2021 state Supreme Court ruling striking down Washington’s felony drug possession law. In response, legislators put in place a temporary fix that treated knowingly carrying drugs as a misdemeanor. That measure is set to expire July 1st. But as the clock ticked down on the regular session, the votes weren’t there. The State House failed to pass the bill, which threw the future of the state’s drug possession law into question – and prompted a number of cities and counties to start passing their own patchwork of regulations.