Skip to main content
2b1b0124 7d7e 45e2 8f96 C53a60063b27

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: An older house in Greenwood, with new infill housing in the backyard. Projects like this could become more common if density is spread into single-family neighborhoods (currently zoned as "neighborhood residential") across the city.

    Sound it Out: Listeners respond to WA's 'middle housing' bill

    At its core, Soundside is about connecting with our listeners and bringing you stories you care about and that impact those of us living here in the Pacific Northwest. Each week we ask for your thoughts about our stories — where they've succeeded and where they can improve. This week, we look at our coverage of HB 1110, the "middle housing" bill that's working its way through the state Legislature.

  • caption: Washington state has three national monuments, which include Mt. St. Helens National Monument, Hanford Reach National Monument, and San Juan Islands National Monument.

    Hear It Again: The fraught political battle over national monuments

    With the news of new national monuments in Nevada and Texas, and a renewed push for a national monument around Grand Canyon National Park, we revisit our conversation with McKenzie Long about her book: "This Contested Land: The Storied Past and Uncertain Future of America's National Monuments."

  • caption: Yasmin Mohammed (left) and Roberto Ascalon (right) pose in the corner of the Bureau of Fearless Ideas, in Beacon Hill.

    Charting change in Beacon Hill with poet Roberto Ascalon

    The Bureau of Fearless Ideas (BFI) is one large classroom on the ground floor of the Yesler Terrace complex, a multi-use housing development in Beacon Hill. The walls are packed with language – words, rhymes, and creative affirmations. It's here that Roberto Ascalon, the poet in residence, is a mentor to new poets.

  • caption: Eddie Vedder performs during his concert, Friday, Feb. 25, 2022, at the YouTube Theater in Inglewood, Calif.

    A curtain call for MoPop's Pearl Jam exhibit

    Since 2018, Seattle’s Museum of Pop Culture has given fans a first-hand look at the band’s journey through more than 1,000 artifacts directly from Pearl Jam’s members. But it’s the final curtain call for the exhibit. After five years, "Pearl Jam: Home and Away" will close on April 23.

  • caption: Tents line South Weller Street near the intersection of 12th Avenue South on Tuesday, May 19, 2020, in Seattle.

    With costs mounting, some hotel shelters are at risk of closing

    Hundreds of people in King County and Tacoma may soon need to vacate hotel rooms they’ve been living in for the past several months. Last year, the Lived Experience Coalition, or LEC, moved hundreds of unsheltered people into these rooms through the help of a series of federal grants. But as PubliCola’s Erica Barnett reports, the money quickly ran out. And the residents are now at risk of becoming unsheltered again.

  • Jha Laughter Hc

    The comedy and complexity of campus life: Sonora Jha's 'The Laughter'

    The plot of "The Laughter" twists and turns around issues of Islamophobia, sexism, and the changing culture of campus life. Author Sonora Jha, a Seattle University professor, discusses her newest novel and why she chose to make her main character so unlikeable.

  • caption: Koon Woon has lived throughout Seattle, and many locations inspired his poetry on immigration and life at the margins.

    Poet Koon Woon on his verses of solitude and the working-class immigrant life

    Koon Woon has been an important member of the Seattle poetry community for decades. He’s the publisher of Goldfish Books and Chrysanthemum Poetry Journal, as well as a formidable poet in his own right. But his poems aren’t lofty and highbrow — they're deeply rooted in his lived experiences of poverty, working-class immigrant life, and living on the margins.