Producer picks: bat houses, go games, and the value of parasites

The Soundside team is taking some time off this Thanksgiving week.

In the spirit of thankfulness, we're revisiting some of our favorite segments from over the last year, and the hardworking producers who make Soundside are making the picks.

Today, producer Hans Anderson is choosing some of his favorite episodes of the last year.

These homebuyers got a deal they couldn’t refuse — and pests they can’t get rid of

This first story is about a couple who bought a house on Whidbey Island that also happened to be a bat breeding colony. Of course, they didn’t know the house was infested with bats when they bought it.

Now, they're trying to think of creative solutions to raise money to rehome those bats. For two people who had just invested hundreds of thousands of dollars into what was later labeled a hazard by the Island County Health Department, Tom and Mackenzie Reiken were surprisingly upbeat.

Read and listen to the original segment here.

This center made Seattle a hub for the game Go, now it needs a new home

In July, Soundside took a trip to the Go Center, which was closing after almost 30 years in Seattle’s U District. This story has a happy ending. Since it first aired, the Go Center has found a new home at the Phinney Ridge Community Center.

Read and listen to the original segment here.

Parasites have a bad rap but play an important role in the animal kingdom

That last piece was really produced, Soundside went to the Go Center with a microphone, spent time getting to know the space, and then spent more time crafting the story we wanted to share. Often on the show, Soundside is talking to someone in a studio or over Zoom. Sometimes, that person is just so charismatic, so compelling, that the conversation feels as immersive as going somewhere.

This next interview feels like that to me and, that’s impressive because the conversation was about something that is a little hard to drum up interest for: parasites.

Read and listen to the original segment here.