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Real city setting, fake movie set

caption: A fisherman tosses a fish at Pike Place Market - which, along with the Space Needle and perhaps also the vista from a ferry, is the only thing you need to toss into an opening montage for people to know a movie is set in Seattle.
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A fisherman tosses a fish at Pike Place Market - which, along with the Space Needle and perhaps also the vista from a ferry, is the only thing you need to toss into an opening montage for people to know a movie is set in Seattle.

Where’d you go, Bernadette’s film crew? (Pittsburgh. The answer is Pittsburgh.) How a for-profit mental health facility is failing local patients. A controversial Republican state lawmaker. Banning anti-fascist signs from the soccer pitch for being “too political.” And: can you eat those wild blackberries after all?

Listen to the full show by clicking the play button above, or check out one of the show’s segments below. You can also subscribe to The Record on your favorite podcast app.

Kurt Schlosser, Seattle in Film

What is it that makes a movie feel like Seattle? Heavy-handed shots of the Space Needle and Pike Place Market? Many filmmakers take advantage of those visual tropes to set the scene. Maria Semple’s novel Where’d You Go, Bernadette? is very much a book of place. And yet the bulk of the new movie was filmed in… Pittsburgh?

Daniel Gilbert, Private For-Profit Psychiatric Hospitals

One of the primary ailments plaguing state mental health services is a fundamental one: lack of beds. In the past decade, Washington state has attempted to tackle the problem by approving or expanding 10 psychiatric hospitals. All but one of them is for-profit, including Marysville’s Smokey Point. The Seattle Times’ Daniel Gilbert has been reporting on the allegations of misconduct that have been leveled at the facility.

Chad Sokol, Matt Shea Allegations

Republican state representative Matt Shea has been denounced by everyone from the NAACP and National Organization of Women to the mayor and police chief of Spokane. Due to his affiliations with far right groups, weapons stockpiling, and use of his office for surveillance purposes, many have said that he was unfit for office. And yet he still has broad support among his constituents. Chad Sokol of The Spokesman-Review has been reporting on why.

Kevin Zelko, Seattle Sounders

European football has a history of hooliganism; American soccer has historically been both more civil and less popular. (Correlation is not causality.) But that insistence on decorum has led Major League Soccer to ban anti-fascist flags for being “too political.” It raises questions about what speech is considered political, and why. Kevin Zelko is founder of the Seattle Sounders support group Gorilla FC.

Ruby de Luna, Blackberry Foraging

Is it safe to eat the wild blackberries liberally blanketing Seattle this time of year? For KUOW’s SoundQs, reporter Ruby de Luna investigates.

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