Video: How to listen to KUOW on a smart speaker

Like many Americans, we at KUOW have new roommates — not human roommates, but virtual ones, like Alexa, Siri and the Google Assistant.

These smart assistants are pretty great, as roommates go. They never leave dishes in the sink or pay rent a week late. But for all their high-tech computer brains, they have a hard time figuring out exactly what we want from them.

We asked Zaki Hamid, KUOW's community engagement director and self-confessed Alexa fanboy, to explain exactly what we need to say so we can listen to KUOW's airwaves or to one of our favorite podcasts on a smart speaker.

To listen to a radio station:

Ask your smart speaker to play the radio station, spelling out the station's four call letters.

For example to listen to KUOW you would say:

"[Name of your smart speaker], play K-U-O-W"

To listen to a podcast:

Podcasts are more difficult. A podcast might have a similar name to a song or another function on the smart speaker, so you have to specifically tell your smart speaker you want to listen to a podcast.

To play the latest episode of a podcast, use these three magic words: "Play the podcast," followed by the title of the show you want to listen to.

For example, to listen to KUOW's podcast Prime(d) you would say:

"[Name of your smart speaker], play the podcast Prime(d)."