Year in Review: Tech, arts, science, and so much more

Bill Radke looks back at the stories from 2022 with Insider tech correspondent Katherine Long, KUOW’s Mike Davis, and science journalist Jane C. Hu. Special guests include Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, Chris Vance and Nadia Popovici.

Downsizing became a thing among many tech companies this year, a noticeable departure from the growth of previous years. And it wasn’t just staffing that got smaller. Amazon made some decisions to cut certain products and programs. Is this just a pause because of the economy, or is this a more permanent shift?

Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, a political newcomer, flipped a Republican district where she was given very little chance of winning, beating Joe Kent. This is the first time she has been elected to a major political office. Why did she decide to run for Congress now?

Chris Vance is a former Washington State Republican Party chair. In 2017, announced he was quitting the GOP. He now is a member of the leadership team of the Washington Forward Party, which promotes itself as a true moderate party. If a new party is viable, why haven’t other 3rd parties taken off?

Seattle turned a little more conservative this year. Voters picked a mayor and a city councilor and a city attorney who promised a harder line on crime and tent encampments. How to deal with graffiti was also a topic this year. What is public art and what is a nuisance?

President Biden said in September “the pandemic is over.” King County health officials just told us to put our masks back on in grocery stores and theaters. And the number of people with the latest booster shot remains relatively low. Is the pandemic over?

Kraken fan and medical resident Nadia Popovici saw a suspicious mole on the neck of a staffer on the other team during a game, wrote a note on her phone and help it up. The mole was cancerous. It is likely that her telling him to have the mole checked out saved his life.