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What's holding you back from donating blood? Are you afraid of needles? Well, if you're uncomfortable around needles, this is the episode for you. Because as the donor in this edition of Bloodworks 101 found out, sometimes you can't even feel the donation when it actually starts. The donor's name is Brian Dunning, from Bend, Oregon. He's an award-winning podcast host who makes his living debunking myths wherever he finds them. But as producer John Yeager tells us, it's also about "walking the talk," about blood donation.

Here's a recent Skeptoid episode about Blood Donation Myths:

Skeptoid

Special thanks to the staff at Skeptoid, including Kathy Rightmire, Director of Operations and Resources for stepping up and making a donation. 

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Recently, Bloodworks Northwest awarded a free trip to one lucky donor. The destination? Tokyo. It was called "Donate and Win," all part of our "Music's in Our Blood" campaign. Producer John Yeager got a chance to speak with the winner who couldn't have picked a more fitting destination. It's a place she's dreamed of almost all her life. 

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How is hip hop like blood donation? As Jace Ecaj (The Residency, Black Stax) and Giselle Lehmann (Bloodworks) explain, Where the Heart Lives, our high school and college education program, brings the two together in a meaningful and memorable way. 

Learn more: https://wheretheheartlives.org/

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On December 15, 2025, Bloodworks' Renton facilities received a GO NOW evacuation order after a Green River levee failed and sent floodwaters into neighborhoods around Tukwila, Renton, and Kent. For Bloodworks' VP of Laboratory Operations Mike Charapata, the situation felt eerily familiar.

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If you listen to radio in the Pacific Northwest, there's a good chance you know the name John Richards. He's the Morning Show Host & Producer at Seattle's KEXP. Well, he's also a Bloodworks Northwest blood donor. And as Bloodworks 101 Producer John Yeager found out, there's a good reason why. It has to do with "walking the talk." 

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Lynn and John Tissell met at church — but that's just how it started. They fell in love through blood donation. As Bloodworks 101 co-producer Helen Pitlick shares, theirs is a story that will make the hearts of even the grinchiest Bloodworks 101 listeners grow three sizes. 

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Each year, Bloodworks Northwest sets aside December 18th as Washington State Blood Donor Day. It's a day that comemorates the Amtrak 501 derailment near DuPont on Decemeber 18th, 2017. But it also shines a light on the need to be ready BEFORE disasters like that occur. The derailment killed three and injured dozens and crippled transportation in Western Washington for days. Bloodworks Northwest's Juan Cotto spearheaded the effort to get the day set aside a few years ago but as Bloodworks 101 producer John Yeager found out, it wasn't the last time he'd be at the center of a statewide blood donation awareness campaign. 

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For years, it's been a given that there's no such thing as artificial blood. Well not anymore. Thanks to researchers like Dr. Allan Doctor and his team at the University of Maryland, the prospect of articial blood could be years away instead of decades. And when you consider that only 3 out of 100 people actually donate blood, you begin to understand the kind of impact that this reseaarch has. Recently, Allan Doctor spoke to Bloodworks 101 producer John Yeager, via Zoom. Here's today's edition of Bloodworks 101.  

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For fans of the hit HBO show Our Flag Means Death, the Gravy Basket is a place between life and death. After a trip to New York for an Our Flag Means Death convention, the Gravy Basket became real for Seattle resident Missa Marmalstein, made all the more surreal by the show's finale that very night. Bloodworks 101 co-producer Helen Pitlick sat down with Missa to learn how donated blood brought her back.

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Happy Thanksgiving! We have a favorite episode to share in honor of this day of gratitude — and Bloodworks 101 winning two 2025 Anthem Awards. When the Tualatin City Council met during National Blood Donor Month, an official proclamation was read, honoring Bloodworks Northwest. But little did those attending the meeting know, this official proclamation hit Councilor Maria Reyes hard. As she told Bloodworks 101 producer John Yeager, that's because this proclamation took Maria back to the worst day of her life but also to the ninety people who were there for her when that life hung in the balance.