The most difficult part of recovery from addiction can be taking the first step to get help. For hundreds of heroin and prescription pain medication addicts, that first step is a walk through the door of a methadone clinic in the South Sound called Tacoma Treatment Solutions. Every day people arrive at the clinic as early as 5 a.m. to get their daily dose of methadone. “Taylor,” who asked that we not use her real name, is in her 40s and definitely doesn’t fit the image of a down-and-out addict.

To enter De Charlene William's Beauty and Boutique hair salon at 21st and Madison, where First Hill meets the Central Area in Seattle, you have to get past an iron gate. The extra security is a reminder that doing business here for 48 years has not always been easy. "I've been through a lot here on this corner," Williams says. Despite cars crashing through her front door and thieves cutting holes in her ceiling, Williams' beauty shop continues to serve longtime customers and women in search of a

Marcus Haney has caught several big named musicians on camera, including the likes of Coldplay and Elton John. In 2014, he was asked to produce a music video for the British band Bear's Den. He came up with the idea of coming to Seattle to film his younger brother, Turner Haney, and Turner's friends, who all attended Seattle Pacific University, capturing youth on the brink of adulthood. But on June 5, 2014, the day the filming was supposed to begin, tragedy struck. Aaron Ybarra walked onto to

At one end of the long building that houses Hammond Ashley Violins in Issaquah, five students are getting ready for a violin class. In the middle of the building, luthiers are repairing violins and cleaning string basses. And up front, behind a door marked “Suite 100,” customers are coming in to buy or rent violins, and get them repaired. “In this industry, people work until they can’t drag their butt to work anymore,” says Bryce Van Parys, general manager of Hammond Ashley. “There are plenty of

Greatest hits compilations usually come out at the end of the year, but we thought, why wait? This week, Sound Effect shares some of our favorite stories from the first half of 2017. A Shop For Violins, Cellos and Basses At Hammond Ashley Violins you can buy a string instrument, learn how to play it, and even get it fixed should something go wrong. KNKX’s Ed Ronco has this story about an Issaquah shop located in the “Suite 100” of a building. It comes from our show that celebrated Sound Effect

You may have thought about living on the San Juan in an abstract, big-picture sense: basking in the rain shadow, long bike rides along rolling hills, the best garden of your life. But what about the practical parts of day-to-day life, like dating? What if you couldn’t take someone out to dinner without everyone you see every single day knowing your business? When you move to one of our fine islands, it takes over your life — and that’s part of the appeal, getting locked into a semi-off-grid life

In the summer of 1947, off the coast of Maury Island in South Puget Sound, a man named Harold Dahl was out on his boat with his son, Christopher, their dog and two workers. Harold collected logs floating in the Sound and resold them to lumber mills. According to Dahl, on June 21 at 2 o’clock in the afternoon, six unidentified flying objects appeared in the sky above his boat. One of the saucers then exploded and a metal substance started raining down from the sky killing the family dog and

Note: Some of the content in this story might be upsetting to some listeners. McNeil Island in South Puget Sound is where the Special Commitment Center for sexually violent predators is located. There are about 250 permanent residents at the Special Commitment Center -that’s what they’re called — and there are only a few ways you can leave the facility: you die, you’re deemed to have successfully completed treatment, or you can challenge your commitment with a trial. This is what a man named

Affordable housing is certainly a big issue these days, especially if you are living in the greater Seattle area. But it is also a major issue on some of our islands. On San Juan Island, an overwhelming shortage of affordable housing is threatening the community and economy. But a non-profit in Friday Harbor is come up with a way to help that problem: by picking up old houses that are no long wanted in Victoria, British Columbia, putting them on a boat, and giving them a second life in Friday.

The San Juans' last homesteaders first discovered the islands on a map. June and Farrar Burn were newlyweds. They met in 1919 at a party June threw in her log cabin in Virginia. June quickly fell for Farrar’s ruddy-cheeked smile, curly red hair, and his ability to make himself useful immediately: gathering firewood, serving drinks, hosting as if it were his own home. Farrar was drawn to June’s lively eyes and her unmistakable, fierce spirit. In a month, the two were married. That spring, June