This story originally aired on October 27, 2018. When Caroline Garry first noticed she had a problem with perfection, she was in her bedroom closet scrubbing down a pair of white leather Nikes. Caroline was in seventh grade, and like a lot of kids she had gotten attached to a new pair of school shoes. But unlike a lot of kids, Caroline would come home from school every single day and clean them. In hiding. Whether they were dirty or not. "I just felt this compulsion. I needed to." After she got

This story originally aired on October 27, 2018. Seattle photographer Tim Durkan is known for his photos that document the lives of men and women who are homeless. But Tim also spends quite a bit of time chasing down the moon. A photo he’s taken many times is of a full moon sitting atop the Space Needle like a celestial flag. “A moon rising above the space needle isn’t signifying political allegiance. It doesn’t have party affiliation, it’s just something that everybody can admire,” Durkan says.

This story originally aired on October 27, 2018. The expectations for Elise Ray Statz were enormous. These days she is the head coach of the University of Washington women's gymnastics team. But back in 2000, she was captain of the USA Olympic team, and that team’s job was to win gold in Sydney, Australia. “So ‘96 was the first women’s gymnastics team to ever win a gold medal for team [competition]. And it was just a massive accomplishment for gymnastics,” Elise said. “I think we were expected

This story originally aired on October 27, 2018. Bulgarian-born Momka Peeva knows a thing or two about glass. In fact, she probably knows everything there is to know about all kinds of glass. She even wrote a book about it, which is still the go-to text on glass composition and manufacturing used in Bulgaria today. Momka grew up in communist Bulgaria during a time when all people, including women, were encouraged to become engineers. So that’s what Momka did: She became a chemical engineer

Birders have been out in full force around Washington the past few weeks as part of the Audubon Society’s annual Christmas bird count. Each year, tens of thousands of volunteers head out to different spots over the course of several weeks to see how many birds they can count within a 24-hour period.

Author’s note: I used to cover business and labor for KNKX and had a tiny bit of knowledge about the brutal murders of two young Filipino-American labor activists in 1981. Then, in 2018 while covering another story, I met the brother of one of the men who had been killed. He mentioned how the family and friends of Silme Domingo and Gene Viernes had always suspected that the murders had been ordered by none other than the former dictator of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos. I put a lot of time

This is not the first story written about the newsstand at Pike Place Market, especially in the last few weeks. But it could very well be one of the last. On Dec. 31, the newsstand at bustling Pike Street and First Avenue for 40 years will close for good. And on a recent Monday morning, nearly everyone who drops by says they regret that news. “I’m sorry you’re closing,” says a woman carrying a freshly bought centerpiece from another stall. “This is part of the character of the market,” says

Author’s note: Sometimes the best stories are not planned out or deeply researched in advance, but rather the product of simply listening and letting a narrative take you where it wants to go. This one came about because I had always wanted to learn more about how orcas communicate: the extent to which we know they have some sort of language. I asked around and learned the person to contact is Jeanne Hyde, a wonderful character who has devoted more than a decade of her life to constantly

This story originally aired on October 20, 2018. Nightmares happen to us all. For people with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, nightmares can be debilitating, nightly experiences. “Trauma nightmares are almost [like playing] a video tape of a traumatic event,” says Dr. Murray Raskind. He’s a psychiatrist at the VA Puget Sound hospital in Seattle and a professor in the University of Washington School of Medicine, who’s been researching PTSD treatment since he started working with a support group

This story originally aired on October 20, 2018. Growing up in Taiwan, Dean Huang always knew he wanted to study abroad, especially after visiting cousins that had immigrated to Boston. “It’s just that Taiwan is really small, and I feel like I can maximize my potential and challenge myself to receive a different education.” When he turned 18, Dean was accepted to University of Washington in Seattle, and shortly after that became an American citizen. He was active in a group of fellow Taiwanese