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. 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. 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 Oct. 27, 2018. If you are a musician in the Seattle Symphony, you already have a certain mastery of your craft. Andy Liang is in the second violin section with the Symphony, and despite being an incredible talent, he would probably be the first to tell you that he is not perfect. But he does possess at least one type of perfection: perfect pitch. Perfect pitch, sometimes called absolute pitch, is defined as a rare auditory phenomenon characterized by the ability of

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. This Danish tooth-maker became a dream therapist, at the urging of his Jewish Unitarian minister wife. As one does. OK, better back up. For Flemming Behrend, his career as a dental technician was something that he loved. He hand-made artificial and prosthetic teeth, shaping porcelin and pigments into lifelike choppers. He appreciated the art of it, and the satisfaction that came from delighting his patients. He practiced in Germany, in

This story originally aired on October 20, 2018. Kate Noble says she knew at a young age that her family was dysfunctional. “Many layers of conflict. Maternal, psychiatric dysfunction, absentee father,” Noble recalled. Help came to Noble in the form of a dream. She was three and a half years old. “I remember then having this powerful, lucid dream and encountering this beam of light, who essentially said to me, “This is a rough life, you know, you have been put together some difficult