This story originally aired on June 22, 2019. Jon McCollum (AKA Jon Boy) and Penny Reagan (AKA Momma Penny) have the kind of unlikely friendship that only a hectic kitchen job could foster. They worked together for food services at the University of Washington, and they hit it off right away. At the time Jon Boy had just moved from Texas, and he impressed Penny with his knowledge of country music — particularly the old stuff she loves, such as Glen Campbell and Buck Owens. Jon came to think of

In honor of Thanksgiving, KNKX's Grace Harmon went to Capitol Hill earlier this week to ask people about something they're grateful for this year. She talked with Colum Brummet, Wendy Ogaard and Gemma O’Neil. Listen to what they had to say above.

The theme for this week’s Sound Effect is “Hidden Talents.” First, we hear how a summer job at a theme park launched one woman’s career at NASA and Microsoft. Then, a young man leaves his Mormon faith for a new religion: stand-up comedy . A country star shares how being bullied motivated him to excel on stage and in sports. We meet a man who fled El Salvador’s civil war — and may have changed the course of the country . Finally, how one performance of “I’m a Little Teapot” changed the summer,

Al Saade was in middle school when El Salvador’s civil war came knocking on his classroom door. It was the military. They suspected Al’s teacher was sympathetic to the guerrilla forces, which more or less amounted to a death sentence. “The first thing that they did was shoot my teacher,” Saade said. “The kids they were screaming. There were guns shooting. I believe 12 kids were killed in my classroom that day.” The scene was just one bloody sequence in El Salvador’s long-standing civil war — a

Once upon a time, there was a kid who discovered he had a flair for the stage. And that kid gave a performance (in his best Axl Rose mode) that would change the summer, and maybe even the lives, of a bunch of Boy Scouts. That kid was not Wolfe Maykut. But Wolfe was profoundly affected by the events in this story. It began for him when his parents, hoping to link him up with some of the good kids, enrolled him in Scout Troop 120. “I’m convinced to this day that it was a dumping ground for

As a child, Bengt Washburn had two passions: art and comedy. Everything he drew made it to a child’s first art gallery — the refrigerator. His early comedic taste was formed by the records his dad brought home. Washburn’s dad got Steve Martin’s "A Wild and Crazy Guy" record. “My parents had a really good sense of humor," Washburn said. "They were funny people." Washburn’s dad loved Steve Martin on television, but didn’t listen to "A Wild and Crazy Guy" before giving it to his young son. “They

Growing up in Southern California, Cindy Healy wasn’t thinking much about her career. “The expectations for me, a girl growing up in the 1970s, they were really low,” she said. “The career advice I got was you’d better get in that kitchen and learn how to cook, 'cause you’re going to be someone’s wife someday.” The summer after she graduated high school, she did what a lot of Orange County teens did: she got a summer job at a theme park. In this case, Knott’s Berry Farm. “I didn’t really think I

At first glance, “hidden” is not the word you’d use for Chance McKinney’s talents. As an athlete in high school and college, he got plenty of recognition. “I got a track scholarship to throw (javelin), and went to a Pac-12 school...I mean I kept qualifying for the Olympic trials,” said McKinney. But this very capable guy has a whole other set of gifts that weren’t so obvious. They emerged years later, when he was teaching high school math in Mukilteo. On a whim, he’d submitted an original song

This week on Sound Effect, “Getting There” — stories of what happens along the way. First, we hear a serendipitous story about a veteran and a training map of a small Washington town . Then, we learn about a legendary punk rock riot on a ferry in 1987. We meet a doctor facing death who wants to teach other doctors how to deliver bad news. A young person happens upon an obscure printing press in Olympia, and develops an unexpected friendship with the woman who runs it. Finally, we hear an indie

Up a narrow wooded driveway on Olympia Westside, a small cottage sits beneath a canopy of trees. Inside, light from the south pours in through a large window as Jami Heinricher operates a Heidelberg printing press. It looks like something from Rube Goldberg’s imagination. We’re at The Sherwood Press. How Jami came to own this business is a story that she’s told many times, but it can still move her to tears. It was 1989. Jami was working at a coffee shop. She did calligraphy on the side for