This week on Sound Effect, it’s all about music. We take a look back at some of our favorite stories about musicians, their work and what inspired it. First, we meet a software engineer who created a map of Seattle bands and their connections . Then, a bassist for the band Great Grandpa discusses the intersection of nursing and art . We meet the Mariner who blew a ball foul and made a funk hit about the Kingdome . A country star talks about how bullying motivated him on field and on stage. And

This story originally aired on November 16, 2019. The sheer physicality of aging and dying are things we try not to think about, so it’s especially striking when these subjects turn up in unexpected places — say, your indie rock playlist. Carrie Goodwin plays bass for the Seattle-based band Great Grandpa , and she also happens to be a nursing student. In her song “Rosalie,” Goodwin introduces us to someone losing her grip on life — and maybe gets us a little closer to wrapping our brains around

This story originally aired on November 9, 2019. Rachel Ratner is in a band called Wimps. She’s also a software engineer and a brand new mother — and the creator of the Seattle Band Map . “I was in a band called Partman Parthorse, and that’s where the idea started," Rachel says. "I remember I was talking to one of my friends about the band and how I was able to, through other people I played music with, connect my band to my friends’ bands, and we started to diagram them out, like a six degrees

This story originally aired on November 22, 2019. 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

This story originally aired on January 17, 2o20. Former Mariners infielder Lenny Randle is best remembered in Seattle for a single play. On May 27, 1981, he got on his hands and knees and blew a slow rolling ground ball out of bounds. It was one of the few notable things that happened to the Mariners in their early years. That year was a mediocre season, in a series of other mediocre seasons by a mediocre baseball team, but Randle was involved in another notable off-field incident in 1981 — the

Donna Stath wears a blue mesh vest with the word “ELECTIONS” on it, as she stands next to a Pierce County ballot drop box. She’s helping voters as they drop off their ballots. A car pulls up, a window rolls down, a hand reaches out with a burgundy and white envelope. “Hello! Thank you!” Stath says, taking the envelope from the voter and putting it in a slot just a few inches away. Not a huge distance — the voter watches as Stath puts the ballot in the slot — but it keeps the cars moving.

It isn’t often a coroner gets to deliver good news. Last week was an exception for Hayley Thompson. The Skagit County coroner learned her office was awarded a $250,000 federal grant , seed money that will eventually fund a renovation to bring all of her operations under one roof. Thompson told KNKX Public Radio that this will offer the county consistent control of death investigations. And it’s long overdue.

This show originally aired on February 14, 2020. This week on Sound Effect, our theme is “Family Matters.” First, we meet one Indipino woman and learn how she connected to her roots on Bainbridge Island. Then, we meet a mother and author who is sharing her son’s story of addiction as a cautionary tale for other parents. We meet a woman who might have been forbidden from having children a century ago — and we meet her daughter. Grieving parents turn a tragedy into something constructive . And we

This story originally aired on February 14, 2020. Gina Corpuz stands off New Brooklyn road on Bainbridge Island, on land that has been in her family for two generations. She looks in every direction, and sees the history of the Indipino community. “The Romeros, who lived down the road, there were 12 children,” Gina says. “And then up the hill is where the Rapada children grew up, and there were 13 children in their family.” Indipino stands for Indigenous and Filipino. It's a community that began

This story originally aired on February 14, 2020. Bonnie Gibson says her son Greg’s musical talent emerged very early on. “I could just see from a young age that he had unusual rhythm. Which, now, I go, did I really want those drums in my basement?” she said. “But it was cute and fun to see a little kid kind of find himself.” Greg did find himself in music. By high school, he was already involved in the business side, booking bands. “I would get a phone call from somebody in, like, Chicago or