Xolie Morra Cogley is a musician in Seattle, and leader of the band Xolie Morra and the Strange Kind. “I’ve always been into music since I was very little," Cogley says. "And so music, I think, really helped to move me in a more social direction, because I didn’t really do a lot of talking when I was little. But I developed a communication skill using music that helped me fit into certain groups. So I didn’t have to have conversations. I was just playing music.” Using music as a sort of language

We start with a man translating traditional blues into Yiddish . Next, we join "the Jane Goodall of the whales," as she eavesdrops on orcas . Then, an effort is made to rethink how an endangered native language should look on the page. Finally, a rabbi uses modern music to help save a language from extinction. Sound Effect showcases stories inspired by the place we live. The show is hosted by KNKX's Gabriel Spitzer . You can hear the broadcast version of the show below, which also contains a

Ladino is the language of Sephardic Jews whose ancestors were expelled from Spain during the Inquisition. Now, 500 years later, it’s spoken in more than 30 countries – a language of the Diaspora. But, Ladino is mostly spoken by elders in the Sephardic community and it’s in danger of going extinct.

About a decade ago, Juliet Shen took on dream project. Shen, a typeface designer and artist, was commissioned by the Tulalip Tribes to create a new font specifically for Lushootseed , the now endangered language used by most of the coast Salish tribes. Shen isn’t Native American, but she often thought about the disconnect between Western typeface design and indigenous cultures. “I felt the history of Native Americans was disconnected from the European history,” says Shen. “Which resulted in the

The American Blues is a genre born of suffering — of oppression, heartbreak and hard work. It originated in African-American communities of the Deep South, but it all sounds very familiar to Jewish Seattleite Ilan Speizer.

Orca whales have the second-largest brains of all marine mammals. They’re known to be intelligent. And they have a lot to say. Jeanne Hyde is almost always listening.

We start with a man who is fighting for better access to sidewalks for people with mobility issues. Next, the story of a man who started the first Black Panther chapter outside of California when he was 17. Then, a couple of activists take on a dictator , and pay the ultimate price. Also, a restaurant that featured a racist caricature was a beacon of bigotry in Seattle. Finally, nuns get a say with gun makers by buying their company stock. Sound Effect showcases stories inspired by the place we

The brutal slayings of two 29-year-old Filipino-American labor activists in Seattle on June 1, 1981, shocked the city and the wider Filipino-American community.

Despite Seattle’s reputation as a progressive place, it has a complicated history to reckon with. One chapter of the city’s story is branded with a racist caricature — which pervaded the region beyond the restaurant the image represented: the Coon Chicken Inn.

Conrad Reynoldson isn’t looking to go far. Specifically, he’d like to cross the residential stretch of 44th Street Northeast right next to his office. It’s about 15 feet. Reynoldson lives with Muscular Dystrophy and navigates the world in a power chair, which makes that quick crossing a lot more complicated.