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What do gelatin, a wrestling ring, and feminism all have in common? Jello Underground. An all-female run jello wrestling tournament. Part performance, part competition, part declaration of female power and sex positivity. Jello Underground began as a Seattle-based burlesque troupe. According to the show’s producer, Gracie Garnet (that’s her stage name), the hustle it took to choreograph, produce, and run a burlesque show became too strenuous. So the troupe, still wanting to perform, took a step

Meet a mother and a daughter working through how blood and language have shaped their relationship. Simone Alicea is a reporter and editor here at KNKX. Her mom Veronica Alicea-Galvan is a King County Superior Court judge. They came together in a Storycorps booth in Chicago to talk about something specific: the bilingual court that Judge Alicea-Galvan used to run in Des Moines, Washington. But the conversation strayed pretty quickly into this intimate space, where both women learned things about

This show originally aired on December 9, 2017. This week on Sound Effect, our theme is "Blood Ties." Host Gabriel Spitzer heads to a class at the University of Washington where midwives learn how to deal with hemorhage during pregnancy. Alex Ashley profiles a Jehovah Witness who had to find an alternative to a blood transfusion during a medical emergency. We’ll meet a woman who found her birth mother, and then worked to keep her native language alive . Finally, Jennifer Wing introduces us to a

This story originally aired on December 9, 2017. Jeffrey Heckman, from Snohomish, WA, will be the first to tell you life is unpredictable. In the summer of 2015, while vacationing on San Juan Island with friends and family, Jeff was studying his Bible when, all of a sudden, an intense and unfamiliar pain struck him. The culprit was an aortic dissection - a tear in the large vein branching off from the heart. He was airlifted to Providence Medical Center, where renowned surgeon, Dr. James Brevig,

This story originally aired on December 9, 2017. Lois Langrebe has taught Lushootseed for over two decades, a dying language of the Tulalip tribes that she’s struggling to keep from going extinct. It’s an important role that she never expected to fill while growing up. A child of adoption, Lois was raised by a white family, knowing little about her origins or the culture of Native Americans. For years she struggled with her identity and finding a place that truly felt like home. And then she

This story originally aired on December 9, 2017. When Darren Maypower was 16 years old he was in his fourth foster care home. Even though he was less than two years shy of becoming an adult in the eyes of the state, he still held out hope that he would find a family to call his own. His criteria was quite simple: stability and love. At the same time Darren was searching for his future parents, two women were also looking to complete their family. Christine Colling and Carrie Power, two educators

This story originally aired on December 9, 2017. Meet a mother and a daughter working through how blood and language have shaped their relationship. Simone Alicea is a reporter and editor here at KNKX. Her mom Veronica Alicea-Galvan is a King County Superior Court judge. They came together in a Storycorps booth in Chicago to talk about something specific: the bilingual court that Judge Alicea-Galvan used to run in Des Moines, Washington. But the conversation strayed pretty quickly into this

There is a Northwest band that’s been around for 17 years, called Out Of The Ashes. There are about 30 members. They play covers of The Beatles, Elvis, Tom Petty, and other popular artists. One of the things that sets this band apart is that to be a member, you have to have a developmental disability such as Autism or Down Syndrome. On a recent Tuesday afternoon, 34 year-old Thomas John Meyer is standing on the shiny, hardwood dance floor of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Hall in Bellingham, Wash,

Singer-songwriter Kimya Dawson writes intimate music that connects with her fans in a very personal way. Olympia's independent K Records wrote that "her recordings make it feel as though you have a friend there whispering in your ear. And you do because Kimya is your friend." However, Dawson's intimacy can sometimes get her into trouble. She finds herself opening her heart too much and taking in too many friends. At our live event in May, Dawson shared one of her songs and explored how she

This story originally aired on May 28, 2016. Kristi Hamilton had hit rock bottom. After the passing of her mother, repossession of her house, and a long stretch of severe drug and alcohol abuse, she found herself homeless. She found herself sleeping anywhere she could — a friend's house, her car, shelters, or behind a grocery store. But between a renewed faith and winning what is the equivalent of a lottery ticket if you are homeless, Hamilton pulled herself out of the darkness, and returned to