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This story originally aired on October 7, 2017. Washington State is, of course, named after founding father George Washington. But there’s another George Washington, also a founding father, who settled in a little corner of the territory with his wife Mary Jane nearly 150 years ago. There he founded a town called Centerville, later changed to Centralia. What makes Washington an unusual pioneer-type is that he was African-American, born in Virginia to a white woman and a black slave. “His dad was

This show originally aired on October 7, 2017. This week on Sound Effect, stories of better late than never. We open the show by meeting a man who started teaching Pilates in his late seventies. Next, we talk to a woman who has decided to freeze her eggs in an effort to be able to have kids down the road. Then 88-5’s Ashley Gross introduces us to a woman who overcame her fear of the water later in life. Also, Sound Effect’s Jennifer Wing profiles a man who saved some very special boats from a

This story originally aired on October 7, 2017. They say that age is nothing but a number. But for women looking to conceive, age is one of the primary factors to determines that chance at success. That is why women hoping to have children later in life are looking at an increasingly popular method -- freezing their eggs. Marin Landis is one of those women. At the age of 36 her fertility was on the decline and she was feeling pressure to figure out some way to have a baby. Freezing her eggs

This story originally aired on October 7, 2017. Dr. Kim Holland emerged from the locker room at a pool in West Seattle on a recent Friday morning, suited up and ready to go. But she scanned the pool with a bit of dismay – no empty lanes. “It’s kind of hard because I don’t like it when there’s more than one person in a lap lane because then you’ve got to pay attention,” she said. “The lanes are too narrow.” Nevertheless, she pulled on her bathing cap and goggles, staked out a lane and climbed in.

This story originally aired on October 7, 2017. There is that saying that pops up in fortune cookies and is spoken often by parents of antsy kids: Good things come to those who wait. Michael Jacobson of Seattle waited for something. In fact, he waited for nearly three decades to get ahold of two unusual boats that were being used as light fixtures at Ivar’s Salmon House on North Lake Union. When this eventually happened, a new door opened up in his world that he did not expect. These boats, or

This story originally aired on September 30, 2017. Seattle Attorney Bill Marler is often thought of as a bug. An agitator. An annoyance to the beef and poultry industries, and even the companies that grow leafy greens. He’s the guy you call if you are unfortunate enough to fall victim to E. coli, salmonella, listeria or any other bacteria that somehow works their way into mass food production and into your stomach. In this midweed installment of Sound Effect's podcast, come listen to Bill Marler

This story originally aired on September 30, 2017. Brandon Hopkins was on track to become a high school biology teacher when he was invited by one of his professors at Washington State University to work in a lab with honey bees. “Yeah, I bought every kind of itch cream they sold in the store because my hands were swollen and itching from all the bee stings and I soaked my hands in ice every night and questioned my decision making,” recalls Hopkins. So, there are sperm banks for people.

This story originally aired on September 30, 2017. When Hollywood needs a housefly, they call Graham Owen. The head of the company Film Flies is a specialist when it comes to creating fake insects (and spiders and centipedes) used in movies, print ads and commercials. Owen has watched his creations appear in a Spider-Man movie, alight on the lip of Adam Sandler and even the star in a Breaking Bad episode. Each bug is meticulously recreated, leading to specimens so realistic that they have fooled

This story originally aired on September 30, 2017. Museums rely on many volunteers to carry out their mission. This is quite true for the Burke Museum on the campus of the University Of Washington, in Seattle. In fact, the Burke has dozens of volunteers that live in a small windowless room, not much larger than a walk in closet. These dedicated workers have been here for years. They are dermestid beetles in their larval state: hungry baby beetles. The beetles dine on dead animals picked up off

This story originally aired on September 30, 2017. Seattle Attorney Bill Marler is often thought of as a bug…an agitator…an annoyance to the beef and poultry industries, and even the companies that grow leafy greens. He’s the guy you call if you are unfortunate enough to fall victim to E. coli, salmonella, listeria, or any other bacteria that somehow works its way into mass food production and into your stomach. E. Coli entered everyday lexicon when three people died and hundreds of others were