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This story originally aired on June 17, 2017. You may have thought about living on the San Juan in an abstract, big-picture sense: basking in the rain shadow, long bike rides along rolling hills, the best garden of your life. But what about the practical parts of day-to-day life, like dating? What if you couldn’t take someone out to dinner without everyone you see every single day knowing your business? When you move to one of our fine islands, it takes over your life — and that’s part of the

This episode originally aired on June 17, 2017. This week on Sound Effect , we head out to the islands. The Good Ship Issaquah Marsha Morse was one of the first women captains in Washington’s ferry system. She’s been navigating the waterways since 1975. And while she captains the ferry Issaquah , she considers her office the entire Puget Sound. The One Lonely Island All of the available islands in the San Juan’s were snatched up by homesteaders by 1919. All but one. A lonely, rocky, 15-acre dot

On a hot, windy night in San Francisco, a good friend of Everett musician Jason Webley climbed into a dumpster. His nickname was Chicken John, and he crouched at the bottom of the dumpster to light a cigarette. What he found, there among the garbage, turned out to be unexpected treasure: an oversized, handmade leather scrapbook that was falling apart. Chicken carried around the discarded, early-20th Century scrapbook for years. It contained items -- poems, newspaper clippings and other official

Ana Mari Cauce says her relationship with her big brother was pretty typical when they were growing up. "Every scar on his body was probably given to him by me," Cauce says, "He had a scar over his mouth where I kicked hime in the mouth -- not on puprose! He was in the front seat, I was in the back seat. He did some kind of name-calling and so I went to kick the back of teh seat, he turned around I caught his tooth." Cauce has served as President of the University of Washington since 2015. She

On January 31, 2000, Claire Barnett lost 10 people she loved dearly on Alaska Airlines Flight 261. Two of the people on board were her daughters, 8-year-old Coriander Clemetson and 6-year-old Blake Clemetson. The girls were coming back from Mexico with their father, their stepmother, their 6-year-old stepbrother and their new 6-month-old baby brother. The MD-83 crashed into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Southern California after a faulty screw forced the plane into a nosedive. “People think

Naomi Wachira was born and raised in Kenya, studied broadcasting in Chicago, then theology in Seattle. While she always had an impressive singing voice -- she sang in choirs since she was five -- becoming a professional musician wasn’t truly on the radar until 2013, after her father, a pastor in Kenya, passed away. “He followed his calling, he followed his life passion which was helping people and believing in people. And I think for me it made me realize that when my time is done here on earth,

This week, stories of picking up the pieces. First, a story of how a chance discovery in a dumpster led to an inside look at a woman’s life , and eventually a musical tribute. Then, University of Washington President Ana Mari Cauce shares the story of her brother , and his tragic death. Also, the story of how a shocking loss moved a woman to open up a contemplative and creative space . Finally, musician Naomi Wachira performs in our studios, and talks about how her songs of hope are often

This week, stories of sacred spaces. We hear from a couple who moved their church from Capitol Hill to Skyway, only to be joined by a long string of churches priced out of Seattle. Then, a musician who started recording in the room where his wife died. We meet an artist who considers her garden her sacred space. We head to the small town of Oysterville, where a church hasn’t locked their doors in 125 years. Finally, we learn about a mosque that has been struck by arson twice . "Sound Effect" is

The rising cost of Seattle real estate isn’t just affecting housing: it’s also bearing down on houses of worship. The tide of rising rents and gentrification has pushed a string of churches out of Seattle neighborhoods such as the Central District and West Seattle. And that’s had an interesting side effect in nearby Skyway, wedged between Seattle and Renton. “This is church mecca,” says Carolyn Sophor, co-pastor of New Birth Ministries. She points out storefronts just a stone’s throw from their

In 1996, when Ginny Ruffner moved into an old brick building in the heart of Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood, her new backyard looked like typical big city blight: overgrown crabgrass and weeds, trash, a brick wall. “My view here was pretty urban, so I made my view. I augmented it, added to it,” said Ruffner . Over the years, Ruffner has transformed this space into an urban oasis that is home to a wide variety of colors, textures and, of course, plants. The botanical matron of the garden is a 12