Walruses have a huge vocabulary of sounds. They whistle, they grunt, and they can even sound like a steam train. But, Rosemary Ponnekanti says, they also can sound musical. “They make bell-like sounds and they can use their flippers to make percussive noises,” said Ponnekanti, who works on the communications team at the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium in Tacoma. “They also get this funny, guttural kind of (sound) — I can’t even do it myself because I don’t have the right equipment in my voice.”

This show originally aired on November 25, 2019. The theme for this week’s Sound Effect is “Hidden Talents.” First, we hear how a summer job at a theme park launched one woman’s career at NASA and Microsoft. Then, a young man leaves his Mormon faith for a new religion: stand-up comedy . A country star shares how being bullied motivated him to excel on stage and in sports. We meet a man who fled El Salvador’s civil war — and may have changed the course of the country . Finally, how one

In March of this year, as the novel coronavirus started to take hold of the region, students and teachers were notified that in person school was over and remote learning would get underway. At first, everyone thought the move to online learning would be temporary, but it wasn’t. “We got higher and higher numbers across the state, across the nation. And we continued to be questioning, well, how do we do this? And we didn't. In ten minutes we had to pack up our classrooms and get kids ready. We

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

This story originally aired on June 17, 2017. In the summer of 1947, off the coast of Maury Island in South Puget Sound, a man named Harold Dahl was out on his boat with his son, Christopher, their dog and two workers. Harold collected logs floating in the Sound and resold them to lumber mills. According to Dahl, on June 21 at 2 o’clock in the afternoon, six unidentified flying objects appeared in the sky above his boat. One of the saucers then exploded and a metal substance started raining down

This story originally aired on June 17, 2017. The San Juans' last homesteaders first discovered the islands on a map. June and Farrar Burn were newlyweds. They met in 1919 at a party June threw in her log cabin in Virginia. June quickly fell for Farrar’s ruddy-cheeked smile, curly red hair, and his ability to make himself useful immediately: gathering firewood, serving drinks, hosting as if it were his own home. Farrar was drawn to June’s lively eyes and her unmistakable, fierce spirit. In a

Note: Some of the content in this story might be upsetting to some listeners. This story originally aired on June 17, 2017. McNeil Island in South Puget Sound is where the Special Commitment Center for sexually violent predators is located. There are about 250 permanent residents at the Special Commitment Center -that’s what they’re called — and there are only a few ways you can leave the facility: you die, you’re deemed to have successfully completed treatment, or you can challenge your

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 story originally aired on June 17, 2017. Washington boasts the largest ferry system in the country. “Twenty-two ferries cross Puget Sound and its inland waterways, carrying more than 22 million passengers to 20 different ports of call,” according to the Washington State Department of Transportation’s website. Marsha Morse was one of the first women captains in Washington’s ferry system. She’s been navigating the waterways since 1975. In this episode of Sound Effect , we hop a ferry with

This story originally aired on June 17, 2017. Affordable housing is certainly a big issue these days, especially if you are living in the greater Seattle area. But it is also a major issue on some of our islands. On San Juan Island, an overwhelming shortage of affordable housing is threatening the community and economy. But a non-profit in Friday Harbor is come up with a way to help that problem: by picking up old houses that are no long wanted in Victoria, British Columbia, putting them on a