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This story originally aired on April 29, 2017. Sometimes our good intentions in the past can have unintended consequences generations later. That’s the idea behind a new exhibit at the Renton History Museum . It’s all about the Renton High School mascot: the Indians.

This story originally aired on April 29, 2017. It’s not always easy to come face to face with your past. Sometimes nostalgia is painful. Dick Rossetti knows this well. He was a DJ for Seattle’s big alternative rock radio station, 107.7 The End, in the late 1990s and early 2000s. He lucked into the job, which is normally a super competitive gig that people who are funny on the air take very seriously off mic . This was not Rossetti. This wasn’t something he dreamed about doing. He was a rock 'n'

This story originally aired on April 29, 2017. Lane Czaplinski has been the artistic director at On The Boards, a Seattle-based contemporary performing arts organization since 2002. He has basically been working in the arts since he graduated college. But in his senior year of college, a series of unusual circumstances led to him climbing the ranks of one of the most historic and decorated college basketball programs in the country. Lane chose to go to the University of Kansas, but not to play

This story originally aired on April 29, 2017. We are changing all of the time. We are shaped by new experiences, people we meet, the work that we do. You might start a career thinking you love what you do - and years later have a completely different opinion. This is what happened to Father Antonio Illas. He is the pastor for Saint Matthew-San Mateo Episcopal Church in Auburn, Wash. But for more than two decades, Illas was an immigration agent for the U.S. Federal Government. “It was very

This story originally aired on April 29, 2017. Seattle writer Michael Long was a terrible student in grade school. It wasn't that he couldn't do well; it was just that he had no interest in it. Instead of studying or paying attention in class, he would often be caught doodling or staring off into space. Michael's parents had tried just about everything, including doctors and medication. But nothing seemed to work. Then Michael's parents found a doctor who suggested that one of the reasons kids

This week on Sound Effect, stories of personal space. We start by sending out host Gabriel Spitzer to a room where he can take release some rage . Then we meet a man who recorded the first known gay country album , and learn how his father encouraged him. We meet a sexual assault victim who reclaimed her space in an unexpected way. Then, we hear about what it is like to go hiking as a fat girl . Finally, we hear a choir that sings at the bedside of the dying. "Sound Effect" is your weekly tour

Sometimes, you just want to smash. Who hasn’t fantasized about taking out their frustrations with, say, a baseball bat or a sledge hammer? Of course, this sort of thing is frowned upon in polite society. But there are places around the country where you can pay money to release the beast within, with some degree of safety and without having to clean up the mess: “rage rooms.” Sound Effect’s Jennifer Wing and Gabriel Spitzer visited one of these businesses, Rage Industry in Seattle’s Lake City

In 1973, in the midst of the Stonewall era, a Seattle band called Lavender Country released an eponymous album. The album delivered radical politics with a country twang, and became known as the world's first openly gay country album. In this interview, Patrick Haggerty tells Gabriel Spitzer how the album lived, and died, and lived again. He also explains why the album might never have existed if it weren't for his father--a "hayseed" of a dairy farmer who gave his son permission to be exactly

Note: This story deals with sexual assault and may not be appropriate for some listeners and readers. Erica Dudrow lives in Bellingham, and she says she was never much of a party person. But in 2014 she was dating a guy who liked to hit the bars, and she did her best to keep up. One Friday evening they were getting ready to go out, having drinks and indulging in a bit of the rave drug, “Molly.” She hadn’t realized just how intoxicated she was until, on her way to the bar, she began to black out.

Aside from being born, one of the most personal, private things we do alone is to die. Death can be quick. It can also creep along, getting closer as each day passes, as the hours tick by. Most of us would never think of entering the room of a stranger who is actively dying, unless you’re there to care for that person, or they are a close friend or a family member. But, this is what groups of singers do all over the country. They are called Threshold Singers. They perform these private little