A brand new contemporary art space opened up this week in downtown Seattle.

It's called Cannonball Arts, and Soundside recently got a sneak preview.

GUESTS:

• Brent Watanabe, a Seattle based artist who specializes in computer-controlled installations
• Greg Lundgren, Creative Director of New Rising Sun

RELATED LINKS:

• Cannonball Arts
• Downtown Seattle’s Bed Bath & Beyond building to become an arts center
• Real-Deal Out-There Art - The Stranger

Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/soundsidenotes

Soundside is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What does the Pacific Northwest sound like to you? 

Is it the tide rolling over a rocky beach? The wind across the Palouse? Or maybe a ferry horn echoing across the Puget Sound?

On Soundside, we occasionally ask field recordists about THEIR iconic sounds of the northwest. Today, we hear from Gordon Hempton, also known as the Sound Tracker.

He sent us a recording of snow melting on Hurricane Ridge on the Olympic Peninsula. 

GUEST: Gordon Hempton, acoustic ecologist and Emmy Award winning sound recordist 

Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/soundsidenotes

Soundside is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s Thursday, and on Thursdays, we hear from Soundside Producer Jason Megatron Burrows with everything worth doing this weekend!

LINKS:

• A Clarinet Concert with Cameron DeLuca

• Bend It Like Booker
• WA State Garlic Fest
• The Evergreen State Fair
• Get Sauced!
• ZooTunes Comedy
• What the Funk Fest
• Makah Days in Neah Bay
• Everfree Northwest
• Dragonflight GameCon

Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/soundsidenotes

Soundside is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A group of current and former Microsoft employees briefly occupied part of the company’s Redmond campus yesterday to protest the relationship between the tech giant and Israel’s military. 

The protest was led by a group called No Azure for Apartheid. Their name refers to a cloud computing service that has been contracted for use by Israel’s government.

The demonstration follows recent reporting that Israel uses Azure as a mass surveillance tool against Palestinians, one that has shaped military operations in Gaza. 

Yesterday’s protest is the latest action taken by Microsoft employees in speaking out about the company’s business practices. 

Guest:

Todd Bishop, co-founder of GeekWire

Relevant Links:

Geekwire: Protesters set up temporary encampment at Microsoft to pressure company on Israel contracts

Geekwire: Microsoft launches formal review into alleged use of its Azure cloud in Palestinian surveillance

Geekwire: Inside the Microsoft protests: Fired engineer speaks out on Palestine, Israel, AI, and big tech

Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/soundsidenotes

Soundside is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For college students, saying you majored in computer science used to be code (excuse the pun) for a six-figure salary and job stability. 

Now some fear those days are behind us. 

Since 2014, the number of undergraduates majoring in computer science has more than doubled, but the job offers aren’t flowing like they used to. 

Natasha Singer, a technology reporter at The New York Times, tells us about her recent story on  computer science majors struggling to find employment as their field changes. Then we hear from Ed Lazowska, an emeritus professor at the University of Washington, about what he's seeing in our region. 

Guest:

• Natasha Singer, technology reporter at The New York Times. 
• Ed Lazowska, an emeritus professor at the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington.

Related stories: 

• Goodbye, $165,000 Tech Jobs. Student Coders Seek Work at Chipotle. - The New York Times
• Ed Lazowska retires after 48 years at UW, reflects on AI, computer science, and what’s next – GeekWire

Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/soundsidenotes.

Soundside is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In many ways, the homicide of Barbara Innis was a clear cut case. There were witnesses, a weapon, and a suspect immediately taken into custody. 

The complication: the suspect, Barbara’s husband, can’t remember the crime.

87 year old George Innis had shown signs of dementia for years prior to the killing of his wife at their Bellevue assisted living center.

His journey through the legal system highlights the questions surrounding prosecution and care of people with degenerative memory loss.

Guest:

• Seattle Times lead breaking news reporter Paige Cornwell

Related stories:

• A Bellevue man killed his wife. He has dementia. Now what? - Seattle Times

Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/soundsidenotes

Soundside is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you got your coffee from a Seattle Starbucks this morning, it may have been prepared by a unionized barista. 

At least 33 Starbucks in Washington have unions, including the cafe at the company’s headquarters in Sodo and the Reserve Roastery on Capitol Hill, according to The Seattle Times.

It’s the result of an organizing effort that began in 2021 in Buffalo, New York. Starbucks workers across that city kicked off a renewed push to unionize those coffee shops. 

Jaz Brisack was one of the lead organizers on that campaign. They began working with unions while they were a student at the University of Mississippi. Brisack is also the author of "Get on the Job and Organize: Standing Up for a Better Workplace and a Better World," which came out earlier this year. 

They stopped by the KUOW to talk about their book and why they think that if you have a job, you should have a union. 

Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/soundsidenotes

Soundside is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Across Washington, student vaccination rates have fallen slightly over the past few years, but those statewide figures gloss over some parts that saw pretty big declines --- especially in one southwest Washington school district.

The data showed the Naselle-Grays River Valley School District saw student vaccinations for diseases like tetanus, polio and rubella drop by more than 46%, making it the district with the lowest immunization rate in the state for 2024 to 2025.

But what’s on paper doesn’t tell the whole story. 

Guest:

• • Lori Ashley, clinical manager for the Pacific County Department of Health and Human Services.

Related stories: 

• K-12 vaccination rates in WA dropped again | The Seattle Times
• R.F.K. Jr. Cancels mRNA Vaccine Research | The New York Times

Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/soundsidenotes.

Soundside is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s not just your imagination: There are more shared bikes and scooters zipping around the streets of Seattle.

Data collected by the city's Department of Transportation shows that between January and early August of 2025, the number of trips recorded on shared bikes and scooters jumped nearly 75 percent compared with the same time period last year. 

As streets and sidewalks get more crowded – how are cities like Seattle adapting? 

Guests

Jeff Bailey, a writer and editor in Denver

Links

From E-Bikes to Scooters, Roads Are Getting More Crowded and Confusing - The Wall Street Journal

Thanks to the supporters of KUOW. You help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/soundsidenotes

Soundside is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Last week, actress Bindi Irwin made a viral post on Instagram. Bindi is the daughter of the late Steve Irwin – the famed “Crocodile Hunter.” 

Bindi is also, herself, a conservationist, but her post didn’t have to do with wildlife health. Rather, it was about her own. She said she was recovering from surgery to remove 51 lesions, a cyst, and her appendix. Prior to this, Irwin had suffered 13 years of pain from endometriosis.

She wrote, “I felt utterly ashamed as a teenager and young adult being told that my pain was just part of being a woman. I felt lesser. I felt hurt. I felt weak.”

Several celebrities have spoken up about their experiences with endometriosis.

Padma Lakshmi, Florence Pugh, Whoopi Goldberg, Lena Dunham – the list goes on.

Approximately one in ten women is affected by endometriosis. According to Yale Medicine, it’s present in up to 50% of women who are infertile. And between 50% and 80% of women with pelvic pain. But, it’s a disease that’s rarely discussed - in part because the pain experienced is often dismissed as cramps or period pain.

Guest:

• Dr. Cindy Mosbrucker is a nationally recognized expert in minimally-invasive excision of endometriosis, as well as the diagnosis and treatment of pelvic pain in women. Her clinic is Pacific Endometriosis and Pelvic Surgery in Gig Harbor.

Related stories:

• Nancy's Nook - recommended as a free source of endometriosis information by Dr. Mosbrucker

Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/soundsidenotes

Soundside is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.