Alec Cowan
Senior Podcast Producer
About
Alec Cowan is a senior podcast producer at KUOW, where he works on Booming and other podcast projects.
Alec has worn many hats at KUOW. He helped launch Soundside and brought many eclectic stories to the program, from a late-night patrol with real life superheroes to the sewing machine sounds of an artisanal sail loft. Additionally, he was previously a producer for The Record with Bill Radke and the Primed podcast.
Before joining KUOW, Alec worked in NPR's Story Lab, where he helped pilot the Louder Than a Riot podcast and assisted in producing a story on volunteerism in Iraq for Rough Translation. Originally from Grand Junction, Colorado, his roots in the Northwest begin in Eugene, where he studied English and philosophy at the University of Oregon and worked as a news reporter for NPR member station KLCC. He is likely neglecting his saxophone, growing book collection, and expanding personal project list in favor of boosting his online Xbox ranking.
He's proud to be KUOW's unofficial "boat guy."
Location: Seattle
Languages Spoken: English
Pronouns: he/him/his
Podcasts
Stories
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Like wildfire: how misinformation spreads during a crisis
When Washington and Oregon's historic wildfires began sweeping over the state, rumors of their origin began circulating online. Was it anti-fascists? The Proud Boys? Since the beginning, officials have faced an uphill battle in controlling fact vs. fiction.
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It's been four years – what have we learned in the struggle against misinformation?
Russian troll farms, psychoanalytic data-firms and syndicated media companies all want a piece of your attention this election season. But don't worry – there are ways we can all fight back.
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Denial is ‘the most dangerous thing of all’ when facing a virus
Voices of the Pandemic features people in the Seattle area who are on the frontlines of the coronavirus outbreak.
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I had Covid-19. My body shook, 'discharging the collective terror' of us all
Penelope Bell is a Seattle-area resident and a leadership coach for entrepreneurs. At 60, she’s also a survivor of Covid-19. The following is a transcript of portions of a video Bell recorded about her experience falling ill and recovering. It’s been edited down with permission.
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It takes a lot of people to keep a hospital running
Voices of the pandemic features people in the Seattle area who are on the front lines of the coronavirus outbreak.
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Life with a newborn during the coronavirus pandemic
Melissa Santos is a Seattle journalist and a new mom. She gave birth as the coronavirus began to spread in Washington state.
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What are the true costs of going cashless?
Some modern customers can remember the days in line at a grocery store and seeing someone ahead of you take out the dreaded checkbook. That checkbook meant something. I meant more waiting as the person filled it out, signed it, handed it over for it to be inspected. Perhaps their ID had to be documented for extra security. It was a time-sucking pain. But some see using cash as the modern equivalent of this consumer pet peeve – good old green money. It turns out, cash is no longer king, it’s an inconvenience.
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How prohibition forever changed policing in Seattle
On a recent SoundQs segment we learned about historic bootlegger Roy Olmstead. Today we do a deep dive on another larger-than-life figure from that time, black business owner Doc Hamilton. Both men dealt in illegal alcohol, but had wholly different experiences with the temperance movement and the law.
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How is Amazon changing our lives?
Over the last year or so, the SoundQs team has gotten a lot of questions about one Seattle-based company. Amazon. Happily, KUOW's podcast Primed is finding answers to questions about how Amazon is changing our lives. Here's the first episode of their newest season, about Alexa and kids.
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GUILTY: Bill Talbott convicted of murder after family tree unearths his decades-old secret
This is the first time a suspect was nabbed using the combined powers of DNA and old-school genealogy.