Teo Popescu
Design, Graphics, and Data Editor
About
Teo is the KUOW newsroom's design, graphics, and data editor. She manages all data visualizations, graphics, illustrations, and news video stories for kuow.org and Instagram. She also leads design and development for KUOW’s interactive feature stories, specializing in visualizing complex bureaucratic processes and budgets. She co-hosts Control F with Clare McGrane.
Teo came to KUOW in 2018 as the first in-house design lead at the station. She created the newsroom's graphics standards and style. In a previous era, she was a state political correspondent for PubliCola and the print editor of Nightingale, the magazine of the Data Visualization Society. Her work has appeared on PubliCola, KUOW, ProPublica, NPR, and the HBO show Wyatt Cenac's Problem Areas. Outside of work, Teo likes spending time teaching graphic journalism courses at the University of Washington and UC Berkeley, or making mediocre furniture — the latter is still a work in progress.
Location: Seattle
Languages: English, Romanian
Pronouns: she/her
Professional Associations: Board Member, Society of Professional Journalists of Western Washington; Editor, Data Visualization Society
Podcasts
Stories
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We are really good at predicting the weather, actually
Winter storms this week have shattered records, taken lives, and forced people to hunker down at home from Texas to Maine. The ability to forecast weather this severe days in advance helps people prepare, and get to safety when they can. Today's detailed and precise forecast models are only possible because of data — data that meteorologists have gathered and analyzed for decades with increasingly vast reach and sophisticated technology.
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How did we get so good at predicting the weather?
Two journalists explain how weather forecasting works, and how it has developed over the last 65 years into a more precise prediction than ever before.
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What's hidden behind your credit score?
Follow along as we try to buy a hat in each of America's three major credit eras to see what data is collected and used to determine creditworthiness at different points in American history.
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What does your credit score really say about you?
Two journalists explain the history of credit scores, how credit scores are calculated and the complex ways that financial data impacts our daily lives.
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Introducing Control F, a podcast about the hidden data that influences our lives
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The year in numbers: 2025 in Seattle and Washington state
Record-breaking protests. A historic run for the Mariners. Mass tech layoffs. The closest local election in decades. Here are some of the numbers that shaped KUOW’s stories this year.
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Western Washington flood resources: Where to find shelter and supplies
This is a developing list of available flood resources as historic flooding continues to impact Western Washington.
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What's in Seattle's budget? Mapping the $8.9 billion spending plan Mayor Harrell leaves for Wilson
The Seattle City Council last week approved Mayor Bruce Harrell’s $9 billion dollar budget for 2026. That means when Seattle Mayor-elect Katie Wilson takes office in January, she and the new City Council will inherit those funding choices. Here’s what to know in the meantime — explained in pizza terms.
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Which employers seek H-1B visa workers in Washington state?
President Donald Trump sent shockwaves through the tech industry last month when he issued a proclamation restricting new H-1B visas to applicants whose petitions included a $100,000 payment. Here's what that could mean for Washington state.
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Seattle spent millions on hotel rooms to shelter unhoused people. Then it stopped filling them
Early last year, the city signed a $2.7 million lease extension to continue using a hotel’s rooms as shelter space. Yet despite committing to pay the rent, the city stopped sending people there.