Skip to main content

Soundside

By

Get to know the PNW and each other. Soundside airs Monday through Thursday at 12 p.m. and 8 p.m. on KUOW. Listen to Soundside on Spotify, iTunes, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Additional Credits: Logo art is designed by Teo Popescu. Audio promotions are produced by Hans Twite. Community engagement led by Zaki Hamid. Our Director of New Content and Innovation is Brendan Sweeney.

Mission Statement:

Soundside believes establishing trust with our listeners involves taking the time to listen.

We know that building trust with a community takes work. It involves broadening conversations, making sure our show amplifies systemically excluded voices, and challenging narratives that normalize systemic racism.

We want Soundside to be a place where you can be part of the dialogue, learn something new about your own backyard, and meet your neighbors from the Peninsula to the Palouse.

Together, we’ll tell stories that connect us to our community — locally, nationally and globally. We’ll get to know the Pacific Northwest and each other.

What do you think Soundside should be covering? Where do you want to see us go next?

Leave us a voicemail! You might hear your call on-air: 206-221-3213

Share your thoughts directly with the team at soundside@kuow.org.

Join the Soundside Listener Network

Enter your number below or text SOUND to 206-926-9955 to get your questions in front of local government officials and share your thoughts on issues in the Puget Sound region. We’ll text you 1-2 prompts per week, and your response may be featured on the show!


Sponsored

Episodes

  • caption: A view of the Bonneville Power Administration's Big Eddy-Knight transmission line. More renewable energy development and less room for energy conservation are two of the biggest changes in the draft of the new regional power plan.

    As Washington transitions off of fossil fuels, where will new power come from?

    Our energy infrastructure is increasingly stressed by growing demand, extreme weather and aging parts. In the Puget Sound area utilities are also ramping up to comply with a state law that will require all electricity to come from clean sources. Those demands are setting up a massive transition in where our energy comes from, and where it will go in the future.

  • caption: In this photo taken June 4, 2018, the downtown skyline is shown from the South Hill in Spokane, Wash.

    Spokane declares an emergency over its largest homeless encampment

    At one point this summer, Camp Hope swelled to more than 600 people. Today, it's shrunk to around 450 people living in tents, RVs and makeshift shelter on a dirt lot by I-90. Local and state officials agree the camp should be cleared eventually. But just how soon, and where residents will go, is at the center of a months long battle.

  • vote voting election ballot generic

    Election Day is finally here — have you cast your ballot yet?

    Your ballpoint pen may be getting a workout. Because today is Election Day. You have until 8pm tonight to get to a ballot box. And procrastinators, you are not alone – the Secretary of State’s office says statewide, just about 39% of ballots had been returned as of Monday. That’s lagging behind early voting numbers for the same day in the last midterm election in 2018.

  • caption: Elizabeth Kaye Sortun casts her ballot on Monday, November 7, 2022, outside of the Ballard branch of the Seattle Public Library in Seattle.

    What happens to your ballot after you vote?

    It is election day in Washington state, and while we'll have to wait for returns to answer big questions like will the state have a Republican US senator for the first time since 2001? Who will win the tight Eighth District House race? How many people will bother voting for those unopposed state supreme court justices?

  • caption: Karina Shumate, 21, a college student studying stenography, fills out a voter registration form in Richardson, Texas, on Jan. 18, 2020.

    College voters: Increased importance and expanding turnout

    Since the 2016 presidential election, voter turnout among college students has been steadily increasing. Take the last midterms for example: In 2018, 40 percent of registered college students voted. It’s too early to tell if that trend will continue during this midterm election, but what can this trend tell us about the power of college students as a voting block?
  • caption: Seattle Children Theatre's "The Boy Who Kissed the Sky" is inspired by the childhood of rock legend Jimi Hendrix, who grew up in Seattle's Central District.

    'The Boy Who Kissed the Sky' explores Jimi Hendrix's childhood

    We know a lot about the man Hendrix became: the paratrooper who played in a band during his free time, the backup player for musicians like Sam Cooke, BB King, and Little Richard, and eventually, the world renowned rockstar. But there’s a chapter of Hendrix’s life that has gone largely unexplored: his childhood. A new production from playwright and Seattle Children’s Theatre Creative Director Idris Goodwin is inspired by Hendrix’s childhood growing up in Seattle’s Central District. It’s called “The Boy Who Kissed the Sky.”