Log in

goodpods headphones icon

To access all our features

Open the Goodpods app
Close icon
headphones
Northwest Reports

Northwest Reports

Cascade PBS

Northwest Reports takes listeners deep into the stories that shape Seattle, Washington state, and the Pacific Northwest, drawing on the enterprising work being done by reporters in the Cascade PBS newsroom. Through conversations with journalists, community members and newsmakers, we showcase personal stories that help us better understand the real-life impacts behind the headlines. Hosted by Maleeha Syed and Sara Bernard.

1 Listener

bookmark
Share icon

All episodes

Best episodes

Seasons

Top 10 Northwest Reports Episodes

Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Northwest Reports episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Northwest Reports for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Northwest Reports episode by adding your comments to the episode page.

Northwest Reports - Israel-Hamas War Hits Close to Home in WA
play

10/18/23 • 26 min

Members of local Jewish and Palestinian communities discuss the war's impacts across the Atlantic.

On Oct. 7, Hamas, a militant group that controls the Gaza Strip, launched a surprise attack on Israel.

Israel quickly declared war – pounding Gaza with airstrikes and restricting the region’s access to water, food and electricity.

Around 1,400 Israelis and 3,000 Palestinians have been killed.

For this episode, host Maleeha Syed spoke with Maxima Patashnik, a member of the local Jewish community, and Sabrene Odeh, a member of the local Palestinian-American community, about how the war has affected them.
Read more about the local impact of the war between Israel and Hamas here .

---

Credits

Host/Producer: Maleeha Syed and Sara Bernard

Reporter: Mai Hoang

Executive producer: Sarah Menzies

---

If you would like to support Crosscut, go to crosscut.com/membership. In addition to supporting our events and our daily journalism, members receive complete access to the on-demand programming of Seattle’s PBS station, KCTS 9.

1 Listener

bookmark
plus icon
share episode
Northwest Reports - How WA Voters Feel Ahead of Presidential Election
play

11/15/23 • 18 min

Joseph O’Sullivan breaks down what poll respondents had to say about the upcoming presidential election — and almost no one is excited.

More than 60% of Washington voters think Donald Trump is corrupt, while 70% think Joe Biden is too old to be president. Around three in five feel pessimistic about major issues, such as gun violence and immigration.

And overall, Washington voters are generally unsatisfied with America’s political system.

These are just a few findings from the latest Crosscut/Elway poll, which featured responses from around 400 registered voters in Washington.

In this episode of Crosscut Reports, reporter Joseph O’Sullivan, who wrote about the poll, chats with host Maleeha Syed about how respondents feel about the 2024 election and the leading candidates; the factors likely to influence who gets their vote; and what all this says about politics in Washington state.

Read more about how voters are feeling ahead of next year's election here.

---

Credits

Host/Producer: Maleeha Syed and Sara Bernard

Reporter: Joseph O'Sullivan

Story editor: Ryan Famuliner

Executive producer: Sarah Menzies

---

If you would like to support Crosscut, go to crosscut.com/membership. In addition to supporting our events and our daily journalism, members receive complete access to the on-demand programming of Seattle’s PBS station, KCTS 9.

1 Listener

bookmark
plus icon
share episode
Northwest Reports - Free Speech vs. Civil Rights
play

08/23/23 • 20 min

Reporter Mai Hoang explains how the court decision to exempt a Colorado web designer from LGBTQ+ antidiscrimination laws could have a ripple effect.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that a Christian website designer in Colorado can refuse to provide wedding websites to same-sex couples, because doing so falls within her First Amendment right to free speech.

As Crosscut reporter Mai Hoang found, the ruling in Colorado was the first to address whether prohibiting discrimination against a protected class can be set aside for someone’s free-speech rights.

This decision signals a marked shift from a Washington Supreme Court case, settled in 2021, that required Barronelle Stutzman to follow public accommodation laws after she refused on religious grounds to provide custom floral arrangements for a same-sex marriage.

In this episode of Crosscut Reports, host Sara Bernard talks with Hoang about the significance of this Supreme Court ruling; its potential implications in Washington; and the tenuous balance between upholding First Amendment rights and protecting vulnerable communities from discrimination.

Read our full report on the impacts of 303 Creative in WA here.

---

Credits

Host/Producer: Sara Bernard

Reporter: Mai Hoang

Executive producer: Sarah Menzies

---

If you would like to support Crosscut, go to crosscut.com/membership. In addition to supporting our events and our daily journalism, members receive complete access to the on-demand programming of Seattle’s PBS station, KCTS 9.

1 Listener

comment icon

1 Comment

1

bookmark
plus icon
share episode
Northwest Reports - Nurses Leave Jobs for New Careers
play

09/20/23 • 19 min

Reporter Megan Burbank spoke with former nurses who, amid grievances like staffing shortages and low pay, changed their careers.

Nurses took on immense responsibilities as COVID-19 raged across the country, overloading hospitals and overextending health care workers.

Today, some of these nurses have left the field completely due to mounting pressures that were exacerbated by the pandemic – but had existed long before.

Freelance reporter Megan Burbank talked to several former nurses in Washington about the stressors that led them to leave their field for new career paths like massage therapy and web development.

In this episode of Crosscut Reports, host Maleeha Syed talks with Burbank about what drew these nurses to the field; what pushed them out; and how their lives have changed for the better since leaving.

Read our full report on how people are adjusting to life after nursing here.

---

Credits

Host/Producer: Maleeha Syed and Scot Michael

Reporter: Megan Burbank

Executive producer: Sarah Menzies

---

If you would like to support Crosscut, go to crosscut.com/membership. In addition to supporting our events and our daily journalism, members receive complete access to the on-demand programming of Seattle’s PBS station, KCTS 9.

1 Listener

bookmark
plus icon
share episode
Northwest Reports - Fixing a Fundraising Gap in WA Schools
play

06/28/23 • 20 min

PTSAs can reduce resource gaps, but also exacerbate inequities among schools. Reporter Venice Buhain shares local efforts working to change that.

Seattle public schools, like most public schools, don’t all have the same resources to offer students. And they tend to rely on parent-led fundraising to fill in the gaps. But that can exacerbate the inequities that already exist, as wealthy families can often afford to donate the money and time that low-income families can’t.

Crosscut associate news editor Venice Buhain recently dug into this issue in Seattle, exploring why these fundraising efforts, run by Parent Teacher Student Associations (PTSAs), have recently come under scrutiny. Some parents and advocates now hope to change the paradigm altogether.

For this episode of Crosscut Reports, host Sara Bernard talks with Buhain about what these parents are doing to make PTSA-based fundraising more equitable, with the goal of reducing the schools’ significant disparities in staffing and supplies.

Some local PTSAs, for instance, have begun pooling resources and distributing raised funds among schools in their neighborhoods – and questioning why parent groups are relied on for fundraising in the first place.

Read our full report on the effort to change PTSA fundraising in Seattle here.

---

Credits

Host/Producer: Sara Bernard

Reporter: Venice Buhain

Executive producer: Mark Baumgarten

---

If you would like to support Crosscut, go to crosscut.com/membership. In addition to supporting our events and our daily journalism, members receive complete access to the on-demand programming of Seattle’s PBS station, KCTS 9.

1 Listener

bookmark
plus icon
share episode
Northwest Reports - Who Got WA’s COVID Small Business Money?
play

10/31/23 • 18 min

The Working Washington program aimed to get pandemic relief to small and “historically disadvantaged” business owners. Did it?

In April 2020, Washington distributed $10 million to businesses navigating the pandemic, the first of many rounds of grant funding delivered by the state.

The Working Washington grant program was established to get money to small businesses overlooked by federal COVID relief efforts, with officials calling on the Department of Commerce to emphasize “historically disadvantaged” and BIPOC businesses.

Crosscut filed records requests for the individual grants, finding large corporate chains among the recipients.

In this episode, host Maleeha Syed speaks with reporter Brandon Block, who recently published a story on these findings, about where the relief dollars went – and if the state made good on its plan to reach small and historically disadvantaged businesses.

Read more about Crosscut's analysis of Working Washington here.

---

Credits

Host/Producer: Maleeha Syed and Sara Bernard

Reporter: Brandon Block

Story editor: Ryan Famuliner

Executive producer: Sarah Menzies

---

If you would like to support Crosscut, go to crosscut.com/membership. In addition to supporting our events and our daily journalism, members receive complete access to the on-demand programming of Seattle’s PBS station, KCTS 9.

1 Listener

bookmark
plus icon
share episode
Northwest Reports - The Hidden World of WA Surveillance
play

07/26/23 • 21 min

Federal relief funds are financing new surveillance technology across the state. Reporter Brandon Block discusses why privacy advocates are concerned.

If you walk around downtown Seattle and look closely, you may notice that you’re being watched. From traffic cameras to automated license-plate readers, surveillance technology is all around us. And thanks to new funding from the American Rescue Plan, many cities across Washington and the country are buying even more technologies that can collect personal data.

As Crosscut reporter Brandon Block discovered, the laws that govern this kind of technology are limited, and vary from city to city.

Police and other city departments say these new devices and software will help them do their jobs far more effectively. But privacy advocates say they allow government agencies to track innocent people, with little regulation or transparency around how sensitive data is being used or shared.

For this episode of Crosscut Reports, host Sara Bernard talks with Block about his tour of existing surveillance technology in downtown Seattle; what kinds of surveillance federal funds are now making possible in police departments around the state; and the potential ramifications of all of this.

Read our full report on surveillance in Washington here.

---

Credits

Host/Producer: Sara Bernard

Reporter: Brandon Block

Executive producer: Sarah Menzies

---

If you would like to support Crosscut, go to crosscut.com/membership. In addition to supporting our events and our daily journalism, members receive complete access to the on-demand programming of Seattle’s PBS station, KCTS 9.

1 Listener

bookmark
plus icon
share episode
Northwest Reports - The Fight Over Public Libraries
play

08/09/23 • 22 min

Calls for censorship of LGBTQ+ young adult books in Columbia County mirror a national political debate. Meg Butterworth shares her reporting.

A fight has been raging nationwide over book-banning in schools and libraries. According to the American Library Association, calls for censorship of specific titles nearly doubled between 2021 and 2022, and the vast majority targeted books by and about the LGBTQ+ community and people of color.

But as reporter Meg Butterworth found, in one rural county in Washington the battle has gone beyond the books themselves. It could end up eliminating an entire library system.

That’s because, after a year of tense board meetings, misinformation and demands to censor half-a-dozen titles, one local resident collected enough signatures to put a petition to close the library on Columbia County’s November ballot.

For this episode of Crosscut Reports, host Sara Bernard talks with Butterworth about what’s been happening in Columbia County, how closely it tracks with the national debate and what all this says about political polarization, censorship, the role of librarians and the meaning of a public library.

Read our full report on the local and national battle over books here.

---

Credits

Host/Producer: Sara Bernard

Reporter: Meg Butterworth

Executive producer: Sarah Menzies

---

If you would like to support Crosscut, go to crosscut.com/membership. In addition to supporting our events and our daily journalism, members receive complete access to the on-demand programming of Seattle’s PBS station, KCTS 9.

1 Listener

comment icon

1 Comment

1

bookmark
plus icon
share episode
Northwest Reports - The Push to Preserve Mobile Home Communities
play

09/06/23 • 22 min

Residents say that WA-based management company Hurst & Son LLC is responsible for price hikes, reduced services and other grievances.

Mobile home communities have long served as an affordable-housing option for Washington residents, but many say they’re now being priced out of their homes.

Crosscut reporters Farah Eltohamy and Mai Hoang investigated allegations against Hurst & Son LLC, a company that has acquired dozens of mobile home parks across the state in recent years. Some residents allege that the company is responsible for rent hikes, new fees and reduced services.

Now these community members are pushing back against Hurst & Son – which is not the only company that has been accused of these practices.

In this episode of Crosscut Reports, host Sara Bernard talks with Eltohamy about why mobile homes are not in fact mobile; the different ways community members are advocating for themselves; and why it’s so important for them to stay where they are.

Read our full report on the fight to preserve mobile home communities here.

---

Credits

Host/Producer: Sara Bernard and Scot Michael

Reporter: Farah Eltohamy and Mai Hoang

Executive producer: Sarah Menzies

---

If you would like to support Crosscut, go to crosscut.com/membership. In addition to supporting our events and our daily journalism, members receive complete access to the on-demand programming of Seattle’s PBS station, KCTS 9.

1 Listener

comment icon

1 Comment

1

bookmark
plus icon
share episode
Northwest Reports - What’s at Stake in the Seattle City Council Races
play

05/24/23 • 23 min

With 45 candidates vying for a district seat, a lot could shift this fall. Crosscut reporter Josh Cohen talks it through.

Today, at the launch of Seattle’s 2023 campaign season, we examine some of the biggest issues our city faces. Crosscut city reporter Josh Cohen recently spoke with campaign consultants, pollsters, pundits, and representatives of big business and labor to get a sense of what’s at stake in this election and what voters might want.

Complicating these issues, and the search for solutions, is that the Seattle City Council could face a seismic shift: Four incumbents have announced they will not seek re-election, and a fifth, Teresa Mosqueda, is running for King County Council; if she wins, that will leave her seat open too.

For this episode of Crosscut Reports, host Sara Bernard talks with Cohen about what exactly voters might choose in November. While the Council has almost always been left-of-center, and is likely to remain so, the possibility of change leaves plenty of room for speculation.

Read our full report on the Seattle election and the issues likely to be at the center of it here.

---

Credits

Host/Producer: Sara Bernard

Reporter: Josh Cohen

Executive producer: Mark Baumgarten

---

If you would like to support Crosscut, go to crosscut.com/membership. In addition to supporting our events and our daily journalism, members receive complete access to the on-demand programming of Seattle’s PBS station, KCTS 9.

bookmark
plus icon
share episode

Show more best episodes

Toggle view more icon

FAQ

How many episodes does Northwest Reports have?

Northwest Reports currently has 82 episodes available.

What topics does Northwest Reports cover?

The podcast is about News and Podcasts.

What is the most popular episode on Northwest Reports?

The episode title 'Nurses Leave Jobs for New Careers' is the most popular.

What is the average episode length on Northwest Reports?

The average episode length on Northwest Reports is 24 minutes.

How often are episodes of Northwest Reports released?

Episodes of Northwest Reports are typically released every 7 days.

When was the first episode of Northwest Reports?

The first episode of Northwest Reports was released on Aug 29, 2022.

Show more FAQ

Toggle view more icon

Comments