Ben, a life-long friend, and I talk about a few minor issues, such as the LA wildfires, roof sprinklers, solar power, rolling blackouts, alternative energy, political polarization, the Gulf of Mexico/America, sky-high childcare costs and his ve...

My father, Charles Wilson, is a lifelong, amateur philosopher. In this episode, I sat down with him to talk about why he got his degree in philosophy, which leads quickly to tales of barber shops, bad haircuts and the gangs in Spokane, where he...

Christy McCay and I are cousins who didn’t know one another existed until we were adults, when our parents, full-blooded siblings, met for the first time. We talk about finding new family, the surprising role of genetics in shaping personality,...

Melvin "Mel Brooks" Kaminsky is America's greatest director, screenwriter, actor, composer and comedian. Now, after 40 years, his "History of the World, Part I," is getting a sequel. This is just the latest cinematic event for Mel, 96, who also...

With one voice, the governors of Oregon, Washington and California condemned the recent US Supreme Court ruling overturning the right to abortion created in Roe v. Wade. This isn't the first time the West Coast has locked together on politic...

Jan Jutte steered the Washington State Auditor's Office through a major crisis when the then-elected State Auditor Troy Kelley was charged with federal financial crimes. Jan was about to retire from her long career in public service, but instea...

Today we're talking to Kevin Mayer, a long-time, great, friend of mine who has taken up smoking. And I don't mean of the nicotine variety, but smoking all variety of foods. And it's really amazing, the repertoire he's built up, from bacon-wrapp...

With the Russian invasion of Ukraine, I turned to a Ukrainian friend to ask her what we, the Americans, need to understand about the conflict. Olha's response came down to this: Ukrainians are not Russians. They have their own history, their ow...

Is America in a new civil war?  Are we headed there? In this episode, I take on the question posed by Politico recently: "We are in a new civil war ... about what, exactly?"I propose the Compass of Power, a theory that holds the ce...

Contrary to what you may have heard, women are not poorly designed for childbirth. Jessica Wilson talks about why we fear mothers will die in childbirth in the United States, starting with her own terrible experience having her first chi...

Longview, Washington resident Melinda McCrady spent 20 years working for Democrats in the state Legislature, and for that entire time, her blue-collar, timber-industry hometown elected Democratic representatives to the Legislature, to local off...

Earl Adsley spends his time measuring snow in the mountains of Idaho and guess what? More than half of the water consumed in the West started as snow in the mountains.I talk to Earl about drought, about snow pack, about forest fires, and wh...

Ever think about moving to a small town? Having your kids play every sport in high school? What if you got paid to go to their games and announce them over the radio? How about you run for city council and help your neighbors improve the commun...

Chuck  Pfeil is a master of knowing what he can change, and what he cannot. You might meet him as a handyman, a mushroom hunter, a fly fisher or an auditor. Chuck does all those things, but he tries to approach all of them as the same vers...

In that strange time called midlife, Krista Goldstine-Cole was turned down for graduate school by a local university. She decided she should go to Harvard University instead. She not only got in, she moved into the dorms at 47 years old. We tal...

I talk to Beth Babin about what makes Texas Texas, and why Austin is such a different part of Texas.  We talk about the massive snowstorms this spring that exposed deep flaws in Texas' energy grid. We talk about Life Straws. We talk abo...

You may be a Big Lebowski fan, but have you considered the role of late stage capitalism in the film?  What about the twists it takes every time one character's name is used? John Hagemann has not just noticed these things, but writing ext...

We talk to Laura Cameron of Art for Art's Sake Press about how you step into the world of political activism. Laura shares how a deep personal loss led her to weigh in more often online.  She found talking to folks of another political ben...