Sound Effect is your weekly tour of ideas, inspired by the place we live. The show is hosted by KPLU's Gabriel Spitzer. Each week's show explores a different theme, and this week the team takes on exceptions to the rule.
Timothy Ray Brown, also known as "The Berlin Patient," is the only person ever known to be cured of HIV. KPLU's Gabriel Spitzer speaks with Brown about what it feels like to be an outlier. Then we talk with virologist Keith Jerome of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington about how science confronts this kind of exception to the rule, and why he thinks Brown’s case still has tremendous value.
KPLU's Jennifer Wing introduces listeners to the woman that made it legal for Seattle residents to keep goats. Jennie Grant had just wanted some leniency for her own pet goat, but soon realized that if she couldn't be an exception, she would just have to make the city change the rule. And the Goat Justice Leaguewas born.
Sports have such a powerful hold on our culture that lawmakers are often willing to take extraordinary steps to keep teams and fans happy. Even the U.S. Supreme Court exempted pro baseball from antitrust laws way back in 1922. Here in Washington State, we have our own exception to the rule when it comes to sports. KPLU’s Ashley Gross digs into the exceptions made for the Western Hockey League.
Janell Langford had never had perfect vision but was shocked when her ophthalmologist told her she was rapidly going blind. Langford was first diagnosed with a disease that was common in people much older than her but nearly unheard of for someone in her 20s. Then she learned it was more likely a different disease – one only common in people much younger than her. Either way, Langford was not excited about being the exception to the rule. Gabriel Spitzer sits down with the visually inclined young graphic design student and her husband, Sound Effect Senior Executive Intern Warren Langford, to discuss their race to understand the diagnosis.
