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Hiding In Plain Sight: Sound Effect, Episode 102

Credit Liz West/Flickr
Hiding in plain sight

This week on Sound Effect, we share stories of people, places and things that are right in front of us, that we may never notice. 

Air Raid Siren

History enthusiast Sue Pierce chronicles her research into the history of the Ballard, Greenwood, and Phinney Ridge neighborhoods on her blog Vintage West Woodland. We met up at the old air raid siren at the Phinney Neighborhood Center.  It stands at least 50 feet tall and is painted green and yellow — by the way, it’s one of the last standing sirens from the Cold War-era in the country.

Immigration Attorney

Seattle-based immigration attorney Carol Edward has been practicing law for 33 years, and she’s seen how immigration policies under Republican and Democratic administrations have played out. And today, she says the heightened focus on illegal immigration is prompting a lot of foreigners who are here legally, to make more of a commitment to the United States.

Bellingham Coffee

If you owned a shop you’d probably want to get the word out about when it’s open and where it’s located. Well, this is not the case for a small local business in Bellingham, Wash. In fact, this place is really a social experiment in disguise.

Detecting Addiction From Your Own Experience

People with addictions often go to great lengths to hide their problems from friends and family. Michael Roberts knows this well. His struggle, and the efforts he made to keep his problem hidden, made him an expert when it came to spotting his daughter’s addiction.

Learning From Worms

All around us, there are tiny creatures and simple organisms sharing planet Earth. And that includes a type of worm that prefers to live in rotting fruit. Jihong Bai is a neurobiologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. And he uses these microworms, barely the size of the tip of a human hair, to study how neurons in the brain talk to each other.

Cherdonna

It's far less common for women to be drag queens, so the over the top makeup and costuming that Jody Kuehner uses to become drag queen Cherdonna hides her well enough to the point where some audience members incorrectly assume that she is a man. This had resulted in some pretty awkward conversations between Jody and a few of the people in the audience.

Sound Effect is your weekly tour of ideas, inspired by the place we live. The show is hosted by KNKX's Jennifer Wing.