This show originally aired on November 9, 2019.
First, we learn about a map that shows the vast web of connections among Seattle bands. Then, we meet the chief of equityfor Seattle Public Schools, whose work is informed by her own past experience as a black student in the district. We meet a performance artist who explores how expectations of beauty killed her mother. We travel to a ridgetop observatory where young adults are working out who they’re going to be. And we learn how a Tacoma woman went from “cult” to college.
BAND MAP
Rachel Ratner is in a band called Wimps. She’s also a software engineer and a brand new mother — and the creator of the Seattle Band Map. Learn how the effort materialized, and which bands are connected to Green Day.
IMPROVING EQUITY
Back in 1988, the Seattle school district had a problem on its hands. Black third graders were underperforming their white classmates in reading by 29 percentage points. It was a glaring inequality, and it was getting attention.
That’s the year that Keisha Scarlett started at Garfield High School in Seattle. Today, Keisha is still at Seattle Public Schools, and so is the disparity — in fact, the race gap has gotten bigger. Hear more from KNKX’s Ashley Gross.
140 POUNDS
Susan Lieu’s ongoing project is coming to grips with the central event of her childhood. That’s meant trying to better understand her Vietnamese family and especially her mother, Jennifer Ha.
Listen to this story from producer Jennifer Wing, in which Lieu shares her journey and how she was able to finally feel a connection to her mother many years after she died.
DISCOVERING STARS AND SELF
When you’re young and in college, just about everything feels like it’s in flux. Your identity itself is unfinished.
Well, a few months ago, Sound Effect producer Jennifer Wing and KNKX photographer Parker Miles Blohm made a trip to the top of a ridge near Ellensburg, to a spot where young adults are working out who they’re going to be.
FROM ‘CULT’ TO COLLEGE
We meet a woman who grew up on a religious commune and hear how she went from true believer to rebel, from bible student to molecular biologist, and from meek submissive to courageous activist and performer.
