
Gabriel Spitzer
Sound Effect Host and ProducerGabriel Spitzer is the Host and Senior Producer of Sound Effect, KNKX's "weekly tour of ideas inspired by the place we live." Gabriel was previously KNKX's Science and Health Reporter. He joined KNKX after years covering science, health and the environment at WBEZ in Chicago. There, he created the award-winning mini-show, Clever Apes. Having also lived in Alaska and California, Gabriel feels he’s been closing in on Seattle for some time, and has finally landed on the bullseye.
Gabriel received his Master's of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, and his degree in English at Cornell University. He’s been honored with the Kavli Science Journalism Prize from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and won awards from the Association of Health Care Journalists, the National Association of Black Journalists and Public Radio News Directors, Inc. He lives in West Seattle with his wife Ashley and their two sons, Ezra and Oliver.
Gabriel’s most memorable KNKX moment was: “In just my second week here, I found myself covering the unfolding story of a mass shooting and citywide manhunt. It was a tragic and chaotic day, when the public badly needed someone to sort the facts from the rumors. It made me proud of our profession.”
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This story originally aired on March 31, 2018. In 1973, in the midst of the Stonewall era, a Seattle band called Lavender Country released an eponymous…
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This story originally aired Dec. 22, 2018. Olympic National Park, with its temperate rainforests and stunning views, exerts a natural pull on many Pacific…
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This story originally aired on November 16, 2019. The sheer physicality of aging and dying are things we try not to think about, so it’s especially…
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This story originally aired on November 9, 2019. Rachel Ratner is in a band called Wimps. She’s also a software engineer and a brand new mother — and the…
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This story originally aired on February 14, 2020.Ivanonva Smith spent the first chunk of her life in an institutional orphanage in Soviet-controlled…
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This story originally aired on February 14, 2020.Bonnie Gibson says her son Greg’s musical talent emerged very early on. “I could just see from a young…
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This story originally aried on February 8, 2020. Leila Marie Ali was always the thriftiest one in her family. Her dad is generous to a fault, always quick…
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This story originally aired on January 25, 2020. The Rev. Chumleigh wasn’t exactly a regular at meetings of the Camano Island Chamber of Commerce. He’s a…
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This story originally aired on January 25, 2020. Sidney Rittenberg was a singular figure — an American who was a close associate of Mao Zedong, who held…
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This story originally aired on January 25, 2020.Not all of the cells in your body actually belong to you. Some cells might be from your mother, passed to…