Sound Effect is your weekly tour of ideas, inspired by the place we live. The show is hosted by KNKX's Gabriel Spitzer. Each week's show explores a different theme, and this week we're delving into tales of thievery.
You may have dreamt of doing it yourself, but ShonHopwood made most people's action-movie dreams his reality. To start off the hour, we bring you a story about paramount thievery: robbing banks. Hopwood was 22 in 1998 and living in Nebraska. He started joking with some friends about robbing banks, but that didn't stay a joke for long. From bank robber to jail house we hear a tale of how breaking the law turned into practicing it.
Then, KNKX's Jennifer Wing collected your stories about theft, whether it be a wallet, a broken heart, or a brilliant idea. She spoke with people at Jefferson Park in Seattle's Beacon Hill neighborhood and at the Wallingford Senior Center.
To wrap up the show, Russell Jim of Yakima recounts the attempted theft of his tribal identity. In the 1940's, the U.S. government established Native American boarding schools to "kill the Indian and save the man." Jim recounts being sent to one of these horrifying institutions, and tells us how the government's attempts to strip away his identity has altered his life forever.
