Every day, KNKX brings you news from Seattle, Tacoma and across the Pacific Northwest region. As another year of reporting and storytelling wraps up, we asked the KNKX News team to share an important, overlooked, fun, special or memorable story that they brought to our airwaves and online.
The audio, interviews and visuals they captured come together to connect you with others across the region: a grieving community, an inspired opera creator, a photographer on a mission, local tribes reviving traditions, and young adults concerned about cost of living. Some of these stories, you won't find anywhere else.
Here are the stories that stood out:
Kirsten Kendrick, Morning Edition host
"The sudden death this summer of popular Tacoma News Tribune columnist Matt Driscoll hit a lot of people hard - the newsmakers he covered, the readers he served and his fellow journalists. We all felt a huge hole when he passed.
Matt loved Tacoma; and Tacoma loved him. Being able to capture some of what made him special was truly an honor. It's the story that sticks with me the most from 2024."
Emil Moffatt, All Things Considered host
"Among the memorable people we had the chance to talk to in 2024, one that stands out was Tazewell Thompson, creator of Jubilee opera, performed by the Seattle Opera earlier this year.
The story of how he first heard about the Jubilee singers at a young age was really captivating. Later, seeing the opera performance at McCaw Hall was extremely powerful and moving."
Freddy Monares, Arts & Culture reporter
"Homelessness is talked a lot about in the news. I imagine we’ve all asked ourselves a similar question about what can we do to help? John Simpson sought out to answer that question with his camera in Downtown Olympia, where he photographs the homeless population to shed a light on their living conditions.
Simpson’s photos are up close and raw and emotional. They struck me because you could tell he took the time to have a conversation with the person before snapping a picture. That kindness and caring was apparent when I shadowed him for this story. It’s one of the reasons why it sticks out to me."
Bellamy Pailthorp, Environment reporter
"There are two stories I need to mention from my work in 2024, both on the food sovereignty beat. The first is about intertribal youth (and many displaced adults as well) learning how to harvest and roast Camas bulbs, which were once a staple of Indigenous diets in the Coast Salish region.
The other was the breaking news I captured on the decision by the U.S. government to grant a long-awaited waiver to the Makah Tribe for their hunt of gray whales off the west coast near Neah Bay.
Being live on All Things Considered to deliver this news was an exhilarating first for me. It was also the culmination of many years of reporting that I hope to continue in the coming years as the Makah Tribe takes the final steps for getting a permit and training for the hunt."
Nate Sanford, Murrow News Fellow
"When I talked to young people in Washington about their top concerns in the runup to the November election, I was struck by how similar peoples’ answers were: Housing. Gas. Groceries. Washington is an expensive state. It’s hard for everyone — especially if you’re a young person trying to start out on your own.
Young adults’ perspectives are often overlooked by politicians, so I was glad to help amplify their concerns with this story. It seems like young peoples’ economic discontent was a big factor in the 2024 election, and I’m excited to dig into the topic more in the new year."
What did we miss?
Is there another KNKX News story from 2024 that stood out to you? Let us know by emailing outreach@knkx.org.
Subscribe to the KNKX Weekly News Round-Up for more original stories like these in 2025.
