Alec Cowan

San Jose, Seattle

Podcast and Talk Show Producer at KUOW-FM (Seattle, WA)

Audio for news, audio for art | Audio journalist for Soundside @KUOW | Previous @npr @iheartmedia @klcc | Indie documentary maker

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Articles

Trump Administration opens half of national forest land for logging

6 days ago | kuow.org | Alec Cowan

The Trump administration is pushing for more logging on public land, pledging to boost America’s domestic supply of wood products and increase wildfire resilience. In March, the President issued an executive order directing federal agencies to begin finding ways to expand timber production by 25% over the next few years. Last week, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins sent a memo establishing an “emergency situation determination” covering more than 112 million national forest acres.
Gary Locke says WA will be caught in the China crossfire

1 week ago | kuow.org | Libby Denkmann |Scott Greenstone |Gabriel Spitzer |Alec Cowan

The U.S. stock and bond markets are continuing to see uncertainty amidst President Donald Trump's flips in tariff policy. While the tariffs placed on a majority of countries have been paused, those in China are continuing to rise as the two nations retaliate against one another.
Gary Locke says WA will be caught in the China crossfire

1 week ago | m.kuow.org | Libby Denkmann |Scott Greenstone |Gabriel Spitzer |Alec Cowan

The U.S. stock and bond markets are continuing to see uncertainty amidst President Donald Trump's flips in tariff policy. While the tariffs placed on a majority of countries have been paused, those in China are continuing to rise as the two nations retaliate against one another.
Is this the year rent limits pass?

1 month ago | kuow.org | Libby Denkmann |Scott Greenstone |Gabriel Spitzer |Alec Cowan

For years, progressives have tried to fight the rising cost of living by instituting a kind of "rent control" – what proponents call "rent stabilization." Basically, a limit on how much the landlord can raise your rent. It's a divisive issue, even in the Democratic party -- in fact for years, it was Democrats that kept killing attempts at rent limits. But this could be the year that rent stabilization actually comes to pass.
Federal forestry changes leave state officials in the lurch

1 month ago | kuow.org | Libby Denkmann |Alec Cowan

The state’s Department of Natural Resources says it’s coming up with backup plans to address the growing threat of serious wildfires in Washington. This, as it's typically close working relationship with federal forest managers has frayed under the Trump Administration. Some of this started in mid-February, when the U.S. Department of Agriculture cut thousands of probationary employees at the U.S. Forest Service.
How Rainier Beer went from an old fashioned brew to an advertising icon

1 month ago | kuow.org | Libby Denkmann |Alec Cowan

Behold the Rain-beers, a herd of giant bottles with human legs galloping majestically across the Cascade foothills. This motif was part advertisement, part cinema — the brainchildren of Heckler Associates, a local ad agency that made Rainier Beer’s personality and brand into the stuff of Seattle legend.
Can the artificial really be 'intelligent'? This researcher wants us to think bigger

1 month ago | kuow.org | Libby Denkmann |Alec Cowan

Artificial intelligence is starting to underpin everything we do, whether we like it or not. And at the highest levels, companies like Google and Open AI are saying their AI is on the verge of crossing a humanlike threshold that we’ve only seen in science fiction. This is prompting all kinds of conversations about sentience and the possible dangers of a superintelligent computer system. But the definition of “Artificial General Intelligence,” or AGI, is controversial.
The graveyard shift: lessons from WA's dead bills (so far)

1 month ago | kuow.org | Scott Greenstone |Jeanie Lindsay |Gabriel Spitzer |Alec Cowan

It’s an old saw in Olympia: A lawmaker’s job is not so much to pass good bills, but to kill bad ones (because there are just a lot of bad ones). Good or bad, this time of year is “Bill Killing Season” at the state capitol, having just passed two deadlines for the hundreds of policy and fiscal bills introduced this session. Bills that haven’t passed out of committee by then are generally considered deceased.
How Seattle's rap scene got its start

1 month ago | kuow.org | Libby Denkmann |Alec Cowan

In the 1980s, Seattle's music scene was hooked on disco. The success of "Saturday Night Fever" meant venues opted for groovy vinyl over live band performances, and songs like Chic's "Good Times" were on constant rotation. That made room for a similar but modified version of the song's simple breakbeat by a group called The Sugarhill Gang, who quickly brought "rapping" to a nationwide audience.
This actor found freedom - and refuge - on the Seattle stage

1 month ago | kuow.org | Libby Denkmann |Alec Cowan |Shane Mehling

Clad in a big, bulky menswear suit, “Julia” Mozhdeh Rahmanzaei stomps around the stage at the Theater off Jackson in Seattle’s Chinatown International District. She glares over a fake beard, holding audience members’ gazes, and shakes the program for this very play in one hand. The actor and playwright is channeling the censorship she experienced in her home country of Iran.