Power of Place - Stories of the Pacific Northwest

What becomes possible when solutions to modern urban society’s most pressing challenges—housing the unhoused, corporate innovation, designing more beautiful places & objects—originate from the communities who have inhabited this place from time immemorial? Guiding us through this multifaceted exploration is Colleen Echohawk. Currently CEO of the Native lifestyle brand Eighth Generation, Colleen’s resume encompasses city politics including a Seattle mayoral run 2021. Earlier, as Executive Director of Chief Seattle Club for seven years, she oversaw the creation of 300 new units of affordable housing. Collen spotlights today’s rising generation of indigenous government and business leaders as well Indian Country’s most admired cultural creators. She suggests that a more enduring and just society would be place-based. In the case of Seattle, this involves incorporating Native values including those of the region's indigenous Lushootseed-speaking Coast Salish peoples. Inspired by Potlatch culture, for example, Colleen challenges corporate leaders to reimagine established notions of prestige and prosperity. Colleen’s mellifluous tales fuse with the harmonies of Black Belt Eagle Scout and the rhythms of Supaman. These young recording artists amplify the critical and ongoing dialogue between tradition and invention, a dynamic embedded in Colleen’s heartening life, work and stories. "We talk in Indian Country about how we are trying to help reframe folks to say, hey; ‘we are not just in these museums, we are not just artifacts…we are actually living, thriving communities." ~Colleen Echohawk

Join us as we stroll through Seattle’s Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP) circa 2020, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. Our guest, documentary playwright Nikki Yeboah, begins this journey at 11th & Pine, the CHOP’s epicenter—and the title of her current project. Yeboah, an Assistant Professor of Playwriting in the School of Drama at the University of Washington, shares how her team gathered oral histories of over 30 protestors, stories that allow her to convey this momentous event’s impact on its participants. She also explores why nearly all traces of the occupation (including street art, soup kitchens and vegetable gardens) vanished so quickly after the protest ended. Throughout this episode, experience the good vibes of hip-hop fusionists Marshall Law Band, courtesy of its leader Marshall Hugh, who rallied his bandmates to perform throughout the occupation. "CHOP was utopic. No matter how people feel it ended, it began utopically; it was a desire to create a space in which everyone was welcome, regardless of your class, or sexuality or race.” ~Nikki Yeboah

Join us for a conversation with landscape and urban designer Andrew tenBrink of NYC-based Field Operations as he reveals Seattle’s new downtown Waterfront Park project, which he has managed since 2010. From the cobblestones of Pioneer Square to Belltown’s crowded skyline, Andrew’s block-by-block tour through the 20-acre park demonstrates how this new landscape reflects community priorities. Along the way, he spotlights contributions of local partners. These include architects and artists, tribes and Urban Natives, the City of Seattle and the Office of the Waterfront and Capitol Projects, as well as cultural consultants and garden designers. Indigenous food sovereignty advocate Valerie Segrest (Muckleshoot) drops by to share thoughts on placemaking and history. Valerie explains how the interpretive horticultural exhibit she designed for the new Overlook Walk invites visitors to gaze across the Salish Sea while learning about Native cultural ecosystems. These walkways, stairs and plazas connect the Seattle Aquarium’s new Ocean Pavilion at the shoreline with Pike Place Market. Andrew’s inspiring stories reveal how a brilliant framework can express the civic dreams of multitudes. They demonstrate how city dwellers are most grounded when connected with nature, with themselves and with one another. Listen and learn how these new public spaces reflect the varied histories and cultures that define a great city and that will shape its future. "Outdoor space has always been at its best when people use it as a part of their daily lives: You take a stroll in the park, you unwind, you de-stress, you take your kids to the playground. These are the indelible things that exist across the world across time.” ~Andrew tenBrink

Step into the multiverse of Zack Bolotin, owner-operator of Porchlight Coffee & Records on Seattle’s Capitol Hill. Not just a cafe, Porchlight is a platform for Zack’s varied talents, including graphic design, photography, art curation, book publishing and online retailing. It’s also a record label. Listen as Zack describes how his endeavors, admittedly wide-ranging, are anchored in his family's history and an affection for old things. He shares how he incorporated his parents' memorabilia collection into Porchlight's publication "62 Souvenirs: Keepsakes from the 1962 Seattle World's Fair." Zack also recounts his discovery of mid-century architectural photography by Art Hupy published in “Pacific Architect & Builder,” a defunct trade journal produced by Zack’s grandfather Roscoe Laing. Reminiscent to Zack of Julius Shulman's contemporaneous work in Southern California, he restored and published a selection of Hupy’s photos as "Art Hupy: Architecture and Life in the Pacific Northwest" in collaboration with Docomomo US/WEWA. Accompanying Zack’s inspiring stories are songs from an assortment of Porchlight Records' labelmates, among them his collaborative project, Pretty Old, whose tracks blend ruminations on remote motels, fictions by Raymond Carver and memories of roadside attractions. A self-taught entrepreneur, Zack chose to keep his business small, sustainable and anchored in community. His maverick spirit—casual, classically Pacific Northwest—affirms that a livelihood can be both purposeful and expansive. These lighthearted stories uphold Zack’s city as a place of goodness. "As much as a city is made by people; it’s made by the buildings and businesses that come and go as well; you can’t advocate for every single building to stay where it is. You have to pick and choose. There’s a balance between preservation and new buildings. That’s how it always has been.” ~ Zack Bolotin

Click into your bindings as we launch from the highest peaks of the North Cascades with ski mountaineering historian Lowell Skoog, author of "Written in the Snows: Across Time on Skis in the Pacific Northwest," published by Mountaineers Books and 2022 winner of the National Outdoor Book Award (NOBA) for historical writing. Born to a family of Nordic ski jumpers, Lowell pioneered ski mountaineering routes across remote reaches of the Cascade and Olympic mountains. His stories abound in evocative details and introduce memorable characters like Wolf Bauer, Olga Bolstad, Hans Otto Giese and Milnor Roberts. Chronicling the birth of Pacific Northwest skiing from a little-known sport of immigrants to cultural cornerstone, Lowell conveys the wonderment of Scandinavian settlers waking to Seattle’s first big snow in 1916; the camaraderie enjoyed by founders of early Pacific Northwest ski clubs; and the chaos of the 1934 Silver Skis race. His characters range from backwoods trappers to the heroic fighters of the United States Army’s 10th Mountain Division—some of whom would later develop North America’s postwar ski industry. Amidst our current backdrop of climate change, Lowell’s snowy memoirs—portrayals of sanctuary and loss—are also a poignant record of a threatened pastime. "Being up in the mountains and having that connection with the natural world…is really healthy. It can help you forget about short term concerns; you are in a place that’s been there forever…and will be there forever.” ~Lowell Skoog

Swing into the B & I Circus Store circa 1964 with guest Larry Johnston, who at age 13 became brother to a western lowland gorilla named Ivan—-the ape that became as emblematic of the Pacific Northwest as the legendary Sasquatch. Larry narrates the tale of how his parents came to own the B & I pet store, thanks to Orca capturer Ted Griffin. He warmly remembers the store’s ever-changing menagerie, which included gibbons, jaguars, lions, seals, an elephant, exotic fish and even Amazonian parrots. Most poignantly, he shares stories of growing up with the young Ivan. Join Larry on a journey that takes you from Hollywood movie sets to an unexpected encounter involving one of America’s most esteemed civil rights figures. Fast forward to today, where students from the Seattle Jewish Community School share questions from their reading of The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate. Adding to our list of notable voices, Jodi Carrigan, the Curator of Primates at Zoo Atlanta, reflects on her relationship with Ivan in his later years. Rounding off our tale, Earl Borgert, grandson of B & I's founder Earl Irwin, presents the I.V.A.N. Foundation, dedicated to preserving wildlife habitats. (To hear additional stories of the B & I Circus Store, tune in to Episode #40, “The Wizard of Earl,” for a conversation with Ron Irwin, who ran the store for decades following the passing of his father, store founder Earl Irwin). "He was…unique in so many ways. He loved to engage people. Ivan just relished making connection.” ~Larry Johnston

Dive into the second episode of this two-part series as we continue our conversation with graphic designer, Art Chantry, whose stories sparkle as vibrantly as his colorful posters, offering original insights from Seattle’s grunge era. These tales span Art’s diverse interests and influences: The allure of archaeology; Dadaism & Surrealism; old commercial art by overlooked masters, accidental inking errors. Chantry exposes the misguided muddling of fine art with graphic design and then explains how graphic design underscores propaganda and politics. Art concludes by heralding a new book showcasing Estrus Records, home of bands like The Makers, Mono Men and The Mummies. He confesses that his posters and album covers for these bands were his most liberated. So, this publication is a faithful retrospective for a maverick homegrown genius whose impact is international. "You are standing next to this pond that suddenly emerges and you throw a pebble into the water and this ripple would start. And it got bigger...and before you know, it's a tidal wave; then you hit the shoreline and it's a tsunami and it wipes out half of America; and it's like: 'Wow...I did that....' We were close enough where we could do things like that and actually watch it happen." ~ Art Chantry

Join us in this episode (the first of a two-part series) for a conversation with graphic designer Art Chantry, a national treasure, whose posters are collected by The Smithsonian and The Louvre. Opening with childhood memories of Parkland on the fringes of Tacoma, Washington, Art describes a restless educational path that eventually brought him to Bellingham. He shares experiences of his subsequent arrival to Seattle in the 1980’s, including street observations that shaped his aesthetics. He tells of art directing the music biweekly magazine The Rocket on a shoestring budget before launching a one-man graphic design firm, churning out hundreds of posters, logos and album covers for rock bands including Soundgarden and Mudhoney associated with Sub Pop, Estrus and other home-grown record labels. Art’s stories reveal the genesis of a vital visual lexicon—subversive, populist and modern—that simultaneously reflected and transformed the Pacific Northwest: From a backwater for “losers,” to the forefront of global popular culture in the 1990’s and beyond. "It’s black and white. It's scrappy. There’s not a straight line on the whole goddamn thing. It looks like it was cut and pasted together out of chunks of Xerox junk. It is just an atrocious mess. And it’s beautiful…. It’s so alive—You still look at it and it makes your heart jump!” ~ Art Chantry

Join us in this episode as we descend into the Graveyard of the Pacific with Matt McCauley, President of The Northwest Shipwreck Alliance and Sarah Haberstroh, Manager of Underwater Operations for Rockfish Inc. Matt’s passion for deep-water marine salvage is intertwined with that of his friend Jeff Hummel. As scuba diving high schoolers on Mercer Island in the early 1980s, the two made headlines recovering World War II aircraft from the bottom of Lake Washington. In 2010 Matt returned from the East Coast to support Jeff’s lifelong quest to find the SS Pacific, a nearly 300-ft long transatlantic sidewheel steamer that sunk off Cape Flattery in 1875. At the time it was laden with gold from the Cassiar Mining District of NW British Columbia, near Alaska. The shipwreck drowned all but two of those onboard, which may have totaled as many as 500. Sarah Haberstroh left a career in underwater warfare in the United States Navy last year to join the team searching for the SS Pacific. She maneuvers Rockfish’s remotely operated vehicles for the current recovery phase of the operation. Matt and Sarah recount the ill-fated ship’s history. They talk of the bootstrapped technology, the gumshoe detective work and the perseverance required to locate it in its resting place 1,000 feet beneath the sea. Animating their endeavor—and today’s conversation—is a mission of recovering a complete collection of the vessel’s artifacts: Relics honoring those who died in the calamity. "This tells a story. It is very rare that you can find a vessel from which you can extract all these artifacts and essentially have a time capsule from 1875." – Matt McCauley

Join us in this episode (the first of a two-part series) for stories of the B & I Circus Store, founded by Earl Irwin in 1945 in Lakewood, WA. Our guest today is Earl Irwin’s son, Ron Irwin, who ran the store for decades following his father’s passing. Ron is joined by Earl Borgert, the founder’s grandson, family archivist and President of The I.V.A.N. Foundation. What began as a military surplus outlet housed in an unassuming 500 SF cinderblock storeroom became a prototype for the postwar American shopping mall, eventually expanding to over 300,000 SF. Under Irwin’s exuberant and tireless leadership, the B & I charmed multitudes, attracted by spectacles that transformed the store into a destination for extraordinary adventures. Recently discovered reel-to-reel recordings allow us to enjoy Earl Irwin’s own voice for the first time since his death in the 70’s. Woven into this audio tapestry are voices of Power of Place listeners—all of whom visited the B & I as children—recalling endless hours of reverie: Whirling on a carousel, collecting autographs from their best-loved sports and movie heroes; and discovering a revolving menagerie, including the store’s resident lowland gorilla, Ivan. "The mall—with the leased departments under one roof (so they don’t have to drive to get in their car and drive to another location for clothing or another location for sporting goods)—hadn’t been invented yet. It hadn’t really been done anywhere before.” - Ron Irwin

Join us in this episode for a radiant musical memoir by pianist Dick Coolen. Long before the city’s reputation as an international tech hub, Seattle achieved a globally relevant jazz culture. Here, bands that gathered in the basements of churches, schools and modest homes produced the likes of Ray Charles, Ernestine Anderson and Quincy Jones. Reared in this milieu, our guest’s stories celebrate a free-range childhood in Seattle’s redlined Central District as well as the big band, bebop, and early rock and roll rhythms that filled its avenues. Dick recounts jamming at Joe Brazil’s Black Academy of Music; of blowing baritone sax at Birdland on Madison. He savors memories of touring with Ike Cole and of collaborating with Dizzy Gillespie; of backing underground drag shows with showtunes; and of visits to a well-regarded violin maker at the Fischer Studio Building. Over the course of his jazz journey which eventually brought him to Port Orchard, Dick footed the family bills by working no fewer than 44 non-musical occupations—from paperboy to firefighter to brick mason. Dick Coolen’s humility and commitment—qualities he attributes to his working class and Roman Catholic upbringing—offer lessons from an inspired life grounded in community and refined through the lifegiving power of music. "And that’s what life is….They throw you (♪ short musical phrase ♪). And you say, ‘What can I do with that?’ And you can make it (♪ extended musical phrase ♪)….And it comes out right." ~Dick Coolen This episode is dedicated to the memory of Jamie Winshall and to the continued success of his son Daniel.

Join us in this episode for the field trip of a century. Our guest, geologist-historian David B. Williams, illuminates the Pacific Northwest’s characteristic highlands and waterways as landscapes of perpetual transformation. With a wry wink, this raconteur’s stories fuse the sensitivity of a naturalist with the diligence of a research geek. Amble through Seattle with David as he reveals his city’s subterranean secrets: A mosquito fleet schooner lost somewhere below downtown’s streets; old growth forests immersed under Lake Union; an art deco office tower whose foundation stones invite us to touch “deep time”—almost unimaginably greater than the time scale of human lives and human plans we hold so dear. David’s tales animate the experiences of early Seattleites who swung picks and shot water cannons to forcefully reshape our glacially-formed landscape into a modern metropolis; a progression that continues today in response to climate change. "I’m interested in connections…How are we influenced by the landscape around us? And then, it’s the connections between people and place." ~David B. Williams

Join us in this episode and step inside the Ray Gibson Caballeros Club with Tim Person (President & CEO) and Ms. Ellen Smith (Manager). In the 1950’s, two trailblazing African American men grew weary of exclusion from downtown Tacoma’s restaurants, concert halls and bars. They envisioned a member-owned, private club for the city’s Black community. A founders group next acquired real estate for this purpose in the form of an inconspicuous house on a dead-end street in Tacoma’s Hilltop neighborhood on acreage heralding sweeping views of Mount Rainier. About twenty benefactors soon mortgaged their private residences to fund expansion of that building into the Caballeros Club as we know it today; with splendid spaces supporting diversified membership that includes women. If the “Cab’s” walls could speak, they would voice this episode’s heartwarming stories: Tales of dedicated civic leaders rubbing elbows at the downstairs bar for decades, of friends swaying to live music, of earnest charitable projects, of hearty food served with piquant cocktails…within a private Pacific Northwest haven abounding in joy and camaraderie. "One of the things that makes us proud…is that it is our club—we are not renting the property. We’ve purchased it. So, it has the feeling of ownership; you are not going to take this away from us. This is ours.” ~Ms. Ellen Smith

Join us in this episode as we explore the rural culture of Orcas Island with Craig Gibson, fourth-generation owner of North Beach Inn (NBI), located on the outskirts of the remote village of Eastsound. Craig’s forebears acquired the 100-acre waterfront fruit farm in 1911. In 1932 they constructed a handful of the 16-rustic cottages now dotting NBI’s 8-mile stretch of sandy beach, where panoramic sunsets brighten Canada’s Gulf Islands. Craig explores the sources of NBI’s longevity, its reliance on word-of-mouth marketing, and the exceptional loyalty of its customers. Born out of his family’s Scottish heritage, the business has been shaped by an evolving ethos prioritizing good relationships with family, guests, workers, neighbors, and community. Listen to an extraordinary saga of an Island family, as they steward and share the homestead into it’s second century. The episode concludes with an invitation for you to come and experience NBI yourself. “The strangest thing that happened is we survived to the fourth generation. And they’ve done studies that say that… there’s a fifty percent chance of making it to the second generation. There’s six to ten percent chance of making it to the third generation…So that we’ve made it to the third, going on the fourth, going on the fifth…It’s quite remarkable. It is almost miraculous.” ~Craig Gibson

Join us in this episode for a conversation with a wise friend about the deepest matters of the heart. Our guest is theologian, novelist, and mystic Mary Lane Potter. Mary’s quest for a closer relationship with the divine stretches from her childhood in an immigrant community steeped in the traditions of Christian Reform evangelism; to her Ph.D. at the University of Chicago Divinity School, then a life of service as a lay preacher and tenured academic; followed by a conversion to Judaism and a literary career. Mary has authored the novels Strangers and Sojourners: Stories from the Lowcountry and A Woman of Salt, as well as a spiritual autobiography Seeking God and Losing the Way: A Story of Love and Conversions. Her upcoming novel is based on the biblical character Miriam. An avid essayist, her work is published to diverse audiences, including Tablet, an online magazine of Jewish news and culture. Mary’s stories will whisk you off to Sri Lanka to step over moonstones, into the Sinai Peninsula on camelback, before returning to the oceanic Pacific Northwest just in time for the Jewish festival of Sukkot. We conclude with an open invitation for you to participate in building what Mary calls “a pop-up sacred space.” Mary’s storytelling—intimate yet prophetic—will illuminate the liminal spaces between the sacred and the profane in your daily life. "What I knew as a child...and I’ve been spending my whole life trying to understand and articulate, is that we can experience the divine or the sacred; and we can experience something that is more-than; that something that is greater-than; something that is beyond us, and not know it." ~Mary Lane Potter

In this episode, we catch up with Anthony & Marlie Love, travel vloggers and creators of the YouTube show Traveling While Black in Seattle and TWBSeattle on TikTok. A local married couple, they travel together to various Pacific Northwest destinations and share their comfort level as Black people visiting there for the first time. After three years, Anthony & Marlie have garnered 5,000 YouTube subscribers and 50,000 followers on TikTok. They’ve also established brand partnership that include the Pike Place Market and the Space Needle. Anthony & Marlie highlight key moments from their first 100 episodes: They explain how the Covid-19 pandemic (February 2020, first reported in Kirkland, WA) as well as the murder of George Floyd (May 2020) and the Black Lives Matter protests that ensued, have shaped their work. They also share how they’ve used TikTok to increase their reach. Anthony & Marlie conclude with an announcement of a new expansion to their mission. After listening to this episode, you may never experience travel in the Pacific Northwest the same way again. “Whether you are travelling while Black, White, Asian, whatever…at the end of the day you just want to be welcomed and treated like a human being. That’s all we’re all looking for: Why we do our show is because that’s not the case for a lot of folks who don’t look a certain way.” ~Anthony Love

Join us in this episode for a conversation with Stephanie Lile, director of Gig Harbor’s Harbor History Museum, together with the Museum’s shipwright Riley Hall. They chronicle their community’s historic working waterfront for more than a century by sharing stories embedded in the museum’s collection of over 20,000 objects, images & ephemera. These objects include the Shenandoah, a 65-foot-long purse skeiner whose restoration is a work in progress overseen by Riley. The museum also houses relics of the ill-fated Narrow’s Bridge, together with the first production model of the Thunderbird, a sailboat-cruiser by Seattle-based yacht designer Ben Seaborn and a classic of mid-century PNW design. It was created at Gig Harbor’s historic Eddon Boatyard in 1957 after the Douglas Fir Plywood Association challenged boatbuilders and designers to create vessel entirely of plywood. Tune in to hear these and other stories of Gig Harbor’s boatbuilding cultures—indigenous and immigrant—from those whose mission it is to preserve and share them. “Many people come to the museum to try to find out ‘well, what’s the story of this place.’ But there are some unique characteristics about Gig Harbor that many people are not aware of: They see them; they intrinsically feel them; but until you begin to dig into those stories, you don’t really know the significance of that site.” ~Stephanie Lile

Join us in this episode for a conversation with Lisa Fruichantie, citizen of Seminole Nation of Oklahoma and Executive Director of ALMA, an expansive campus carved out of an old union hall anchored within Tacoma’s historic Hilltop neighborhood. This multifaceted business and venue are devoted to creating community by incubating and presenting a diverse range art, food, culture and music. ALMA includes state-of-the-art recording studios as well as a 500-person performance venue. This place describes itself as a welcoming and inclusive gathering spot that channels, celebrates, and seeks to nourish the soul of this land, the people on it, the people from it, and those just passing through. Lisa, a 20-year mainstay of Tacoma’s art scene, describes her distinct approach to leading her organization, which includes aligning ALMA with indigenous values. “Make them feel welcome. Say “Hello.” Start a conversation. Share space with them. Break bread. I think a meal with someone is one of the most powerful things you can ever do.” ~Lisa Fruichantie

Join us in this episode for a conversation with Eric Reynolds, Vice-President of Seattle-based publisher Fantagraphics. Headquartered in Seattle’s Maple Leaf community—with their Bookstore & Gallery in the industrial Georgetown neighborhood—Fantagraphics has quietly produced a stunning body of work over the last 40+ years. Their genres span alternative comics, classic comic strip anthologies, manga, magazines and graphic novels. The imprint’s stable of contemporary comics creators includes Jessica Abel, Peter Bagge, Ivan Brunetti, Charles Burns, Daniel Clowes, Mary Fleener, Roberta Gregory, Mega Kelso, Manny Murphy, Joe Sacco, and Chris Ware. They also include the enigmatic artistry of Jim Woodring as well as the magical realism of the Hernandez Brothers. Eric’s passion for comics brought him to Seattle in the early 1990’s at age 20 to intern at Fantagraphics, whose owners soon promoted him to publicist. In this podcast, Eric explores synergies between the fledgling alternative comics movement and Sub Pop Records, as well as independent media (including The Rocket & The Stranger) during this watershed period. These and other stories reveal Eric’s purposeful stewardship of a vulnerable yet resolute enterprise through untold business obstacles, elevating comics into a mature art form along the way. For Eric, Fantagraphics remains a labor of love. “Sometimes it’s a matter of be careful what you ask for; But it really is incredible to see comics taken seriously as art in a way that we could only dream about, years ago.” ~ Eric Reynolds

Join us in this episode for a conversation with Instagram phenom Susanna Ryan, author of the Seattle Walk Report Series; Seattle Walk Report an Illustrated Walking Tour Through 23 Seattle Neighborhoods (2019) and Secret Seattle, An Illustrated Guide to the City’s Offbeat and Overlooked History (2021). Susanna's distinctive comic style and eagle eye illustrate the charming and quirky people, places, and things that define Seattle’s neighborhoods. Her wide-ranging observations infuse pedestrian experiences with the possibility of discovery and wonder—and an expanded connection to the world as we pass through it. In this episode Susanna will also field questions from local children—all avid readers of Seattle Walk Report. “Through Seattle Walk Report and through being just more open and present with what is, it’s changed how I see the world completely; and how I see my own life—and my own Journey. It’s all Journey; never destination. This comic has changed how I see everything.” ~ Susanna Ryan