Ross Files With Dave Ross

Kimmy Siebens understands what it takes to be a nurse and the sacrifices one must go through in order to do her job. But, going above and beyond her work responsibilities, Siebens strives to make sure everyone, housed or unhoused, has access to the care they need. Her work is helping save lives and she is speaking up on behalf of those who can't. 

In the conversations surrounding police reform, you may have heard about qualified immunity. Qualified immunity is a protection for police officers when they violate the constitution performing their job. Some see it as protection for our police officers doing their jobs, others see it as something that is abused and allows for violations of the law to go unpunished. Joanna Schwartz has studied qualified immunity and it's impact on the public and police. She published her findings in her new book: SHIELDED: How the Police Became Untouchable

The budget proposal from the King County Regional Homlessness Authority is in the billions and some, like Andrea Suarez, founder and Executive Director Of We Heart Seattle, believe the city continues to move in the wrong direction. She says her organization is a bipartisan, boots on the ground group that is taking action that will help the city and the issue of homelessness, others see her work as controversial. She joins us to explain. 

Technology is rapidly evolving and soon, business owners, the government and even one day, yourself will become familiar with Quantum Computing. This form of computation is changing the way people solve problems, from how to load an airplane properly to cracking encryption. What are the pros and cons of what seems like a very powerful new form of technology? CEO of IONQ Peter Chapman joins us to discuss. 

Awe is all around us. From the biggest, life changing events to stopping to smell the flowers on your way to the beach. You can find awe in everything, and when you do find awe, you'd be surprised at how much it can add to your life. Dacher Keltner has been studying the idea of awe for 15 years, and has a new book, AWE: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life. He teaches Dave Ross and Colleen O'Brien that sometimes you really do need to walk and smell the roses. 

The War in Ukraine has brought us, seemingly, closer to nuclear war. The closest we've been since the Cuban Missile Crisis. Comments from President Putin have raised questions such as what would the fallout be if Russia did use nuclear weapons? Is Putin really considering using weapons of that scale and how would the United States respond? Emma Belcher is the president of the Ploughshares fund, a foundation with one goal in mind, reducing the threat of nuclear weapons. She joins us to navigate the threats.

Aging... something every person dreads, what does it mean for your physical and well being? Can you rely on just having "good genes"? Rose Kenney, author of Age Proof: The New Science of Living a Longer and Healthier Life s has been studying the aging process and she sits down with KIRO News Radio's Dave Ross to discuss the different aging processes, healthy ways to age, "brain training" games and how policy makers use age data to make decisions.   

There are plenty of well-understood risk factors for homelessness; addiction, mental illness, poverty.  But it turns out that even in places where the poverty rates are some of the highest in the nation, homelessness doesn't necessarily follow. One of the biggest risk factors for homelessness is actually pretty simple: it's the cost of housing. Academic Gregg Colburn and data journalist Clayton Aldern are the authors of the new book Homelessness is a Housing Problem. They join KIRO Newsradio's Dave Ross to talk about their research on rent spikes and real estate bidding wars in cities like Seattle and San Francisco, where tents are on the sidewalks in front of million-dollar homes.

It's no surprise to anyone that Americans today are deeply divided. How do we have conversations with the people we vehemently disagree with on, well — everything? Journalist Mónica Guzmán is the liberal daughter of Mexican immigrants who voted — twice — for Donald Trump. She joins KIRO Radio's Colleen O'Brien and Dave Ross to discuss an organization that's been putting people from all across the political spectrum in the same room to talk about everything from stolen elections to the Black Lives Matter movement. Her book is I Never Thought of It That Way, available for purchase here. Mónica Guzmán will be in conversation with political cartoonist David Horsey at Seattle's Town Hall on March 22nd, 2022. Tickets available here. And you can find a Braver Angels event to attend here.

Dr Gleb Yemetz is a cardiac surgeon. He has been living with his staff at a hospital in Kyiv since the invasion began, performing emergency surgeries for the critically wounded. Dave Ross spoke with him on the evening of February 28th ... day 5 of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Dr Yemetz describes Russian advances on the city of Kyiv, the situation inside his hospital and the threat of nuclear war.

Nearly three times as many people die in school mass shootings when an armed officer is present. That's the finding of a study of every case since 1980, led by Hamline University professor Dr. Jillian Peterson. Dr. Peterson joins Dave Ross to discuss why more weapons means more violence, even the hands of "the good guys," what to expect when kids are back in school after a year of pandemic stress, isolation and minimal socialization, and what prevention looks like before we reach the point of barricading classroom doors.

Searching for signs of life on another planet, choosing which rocks to bring back to Earth: and all from the comfort of home? That's life right now for Dr. Melissa Rice, who is a member of all three Mars rover science teams and a geology professor at Western Washington University. After the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover successfully touched down on February 18th, Dr. Rice calls in to chat with Dave Ross about what it means to be on "Mars Time," which sounds much worse than jetlag, and how this mission could help humans visit the Red Planet in the not-too-distant future.

Sara Nelson, co-owner of Fremont Brewing, has just announced her campaign for Position 9 on Seattle City Council. She calls KIRO Radio's Dave Ross to explain why the council needs at least one small business owner in the room. Her priorities include getting back to basics like fixing potholes, holding the council accountable on budgeting, and restarting some long lost environmental protection measures.

As cases of the novel coronavirus reach new heights, you might be pinning your hopes on finding a vaccine. Dr. William Haseltine is here to shatter that illusion: but luckily, he doesn't think we actually need a vaccine to start dining out, hooking up and dancing in clubs again. Dr. Haseltine is a former professor and researcher at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health, the founder and president of ACCESS Health International, and an esteemed virologist who may just make an appearance on the next coronavirus task force. He sits down with Dave Ross to explain why the current vaccines everyone is racing to develop aren't going to be a perfect protection from the virus. But at-home tests and earning $500 a day to stay quarantined might help us get this under control the way Wuhan, China has.

Why do we let white collar criminals get away with their crimes? That's the question Jennifer Taub sets out to answer in her new book, Big Dirty Money, after wondering why no one was arrested during the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis. Taub sits down with KIRO Radio's Dave Ross to answer questions about Trump's tax returns, the sneaky loopholes being slipped into each federal coronavirus relief package, and how we can fight corruption and protect the whistleblowers at companies like Wells Fargo and Purdue Pharma, where early intervention would have saved money, jobs and even lives.

As two renowned military strategists faced off against each other at the Battle of Gettysburg, they took opposite approaches for rallying their troops, with pivotal consequences for the Civil War. How do the lessons learned during this historic battle still apply today? Jeff McCausland recounts this story, and other lessons he's learned about leadership during his time in the military, in a new book: Battle Tested! co-authored with Tom Vossler.  Dr. Jeff McCausland is a retired Colonel from the U.S. Army, former Dean of Academics at the U.S. Army War College, and a National Security Consultant for CBS News - which means he's been a frequent guest with Dave Ross on Seattle's Morning News.

KIRO Radio's Dave Ross sits down with biologist and data scientist Carl Bergstrom as well as director of the University of Washington's Center for an Informed Public Jevin West, to discuss misinformation during the pandemic.  From bad communication strategies from local and world leaders, to conspiracy theories spreading online with nefarious ends, Bergstrom and West are here to, well, call it out. Their new book Calling Bullsh*t is available now.

Dave Ross has been getting emails about the current protests: emails saying that the civil rights movement is behind us, and justice has already been achieved. That things aren't that bad. So why is the average net worth of a white family nearly 10x greater than that of a Black family? Shawn Rochester joins to explain the history of economic inequality in this country as briefly as he possibly can. Rochester is the author of The Black Tax: The Cost of Being Black in America, and CEO and founder of several organizations that provide financial education and advice to empower Black business leaders and consumers.

Thomas W. Jones is the founder and senior partner of a venture capital investment firm, with a long career in corporate America. But when Dave Ross first heard of him, Jones was an armed revolutionary, staging an occupied protest with classmates at Cornell University to demand a black studies curriculum and the resignation of the university president. So Dave sits down with his fellow Cornell alum to reflect on racial progress in the years since, and discuss what Jones thinks of this new wave of young protesters raging against the system.