Ross Files With Dave Ross

Dave Ross talks to District 3 Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant, a democratic socialist who defeated Amazon's outsized campaign spending in her last election. Sawant wants to reignite enthusiasm across the city for a tax on the very largest of Seattle's corporations - and the revenue would fund solutions to Seattle's now infamous homelessness and housing crisis.

When a deeply held belief of ours is challenged, our brainwaves show the same stress and panic as if we're being chased by a bear. We see it as a life or death threat, and it triggers a fight or flight response. But when we're having an easy conversation with someone at a party, our brainwaves actually sync up. Dave Ross talks with Kate Murphy, author of "You're Not Listening," about how to sync our brainwaves more than chase each other with bears. She has some great advice about how to be a good listener - and how to make sure other people want to listen to you, too.

Jeff Siddiqui has been on the program before, speaking to you as an activist on behalf of the Muslim community. But today, he joins us to tell the harrowing story of receiving a heart transplant this summer.  He'll talk to Dave Ross about what it was like to go from feeling absolutely fine to having a heart attack, his experience waiting on the national donor list, and the feeling of receiving another person's heart that saved his life.

Nathan Vass drives an overnight Metro bus route through Seattle's downtown core. He's also a filmmaker, an artist, and now, an author. On his well-known blog, Nathan tells stories about the people he encounters along his route, and that blog is now a book, called "The Lines That Make Us." Nathan joins Dave Ross in the studio to tell us some of those stories, and explain why he's stuck around on one of the least popular routes as long as he has.

Dave Ross calls New York Times reporter Sabrina Tavernise to discuss her recent article, 'No One Believes Anything.' Tavernise interviewed people across America who are overwhelmed by the amount of filtering and critical reading necessary to understand a 24-hour, internet-based and clickbait-driven news cycle. So instead, they're turning off their TV's, unsubscribing from national papers and trying to tune it all out. Why is this new era of news driving everyone so crazy - either far to the right, far to the left, or frozen in the middle? 

Melissa Godoy joins Dave Ross to talk about a persistent toxic mold problem that has been sickening military families like hers at Joint Base Lewis-McChord and elsewhere. Hear the full interview, including how Lincoln Military Housing allegedly threatened those who are speaking out, the costs that are prohibiting those who want to relocate off post from finding other housing, and the 30 families who have decided to sue.

Parents are trying to save a program for their children in Seattle Public Schools called the Highly Capable Cohort. It's an advanced track of separate classes and different lessons for students who have first been deemed by their parents as "gifted," and then tested to make sure they meet program standards. Why would a rigorous program for children who are testing above their grade level be yanked by the district? Because the program's secrecy and inaccessibility is steeped in systemic racial bias. Dave Ross consults Dr. Pedro Noguera, an expert on public education globally and a fierce advocate for truly equitable schools. His opinion might be different than you would think.

Dave Ross sits down with Admiral James Stavridis, former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, to discuss holding a steady moral compass during turbulent times. His latest book is Sailing True North, a portrait of the lives and careers of ten historic naval commanders. 

Dave Ross hosts a heated debate between State Senator Shelly Short and former State Representative Jesse Wineberry over Referendum 88, on your ballot this morning. Hear Senator Short and Rep. Wineberry argue the merits of a change that would allow public institutions to consider race, age and gender as a factor, when all other qualifications are equal, in hiring decisions and university admissions.

After weathering conservative backlash to a draft of Seattle's "ethnic math" curriculum that went viral, the designer of the "math is racist" program joins Dave at the KIRO Radio studio. Tracy Castro-Gill is the Ethnic Studies Program Manager for Seattle Public Schools. The program could be taught in local math classes by spring 2021.

Whistleblowers might be all over the news right now thanks to Trump's Ukranian quid pro quo.  But Tom Mueller has been researching the strange reality of turning your boss over to authorities, and the massive price you'll pay for it, for the past seven years. He's spoken with over 200 whistleblowers, and 1,000 experts. Now he talks with Dave Ross about the resulting book, Crisis of Conscience. They discuss the whistleblowers who tried to prevent 9/11, but instead found the FBI at their front doors with guns. And the employees at Boeing who called an FAA hotline months before any plane crash.

Thomas Chatterton Williams talks with Dave Ross about how his view of himself, as a black American and prolific writer on race issues, shifted after he moved to France, married a white woman, and then gave birth to blonde haired, blue eyed children. What did it mean to be black if his children didn't look black at all? And how can we shift our understanding and discussion of what it means to be black, or white? The book is Self Portrait in Black and White.

Dave Ross talks with award-winning poet and MacArthur Fellow Richard Kenney, a professor at the University of Washington. His new book of poetry, Terminator, examines how one should navigate the challenges of our modern world (with wit, and a bit of humor). They read several of Kenney's poems aloud, including an unpublished one about our "Commander in Tweet," and discuss the risk Kenney took years ago to become a poet. Can poetry really be taught, and how do you know if you're any good?

Why has shoplifting, a seemingly minor crime, escalated in recent years? People are growing more desperate, more brazen - and the safety of store workers and bottom lines of businesses are at stake. Dave Ross talks with Roger Goodman, who represents Kirkland and Redmond in the Washington state legislature, and Judge David Larson, a civil court judge in Federal Way.  Rep. Goodman chairs the House Public Safety Committee, and Judge Larson deals with shoplifting theft convictions in his court on a regular basis. Having seen how the system works firsthand, they have some ideas, and opinions, about what will really work to stop repeat offenders.

An illegal immigrant was arrested in connection with a gang murder at a Bellevue park. He'd committed other non-violent offenses before this, but local law enforcement did not turn him over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Why? Dave Ross talks with Nathalie Asher, who is the director of ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations. They'll discuss Seattle's role as a sanctuary city, how ICE tracks and finds the people it wants to deport, and deporting people who have been arrested but not yet convicted of a crime.

At a recent Seattle City Council meeting, chief deputy Marc Garth Green made a comment that shocked councilmembers Teresa Mosqueda and Kshama Sawant: that some of the sex workers on Aurora Avenue have told him they "enjoy" what they're doing. So Dave Ross and reporter Hanna Scott consult a local expert, Melodie Reece. She's the co-founder of a harm reduction and sex worker’s rights organization in Seattle (POC- SWOP) that hands out snacks, water, and offers services to street-based sex workers and drug users on the Aurora corridor in north Seattle. She has a masters in public policy from the University of Washington. They discuss the reasons behind the visible increase in sex work on the streets of Seattle in the last six months.

Dave Ross talks with Derek Kilmer, representative of Washington's 6th Congressional District, about a recent poll that says Congress is less popular than head lice, colonoscopies and Nickelback. They discuss what Kilmer has been doing to bridge the partisan divide (which includes flying to Arkansas) and actually pass some legislation.  And finally - what is the mood in Washington D.C. around impeaching President Trump?

Julie Blacklow, a well-known Seattle broadcast journalist with KING-TV and one of the first women to work in television news in America, has written her autobiography - Fearless: Diary of a Badass Reporter.  Badass may be an understatement. Julie sits down with Dave Ross to recount her interactions with famous names over the years - Richard Nixon, Oprah, Tina Turner, and Chuck Berry, among others. She once stormed out of an interview with a surly Jennifer Lopez, and partied with porn stars on a yacht in California after being seduced by a source. And that barely scratches the surface!

The odds are stacked against former inmates the day they're released from prison. Opportunities for a job, let alone a new career path, are few and far between. Dave Ross talks with Shelly Klier, a former inmate and addict with 14 felonies, who had been to prison three times. Now, she's a successful welder and graduate of the Post Prison Education Program, a local nonprofit that provides funding for former prisoners to attain a post-secondary education. Shelly tells the story behind her addiction, repeat offenses and incarceration, and how she managed to turn her life around completely, in spite of it all. This episode is part of ongoing coverage on the work of the Post Prison Education Program. You can listen to an interview with Ari Kohn, founder of the program, here.

A new nationwide study shows that Americans would rather drive themselves than use autonomous cars. Even in traffic! Don MacKenzie is a senior author of the study and an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Washington, where he also leads the Sustainable Transportation Lab. He talks with Dave Ross about the implications of his study as the development of self-driving cars seems to move full speed ahead. What does the future of transportation look like - and what's a transportation researcher's dream scenario?