John Ryan
Year started with KUOW: 2009
KUOW environment reporter John Ryan welcomes story ideas and feedback from listeners. Email him at jryan@kuow.org or call him at 206-543-0637. For secure, confidential communication, he's at 1-401-405-1206 on the Signal messaging app, or you can send snail mail (but don't put your return address on the outside) to John Ryan, KUOW, 4518 Univ. Way NE, Seattle, WA 98105.
Good thing John was a clumsy traveler.
Otherwise his cheap microcassette recorder wouldn't have fallen out of his pocket in an Indonesian taxi, a generous BBC stringer wouldn't have lent him some professional recording gear, and he wouldn't have gotten the radio bug. But after pointing a mic at rare jungle songbirds and gong–playing grandmothers for his first radio story, there was no turning back.
He then freelanced for shows such as All Things Considered, Living on Earth, Marketplace and The World. He also continued his print career by reporting for newspapers including the Christian Science Monitor, Los Angeles Times and Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce.
In 2009, John moved back to Seattle after two exciting years covering avalanches, political intrigue and just about everything in between for KTOO FM, the NPR station in Alaska's capital city.
John has won national awards for KUOW as a freelancer (check out "As the Sound Churns") and now as a staff reporter, including the Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Delta Chi awards for Public Service in Radio Journalism and for Investigative Reporting. He believes democracy only works when journalism holds the powerful accountable for their words and actions.
To see more of John's KUOW portfolio, visit our current site.
In addition to the stories below, John'sKUOWstories from September 2012 and before arearchived here.
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Washington has OK'd a plan to allow Navy SEALS to train in state parks. The special ops will now do exercises at more than a dozen sites around the state. Parkgoers are worried about safety.
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Families separated at the U.S.-Mexico border are beginning to be reunited. In Seattle, a Honduran mother got to see her son for the first time in nearly two months.
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The consulate closes Friday under orders from the White House. In addition, 60 Russian officials are being expelled from the U.S. because of the poisoning of a Russian ex-spy and his daughter.
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The move comes seven months after an ill-fated fish farm collapsed, releasing as many as 250,000 of the nonnative fish into areas where wild Pacific salmon are already struggling to survive. -
Historical photos show fishermen with chinooks almost as tall as they are. A century's worth of dam-building, overfishing, habitat loss and hatcheries has cut the size of the average fish in half. -
Officials blame the failure of a pen near Washington's Cypress Island on high tides caused by the eclipse, but that is being questioned. Fishing boats are scrambling to catch as many as possible. -
In Seattle — one of the nation's wealthiest cities — homelessness has surged over the past decade. More people are now homeless in Seattle than anywhere except New York City, Los Angeles or Las Vegas.
