Seattle Growth Podcast

Jeff Shulman continues his look at finding community in a dynamic city. In today’s episode, UW football Hall of Famer Greg Lewis shares his community work at the Meredith Mathews YMCA, where he serves as executive director. Lewis was the first Doak Walker Award winner for the nation’s top running back in college football and was an important piece of the Rose Bowl winning Husky team. Lewis shares why he has chosen to lead a non-profit and the initiatives he hopes will foster a sense of community in the Central District. In the interview, Lewis connects how the experience of stepping onto the field at the Rose Bowl compares to the work he is doing with the YMCA. Today’s episode also features author Cecile Andrews who talks about her circle of simplicity and the work she is doing to bring small groups together for conversation. Andrews has lived in Seattle for decades and is working to build a sense of community in the Phinneywood area. The interviews offer some interesting tidbits of history and give perspectives on where Seattle has been and where it is going. Both guests offer perspectives from different neighborhoods about growth, change, and community.

Seattle has an abundance of professional opportunities. Today’s episode shares stories from communities being formed to facilitate connections among professionals who are willing to support and help one another. With an increasing number of innovative products being developed in Seattle, there are opportunities for Foster graduates and others to lead the development of products as product managers. Lewis Lin, author of Be the Greatest Product Manager Ever, describes the community he has built to help people prepare for product management interviews. He shares valuable lessons about how he built the 9,000 member community that can be applied to other people or organizations hoping to bring people together for a common purpose. As people are moving to Seattle from around the country, there is an opportunity to guide newcomers to social and professional events. In today’s episode, Ahmad Corner shares why he founded Young Professionals of Seattle based on the principle that people are at the heart of what makes businesses and communities work well. He and Jamie Shindler describe lessons they learned in bringing over 13,000 young professionals together in Seattle. If you are looking for a community that’s right for you, you just might find it in today’s episode of Seattle Growth Podcast. If you are looking to build your own community, you will hear lessons of how to start and nurture a group that can be applied to a variety of contexts.

State Representative Eric Pettigrew and Orlando Morales of 5th Avenue Theatre discuss their efforts to nurture community, empower youth, and empower underserved communities to play a role in building a shared future. The interviews give insight that businesses and non-profits can utilize as they seek to give back and cultivate relationships with previously underserved communities.

Laura Elfline shares how a community of home builders is coming together to share information about sustainable building practices. Elfline, co-owner of Mighty House Construction and Mighty Energy Solutions, discusses her work with the NW EcoBuilding Guild. The interview some lessons about how to bring together a community and the benefits of doing so. Elfline also offers some interesting facts about the environmental impact of materials in building homes. Wool as insulation and cork for flooring? Find out more in this episode. The episode also features an interview with Gabrielle Gerhard. Gerhard shares her motivation for volunteering in her community and highlights some exciting events happening at SPACE, Sand Point Arts and Cultural Exchange. The interview highlights how you can find and get involved in the community that is right for you.

Today’s episode may be the first Seattle Growth Podcast episode that can save your life. Cindi Barker talks about the Seattle Emergency Hubs. She’s not only bringing Seattleites together, she is preparing them for when disaster strikes. In this interview, you will learn the surprising amount of time you should be prepared to survive in case of an emergency and how you can find the people who can help you through such an event. The episode then gives an inside look at Seattle’s dance community through an interview with Connie Villines. Villines is the managing director of the Seattle International Dance Festival, the artistic director of Converge Dance Festival, and assistant producer of the Full Tilt Dance Festival. She shares what makes Seattle unique in the dance world and offers lessons for what Seattle residents can learn from the local dance community.

Today’s episode features an interview with a nationally touring comedian who has appeared on Late Night TV many times and had his own special on Comedy Central. Shane Mauss was in town for his Stand Up Science show and sat down for an interview in which he offers an outsider’s impressions of Seattle. He shares his views on how the business of comedy has changed over the years and offers advice on how someone can find a sense of community in a city that is changing so rapidly. The episode also features Seattle author Thomas Kohnstamm, whose novel Lake City takes place in Seattle at the turn of the 21st century. Kohnstamm shares perspective on how the community has changed over the decades he has lived here and what he hopes the future holds for our growing city. Whether you have lived here your whole life or are just joining this city, these interviews give insight about Seattle, how it was, how it is changing, and where Seattle is going.

Today’s episode features John Barr, founder of NHLtoSeattle. Barr shares the story of how his love of hockey evolved from a hobby newsletter to an expansive online community on Facebook and Twitter, to a rich Seattle community that brings people together to watch hockey and advocate for Seattle to join the ranks of NHL cities. Barr discusses what motivates him to pour his effort into the community and how he felt seeing Seattle realize his dream of being awarded an NHL franchise. Today’s episode also features Alex Grindeland, owner of CSZ Seattle. Grindeland describes how he was able to build and maintain a community of improve comedians. He shares how passion for improv comedy has evolved into a business that plays home to ComedySportz, a fast-paced comedy show pitting two teams of comedians against each other. To show just how important practice and skill are, he and host, Jeff Shulman, engage in the least funny improv of all time. If you are looking for a community that’s right for you, you just might find it in today’s episode of Seattle Growth Podcast. If you are looking to build your own community, you will hear lessons of how to start and nurture a group.

Season 6 of Seattle Growth Podcast focuses on finding community in a dynamic city. Each episode spotlights some of the interesting people in Seattle who are building community and bringing people together. You will hear from leaders in tech, comedy, music, art, dance, and emergency preparation. Today’s episode features Nathan Vass, an artist, filmmaker, photographer, and author by day, and a Metro bus driver by night, where his community-building work has been showcased on NPR, The Seattle Times, KING5 and landed him a spot on Seattle Magazine’s 2018 list of the 35 Most Influential People in Seattle. Vass shares stories from his popular blog, The View from Nathan’s Bus, and how it led to his successful book The Lines That Make Us. The interview offers a unique perspective on finding community in a city that is changing rapidly. Today’s episode also features Maisha Barnett, a public space developer with over a decade of experience shaping community gathering spaces. She talks about her work with the Jimi Hendrix Park development and the redevelopment of Powell Barnett Park, named after the musician, baseball player, and community leader who was her grandfather. Whether you have lived here your whole life or are just joining this city, these interviews give insight about Seattle, how it was, how it is changing, and where Seattle is going.

Continue the exploration of finding community in a dynamic city. Today’s episode features Farah Abdallah, a lead product manager at eBay who co-founded Seattle’s chapter of Women in Product. Abdallah shares how she collaborated with Claire Fang of Facebook to bring together hundreds of women in Seattle who are building products for some of the world’s most innovative companies. The episode also features Kevin Sur, founder of Artist Home. Sur discusses why and how he created a collaborative community for artists and launched highly popular music festivals such as Timber! Outdoor Music Festival, which is bringing together emerging artists for the seventh year in a row in July. Sur shares how his desire to help people and build community evolved into a successful business. If you are looking for a community that’s right for you, you just might find it in today’s episode of Seattle Growth Podcast. If you are looking to build your own community, you will hear lessons of how to start and nurture a group.

How do you find community in a dynamic city? Season 6 of Seattle Growth podcast brings different perspectives together. Whether you are looking for a community that is right for you or hoping to build one, you will learn from the voices of this season. Today's episode includes Red Russak and Brett Greene whose New Tech Seattle was the fastest growing meetup group in history. The episode also features Jane Richlovsky, a talented artist and accidental real estate developer who is finding creative ways to keep artists in Seattle.

Hear the voices of season 5 describe how they became homeless and how it feels to be homeless. Elected officials, business leaders, academics, and unsheltered residents describe the challenges in addressing homelessness and share opinions on solutions. Casey Trupin of the Raikes Foundation shares how Pearl Jam got involved in the crisis and how the successful Home Shows came together.

Today’s episode and connects the topic of the previous season, which focused on the past, present and future of Seattle music, with the topic of this season, which is focused on homelessness. The episode features an interview with Anthony Briscoe whose Seattle-based band, Down North, is on the cusp of a breakout. Brisco opens up about his struggle with poverty and his experience being homeless in our region.  The episode also features an interview with noted author and UW professor Scott Allard. He dispels some myths associated with poverty, describes which programs are effective and which programs build a poverty trap, and offers actions you can take to help improve your community.  The song Heartbreaker, by Down North, is played in this episode. Down North consists of Lead Vocalist/Dancer Anthony “Renegade” Briscoe, whose North Carolina breeding makes fans swoon and has no equal in the Pacific NW. Raised on Michael Jackson and Sam Cooke, Anthony combines a style and emotional impact reminiscent of Prince in his vocal expressions, proudly stealing the spotlight with his ballet-trained dancing. Scott W. Allard joined the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Washington as a professor of public policy and governance in 2014. Allard is a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program and co-primary investigator of the Family Self-Sufficiency Data Center at the University of Chicago. He is author of Out of Reach: Place, Poverty, and the New American Welfare State (2009, Yale University Press), which examines the contemporary social service safety net through survey interviews with almost 1,500 government, for-profit, and nonprofit social service organizations. In 2017, he published a book entitled Places in Need: The Changing Geography of Poverty, which focuses upon the rise in poverty in America’s suburban areas and the stubborn persistence of poverty in urban areas.

As every one of us faces challenges of varying degrees of scale, today’s episode features an inspiring story about how one man can make a world of difference. Dale Hoff offers lessons not only for those seeking improvement in the homelessness crisis, but those seeking to influence change at any level. Today also features an in-depth interview with a person who has had a significant impact on the economic growth of this city, Craig Kinzer. In today’s episode, Kinzer previews a big idea that he thinks can fundamentally transform how housing gets built for average workers in Seattle. The extended conversation with Mr. Kinzer also touches upon the controversial public subsidy for the ballpark that is home to Seattle’s Major League Baseball team. The interview gives you insight into important decisions facing regional government. Combined, these two interviews represent two of the many examples of Seattle residents who think creatively about how to tackle challenges. They also offer insight into the process of finding where your unique skill set can be applied to make a difference.

Today’s episode focuses on the business response to a crisis affecting everyone in Seattle: homelessness. The episode features Jon Scholes, President and CEO of the Downtown Seattle Association, and Mike Slade, former CEO of Starwave and founding partner at Second Avenue Partners.

Today’s episode of Seattle Growth Podcast looks at question that has affected many throughout Seattle: how should the city deal with tents and encampments in public spaces? This question is important to our community’s homeless residents hanging on to their last few possessions and to the business leaders and residents who encounter unsanctioned encampments on their commutes, near their homes, and in their parks. Today’s episode features Dae Shik Kim Hawkins Jr., an activist and organizer of Nikita Oliver’s 2017 Mayoral campaign. Hawkins Jr. explains why he advocates for homeless individuals and gives insight into “Stop the Sweeps” efforts. You will also hear from Ian Gordon, business manager of the Local 1239 union representing Seattle Parks and Recreation employees. He shares the challenges Parks employees have in maintaining spaces for use by the public.