It’s getting harder and harder to talk about politics, especially if you disagree. Well, screw that. Seattle Nice aims to be the most opinionated and smartest analysis of what’s really happening in Seattle politics available in any medium. Each episode dives into contentious and sometimes ridiculous topics, exploring perspectives from across Seattle's political spectrum, from city council brawls to the ways the national political conversation filters through our unique political process. Eve ...
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Sandeep Kaushik Podcasts
Twenty years ago, Dan Savage encouraged progressives to move to blue cities to escape the reactionary politics of red places. And he got his wish. Over the last two decades, rural places have gotten redder and urban areas much bluer. America’s bluest cities developed their own distinctive culture, politics and governance. They became the leading edge of a cultural transformation that reshaped progressivism, redefined urbanism and remade the Democratic Party. But as blue cities went their own ...
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Dispatch from an Urban Drug Market: A Blue City Blues Podcast Preview
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17:07In this special preview from the Blue City Blues podcast, Sandeep and David explore the sprawling open-air drug market in Seattle’s Little Saigon neighborhood, which resembles similar drug markets in poor, blue city neighborhoods across the US that have been overrun by the urban fentanyl and methamphetamine crises. Whether it's the Tenderloin in Sa…
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In this special episode we venture outside our respective basements to explore a sprawling open-air drug market in Seattle’s Little Saigon neighborhood, which resembles similar drug markets in poor, blue city neighborhoods across the US that have been overrun by the urban fentanyl and methamphetamine crises. Whether it's the Tenderloin in San Franc…
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Should the City Permit Another Christian Nationalist Rally at Cal Anderson?
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30:00This week we discuss the upcoming Christian nationalist rally at Cal Anderson Park, why these events continue to happen, and debate the city's legal challenges in managing them. We also bring you primary election news and get into Seattle’s aversion to re-electing mayors. Send us a text! Note that we can only respond directly to emails realseattlen…
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The Windy City is not just a great American metropolis – the third largest in the United States – it is a world class city, recognized globally as a center of finance, trade and economic dynamism, and as a cultural and tourist mecca. But there is an emerging counter-narrative about Chicago, a declension story of a great and proud urban powerhouse n…
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This week on Seattle Nice, we debate the factors that led to a progressive triumph in Seattle's August primary. We dig into what went wrong for centrist incumbents Mayor Bruce Harrell, City Council Member Sara Nelson, and City Attorney Ann Davison. Was it a longing for a kinder, gentler approach to public safety and homelessness? The high price of …
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Encampment Ban Proposal, Progressive Biz Taxes, and Why is Seattle Suing the Trump Admin Now?
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44:20This episode delves into three political developments in Seattle and King County. Part I examines a proposed initiative to ban unauthorized public camping in unincorporated King County, discussing its scope, the signature-gathering process, and the larger goals of its main proponent, Saul Spady. Part II focuses on the B&O tax increase proposal whic…
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Lisa Daugaard on Trump’s Homelessness Exec Order: Read the Fine Print Before Freaking Out
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58:51In this extra special, heavy duty emergency weekend edition of Seattle Nice, we dissect what Trump’s new executive order on homelessness means for Seattle. Initial hot takes have interpreted the order as a full frontal assault on the "housing first" and “harm reduction” approaches that prevail in blue jurisdictions, and its release has precipitated…
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Trump Just Defunded Public Media. Did NPR Help Bring This Disaster on Itself?
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1:01:33In the latest installment of Blue City Blues, we welcomed Jonathan Zimmerman, professor of the history of education at the University of Pennsylvania, to join us in delving into the Trump-led defunding of public broadcasting. Zimmerman, whose incisive public commentaries have been published at the New York Times, Washington Post, Philadelphia Inqui…
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Primary Preview: Is the Progressive Left Back?
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49:46This week we take a closer look at what’s at stake in the upcoming August primary, and explore the potential resurgence of the progressive left in Seattle. We consider whether "public safety" retains the same electoral weight it held in 2021 and 2023, years that saw the broad ousting of Seattle progressives. Drawing parallels to the victory of Soci…
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Marie Gluesenkamp Perez on What Urbanites Get Wrong about Rural America
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36:49The political gulf between educated urban progressives and rural and blue collar Americans has accelerated in recent decades. The consequences for blue cities - and for the Democratic Party - are profound. In this episode, we explore the evolving rural/urban divide with Blue Dog Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, who represents Washington’s State’s …
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The Writing on the Wall: Seattle Grapples with Graffiti and Politics
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39:35On this episode we debated the City Council’s plans to get tough on graffiti by introducing civil penalties up to $1,500 per violation. The change would make it easier to fine taggers. Erica questioned the council’s priorities and aesthetics, and pointed out that graffiti is already a crime or felony (if it costs more than $750 to repair). Sandeep …
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Celinda Lake on What NYC’s Political Earthquake Means for the Politics of Blue Cities
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52:45Zohran Mamdani's upset victory in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary wasn't just a win; it was a seismic event that's shaking the foundations of the Democratic Party. How did a self-described socialist unseat a political giant like Andrew Cuomo? And what does it mean for the future of progressive politics in America's blue cities? This we…
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Council President Sara Nelson Gets Touchy-Feely on Treatment
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41:33PROGRAM NOTE: We hope all you Seattle Nice fans will join us for a live taping of the podcast at 7 pm on July 15 at the next meeting of the 43rd District Democrats, held at the Erickson Theater on Capitol Hill, 1524 Harvard Avenue. We’ll be previewing the upcoming primary, and there’ll be a chance for audience questions. Council President Sara Nels…
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Sherman Alexie: A Res Indian Take on Monsters, Colonizers and the Urban Left's “Minor League Maoism”
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50:54In this episode of Blue City Blues, we invited writer Sherman Alexie on to weigh in on recent cultural trends in blue cities. Alexie has long been recognized as one of the country’s most talented, interesting – and funny – literary figures. The author of two dozen books, including The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (2007), which won th…
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This week, we're talking taxes—specifically, the new business and occupation (B&O) tax proposal that City Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck and Mayor Bruce Harrell dropped, seemingly out of the blue, last week. The tax includes a big exemption that the business community has been seeking for a long time; however, above that threshold—$2 million i…
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Is It Time to Admit the King County Regional Homelessness Authority Is a Bust?
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32:26The King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA) launched in 2020 with great fanfare. But now, with up to to a fifth of its staff facing layoffs due to budget shortfalls, it may be facing a slow death by a thousand cuts. In this week’s episode, with David still gallivanting in parts unknown, Erica and Sandeep take a hard look at the current …
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Katie Herzog on What the Decline and Fall of Twitter Means for Blue Cities
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57:54In 2020, when the power of social media – Twitter, in particular – to police the boundaries of acceptable thought in blue cities was at its cultural zenith, journalists Katie Herzog and Jesse Singal launched their boundary-shattering podcast, Blocked and Reported. BARPod, as it’s referred to by its growing legions of fans (us included), is focused …
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Assessing the Assessor, Urbanism v. Incivility, and Seattle Hates Nightlife
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46:42With David away for a second consecutive week, Erica and Sandeep seek out the inimitable Josh Feit, news editor of the Stranger back in the olden (golden) days, to buffer their conversation with convoluted references to 50-year-old Joni Mitchell records. We start with the increasingly off-putting saga of King County Assessor John Arthur Wilson, who…
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Is Abundance the Answer to What Ails Blue Cities?
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59:37In January of 2022, The Atlantic published staff writer Derek Thompson’s manifesto calling for a fundamental reform of progressive governance. “We need an abundance agenda… focused on solving our national problem of scarcity,” he asserted. Fleshed out by New York Times journalist Ezra Klein and a small nucleus of like-minded, mostly Bay Area-based …
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Special Emergency Seattle Nice: The Seattle City Council Is Un-Cathy Moored!
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33:36After less than 18 months in office, Councilmember Cathy Moore, representing District 5 (North Seattle), announced she will be resigning her position effective July 7. Swinging into immediate action, Erica and Sandeep (David is away, gamboling and gallivanting in distant parts) weigh in on this emergency episode of the podcast with their red hot ta…
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Assessor Allegedly Stalks, Ethics Walks, and the Culture War Rocks Seattle
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32:17This week Erica has the scoop on allegations of stalking and harassment against King County Assessor John Arthur Wilson. We also debate Cathy Moore's decision to withdraw a bill that critics say weakens the council’s ethics standards. Plus, we discuss the anti-trans demonstrations and counter-protests at Cal Anderson Park and City Hall that resulte…
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FEED DROP: On this Month's "Are You Mad At Me?," We Interview Shattered Glass Director Billy Ray
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46:22We're so excited to release our interview with Shattered Glass director Billy Ray, who was kind enough to indulge all our questions about our favorite movie, like: What happened between the scene where Chloe Sevigny confronts Peter Sarsgaard for firing Stephen and the next day, when she leads the team in applauding him for his brave decision? Where…
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Tent City Gets a Reprieve, Council Rolls Back Ethics Rules, and Kshama's Back, Baby!
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38:02A Seattle City Council committee advanced legislation last week that will eliminate a requirement that council members abstain from voting on legislation that presents a financial conflict of interest. Under the new, lower standard, the council will merely have to disclose any financial conflicts before voting—allowing council members, for the firs…
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Defund/Abolition Is Dead in Blue Cities. What now?
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54:20Public safety policy reformer Lisa Daugaard won a MacArthur Genius Award in 2019 for her work creating the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program, which has become a much touted national model for progressive criminal justice reform. The idea is to help low-level homeless offenders arrested for crimes like shoplifting by connecting them …
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Adam Smith: How Bad is Trump for Seattle? Really bad!
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50:38Representative Adam Smith of Washington’s 9th Congressional District, who made headlines recently for his pointed criticisms of progressive urban governance, joins us to talk about what Seattle should expect in the era of Trump. Smith believes local governance failures and missteps in blue cities like Seattle contributed to Trump’s big win in 2024.…
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Why Does Progressive Megadonor Nick Hanauer Blame Blue Cities’ Woes on … Barack Obama?
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45:45Seattle venture capitalist and Democratic megadonor Nick Hanauer doesn’t fit neatly into pre-fab boxes. He’s a wildly successful tech investor who denounces tech moguls as “narcissistic sociopaths.” He’s a billionaire “class-traitor” (his term) who’s been sounding the alarm about what he sees as the dangerous obliviousness of the ultrarich to the r…
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This Program Offers New Hope for Fentanyl Users
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44:15A new way of administering buprenorphine—a gold-standard medication that combats opioid addiction by reducing the need to use drugs like fentanyl to function—is helping people reduce their fentanyl use without the painful withdrawals that keep many users away from other versions of the medication. The new protocol, which the Downtown Emergency Serv…
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Prude or Lewd at Denny Blaine, Harrell Flexes His Muscles, and State Budget Axes Successful Homeless Program
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33:23First up, why are state lawmakers planning to decimate a successful Seattle homeless program? Then, things get a little cheeky as we discuss the lawsuit over alleged “lewd behavior” at Denny Blaine Park. Plus, Mayor Bruce Harrell throws down the gauntlet with an impromptu push-up contest at a middle school. Is he the "world's best mayor," or just r…
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Why is San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan Breaking So Many Eggs?
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44:14In a quest to reinvent municipal governance, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan is breaking ranks and breaking a few eggs. A Harvard grad who made his bones in the disruption-centered world of Silicon Valley tech startups, he tells us he's put his focus on prioritizing results over ideology since becoming mayor of one of California’s biggest blue cites in 2…
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D2 Council Race Unpacked, Crosswalks Hacked, and will the Virginia Inn get Axed?
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32:54Four city council candidates are vying to represent one of Seattle’s most progressive districts, District 2 in SE Seattle, and Erica’s been talking to them. We debate and discuss the issues and the candidates. But the real drama? The potential closure of the Virginia Inn, which has been operating near Pike Place market for 120 years. David pokes fu…
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NYT’s Peter Goodman on Tariffs, Trade Wars and the New Crony Capitalism
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45:22This week, we take a close look at Trump's tariff-happy trade war and its impact on blue cities with New York Times global economics correspondent Peter Goodman, the author of Davos Man and How the World Ran Out of Everything. We explore the political tightrope blue city and Democratic Party leaders are walking on trade policy. Are they anti-tariff…
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Does Trump's economy spell doom for Seattle?
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28:06It’s day 81 of the Trump administration as we record this episode (on Friday morning) and things are getting … alarming. Seattleites are increasingly freaking out about the chaos and insanity in the Other Washington, and who can blame them? Middle school students in West Seattle were rushed inside because someone thought they saw an ICE vehicle (sp…
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Dan Savage: How Blue Cities Should Resist Trump 2.0
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52:58Donald Trump is in full retribution mode and the anxiety – and anger – in blue cities is spiking. Sex advice columnist and friend o’ the podcast Dan Savage joins us to talk about how blue cities should (and should not) resist an aggressively authoritarian administration that sees them as the enemy. We go deep on the April 5th protests, dissecting e…
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Developers, Guns and Money: Another Week of Council Controversies
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47:30It's the first week of April, and things at the City Council are heating up faster than a sunny afternoon at Denny Blaine Park. First up: CM Cathy Moore initiates a debate over developer profits and offers a controversial proposal to expand the Mandatory Affordable Housing program (MHA) to Seattle’s current single-family zones. We ask: why can’t we…
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The Inside Story on How Tech Billionaires Sparked San Francisco’s Moderate Backlash
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36:45In recent years San Francisco, widely regarded as America’s most progressive city, has experienced a far-reaching anti-progressive backlash. In 2022, voters recalled three progressive school board members and progressive DA Chesa Boudin. Then moderates took control of the city’s Board of Supervisors. Last year they won a majority on the city’s Demo…
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Blue City Blues preview: Why Drug Reform Failed In West Coast Blue Cities
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24:11This is a special preview of an episode of a new podcast, Blue City Blues. Click this link to hear the entire episode wherever you get your podcasts. Keith Humphreys: Why Drug Reform Failed In West Coast Blue Cities The wave of bold new decriminalization-centered approaches to drug policy reform that swept West Coast cities from San Francisco to Va…
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Sara Nelson Talks Stadium District Housing, Progressive Revenue, and Involuntary Commitment
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45:59Breaking: Council President Sara Nelson tells Seattle Nice she’s open to considering new progressive taxes to fund drug treatment and that she supports involuntary commitment for people who are “severely impaired through years of addiction.” We also dive deep into the epic battle over Sara’s plan for affordable “workforce” housing near the stadiums…
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Mike Pesca: Is Blue City Media Up to the Challenge of Covering Trump 2.0?
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59:21Former National Public Radio and Slate journalist Mike Pesca, host of the longest-running (and highly entertaining!) daily news podcast, "The Gist," joins us to talk about the tough challenges blue city media is facing during the terrifying roller coaster ride that is Trump’s second term. Especially at a time when public trust in the media is at a …
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Are You Mad At Me? Episode 2: We Talk to Adam Penenberg, Who Uncovered the Deception at the Heart of "Shattered Glass"
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16:15Check out a preview of the latest episode of Are You Mad at Me?, the podcast about the movie Shattered Glass hosted by PubliCola co-founders Erica Barnett and Josh Feit. Shattered Glass, starting Hayden Christensen, Peter Sarsgaard, Chloe Sevigny, and Steve Zahn (among many other names you'll recognize), is about a journalism scandal in the late 19…
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Has the American Labor Movement Lost Touch with the Urban Working Class?
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50:28In this episode, we dive deep into some of the big questions every left-of-center political observer has been asking: what the hell went so wrong in the last election? Why did so many urban working class voters in blue cities swing hard towards Trump? And is there any reason to think that the Trumpist right is making a credible and serious economic…
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Sound Transit Picks Dow? And Challengers Take on Harrell and Davison
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41:10Sandeep says Dow Constantine will be the next CEO of Sound Transit. Is Dow the best pick? Was the process a flawed example of cronyism? And why is the transit agency's CEO pay so high? We also discuss progressive activist Katie Wilson entering the Seattle mayor's race against Bruce Harrell. Does she have a shot against Harrell's record and "One Sea…
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Seattle Elections Heat Up and Trump Gets Punitive
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33:24The latest explosive headline about Bruce Harrell's 1996 arrest isn't great news for a mayor who is up for re-election later this year. We discuss the fallout and the fact that a mystery challenger is expected to join that race next week. Speaking of politics, we also discuss Erica's interview with Dionne Foster, who is challenging City Council Pre…
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Keith Humphreys: Why Drug Reform Failed In West Coast Blue Cities
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45:00The wave of bold new decriminalization-centered approaches to drug policy reform that swept West Coast cities from San Francisco to Vancouver, B.C. starting around 2020 has failed, according to one the nation’s leading drug policy experts, former Obama White House drug policy advisor and Stanford psychiatry professor Keith Humphreys. On this week’s…
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Does Mayor Bruce Harrell Heart Elon Musk? Plus, Seattle Fights Over Totem Poles and Trees
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37:12What do you call it when Mayor Bruce Harrell raises eyebrows with alleged praise for Trump advisors, a totem pole stands in the way of a park opening, and a tree divides a neighborhood? Just another week in Seattle! In this episode, we dive into Mayor Harrell's comments at a downtown business event, where he appeared to praise tech advisors to Dona…
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Why Does Rep. Adam Smith Believe Blue Cities Contributed to Trump’s Win?
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54:40Democrat Adam Smith has spent the last several years engaged in a (perhaps quixotic?) crusade to save the Democratic Party from itself. The veteran congressman, who represents parts of Seattle and its South King County suburbs in Washington's 9th Congressional District, recently played the starring role in a New Yorker article titled "The Not-Quite…
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Freddie deBoer: Blue Cities Progressives Need to Get Real on Involuntary Commitment
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55:01Freddie DeBoer knows a thing or two about mental illness. He’s been admitted into psychiatric hospitals five times; he was involuntarily committed in 2002. He has, as they say, lived experience. Freddie is also one of our most original and independent commentators on American cultural trends. A self-described Marxist and a cogent critic of recent i…
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Joy Hollingsworth on Seattle’s Racial Politics and Whether She’s the Council’s Swing Vote
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41:22Joy Hollingsworth was elected to the Seattle City Council in 2023 to replace Kshama Sawant in District 3. Her victory was part of a centrist wave. But Hollingsworth sometimes finds herself on the more progressive side of council legislation. Does she see herself as a swing vote? She also gets candid with us about Seattle’s racial politics, and how …
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Preview: Grading Bruce Harrell's State of the City
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17:17In this members-only episode we take a closer look at the style, the substance and the politics of Tuesday's State of the City Address by Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell. This episode is a free preview. To hear the full episode just sign up at any level that's right for you at patreon.com/seattlenice. If you are already a member, here's how to access y…
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Election result: Did Voters Make Seattle Progressive Again?
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28:49Nearly 6 in 10 Seattle voters said yes to Proposition 1A to fund social housing after the first ballot count. It's shaping up like a big win for the more progressive side in Seattle politics. Why did voters move left this time? Is Seattle's pendulum swinging in a more progressive direction as we head into a big local election year? Is there really …
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Why Didn't Blue Cities Going Woke Help the Marginalized?
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46:30Sociologist Musa al-Gharbi is having a well-deserved moment. His highly praised new book, We Have Never Been Woke: The Cultural Contradictions of a New Elite (Princeton University Press), released last October, has caused quite the stir, becoming the cutting edge of a burgeoning elite cultural reassessment of the decade plus-long “Great Awokening” …
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