Alec Cowan
Senior Podcast Producer
About
Alec Cowan is a senior podcast producer at KUOW, where he works on Booming and other podcast projects.
Alec has worn many hats at KUOW. He helped launch Soundside and brought many eclectic stories to the program, from a late-night patrol with real life superheroes to the sewing machine sounds of an artisanal sail loft. Additionally, he was previously a producer for The Record with Bill Radke and the Primed podcast.
Before joining KUOW, Alec worked in NPR's Story Lab, where he helped pilot the Louder Than a Riot podcast and assisted in producing a story on volunteerism in Iraq for Rough Translation. Originally from Grand Junction, Colorado, his roots in the Northwest begin in Eugene, where he studied English and philosophy at the University of Oregon and worked as a news reporter for NPR member station KLCC. He is likely neglecting his saxophone, growing book collection, and expanding personal project list in favor of boosting his online Xbox ranking.
He's proud to be KUOW's unofficial "boat guy."
Location: Seattle
Languages Spoken: English
Pronouns: he/him/his
Podcasts
Stories
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Hear it Again: Finding hope amidst the dread of climate change
Flip on the news and you'll see it: record flooding in New England, record heat waves around the world. It can be hard in 2023 to look at climate issues and not feel despair. But across the country, communities are persevering through our new climate reality.
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From Civil Rights to campus change: Black student activism in Washington state
Seattle isn't widely recognized as an epicenter of the Civil Rights Movement. But through the mid 20th-century, individuals and organizations were making national waves in a fight for recognition and equality. Those actions percolated to university life in Seattle and Pullman. The foundation of Black Studies came from the efforts of Black Students and Black Student Unions to create a space for talking about history, organizing, and black power.
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Major League Baseball brings a magnifying glass to Seattle
Major League Baseball’s All Star Game has returned to Seattle. On Monday, Mariners prodigy Julio Rodriguez broke the home run derby record for most runs in a single round. And outside the T-Mobile Park, Seattle’s Sodo neighborhood has been transformed into an MLB playground expected to bring in 100,000 people for the festivities. But the makeover hasn’t just meant cleaning sidewalks or a new paint job.
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Remembering the music that put Grand Coulee on the map
80 years ago Washington state was forever changed by the Grand Coulee Dam. The Dam still provides tons of hydropower today, and created a reservoir for farmers to divert and use as the breadbasket of the state today. When it was finally completed in January of 1943, US Government officials enlisted folk music legend Woody Guthrie to write a series of 26 songs about the dam. It’s a quirky moment in US and music’s history – but it produced instant classics that many will recognize, like “Roll on Columbia.”
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When power is cheap, crypto moves in. The fallout in rural WA is complex
Take a drive along the Columbia River and you’re bound to see towering dams that produce the bulk of our state’s hydropower. That energy is a point of pride for many Washingtonians – it’s plentiful, clean, and renewable. If you have direct access to that power, your electric bill is probably pretty darn cheap. In recent years the promise of that dirt-cheap electricity has brought swarms of cryptocurrency miners to small towns throughout Central and Eastern Washington. At times, that’s led to some rather unneighborly feelings.
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What does SCOTUS' ruling against affirmative action mean for WA?
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday overturned more than four decades of legal precedent by declaring affirmative action unconstitutional. What does it mean for Washington?
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Seattle Mountain Rescue celebrates first home base in North Bend
For 75 years, Seattle Mountain Rescue has relied on a constellation of volunteers and a mixed bag of resources to help lost hikers and injured adventurers. As King County has exponentially grown, the demand for Mountain Rescue services has too. Now, for the first time, the non-profit will have a base of operations in North Bend.
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WA Secretary of Transportation on roads, bridges, and ferries
You may be hitting the road soon to enjoy some of the many beautiful parts of Washington State. But projects are underway throughout the state, including highway maintenance, reduced ferry services, and bridge repairs.
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Sound it Out: An update on expanded school oversight
Each week we ask for your thoughts about our stories — where they've succeeded and where they can improve. Today, we're revisiting a segment we aired on the state's expanded oversight over "nonpublic agencies."
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Rare and resilient: Sunflower sea stars found on Oregon Coast
Staff at the Oregon Coast Aquarium regularly search nearby Yaquina Bay for ocean life. On a recent voyage, they came across a big surprise – a group of 25 sunflower sea stars.