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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

  • caption: Lumen field is where the Seahawks, Sounders FC, and OL Reign call home.

    The XFL promises alternative football. Can it survive?

    The XFL is on its third attempt at an alternative football league. The first iteration was in 2000, and lasted for a single season. The second attempt, in 2020, was sidelined after five games due to COVID. But there's a long history of alternative football in the spring. Will fans support the team enough to keep them afloat? And can the team attract enough fans with its unique style of play?

  • caption: Monkeyshines are glass floats, a traditional style of glass orb. These include an emblem for the lunar new year sign.

    The hunt is on for 'Monkeyshines' in Tacoma

    Every lunar new year, a group of volunteer artists sneak through Tacoma in the dead of night. They hide thousands of colorful glass “floats” – 5- to 10-inch orbs, with an insignia stamped on the top. If you’ve been in Tacoma sometime over the past month and seen people shaking bushes, climbing trees, or turning up rocks, you’ve likely seen a collector of what are locally called “Monkeyshines.”

  • social media facebook instagram twitter phone

    The 'chatbot' race is on. How should we use them?

    Late last year, ChatGPT took the internet by storm. Many have heralded the large language model (LLM) as a new era of technology. Since ChatGPT's parent company, OpenAI, released it to the public, other tech giants are jumping in. Bing, Microsoft's search engine, debuted a limited release of its helpful AI. Google is also working out the kinks in its version, named "Bard." But what's going on under the hood?

  • caption: The brown marmorated stink bug is native to south Asia, but since the 1970s, its made its way to more than a dozen states in the U.S.

    The Abstract: Stink bugs, penguins, and climate change, oh my

    In this first episode of a new segment on scientific research in Washington state that we're calling "The Abstract," we’re exploring new revelations about how animals adapt to climate change and what that tells us about the future of ecosystems, including an unwelcome and foul-smelling new neighbor here in the Pacific Northwest, and an adorable Patagonian predator.

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