John Ryan
Reporter
About
Environment reporter John Ryan welcomes tips, documents and feedback from listeners. Reach him at jryan@kuow.org or for secure, confidential communication: he's at 1-401-405-1206 on the Signal messaging app or heyjohnryan@protonmail.com.
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 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.
Two decades later, he has freelanced for most of the major public radio news shows as well as newspapers and magazines and covered transportation at the Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce. He’s been a reporter at NPR stations in southeast and southwest Alaska (KTOO-Juneau and KUCB-Unalaska) as well as Seattle. He became KUOW’s first full-time investigative reporter in 2009 and one of the first shop stewards for KUOW’s SAG-AFTRA newsroom union, as well as KUOW’s full-time environment reporter, in 2018.
John’s stories have won multiple national awards for KUOW, including the Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Delta Chi awards for Public Service in Radio Journalism and for Investigative Reporting, national Edward R. Murrow and PMJA/PRNDI awards for coverage of breaking news and a Society of Environmental Journalists award for in-depth reporting.
He believes democracy only works when journalism holds the powerful accountable for their words and actions.
Stories
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KUOW Newsroom
The deadliest heat wave: Lessons from the NW's extreme heat
It was the deadliest weather disaster in Washington state history and the most extreme heat wave on record worldwide. Local governments weren't ready for it.
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KUOW Newsroom
2021 heat wave is now the deadliest weather-related event in Washington history
The official death toll from Washington state’s record-breaking heat wave jumped by 21 people Monday, as the Washington Department of Health revised its count to 112 people.
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KUOW Newsroom
Salmon-killing tires get congressional hearing
A study that pinpointed a chemical from car tires as the cause of salmon die-offs in West Coast creeks has prompted a congressional hearing on the topic.
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Nearly 800 people believed to have died in Northwest heat wave
The heat wave from two weeks ago is now one of the deadliest weather-related events in Washington state history.
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KUOW Newsroom
Extreme heat cooks shellfish alive on Puget Sound beaches
Tribes and scientists report devastation of marine life on the shorelines of Washington and British Columbia.
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The town that broke Canada’s heat record has burned to the ground
Washington state might feel the effects of British Columbia’s crushing heat and fires in the water as well as in the air.
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KUOW Newsroom
Glacial rivers rage as heat wave bites into Northwest snowpack
At mile-high Paradise on Mt. Rainier, 30 inches of snow melted in just four days of extreme heat.
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Activists push back against rising air pollution from Sea-Tac Airport
Sea-Tac Airport is reporting more takeoffs and landings than at any time since early March 2020, when travel of all kinds took a nose dive in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic.
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Heat wave could hit Seattle area neighborhoods differently – possible 20 degrees difference
The heat wave expected this weekend in western Washington won’t hit everyone the same.
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KUOW Newsroom
Endangered orcas missing from their home waters for 10 weeks
Southern resident killer whales haven’t been seen in their home waters for more than two months.