Joshua McNichols
Reporter
About
As KUOW's Growth and Development reporter and co-host of KUOW's Booming podcast, Joshua's "growing pains" beat sits at the nexus of housing, transportation, urban planning, government and the economy. His favorite stories also include themes of history, technology, and climate change.
Joshua holds a B.A. in Architecture from the University of Washington. Public Radio is his second career; architecture was his first. He is proud of the many odd jobs he's held in his life, such as salmon fisher, author, bike courier, and bed-and-breakfast cook.
Location: Seattle
Languages Spoken: English
Pronouns: he/him
Professional Affiliations: The Society of Professional Journalists, Western Washington Chapter
Podcasts
Stories
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What Alexa can learn from a heart attack on the moon
Minutes after the Apollo 15 lunar module blasted off the surface of the moon, Astronaut James Irwin’s heart began to stutter. Down at Mission Control, Dr. Charles Berry watched the astronaut’s EKG. He saw a series of rapid double beats with long pauses in between. If Irwin was on Earth, Dr. Berry said, “I’d have him in ICU being treated for a heart attack.”
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There's a neighborhood of Amazon 'smart homes' south of Seattle
This week's Primed podcast explores Amazon's smart home technology. You can listen to the episode here. In the first part of the story, we baked muffins with Alexa in Amazon's smart home lab. Here, we talk to people who live in an Amazon smart home development in Black Diamond, WA. We also explore some very troubling consequences of having a fully wired home.
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The Seattle super hacker will be released Tuesday. But she won't be free
On Tuesday, the Capital One hacker will be released to a halfway house to await her trial. Paige Thompson stands accused of stealing records from 106 million Capital One customers. Thompson’s attorneys argued that as a transgender woman, she should not be held in an all-male jail. A judge agreed.
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Amazon has a 'secret apartment.' What's in it? We found out
There’s a secret apartment on the 30th Floor of Amazon’s Day One building in Seattle. We’ve wanted to get inside for months. This week, we finally did.
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We’re living longer. Can Alexa help us live better?
On this week’s episode of Primed, we explore how smart speakers like Amazon’s Echo fit into the lives of older people. Some elders find Alexa annoying or intrusive. But others interact with the technology in practical, creative ways. Here are a few of their stories.
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How is Amazon changing our lives?
Over the last year or so, the SoundQs team has gotten a lot of questions about one Seattle-based company. Amazon. Happily, KUOW's podcast Primed is finding answers to questions about how Amazon is changing our lives. Here's the first episode of their newest season, about Alexa and kids.
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Amazon can track you by your voice print
Parents are suing Amazon, alleging the company records children without their consent. A trial could come next year. But the case brings up issues beyond those recordings.
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Parenting in the age of Alexa? It’s complicated
This week’s episode of Prime(d) talks about the relationship between children and Alexa, Amazon’s AI-powered virtual assistant. Kids love to ask Alexa questions. And Alexa is listening.
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Preview: Primed Season 3
Amazon is ending up in more and more of our homes. But are we asking the right questions when we invite Amazon and Alexa into our lives?
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What Sammamish's high median income really means
The Seattle Times reports that Sammamish is the nation's richest city. Its median household income of $183,000 even beats San Francisco. We wondered – what’s it feel like to live in a city that rich? So we went to find out.