Skip to main content

You make this possible. Support our independent, nonprofit newsroom today.

Give Now

How's the nose on this wine? Smoky.

caption: This year's grapes could make next year's smokey varietals.
Enlarge Icon
This year's grapes could make next year's smokey varietals.

A hint of smoke in this terroir. Childcare meets COVID. Influencer misinformation. And who killed the supergrid?

Individual segments are available in our podcast stream or at www.kuow.org/record.

Anna King on smoky grapes

You know that the recent fire smoke is, worryingly, in your lungs. It might be on your hair, skin, and clothes. But this year’s smoke could also be in next year’s wine, says KUOW’s Anna King.

Childcare stretched to breaking point by COVID

COVID-19 has set up several impossible loops – the government needs more money for coronavirus relief, but it doesn’t have it because revenues are way down, because businesses are closed and people are out of work, and need relief from coronavirus. The childcare industry is being hit hard by those feedback cycles as well, says Crosscut’s Melissa Santos in a piece called “Child care was already dysfunctional. COVID-19 could break it completely.”

Millennial Pink QAnon?

Instagram influencers: the pastel face of QAnon? So says EJ Dickson, a journalist for Rolling Stone, about the social media mavens profiled in “Mom Influencers on Instagram Are Spreading Anti-Mask Propaganda.”

Power grid improvements blocked by Trump appointees

Who killed the supergrid? So asks Peter Fairley, a journalist who covers energy, technology, and climate change, in a new piece for The Atlantic and InvestigateWest. It’s called “How a Plan to Save the Power System Disappeared."

Why you can trust KUOW