Annual Report 2021

In this region and around the world, there is a rich history of vibrant and active awareness of nature. KCTS 9 and 363 members from the community came together in September 2020 to celebrate the three-part series The Age of Nature with a panel discussion focused on the place we call home: the Pacific Northwest. Before the panel discussion began, attendees were invited to listen to music from the Musical Mountaineers and sipped on a drink curated by Sustainable Seattle (recipe cards provided in advance). The panel took a look at nature and the outdoors and how it relates to issues of equity, tribal affairs, sustainability and our lives as Washingtonians.

On October 14, 2020 more than 1,000 people joined KCTS 9 and Rick Steves for a conversation about everything from life at home for the intrepid traveler to behind the scenes details and the future of travel. Participants were able to submit their own questions for Rick to answer. As there were only a few minutes to get through the audience's questions during the event, Rick answered 30 more in writing as he wanted to make sure he had the opportunity to answer as many questions as possible. The virtual event, A Conversation with Rick Steves, is available online now.

Our region looks much different today than it did when its sole inhabitants and caretakers were Indigenous people. With westward expansion and multiple boom and bust cycles, the land and its people have weaved a complex story of identity. In January 2021, more than 700 people joined KCTS 9 and Crosscut’s Knute Berger at the Finding Your Roots Washington virtual event. Panelists Dr. Quintard Taylor, Professor Emeritus of History at UW; Margaret O'Mara, historian and contributing New York Times opinion writer; Warren KingGeorge, oral historian for the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe; and Dr. Josephine Ensign, UW Professor of Nursing focused on health policy discussed our region’s “roots” and how, like in our forests, the remains of “old growth” often provide the foundation and energy for new life.

The COVID-19 pandemic made 2020 the unofficial year of staying in. And, staying home meant eating more meals at home, too. When ingredients were scarce, we relied on resourcefulness. When we finally found yeast and flour, we could create something masterful. On February 4, 2021, Rachel Belle, host of the James Beard Award nominated podcast Your Last Meal and Christopher Kimball, James Beard Award-winning host of Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street discussed comfort foods and their role in the COVID-19 pandemic, how food can help bridge cultural divides and, of course, our favorite recipes and what they mean to us.

As part of the national Well Beings initiative, KCTS 9 partnered with the WA Therapy Fund Foundation and the Root of Our Youth to address youth mental health and well-being. On February 25, 2021, more than 500 people gathered virtually for a discussion focused on centering and supporting Black youth. Speakers addressed the challenges faced by young people today, barriers to getting help, how to reduce stigma and strategies for improving mental health and well-being within the Black community. The event featured the testimony of teens and young adults with lived experience.

After 20 years leading the Odessa Brown Children's Clinic, Dr. Ben Danielson resigned in November 2020 in protest over what he claimed were racist practices at the clinic’s venerated parent institution, Seattle Children’s. His decision to step down caused an uproar in the Black community and, some say, a reckoning within the hospital. Seattle Children's responded by pledging a close examination of its policies and practices and asking a member of its leadership to step down. The hospital announced it had brought on former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to lead the investigation. For the March 2021 edition of Northwest Newsmakers, Crosscut sat down for an extended conversation with the man in the middle of the story, heard directly from him about what led to his decision and learned how he felt about what happened since and his perspective on the fight against systemic racism.

Every city has at least one dish to call its own, and every dish has a story to tell. KCTS 9 served up a five-course conversation about dishes and cuisines that were invented or popularized in Seattle. Pho Bac's Yenvy Pham, KCTS 9's resident historian Knute Berger, Bob Donegan of Ivar's Seafood Restaurants & Chowder, author Naomi Tomky and Farshid Varamini of Gantry Public House and Pioneer Grill Hot Dogs took a look at the foods that made Seattle. The culinary tour started with 19th-century prospectors on the hunt for a high-calorie breakfast, then onto the 1930s when a small fish shop opened at Seattle’s first aquarium, followed by the history and popularity of Vietnamese and Japanese cuisine in the 1970s and 1980s and ended with a new kind of hot dog for the late-night crowd.

KCTS 9 launched a new event series, KCTS 9 Book Club, in May 2021 in collaboration with local authors, Third Place Books and PBS Books. The monthly virtual book discussions relate to KCTS 9 programming and the book selections were made by a rotating group of Washington authors who also hosted the virtual discussions. Author Ann Putnam selected The Garden of Eden by Ernest Hemingway for the first book in the event series. Related programming included the Ken Burns Hemingway documentary series and the KCTS 9 virtual event, Hemingway: Misogynist or Misunderstood?