31 minSep 18, 2026

Is Seattle Overly Reliant on Big Tech Money? Plus, a Novel You’ll Finish in a Day

Show Notes

With all the headlines in the last few weeks, it’s hard to parse what is happening with AI – the bot swarms, the threats to humanity (?!) and the new report saying the city is overly dependent on tech money. Host Jane C. Hu talks with Todd Bishop, GeekWire's editor and co-founder, and Alex Halverson, tech reporter at The Seattle Times, to parse through the noise and understand what’s really going on. Then, Stesha Brandon, literature and humanities program manager at The Seattle Public Library, and producer Sam J Leeds join to talk about this year's Seattle Reads pick — a program that invites all of Seattle to read the same book and then gather to discuss it. This year it’s a fiction novel that’s a coming-of-age story about Deaf culture, bodily autonomy, and education.

Learn more about the sponsors of this September 18th episode:

Grand Central Bakery

Washington State Fair

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