The Olympia Standard

We are in the season where, in the Olympia School District, you can choose a different path for your kids. In this episode, we sit down with OSD4All’s Erika Lari to talk about the new guide the group recently released to describe, in fine detail, all of the different programs around the district: https://osd4all.org/district-guide/

Daniel visits with leadership at Intercity Transit. Emily Bergkamp, General Manager, and Nick Demerice, Chief Marketing, Communications & Outreach Officer, cover the recent history of our local transit agency, what is going on with the change in routes and how transit will grow.

You’ve already received your ballot, so this week Erika sat down with Superintendent Mr. Dr. Patrick Murphy and Marc Elliot, Chief Information Officer, to talk about the replacement levy. Don’t forget to vote by February 10!

What is Olympia going to get from Olympia this year? Erika sits down with Maria Flores from the school board and Daniel visits with State Senator Jessica Bateman. We dive deep into what schools need from the legislature and what we should expect this session as a community. For further discussion on school funding, please see episode 105: Do We Need to Close Schools?

We sit down with Mayor Dontae Payne and City Councilmember Dani Madrone (also host emerita) to walk through the formative issues in Olympia of 2025 and how they lead into 2026.

Daniel sat down with Sarah DeStasio to round out our campaign coverage for this year. Destasion worked on the Caleb Geiger and Robert Vanderpool campaigns and takes us through 2025 from the progressive lens.

Not that we expect Justin Stang to exit civic life, but Daniel sat down with him following the election to reflect on how it went for him and the future of Olympia.

This is the last election 2025 episode! We are joined in the first segment by Danielle Westbrook, long time friend of the podcast and political consultant. In the second segment, the 2025 election crew comes together one more time with Rob Richards.

Whether Interstate 5 “killed downtown Tumwater” will never actually be answered, mostly because we don’t have a time machine and we can’t really settle on what “kill” or “downtown” means in this context. But the premise is one of the most widely accepted historical facts of our area. I take the counter-narrative position that downtown Tumwater was killed by a road, but it wasn’t I-5. In this episode, I take a walk with David Scherer Water to discuss the historical conflict and what it tells us about cities, growth and potential. Here is also some background reading: Why the Myth of Tumwater and Interstate 5 Matters David Scherer Water: The Highway that Shaped (and buried) Olympia David Scherer Water: Tumwater Strikes Back

Emmett is joined by Erika Lari and Daniel Garcia to make a complete rundown of your Olympia ballot for this election. Erika and Daniel dissect the interviews we’ve been running for the last several weeks to help you make your decisions this fall.

Daniel Garcia returns to interview Paul Berendt and Caleb Geiger for Position #7 on the Olympia City Council.

Mayor Dontae Payne and Caleb Geiger debate the pros and cons of the Workers’ Bill of Rights (Prop 1), which will be on your ballot this week! This discussion was hosted by Daniel Garcia, who runs the Heal Olympia project.

Daniel Garcia from the Heal Olympia project is back on the podcast, this time sitting down with Robert Vanderpool and Justin Stang, who are competing for the Position 6 seat on the Olympia City Council.

This episode was supposed to feature Daniel Garcia from Heal Oly sitting down with two city council candidates for a conversation. But at the last minute, we had to cancel. We offered the candidates a chance to record their responses on their own, but only Clark Gilman was able to get his in. We’ll be back next Saturday with a full recorded conversation between two candidates running for another city council seat. Fortunately, you can get a direct compare and contrast with Clark and Wendy over at this episode of Lean in Olympia that just dropped!

Erika Lari from OSD4All again takes the wheel to talk with Renee Fullerton and Rhyan Smith, who are facing off for the position in District 3 on the Olympia School Board.

Erika Lari from OSD4All rejoins the podcast to talk with Gil Lamont and Emily Leddige, who are facing off for the position in District 5 on the Olympia School Board.

In this episode, I’m sharing a story from my blog about how neighboring cities shape each other and the surprising ways that history still affects us today. I dive into Lacey’s journey to cityhood, from its rivalry with Olympia in the 1960s over annexation and boundaries, to its push north in the 1980s to grow into undeveloped areas like Hawks Prairie. Along the way, I explore how city boundaries have never been neutral, they’ve historically shaped wealth, services, and political power, often in ways that entrench inequality. I also discuss modern implications, including Lacey’s recent studies on annexing older unincorporated neighborhoods and how financial and service considerations continue to drive decisions. And I touch on a broader idea: what if independent boards, rather than city governments themselves, managed city boundaries to focus on efficiency, equity, and community planning? Finally, I’m excited to share how the podcast is expanding to cover local school district and city council races, bringing in new voices, but the same policy-focused perspective to elections that shape our communities today.

Olympia’s history is deeper and more connected to the larger American story than many people realize. From the city’s founding to its role in shaping regional and national events, Olympia carries with it legacies that are still being reckoned with today. In this episode, we sit down with Mayor Dontae Payne to talk about how Olympia’s past informs its present, and how the city is beginning to address questions of racial justice and repair. Mayor Payne shares his perspective on the city’s recent efforts to study reparations for the descendants of enslaved people, what that work looks like at the local level, and why he believes grappling with history is essential to moving forward as a community. Actually Olympia: Mayor Dontae Payne – Reparations City Council Study Session on Reparations

This week, we have the one segment we were able to get in at our live show last week! We welcomed FC Olympia (Ryan Perkins and Van Crisp) to talk about “Pro-Am” sports on the community scale, how it fits in Olympia and the future of community level clubs in our city. FC Olympia The Cooler Guild (Van’s podcast about Reign FC)

We welcomed Erika Lari from OSD4All and Rob Richards, political consultant, to walk through the results of the 2025 August Primary. While we talked a little bit about non-Olympia stuff, we focused our discussion on Olympia-centric races. Olympia Time: Five initial lessons from the August Primary Olympia Time: Digging Deeper Into the August Primary Results