Meet Me Here

Meet Me Here listeners, if you still don't have any plans for this weekend, fear not. The Weekend Warmup is here to help with a whole bunch of ideas for fun things to do around the region this weekend. HOST: Soundside producer Jason Megatron Burrows LINKS:  Fin de Fest - Latin Film Festival MARINERS vs Houston Astros Seattle Cherry Blossom & Japanese Cultural Festival Spring Fair | Washington State Fair Event Center NW Model Hobby Expo SDFF 2026 - Deaf Spotlight WA State Toy Show 2026 Tea Festival - April 11th | Cascadia Tea Fest iDiOM Theater - “All Our Tragic” 4 part series Dungeons and Drag Queens Brunch Show SIFF 2026 Annual Volunteer Meeting Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/meet  Meet Me Here is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Xian Zhang says she never wanted to be a conductor. Instead, she says, “conducting chose me.”  Zhang is in her first season as Seattle Symphony’s music director. On this episode of “Meet Me Here,” she explains how her conducting teacher threw her into deep waters as a 20-year-old conservatory student in Beijing.  She also shares how she gets ready for conducting (“I prepare 300% mentally”), and advice for anyone who hasn’t experienced a symphony performance at Benaroya Hall.  Your support helps create shows like Seattle Now, Soundside, and Meet Me Here! Become a KUOW member today.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Environmental author Terry Tempest Williams captures not just the physical beauty of the natural world but she also invites the reader to deepen their spiritual understanding and connection with the environment. In her new book The Glorians, Visitations from the Holy Ordinary, Terry seeks to understand the obscure meaning of moments in her life. From the personal to the universal. A way to reveal the joy in being present.  Sign up for the next talk in our Book Talks series in partnership with the Seattle Public Library at kuow.org/events. And sign up for the KUOW Book Club newsletter at kuow.org/books. Help keep KUOW's local podcasts going strong! Donate now at kuow.org/meet. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Meet Me Here listeners, if you still don't have any plans for this weekend, fear not. The Weekend Warmup is here to help with a whole bunch of ideas for fun things to do around the region this weekend. HOST: Soundside producer Jason Megatron Burrows LINKS:  Norwescon Sakura-Con Seattle's Easter Swing Women Made Film Festival in Everett, WA The Stranger Presents: The 2026 Undisputable Champions of Comedy! 93rd Annual Daffodil Festival Grand Floral Parade Seattle Torrent vs NY Sirens at MADISON SQUARE GARDEN Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/meet  Meet Me Here is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week hosts Katie Campbell, Dyer Oxley, and Jeannie Yandel discuss which music festivals in Seattle are worth checking out this summer. And we get recommendations from our arts friends in the region, KEXP and the Seattle Times music desk.  Your support helps create shows like Seattle Now, Soundside, and Meet Me Here!  Become a KUOW member today.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Seattle’s punk scene in the ‘90s left a big impression on Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe.  Bands like Bikini Kill were angry about sexual violence and oppression like she was, and they yelled about it, made music about it. But the punk scene was also very white, like a lot of the spaces around Sasha. And as a Coast Salish punk, she wanted a space to be her – all of her.   The KUOW Book Club read Sasha’s latest book “Thunder Song” in March. KUOW’s Katie Campbell sat down with her in front of a live audience at the Seattle Central Library to talk about being a punk, reconnecting to salmon, and following in the footsteps of her iconic great grandmother, Vi taqʷšəblu Hilbert.  Sign up for the next talk in our Book Talks series in partnership with the Seattle Public Library at kuow.org/events. And sign up for the KUOW Book Club newsletter at kuow.org/books. Help keep KUOW's local podcasts going strong! Donate now at kuow.org/meet. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Meet Me Here listeners, if you still don't have any plans for this weekend, fear not. The Weekend Warmup is here to help with a whole bunch of ideas for fun things to do around the region this weekend. HOST: Soundside producer Jason Megatron Burrows LINKS:  Mariners Opening Weekend Puck Place Market 2026 Seattle Torrent vs Ottawa Charge Onda Origins Coffee/Seattle Torrent Rain Country Dance Association - 2026 Emerald City Hoedown Seattle No Kings- March 28 Celebrate the new Crosslake Connection! | Sound Transit Stand By Me: The Film and Its Stars 40 Years Later Bellingham Children’s Film Festival Spring Salon Fundraiser 2026 - Key to Change Moving Stories – TDOV Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/meet  Meet Me Here is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Do you cringe when your favorite novel is adapted for the big screen? Or are you first in line for tickets? This week, "Project Hail Mary" kicks off our books vs. movies debate: How do you know when the movie will be better? Which titles should have never hit the screen, and which should have just been movies in the first place? Send us your hot take! Email us at meetmehere@kuow.org.  Your support helps create shows like Seattle Now, Soundside, and Meet Me Here! Become a KUOW member todaySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Meet Me Here listeners, if you still don't have any plans for this weekend, fear not. The Weekend Warmup is here to help with a whole bunch of ideas for fun things to do around the region this weekend. HOST: Soundside producer Jason Megatron Burrows LINKS:   Taste of Iceland Seattle 2026 | A Festival of Food, Music & Culture Plate of Nations BrainFest with Allen Institute - Pacific Science Center Steamy in Seattle 2026 - Clarion West Torrent vs Boston U-District NIGHT BLOSSOM Festival Columbia City Night Market | Go All Night! Bands Stand With Gaza - The Vera Project Band of Horses at the Showbox Seattle's French Fest PROJECT HAIL MARY - Jason says GO SEE IT! Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/meet  Meet Me Here is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Western Washington is dotted with towns and neighborhoods that, once a month, transform their streetscapes into galleries. Seattle claims the oldest and longest-running art walk in the U.S., and this episode of Meet Me Here is your virtual guide to art walks in Bellingham, Capitol Hill and Pioneer Square. We reprise our 2025 conversation with artist Tommy Gregory, and we tag along with our producer Kyle Norris. Art walks featured in this episode:  First Thursday Art Walk In Pioneer Square Capitol Hill Art Walk Bellingham First Friday Art Walk  Seattle art walks: Ballard Art Walk, 2nd Saturday Belltown Art Walk, 2nd Friday Central District Art Walk, First Friday Columbia City Art Walk, Last Thursday Downtown Art Walk, 4th Friday Fremont Art Walk, First Friday  Georgetown’s ART ATTACK 2nd Saturday Lake City Community Art Walk, 3rd Thursday PhinneyWood Art Walk, Aug 14-15, 2026   U District Art Walk, 3rd Friday Uptown Art Walk, 3rd Thursdays West Seattle Art Walk, 2nd Thursday  Washington art walks: Edmonds Third Thursday Art Walk Olympia Art Walk, April 25-26, 2026 Tacoma Third Thursday Art Walk  Bainbridge Island First Friday Art Walk First Friday in Spokane Rat City Art Walk in White Center, 3rd Thursday Langley First Saturday Art Walk Art Walk Sequim, 1st Friday Port Townsend Art Walk, 1st Saturday Anacortes Art Walk, First Friday Everett Art Walk, 3rd Thursday Places mentioned in this episode: Bellingham: Allied Arts of Whatcom County Whatcom Museum Children of the Setting Suns Productions  Pioneer Square:  Stonington Gallery  ArtX Contemporary Collins Pub The Meyer Pilchuck Glass School Seattle Office SOIL Art Gallery 4Culture  Capitol Hill: Steve Gilbert Studio  The Factory Vermillion Art Gallery & Bar  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Meet Me Here listeners, if you still don't have any plans for this weekend, fear not. The Weekend Warmup is here to help with a whole bunch of ideas for fun things to do around the region this weekend. HOST: Soundside producer Jason Megatron Burrows LINKS:  Pi Day Dash Pi Day Community Math Festival Kat Robichaud’s Misfit Cabaret “Circus” | The Triple Door Quilters Anonymous - Quilt Show Seattle Golf Show Wings Over Water | Northwest Birding Festival Firebird | March 13 -22, 2026 | Pacific Northwest Ballet St Patrick’s Day Parade Irish Festival Seattle Emerald City Irish Film Festival Mariners 50: Community & Baseball (MoPop) Also, let us know - where do you fall in the Quilters vs Golfers venn diagram? AND where is your favorite pie in the region? Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/meet  Meet Me Here is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You've heard “Beam me up,” “Resistance is futile,” and “Live long and prosper.” You live in a world with automatic doors and you can talk to your handheld computer. Star Trek has been influencing our culture for the past six decades with a unifying view of humanity, inspiring generations to create a better future. But recent series like "Star Trek: Discovery" and "Starfleet Academy" have many fans wondering if Star Trek has boldly gone off the rails. Will future generations be talking about today's Star Trek like we talk about the series from the 1990s and 1960s? Or has Star Trek finally jumped the targ? Meet Me Here beams in fellow journalists / Star Trek fans (Libby Denkmann and Essex Porter) to debate if Star Trek is still the cultural force that it once was. Or, is something else going on?  Check out Star Trek meet up groups in Western Washington: Star Trek Fans of Tacoma: Ready for Raktajino Star Trek Fans of Seattle: There's Coffee in that Nebula  Klingon Speakers of Greater Puget Sound Have you gone to an event you heard about on Meet Me Here? Tell us how it went! Email us at meetmehere@kuow.org.  Your support helps create shows like Seattle Now, Soundside, and Meet Me Here! Become a KUOW member todaySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Meet Me Here listeners, if you still don't have any plans for this weekend, fear not. The Weekend Warmup is here to help with a whole bunch of ideas for fun things to do around the region this weekend. Hosted by KUOW's Jason Megatron Burrows.  LINKS: Emerald City Comic Con Tacoma Beer Week Winthrop Hot Air Balloon Round Up Oops All Goalies! Lunar New Year Celebration | Seattle Chinatown-International District Penn Cove Musselfest Northwest Record Show Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/meet  Meet Me Here is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Artists who design book covers want you to judge the covers. The goal of the cover is to make you look twice...and, hopefully, pick the book up, open it, and walk it over to the cash register. Host Katie Campbell talks to Elisha Zepeda, a book cover designer based on the Northwest, about what it takes to make a cover, and why you should consider the cover art of your next read. Your support helps create shows like Seattle Now, Soundside, and Meet Me Here!  Become a KUOW member today.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When you think about shipwrecks in the Northwest, what comes to mind? Bad weather? Old English paintings? Maybe a Kraken?   What about settler colonialism? That may not be one of the first things exactly, but author and historian Coll Thrush wants to change that.   The KUOW Book Club read Coll’s latest book “Wrecked: Unsettling Histories of the Graveyard of the Pacific” in February, and KUOW’s Katie Campbell sat down with him in front of a live audience at the Seattle Central Library to talk about how shipwrecks brought settlers and Indigenous peoples suddenly, violently together — and how we’ve made sense of time and space through the wreckage.  Sign up for the next talk in our Book Talks series in partnership with the Seattle Public Library at kuow.org/events.   Plus, help keep KUOW's local podcasts going strong! Donate now at kuow.org/meet. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Meet Me Here listeners, if you still don't have any plans for this weekend, fear not. The Weekend Warmup is here to help with a whole bunch of ideas for fun things to do around the region this weekend. Hosted by KUOW's Jason Megatron Burrows.  LINKS: Mad Science: A night of Improv and Laughter Seattle Torrent vs Toronto Scepters Kraken vs Canucks Sea Slug Animation Festival 2026 Poulsbo Blues & Jazz Festival Tacoma Beer Week Events Free Rose Pruning Demonstration - Woodland Park Zoo Doughboys - Seattle Theatre Group 4th Annual Black Makers & Creatives Art Exhibit Iranian Vigil & Solidarity Art Exhibition Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/meet  Meet Me Here is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The artist Barbara Earl Thomas has made a promise: to keep the artistic legacy of her mentor Jacob Lawrence alive and growing. Barbara met the Black modernist painter Jacob Lawrence as his student at the University of Washington in the 1970s. As her career and artistry developed, so did her friendship with Jacob and his wife Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence, who’ve now both died.Last fall Barbara contributed four of her own portraits of Jacob to accompany his debut in the Netherlands–his first solo show in Europe. The exhibit, and being there at the opening, were part of her promise. Barbara enlisted the help of her friend, the arts journalist and cultural strategist Leilani Lewis–to go on the trip, and to be part of stewarding Jacob and Gwendolyn’s artistic legacies. In this episode of Meet Me Here, Leilani and Barbara are in conversation about their trip, friendship, and art. Barbara Earl Thomas’ website Leilani Lewis’ article: The Barbara Earl Thomas’s High-Frequency Art MethodLeilani Lewis’ article: As the US Slides Into Tyranny, Europe Champions Black American Artists Jacob and Gwen Knight Lawrence Information Center   MoMA profile of Jacob Lawrence Your support helps create shows like Seattle Now, Soundside, and Meet Me Here! Become a KUOW member todaySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Meet Me Here listeners, if you still don't have any plans for this weekend, fear not. The Weekend Warmup is here to help with a whole bunch of ideas for fun things to do around the region this weekend. Hosted by KUOW's Jason Megatron Burrows.  LINKS: Northwest Flower & Garden Festival Seattle Home & Garden Show Wintergrass Festival Black History Month Soirée 2026 - Bainbridge Island Museum of Art Lunar New Year Family Festival | Seattle Art Museum Cupid's Undie Run at The Dock in Fremont Cardi B - Climate Pledge Arena Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/meet  Meet Me Here is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We look ahead to March and the awesome arts and culture coming up, and we convince each other to go check out one new thing. Event Recommendations: Emerald City Comic Con - March 5-8 at the Seattle Convention Center  KUOW Book Talks with Author Sasha taqwšəblu LaPointe - March 23 at Seattle Central Library Frye Parlor x Jayme Yen - Until January 2027 at Frye Art Museum Have you gone to an event you heard about on Meet Me Here? Tell us how it went! Email us at meetmehere@kuow.org.  Your support helps create shows like Seattle Now, Soundside, and Meet Me Here! Become a KUOW member todaySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Meet Me Here listeners, if you still don't have any plans for this weekend, fear not. The Weekend Warmup is here to help with a whole bunch of ideas for fun things to do around the region this weekend. Hosted by KUOW's Jason Megatron Burrows.  LINKS: The Atomic Bombshells: J’ADORE 17 Year Anniversary at Triple Door Winter Festival | Early Music Seattle Noir City - SIFF After Hours Premier: No Pressure Valentines - Seattle Aquarium Busch Light PBR Everett Comedy of Love: A Valentine's Day Improv Disenchanted! | Tacoma City Theaters Science After Dark - Pacific Science Center Get a Friday the 13th Tattoo at One of These Seattle Shops Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/meet  Meet Me Here is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.