Arts & Life

The first same-sex weddings took place in early December in Washington state. Marriage equality has come a long way in Gene Robinson’s lifetime. He was the first only gay person to become a bishop in the historic traditions of Christendom — and he wore a bulletproof vest to his 2003 consecration.

Today, he’s one of the world’s leading spokespeople for gay rights and gay marriage, and he has been married to a man for the last four years. Robinson spoke at Seattle’s Town Hall on December 7, 2012.

Forest Gibson is a Seattle-based video producer and filmmaker. Forest and the company that he works for, Cinesaurus, have a knack for producing videos that get shared on the web and social media. Cinesaurus' clients include GAP, YouTube and the online humor network Cheezburger. One of the company’s biggest successes was the parody video released in the summer of 2012, “We’re NASA and We Know It.”

Bring us your tired metaphors, overused phrases and words that summon an unpleasant visceral reaction. Ben Zimmer, language columnist for the Boston Globe, explains why these words and phrases bother us so much. Sometimes a word variant sounds odd to our ear, even if it’s correct, such as “pleaded” rather than “plead.” Other problems arise when words reveal disparities, such as a lack of an equivalent term for the opposite gender. And jargon can become offensive when it migrates from its original community to more common use in mainstream media or by different age groups.

Victoria Times-Colonist columnist Les Leyne brings us the latest news from Canada. Film critic Robert Horton shares some of the movie offerings at Seattle's newly reopened Museum of History and Industry. Then, Michael Parks looks at Amazon's big 2012, Microsoft's make-or-break 2013 and what Boeing's backlog means for the region's employment.

In childhood, our allegiances, our loves, are often black and white, simplistic. One of the difficult parts of becoming an adult is reconciling ourselves to the failings and flaws in what we have loved and admired. Sometimes the task involves recognizing our own complicity in those failings.

It’s the time of year when media outlets do stories on the top 10 news stories of the year. But we don’t live our lives in the news. What are the top stories from your personal life in 2012? A birth, a death, a graduation, a move? Did you finish that book, get that small business rolling? Learn to make sushi? What are the hallmark events of 2012 in your life? Ross Reynolds reviews the year with KUOW listeners.

The end of the year brings the opportunity for reflection and a chance to look back as we prepare for the year ahead. In that spirit, we listen back to the "Year in Weekday" — some of the stories, big and small, that had our attention in 2012.

The end of the year brings the opportunity for reflection and a chance to look back as we prepare for the year ahead. In that spirit, we listen back to the "Year in Weekday" — some of the stories, big and small, that had our attention in 2012.

  Here are five programs we did in 2012 that I loved. Each is an interview about a Seattle person. And they all have big, bold personalities. Who knew?

1. Who Is Nancy Pearl? 

You’ve heard librarian Nancy Pearl share her picks for great books and stories on NPR and KUOW. But what is Nancy Pearl’s own story? What does she do when she’s NOT reading books? Much is revealed when she sits down with Ross Reynolds.

2. Who Is David Brewster? 

In this month’s RadioActive podcast, hosts Bryce Ellis and Daniel Metz hear stories about high school students who aren’t "sluffin" when it comes to their futures (if you don’t know what "sluffin" means this show has got your definition).

One of the kids in these stories goes down the traditional four-year college route, while the others travel off the beaten path: