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Alec Cowan

Senior Podcast Producer

About

Alec Cowan is a senior podcast producer at KUOW, where he works on Booming and other podcast projects.

Alec has worn many hats at KUOW. He helped launch Soundside and brought many eclectic stories to the program, from a late-night patrol with real life superheroes to the sewing machine sounds of an artisanal sail loft. Additionally, he was previously a producer for The Record with Bill Radke and the Primed podcast.

Before joining KUOW, Alec worked in NPR's Story Lab, where he helped pilot the Louder Than a Riot podcast and assisted in producing a story on volunteerism in Iraq for Rough Translation. Originally from Grand Junction, Colorado, his roots in the Northwest begin in Eugene, where he studied English and philosophy at the University of Oregon and worked as a news reporter for NPR member station KLCC. He is likely neglecting his saxophone, growing book collection, and expanding personal project list in favor of boosting his online Xbox ranking.

He's proud to be KUOW's unofficial "boat guy."

Location: Seattle

Languages Spoken: English

Pronouns: he/him/his

Stories

  • caption: "Holding Fire" charts Bryce Andrew's journey from Seattle to the ranges of Montana, and the tools that make life in the American West possible.

    Examining the role of guns and violence in the American West

    Bryce Andrews grew up obsessed with the cowboy lifestyle. As a kid his parents would drive him from Seattle to Montana, where he shot his first guns on the prairie with his godfather. He eventually moved out to the Montana countryside, a city boy trying to fit in as a ranch hand.

  • caption: "Missing Addresses" is a posthumous collection of poems from Beth Bentley.

    Remembering the intellectual clarity of the late Beth Bentley's poetry

    Beth Bentley was a teacher and poet who, along with her husband — poet Nelson Bentley — left an indelible mark on Seattle's literary scene. When she died in 2021, she and her son Sean were working on her final poetry collection, titled "Missing Addresses," which is set to publish this month.

  • Classroom_Stock

    Washington schools need more deaf educators

    Late last month, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that a deaf student could sue his Michigan school system – under the Americans with Disabilities Act – for providing inadequate services. The family of Miguel Luna Perez says his constitutional rights were violated because he was provided an ASL aide who did not, in fact, know American Sign Language. Nationwide, there’s a shortage of qualified deaf education teachers for public schools, including here in Washington.

  • caption: Washington state has three national monuments, which include Mt. St. Helens National Monument, Hanford Reach National Monument, and San Juan Islands National Monument.

    Hear It Again: The fraught political battle over national monuments

    With the news of new national monuments in Nevada and Texas, and a renewed push for a national monument around Grand Canyon National Park, we revisit our conversation with McKenzie Long about her book: "This Contested Land: The Storied Past and Uncertain Future of America's National Monuments."

  • caption: Yasmin Mohammed (left) and Roberto Ascalon (right) pose in the corner of the Bureau of Fearless Ideas, in Beacon Hill.

    Charting change in Beacon Hill with poet Roberto Ascalon

    The Bureau of Fearless Ideas (BFI) is one large classroom on the ground floor of the Yesler Terrace complex, a multi-use housing development in Beacon Hill. The walls are packed with language – words, rhymes, and creative affirmations. It's here that Roberto Ascalon, the poet in residence, is a mentor to new poets.

  • caption: Tents line South Weller Street near the intersection of 12th Avenue South on Tuesday, May 19, 2020, in Seattle.

    With costs mounting, some hotel shelters are at risk of closing

    Hundreds of people in King County and Tacoma may soon need to vacate hotel rooms they’ve been living in for the past several months. Last year, the Lived Experience Coalition, or LEC, moved hundreds of unsheltered people into these rooms through the help of a series of federal grants. But as PubliCola’s Erica Barnett reports, the money quickly ran out. And the residents are now at risk of becoming unsheltered again.

  • Jha Laughter Hc

    The comedy and complexity of campus life: Sonora Jha's 'The Laughter'

    The plot of "The Laughter" twists and turns around issues of Islamophobia, sexism, and the changing culture of campus life. Author Sonora Jha, a Seattle University professor, discusses her newest novel and why she chose to make her main character so unlikeable.

  • caption: Koon Woon has lived throughout Seattle, and many locations inspired his poetry on immigration and life at the margins.

    Poet Koon Woon on his verses of solitude and the working-class immigrant life

    Koon Woon has been an important member of the Seattle poetry community for decades. He’s the publisher of Goldfish Books and Chrysanthemum Poetry Journal, as well as a formidable poet in his own right. But his poems aren’t lofty and highbrow — they're deeply rooted in his lived experiences of poverty, working-class immigrant life, and living on the margins.