Viewscapes Washington State Magazine

The WSU Fight Song, the roaring crowd, the electric atmosphere.Washington State University’s Cougar Marching Band is often the heart and soul that connects WSU alumni and fans at these games.In this episode, new Cougar Marching Band director Jon Sweet takes magazine associate editor Adriana Janovich behind the scenes. He talks about the music, the marching, the fans, and the incredible Coug spirit in the band.This episode’s music is from the Cougar Marching Band at a November 2023 football ga...

Young people have lots of questions about diet, exercise, and sexual health. TikTok is one of their most trusted venues for finding out information.“They’ll go to TikTok and ask questions,” says Nicole O’Donnell, assistant professor at Washington State University’s Edward R. Murrow College of Communication. “They’re learning about health mostly through other people’s stories rather than some of the traditional health information you might get online.”But are they getting good health advice? I...

2023 was a year of weather extremes, with damaging floods, fires, and storms unfolding across the globe.The United States logged a historic number of billion-dollar weather disasters, while smoke from Canada’s wildfires choked parts of the country.“It’s kind of odd to be talking about our neighbor just to the north, but they really did have such a big impact in North America and also globally,” says Nathan Santo Domingo, a field meteorologist with Washington State University’s AgWeatherNet.Be...

A simple decision about what to order for lunch can have profound effects on others.“Food is interesting because it touches so many other communities,” says Samantha Noll, an associate professor of bioethics in the School of Politics, Philosophy, and Public Affairs at Washington State University. “When we decide that we're going to eat that falafel sandwich, or that burger, or that salad, we're impacting others with that seemingly simple choice.”In this episode, Noll talks with Washington Sta...

Palouse prairie of eastern Washington and northwestern Idaho is an endangered landscape. It’s dominated by forbs—flowering plants—that cover the fields with a riot of color that attracts native pollinators.The Phoenix Conservancy is among the groups restoring Palouse prairie. Led by Chris Duke, a doctoral graduate in biology from Washington State University, the organization works to bring native plants back to endangered landscapes from Madagascar to the Great Plains of North America to the ...

Eric McElroy is an American pianist and composer who released his debut album, Tongues of Fire, in March 2023 on Somm Recordings. He wrote the songs to accompany poems from modern poets W.S. Merwin, Gregory Leadbetter, Grevel Lindop, Alice Oswald, and Robert Graves. The poems are sung by acclaimed English tenor James Gilchrist and McElroy performs on piano.McElroy graduated from Washington State University and then continued his postgraduate education in Vienna and Oxford University. In ...