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11/08/2025
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02/04/2025

A Journey to the Headwaters of the Columbia

The massive Columbia River travels more than 1,200 miles from start to finish. It crosses four mountain ranges, powers 14 hydroelectric dams and irrigates hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland, among other feats. But its origins start humbly: in a gentle lake in the mountains of British Columbia. Cascade PBS’s resident historian Knute Berger journeyed to these headwaters for a recent episode of the Mossback’s Northwest video series, but there’s far more left to explore. In this episode of Mossback, Berger joins co-host Stephen Hegg to share what it was like to make the trek to that peaceful lake in Canada where it all begins. Berger and Hegg also discuss the fur trade that kicked off an early-19th century era of exploration along the Columbia; the Welsh-Canadian explorer and cartographer known for navigating and mapping the entire river from start to finish; and the existential threat that climate change poses to the ice and snow that feed the river and its watershed. This is the last episode of the season! Thanks so much for listening. We'll be back next season with more. In the meantime, check out the new Mossback's Northwest Special. It's a 30-minute deep dive on the Columbia River, streaming now on Cascade PBS and at CascadePBS.org. For more on all things Mossback, visit CascadePBS.org. To reach Knute Berger directly, drop him a line at knute.berger@cascadepbs.org. And if you’d like an exclusive weekly newsletter from Knute, where he offers greater insight into his latest historical discoveries, become a Cascade PBS member today. --- Credits Hosts: Stephen Hegg, Knute Berger Producer: Sara Bernard Story editor: Sarah Menzies

02/04/2025

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33 min
12/02/2025

The Forces That Carved the Columbia

The Columbia River has been carved up by more than a dozen dams over the past century. But it’s the colossal floods and lava flows from millions of years ago that truly set it on its winding path. How do we really know what we know about the Columbia? To better understand this history, Cascade PBS’s resident historian Knute Berger joined forces with geologist Nick Zentner of Nick on the Rocks in a recent episode of the Mossback’s Northwest video series. But there’s much more left to unearth. In this episode of Mossback, Berger joins co-host Stephen Hegg to discuss his decision to spend half of this past season of Mossback’s Northwest on different aspects of the Columbia River. They also dig into the massive floods and lava flows that made the Columbia River what it is today; what it was like for Berger to work with Zentner on this project and other geological inquiries over the years; and the enthusiastic response from viewers, including one observation of a mistake in the video that led Berger down an entirely new path. For more on all things Mossback, visit CascadePBS.org. To reach Knute Berger directly, drop him a line at knute.berger@cascadepbs.org. And if you’d like an exclusive weekly newsletter from Knute, where he offers greater insight into his latest historical discoveries, become a Cascade PBS member today. --- Credits Hosts: Stephen Hegg, Knute Berger Producer: Sara Bernard Story editor: Sarah Menzies

12/02/2025

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29 min
24/05/2024

The Wood That Won the Wars

Sitka trees were key military materiel in both World Wars. Knute Berger shares how the need for wood and the women who harvested it changed logging. In the early 20th century, Sitka spruce, a giant conifer native to the Pacific Northwest, became known as an excellent material for building airplanes. As a result, when the U.S. entered World War I, the demand for that wood exploded. The American military set up what was called the “Spruce Division” and brought in soldiers to Washington forests to help manage a growing industry. Over time, as the demand for spruce continued into World War II, women began to fill tens of thousands of timber jobs traditionally held by men. Cascade PBS’s resident historian Knute Berger dug into these overlapping histories in a recent episode of the Mossback’s Northwest video series, but there is far more left to explore. In this episode of Mossback, Berger joins co-host Stephen Hegg to discuss the unique characteristics of Sitka spruce and why the U.S. military was so interested in it; labor strife and the role of unions in the Northwest logging industry in the early 20th century; the entrance of female workers into the lumber camps and the rampant sexism they sometimes faced; and the larger impact that all of these forces had on the Pacific Northwest and its timber business. For more on all things Mossback, visit CascadePBS.org. To reach Knute Berger directly, drop him a line at knute.berger@cascadepbs.org. And if you’d like an exclusive weekly newsletter from Knute, where he offers greater insight into his latest historical discoveries, become a Cascade PBS member today. --- Credits Hosts: Stephen Hegg, Knute Berger Producer: Sara Bernard Story editor: Sarah Menzies

24/05/2024

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32 min
31/05/2024

Meet Seattle's Bird Woman

Adelaide Lowry Pollock was an educator, birder, author and believer in the power of civic participation at the turn of the 20th century. In the early 1900s, pioneering educator Adelaide Lowry Pollock was the first woman to be named principal of a Seattle grade school. A lifelong love of birds dominated her curriculum. Her students went on birding field trips, mapped birds’ nests, researched bird behaviors, learned bird songs and even built elaborate birdhouses. Ultimately, though, Pollock was interested in more than just the birds themselves. For her, studying birds was a way to encourage both environmental preservation and civic participation. Cascade PBS’s resident historian Knute Berger profiled Pollock and her legacy in a recent episode of the Mossback’s Northwest video series, but there’s more left to explore. In this episode of Mossback, Berger joins co-host Stephen Hegg to discuss how the seed for this story was planted by a single photograph; what those bird-centered classroom activities entailed; what the study of birds truly meant to Pollock; and the chapter of her life following her time in Seattle’s schools, which included teaching citizenship classes for soldiers overseas and attempting to improve the lives of both retired teachers and juvenile offenders. Plus, Berger and Hegg take a field trip to Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Queen Anne, one of the places Pollock’s students studied birds, to imagine what the place would have been like in Pollock’s day and do a little birdwatching themselves. For more on all things Mossback, visit CascadePBS.org. To reach Knute Berger directly, drop him a line at knute.berger@cascadepbs.org. And if you’d like an exclusive weekly newsletter from Knute, where he offers greater insight into his latest historical discoveries, become a Cascade PBS member today. --- Credits Hosts: Stephen Hegg, Knute Berger Producer: Sara Bernard Story editor: Sarah Menzies

31/05/2024

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32 min
19/02/2025

How Horseless Carriages Took Off

At the turn of the 20th century, almost no one had a car in Seattle. There weren’t traffic laws or paved roads, and at first, only the wealthiest people could own these “horseless carriages.” Within a couple of decades, though, cars were everywhere, and Pacific Northwesterners were using their cars for all kinds of intrepid adventures, from long-haul road trips to mountainside camping. Cascade PBS’s resident historian Knute Berger took a look at early car culture in our region in a recent episode of the Mossback’s Northwest video series, but there’s much more left to explore. In this episode of Mossback, Berger joins co-host Stephen Hegg to discuss when the very first cars showed up in Washington and what those cars were like. They dig into some of the earliest (and most treacherous) road trips; the day cars were turned away from Mount Rainier National Park; pioneering women drivers of the era; and the newfangled camping gear that manufacturers raced to produce for the region’s ever-outdoorsy drivers. For more on all things Mossback, visit CascadePBS.org. To reach Knute Berger directly, drop him a line at knute.berger@cascadepbs.org. And if you’d like an exclusive weekly newsletter from Knute, where he offers greater insight into his latest historical discoveries, become a Cascade PBS member today. --- Credits Hosts: Stephen Hegg, Knute Berger Producer: Sara Bernard Story editor: Sarah Menzies

19/02/2025

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36 min
26/04/2024

Happy as a Clam in the Pacific Northwest

Folk songs, clam bakes, aquaculture and more: Knute Berger explores the myriad ways clams have shaped our region’s culture. Clams are among the Pacific Northwest’s most vital natural resources. From thousands of years of aquaculture to folk songs and university mascots, the celebration and consumption of clams permeates local food and culture. Cascade PBS’ resident historian Knute Berger dug up some of these stories in a recent episode of the Mossback’s Northwest video series, but there’s more left to uncover. In this episode of Mossback, Berger and co-host Stephen Hegg discuss their own experiences digging for clams on the Washington coast; Indigenous knowledge and early settlers’ experiences with (and reliance on) clams; the lasting impact of Seattle restaurateur Ivar Haglund; and the strange but mighty geoduck. Plus, they take a field trip to Ivar’s Acres of Clams on the Seattle waterfront to eat clam chowder, drink clam nectar and do battle with seagulls. For more on all things Mossback, visit CascadePBS.org. To reach Knute Berger directly, drop him a line at knute.berger@cascadepbs.org. And if you’d like an exclusive weekly newsletter from Knute, where he offers greater insight into his latest historical discoveries, become a Cascade PBS member today. --- Credits Hosts: Stephen Hegg, Knute Berger Producer: Sara Bernard Story editor: Sarah Menzies

26/04/2024

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31 min
24/09/2025

Ferguson vs. Everyone: No comment

The governor’s office has been keeping communications tight. Three state politics reporters discuss the unusual lack of access and its public impact. Another surprising aspect of the first few months of the Ferguson administration was a lack of communication with the public, particularly through the press. Gov. Bob Ferguson was slow to hold weekly press conferences during the first few months of the legislative session and slow to provide reporters with information about his whereabouts. He also sent a memo to state agencies requiring all public communication to go through the governor’s office before it is released. In this episode, host Sara Bernard sits down with Cascade PBS reporter Laurel Demkovich, Washington State Standard reporter Jerry Cornfield and Axios reporter Melissa Santos to discuss the unusually limited access to the governor’s office so far, and why that matters. Despite multiple requests, Governor Ferguson’s office did not grant us an interview for this series. Read more about Governor Ferguson from reporter Laurel Demkovich here. --- Credits Reporter: Laurel Demkovich Host/Producer: Sara Bernard Story editor: Ryan Famuliner Executive producer: Sarah Menzies Production Manager: Adam Brown --- Northwest Reports is made possible by listeners like you. If you would like to join the members who help us create this series, go to cascadepbs.org/nwreports. In addition to supporting our journalism, members receive great member benefits, including Cascade PBS Passport, with extended access to an on-demand library of local and PBS favorites.

24/09/2025

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32 min
26/03/2025

The 1800s Influencer Who Made Tacoma Famous

In the second half of the 19th century, a businessman named George Francis Train rose to prominence through his success with global shipping and trade. As his wealth grew, so did his obsession with himself, and his tireless self-promotion made him a social media phenomenon of his age. Train is perhaps best known for the alleged relationship between his world travels and the Jules Verne bestseller Around the World in 80 Days, and less well-known for his attempts to beat subsequent travel records through a partnership with a newspaper in Tacoma. Cascade PBS’s resident historian Knute Berger shone a spotlight on Train and his adventures in the Pacific Northwest in a recent episode of the Mossback’s Northwest video series, but there’s much more left to uncover. In this episode of Mossback, Berger joins co-host Stephen Hegg to more deeply explore Train’s eccentric and monomaniacal exploits. Berger digs into Train’s obsessions, travels and unique psychology; reads aloud from some of his writings; explains how he coined the still-beloved Tacoma moniker “City of Destiny”; and ponders Train’s uncanny resemblance to some contemporary figures. For more on all things Mossback, visit CascadePBS.org. To reach Knute Berger directly, drop him a line at knute.berger@cascadepbs.org. And if you’d like an exclusive weekly newsletter from Knute, where he offers greater insight into his latest historical discoveries, become a Cascade PBS member today. --- Credits Hosts: Stephen Hegg, Knute Berger Producer: Sara Bernard Story editor: Sarah Menzies

26/03/2025

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32 min
01/02/2022

Where Did All the Sea Monsters Go?

Headlines about sea creatures were once a regular occurrence around the Salish Sea. We take a deep dive into local lore. When it comes to cryptids, there is one creature that puts the Pacific Northwest on the map: Sasquatch. But Bigfoot hasn’t always had a monopoly on mysterious sightings in the area. Sea monsters long inspired horror and fascination around the Salish Sea and on the Pacific Coast. Large creatures in the waters of the Northwest are depicted in Indigenous artworks from precolonial times, and frontier newspapers regularly carried tales of frightening sea creatures. The tales continued well into the 20th century. As recently as the 1960s, Seattle residents claimed to have seen a sea monster in the waters of Lake Washington. But if not monstrous beings, what were people seeing? That is a question that host Knute Berger touched on in a recent episode of his Mossback’s Northwest video series, but there is much more to discuss. For this episode of the Mossback podcast, Berger and co-host Sara Bernard unearth some of the region’s many sea monster headlines and discuss how mysterious the ocean really was before oceanography and resource exploitation made the creatures of the deep more familiar. Before listening, we suggest you watch the original Mossback's Northwest episode about sea monsters here. --- Credits Hosts: Sara Bernard, Knute Berger Editorial assistance: Mason Bryan Executive producer: Mark Baumgarten

01/02/2022

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31 min
05/03/2025

Racism, History and the Great Outdoors

A few seasons ago, the Mossback’s Northwest video series profiled Catherine Montgomery, an early 20th-century wilderness advocate who has been dubbed “the Mother of the Pacific Crest Trail.” But after the video aired, a viewer reached out with some more information: Catherine Montgomery, a “progressive” of her time, expressed extremely racist views. This, unfortunately, isn’t a new story. Many American heroes, including in the context of wilderness access and preservation, perpetuated racism and exclusion. Cascade PBS’s resident historian Knute Berger invited Alison Mariella Désir, host of the Cascade PBS video series Out & Back, to join him in an episode of Mossback’s Northwest to discuss these uncomfortable and lesser-known truths. In this episode of Mossback, Berger joins Désir and co-host Stephen Hegg to dig even deeper into the big questions of wilderness access: How many celebrated environmentalists, from John Muir to John James Audubon, did and said unconscionable things? What do we do with this knowledge? And what impact has this history of bigotry had on the experiences of people of color in outdoor recreation today? Plus, Désir shares stories rarely told about the ways people of color have always participated in – and championed access to – the great outdoors. For more on all things Mossback, visit CascadePBS.org. To reach Knute Berger directly, drop him a line at knute.berger@cascadepbs.org. And if you’d like an exclusive weekly newsletter from Knute, where he offers greater insight into his latest historical discoveries, become a Cascade PBS member today. --- Credits Hosts: Stephen Hegg, Knute Berger Producer: Sara Bernard Story editor: Sarah Menzies

05/03/2025

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32 min

At Cascade PBS, we believe that an informed public is essential to solving the challenges of our time. As the Pacific Northwest’s independent, reader-supported, nonprofit news outlet, Cascade PBS strives to provide our audience with the facts and analysis they need to intelligently participate in civic discourse, and to create a more just, equitable and sustainable society.

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