The Pulse: Grounds for Change
Sue Bird on stage, Starbucks in retreat.
By Sarah Stackhouse September 26, 2025
Fall is officially here, but are we feeling it yet? It’s certainly getting colder. Maybe you’re shutting the windows at night or noticing all the pumpkins at the grocery stores. Some of us are pulling out scarves, others are clinging to late-summer light. I guess the question is, are you Team Fall or Team Endless Summer?
Here’s what’s happening around town…
Seattle’s very own Bill Nye just got his Hollywood star.
Macrina has fig hand pies on the menu.
This King 5 News throwback is totally bonkers. I love it! Shout out to the classic dad rocking those super light blue jeans.
YouTube darlings TwoSet Violin are bringing their snappy, virtuosic comedy to Benaroya on Oct. 17.
Lake City is losing its Fred Meyer.
Hitchcock Hotel at Can Can promises death defying dance, sultry songs, and shimmying show girls.
The North Cascades are going glacierless. Not a fun read, but an important one.
Seattle is hosting the AeroPress Championship next week. Watch coffee nerds pull their way to glory.
Have you heard of this incredible food forest in Beacon Hill?
Starbucks is closing hundreds of stores and laying off 900 workers. The Seattle Reserve Roastery and the Reserve store are both already gone.
There’s a Benson Boone look-alike contest happening at the International Fountain on Oct. 4. Winners really should have to pull off a backflip.
Queuing this pho up for the season.
ICE arrested an Oregon firefighter mid-blaze last month. He has since been released, but the whole thing is a mess.
The Coast Salish Museum of Fine Arts opens The Land Remembers on Oct. 3. The exhibition explores Indigenous connections to the land through bone, cedar, beadwork, ceramics, and poetry.
Anyone going to see Second Acts Live with Sue Bird at McCaw Hall next week? It sounds so compelling.
This is a huge loss for local journalism.
KOMO is bringing Jimmy Kimmel Live! back—maybe they heard all the protesting.
Follow Us
Washington’s Gender Wage Gap is Widening, Study Finds
Women earned $18,545 less than men in 2024, one of the widest disparities in the country.
The wage gap between men and women in Washington is the second widest in the country. An analysis released in March from the National Partnership for Women and Families found that women in Washington earned a median income $18,545 less than their male counterparts, the largest gap in the country second only to Utah. For…
A Letter to the Community
For more than a decade, our competitor Seattle Met has been a meaningful and vibrant voice in our city’s media landscape. Its journalists, editors, and contributors have told important stories, celebrated our culture here, and helped define what it means to live in Seattle during a period of extraordinary growth and change. News that folks…
More Than a Watch Party
At the Museum of Flight, Seattle celebrated Artemis II with real ties to the mission.
A moon mission lifted off in Florida on Wednesday, but one of the most interesting places to see it was Seattle. On April 1, the Museum of Flight hosted a free public watch party for Artemis II, NASA’s first crewed mission around the moon in more than 50 years. The event included a live broadcast,…
Rearview Mirror: Cherries, Darts, and What’s Next at Seattle Rep
Things I did, saw, ate, learned, or read in the past week (or so).
The Cherry Story This week, I talked with author Livia Blackburne and Seattle-based illustrator Julia Kuo about their beautiful new picture book, Bing’s Cherries. The story traces the origins of the Bing cherry through a young girl imagining the life of Ah Bing, the Chinese immigrant who cultivated the fruit. It moves between fact and…