Seattle Met

James Ross Gardner explores the Pacific Northwest’s evolving relationship with the octopus and how they’ve gone from dangerous “devil-fish” bent on drowning unsuspecting sea goers to intensely curious, suction-cupped wonders. With nine brains — one in their head and one in each of their eight arms — octopuses are thought to be the most intelligent invertebrates on earth, capable of deep connection with humans.

“He was a convicted felon who found a niche in Seattle’s construction boom. As the region’s fortunes rose and fell—and rose again—so did his. Then a fatal boating accident came for Michael Powers’s fairy-tale ending.”

“The Tacoma Refugee Choir formed to reach out to the most vulnerable. Its founder didn’t anticipate its impact on her—or her city.”

After summiting Washington state’s Vesper Peak on a day hike in August 2018, Sam Sayers disappeared. At Seattle Met, Allison Williams reports on the conspiracy and true-crime enthusiasts, the social media frenzy, and the desperate search for a woman who hasn’t been seen since.

“When I tell Seattle music critic Charles R. Cross that I’m writing about the Dave Matthews Band, he immediately quips, ‘Why? Did you lose a bet with your editor?’”

Before Info Wars or Pizzagate, a right-wing conspiracy theory led to the murder of a prominent Seattle lawyer.

Before Russian espionage became part of our daily news diet, Russia was already working to infiltrate American politics and life, and few Americans noticed that its undercover agents lived among us.

“Through the years, I stopped feeling pressured to either be less Japanese or more Japanese, and decided just to be. It became easier when I found someone who helped me remain intact.” Hayat Norimine describes what it was like to grow up as an only child in a Japanese-Syrian household in Pullman, a town in the Palouse region of Washington State.

On the surprising social arrangements and habits of crows, who recognize and remember individual people and hold funerals to honor their dead — a phenomenon that is helping scientists like Kaeli Swift to understand how intelligent creatures process death. Feed a crow and she will gift you with keys and candy — tokens of her appreciation. Treat her poorly and she and her corvid compatriots may mob you on sight.

Eva Holland talks to the survivors and explores the aftermath of the Tunnel Creek avalanche — the tragedy that inspired “Snow Fall” — five years after a massive snow slide claimed the lives of three men.