Episode 63: Podcast creator Jason Becker will change your mind about umpires
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Let’s meet the baseball nut who sticks up for the guys behind the plate that every baseball fan loves to hate. Yes, we’re talking about umpires. In this episode of the Check It Out! podcast, host Ken Harvey talks to his friend Jason Becker, creator of the . “In my book, he’s a genius, and he’s producing a fascinating podcast for the officials behind America’s favorite round-ball sport. That’s baseball, and those are umpires,” Harvey said in introducing Becker. “Fans and players often...
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Episode 62: Professor's academic research on racial strife leads to his first novel
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In Episode 62 of Sno-Isle Libraries Check It Out podcast, co-hosts Ken Harvey and Tricia Lee talk to local author Stewart Tolnay and learn how he has used his study of American racial history to create interesting fiction and nonfiction. Tolnay is a Ph.D. professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Washington. His first fiction novel, “,” features a Black Vietnam War veteran, his white girlfriend and the struggles they face as an interracial couple in Everett in 1969. Tolnay is also the author or co-author of...
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Episode 61: Peek inside the childlike mind of Chris Ballew and meet Caspar Babypants
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Part 1: You Don’t Wanna Be a Rock-and-Roll Star Chris Ballew lived the rock-and-roll life. As frontman for the late, great Presidents of the United States of America, he wrote infectious, goofy, catchy hits about “Peaches” and a “Dune Buggy” when heavy grunge dominated Seattle’s FM radio waves. He toured all over the world. He played to packed arenas and stadiums. He even won a Grammy award. But that’s the old Chris Ballew. Today,...
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Episode 60: Thanks to the internet and copious amounts of data, the future is now
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Rodney Clark helps deliver the future. As the vice president of the Worldwide Internet of Things and Mixed Reality Team, Clark and his crew work with more than 8,000 partners and clients to connect billions of everyday devices to the cloud. Sensors on stop lights, cash registers, automobiles, home appliances, exercise monitors, video doorbells. They all generate information and data that allows organizations to take action on that data and insights. “It’s a wave, it’s a reality,” Clark said. It’s no longer “the future.” “The job that I have and...
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Episode 59: If coronavirus has you worried, this good doctor reminds you you're not alone
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If you’re anxious about the global coronavirus pandemic and COVID-19, you’re not alone. In this episode of Sno-Isle Libraries , you’ll hear how a globe-trotting disaster-relief doctor loses sleep about the deadly virus that has upended our sense of “normal.” is a clinical assistant professor at Washington State University’s Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine after spending 33 years at the University of Washington School of Medicine in a similar role. In 1994, he and his wife, Debbie, founded CMRT, the nation’s first state-affiliated medical disaster response...
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Episode 58: Claudia Samano-Losada loves libraries as much as she loves her communities
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Claudia Samano Losado has many talents. Early-childhood educator. World traveler. Life coach. Recreation-center owner. Dance-movement instructor. But maybe most importantly, Losado is a fervent Oak Harbor Library supporter. “I think I’m very passionate about a lot of things, and one of my passions is to share with others and to take and give in the same way,” said Losado, a member of the library’s board. “Since I have had so much from the library I’ve wanted to give back to, and this is a very good way to give back, but not just that, to know more about the...
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Episode 57: For food critic Nancy Leson, deadlines got in the way of a good time
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Chapter 1: Meet the writer who’s not fond of writing Nancy Leson loves books, she loves libraries, she loves to talk and she loves food. That makes the Edmonds resident an ideal guest for Sno-Isle Libraries . Libraries figured large in Leson’s childhood in Philadelphia. Her family had little disposable income, so off to the library they went to borrow books and glean information from encyclopedias. These days, Leson says, the Friends of the Edmonds Library book sale is her favorite book event every year. Books and learning followed Leson into adulthood. ...
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Episode 56: A Rich Frishman picture isn't just a thousand words. It's a story unto itself.
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If a picture is worth a thousand words, some of photographs could be novels. Frishman was a news photographer for The Daily Herald in Everett and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize before he left to pursue freelance work. He knows how to tell a story with a photograph, and he still sees and tells the stories of America through his camera lens. Frishman has criss-crossed the country to chronicle its beauty and everyday life in his collections, and , and the guarded secrets in The difference between Frishman and the rest of us who think we take good pictures is how...
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Episode 55: Sometimes, a guest's gift can be hard for hosts to swallow
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admits he was a bookworm as a child. Is that why the prolific author loves insects, and loves to eat them? Sno-Isle Libraries hosts Ken Harvey, Jim Hills and Jessica Russell sat down with Gordon and chewed the fat about his reputation as “the bug chef.” And they graciously accepted the guest’s gifts, as polite hosts do. Yes. Harvey, Hills and Russell ate bugs. The Seattle-based author of “” and 19 other titles covering , and has appeared on many TV shows and headlined national festivals. When Gordon visited Sno-Isle Libraries and laid out plates of edible bugs, the hosts were...
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Episode 54: From "J.P. Patches" to elusive gorillas, this Edmonds pair has seen plenty
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If you’re old enough to remember when Seattle television was limited to a handful of broadcast channels and you remember J.P. Patches, you’ve seen the work of Sharon Howard and Mike Rosen. Howard got her start in broadcast TV in 1977 with KIRO-TV as a floor director for newscasts and “.” It was performed and broadcast live, six mornings a week. Without any rehearsal to speak of. “Well, everybody thinks that we had a script and it was planned, but our plans were to meet in the cafeteria 15 minutes before the show,” Howard said. “And we just played it by ear. Somebody would say,...
info_outlineAs the outgoing president and CEO of Washington CleanTech Alliance, Tom Ranken has been close to many of the biggest and some of the smallest businesses in the region.
What they all have in common, Ranken says, is a goal to change the world.
Ranken had plenty of business expertise - Immunex, VizX Labs, Axio Research - on his resume before joining the Alliance in 2010 as its first full-time president & CEO. At that time, the clean-tech industry trade association had 35 members. Under Ranken’s leadership, the Alliance now represents more than 400 member organizations spanning 10 states and three Canadian provinces.
“You may get into a controversy over climate change but you never get into a controversy over jobs,” Ranken says. “Everybody is interested in finding ways to get people jobs.”
The definition of what qualifies as a clean-tech job has changed over the years.
“We figure there are about 80,000 (clean-tech) jobs in the state, but the definition is important,” Ranken says. “With some of our members you see their job title or company name and you know it’s clean-tech, like a solar installer."
According to Ranken, a lot of the CleanTech Alliance members are bigger companies with a mission of being clean and green. They also find that being green makes good business and environmental sense.
Another common thread through Ranken’s career has been the Boy Scouts.
Beginning as a Cub Scout in Oak Harbor, Ranken’s Navy family meant he took scouting with him around the world. He eventually became an Eagle Scout in Virginia.
“My experience has led me to believe that the two most important lessons learned in Scouting are leadership and persistence,” Ranken says. “Most Scouts have spent more than half their lives in the program when they become Eagles, and each has persevered over personal challenges.”
As he steps away from the CleanTech Alliance, Ranken says he hopes to have more time to play music in his band named, what else, The Ranken File.
“We have three guitars, bass and drums,” Ranken says. “We are developing our own songs, but mostly we play classic rock.”
Episode length: 56:10
Episode Links
- Tom Ranken LinkedIn profile
- CleanTech Alliance
- Soundview Innovation Campus
- Cascadia CleanTech Accelerator
- Snohomish County Economic Development Initiative
- Nuclear fusion/University of Washington
- Nuclear fusion/Forbes
- University of Washington MBA program
- The Ranken File band
- Tom Ranken on the value of Boy Scouts
- Boy Scouts of America
- “Range” by David Epstein