Doomed Planet

#139: Elite experimental private liberal arts school Hampshire College kicked the bucket this year. Famous alumni include corporate filmmaker Ken Burns, beloved musician Elliott Smith and the co-founder of a holistic detergent brand that sold out to Unilever. PLUS! EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW! "Student XYZ" from Hampshire's last class TELLS ALL!

#138: The Seattle Anti-Surveillance Society (SASS) held their first meeting at an art gallery on Capitol Hill in 2002. Their goal was to abolish CCTV cameras. SASS was science fiction - a subplot from the shot-on-video dystopian horror comedy Hell Hole High. In 2026 the complaints of SASS seem quaint. Could SASS have predicted that cartoonishly evil billionaires would be selling governments AI-powered genocide-enabling software? Drones that can chase you through a forest and eliminate you with a shot to the back of your head? Armies of lethal robot dogs? Millions of networked cameras feeding information to law enforcement and intelligence agencies? Uh oh.                    

#137: "KIM THAYILL - The creative journey of a guitare legend who redefined alternative rock" might seem like a legitimate book to those who don't recognize typos or the image of "Kim" that looks nothing like him. The cover art of this fake slop also shows that one of "Kim's" hands has a pinkie finger so small it looks like a birth defect. His thumb looks bent at a ninety degree angle. Not optimal anatomy for one of rock's great guitarists. Predatory, parasitic Amazon Inc. will do anything if it makes even one penny and that is why hideous offensive fake garbage like this is allowed on their platform.

#136: Louie Sanft's Seattle Barrel Company has a long history of environmental violations. In 2019 they were busted for a ten year scheme that illegally diverted caustic waste into Seattle's sewer system using a hidden drain. After a jury trial in Federal court, Sanft and Seattle Barrel were convicted of conspiracy, 33 counts of violating the Clean Water Act, and making false statements. Seattle Barrel is still a going concern, and the Sanft family is still very rich.

#135: Ginny Burton's mother gave her marijuana when she was 7 and soon after she was abusing meth and crack. After a lifetime of addiction and incarceration Ginny got clean, got a degree and is now a darling of right wing media. Like unsavory local characters Kevin Dahlgren and Andrea Suarez, Ginny Burton creates online engagement by filming homeless people during their lowest moments. Ginny's associate and fellow ex-con Alex Peder runs Corrio, a player in the exploitative for-profit prison telecommunications industry. Ginny's kooky pro-cop story of recovery and its "pull yourself up by your bootstraps and say no to methadone" narrative is eaten up like candy by right wing media outlets like unDivided with Brandi Kruse, Sinclair Broadcasting's KOMO and Fox News.

#131: A dredge through the Puget Sound Business Journal's "Seattle's Power 100." Former real estate mogul Martin Selig (he developed Columbia Center - Seattle's tallest building, and once owned much of Belltown's commercial office space) is off the list. Also no longer on the list is Jeff Bezos, who f*cked off to Miami (party on, bro!). 

#134: PODCAST SHOUTOUT: 90s Alt-Rock superstar Billy Corgan has a new podcast called The Magnificent Others. Billy has pulled an impressive list of A and Z-list guests from the creative asylum known as the music industry to come on his show, including Nancy Wilson of Heart, guitar shred-god Steve Vai and wealthy widow Courtney Love. 

#133: Daniel House's new podcast, The Creative Asylum, has an impressive lineup of guests from the glory days of the Seattle music scene. House was in 80s grunge band Skin Yard and went on to run C/Z Records. The bands that claim that C/Z shortchanged them on royalties have yet to be interviewed for his pod, but an outstanding lineup of magnificent others have appeared to dish some dirt, including documentary filmmaker Doug Pray, grunge historian Adam Tepedelen, alleged sex pest Ken Stringfellow and original Nirvana drummer Chad Channing.      

#132: Seattle editorial cartoonist David Horsey's baby boomer centrism has long been the subject of ridicule. He's published a novel, which makes him fair game for podcasts that review ridiculous books.  

#130: The Iron Chink revolutionized the salmon canning industry. It increased cannery profits by throwing thousands of hard working Asian immigrants out of work. The machine made inventor Edmund A. Smith rich. Smith would not live to enjoy his wealth. He perished in a fiery car accident while on his way to the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition.