Episode 4: Parallel Society

KNKX Public Radio and The Seattle Times want to share a new podcast: The Walk Home. Listen to the first episode here. To get new episodes as they come out, look for The Walk Home wherever you get your podcasts or visit thewalkhomepodcast.org.

This series started with Jessica. We find out what happened to her.

What’s with all the trash? Should you give cash to someone who asks for it? We took your questions about homelessness to the people best equipped to respond: those who are homeless themselves.

Olympia’s response to homelessness defied conventions. Did it work? A year later, we look at the city’s results and whether they point to a way forward.

Stay tuned for a three-episode finale that completes the story we started telling you early this year. The first of those episodes drops Oct. 7.

When the novel coronavirus outbreak hits Olympia, it arrives in the middle of a "state of emergency" around homelessness. What happens to people surviving outside when the government says to stay at home? This crossover episode with the KNKX podcast Transmission looks at the effects of the pandemic on the homeless population.

Does something about Olympia attract desperate people from all over? We examine the “magnet theory” of homelessness.

The Outsiders team holds a live event to explain how we made the series and what we learned. We answer listeners’ questions: Are some people homeless by choice? After a year of reporting, do we feel society is any closer to solving homelessness?

Homelessness divides Olympia and forces people to re-examine their politics. Emotions converge on an encampment under the Fourth Avenue Bridge.

Sam Miller can help us understand how addiction and homelessness intersect because he’s lived them both. Plus he can make us laugh. He points to one reason he was able to overcome homelessness while many others get trapped.