Will James
@willjames.bsky.social
Seattle journalist trying to understand many of the worst things
Currently making audio documentaries with KUOW
Podcasts:
Lost Patients (2024)
The Walk Home (2022)
Outsiders (2020)
Married to @sydbrownstone.bsky.social
https://www.will-james.work/
Currently making audio documentaries with KUOW
Podcasts:
Lost Patients (2024)
The Walk Home (2022)
Outsiders (2020)
Married to @sydbrownstone.bsky.social
https://www.will-james.work/
Pinned
Will James
@willjames.bsky.social
· Apr 15
Nominees in Docs, News, Public Service, Podcast Announced - The Peabody Awards
The Peabody Awards and Center for Media & Social Impact Launch We Disrupt This Broadcast, New Podcast Featuring Interviews with Quinta Brunson, Damon Lindelof, Ramy Youssef, Pamela Adlon, Charlie Broo...
peabodyawards.com
It is surreal to announce that Lost Patients is nominated for a Peabody Award alongside work by This American Life, Serial, NPR, The New Yorker, and many journalists we admire.
@sydbrownstone.bsky.social @esmyjimenez.bsky.social @kuow.org @seattletimes-rss.bsky.social @peabodyawards.bsky.social
@sydbrownstone.bsky.social @esmyjimenez.bsky.social @kuow.org @seattletimes-rss.bsky.social @peabodyawards.bsky.social
Reposted by Will James
A huge bookstore with a tiny/nonexistent horror section is a shitty, incomplete bookstore. I said what I said.
November 24, 2025 at 5:37 PM
A huge bookstore with a tiny/nonexistent horror section is a shitty, incomplete bookstore. I said what I said.
This is the sharpest analysis of the Olivia Nuzzi saga.
As institutional journalism has collapsed, individual journalists have basically had two paths for scraping by: a "prestige play" (hounding for prizes) or an "attention play" (social media celebrity).
Both are corrupt in different ways.
As institutional journalism has collapsed, individual journalists have basically had two paths for scraping by: a "prestige play" (hounding for prizes) or an "attention play" (social media celebrity).
Both are corrupt in different ways.
November 21, 2025 at 7:36 PM
This is the sharpest analysis of the Olivia Nuzzi saga.
As institutional journalism has collapsed, individual journalists have basically had two paths for scraping by: a "prestige play" (hounding for prizes) or an "attention play" (social media celebrity).
Both are corrupt in different ways.
As institutional journalism has collapsed, individual journalists have basically had two paths for scraping by: a "prestige play" (hounding for prizes) or an "attention play" (social media celebrity).
Both are corrupt in different ways.
One of my favorite things I learned while talking with students at @famu1887.bsky.social this week: At its founding, this historically black university was relegated to a former plantation infested with rattlesnakes. So they embraced the rattlesnake as their mascot.
November 20, 2025 at 10:00 PM
One of my favorite things I learned while talking with students at @famu1887.bsky.social this week: At its founding, this historically black university was relegated to a former plantation infested with rattlesnakes. So they embraced the rattlesnake as their mascot.
Reposted by Will James
"Some people in the industry don't think ethics and rules apply to them—due to their desire for power and influence, pursuit of ‘friendship’ with sources, or a combination of some or all of those things." - @karenho.bsky.social.
www.thehandbasket.co/p/moral-rot-...
www.thehandbasket.co/p/moral-rot-...
Moral rot in elite journalism is killing the whole field
The Nuzzi/RFK Jr. mess and the revelation of Epstein’s journo pals lay bare a profound moral absence at the heart of our free press.
www.thehandbasket.co
November 19, 2025 at 6:27 PM
"Some people in the industry don't think ethics and rules apply to them—due to their desire for power and influence, pursuit of ‘friendship’ with sources, or a combination of some or all of those things." - @karenho.bsky.social.
www.thehandbasket.co/p/moral-rot-...
www.thehandbasket.co/p/moral-rot-...
This election season, a common perception has reasserted itself: that homelessness and public disorder are problems of big, progressive cities.
There's another way to view it: These are *American* problems that tend to pool in certain spots, and end up being disproportionately borne by big cities.
There's another way to view it: These are *American* problems that tend to pool in certain spots, and end up being disproportionately borne by big cities.
In Seattle, you can pass by corners where dozens of people are buying and selling fentanyl and stolen goods out in the open.
I asked an outreach worker what we’re seeing. His answer may be the most articulate description I’ve ever heard of the pockets of poverty/disorder on display in cities:
I asked an outreach worker what we’re seeing. His answer may be the most articulate description I’ve ever heard of the pockets of poverty/disorder on display in cities:
November 4, 2025 at 7:56 PM
This election season, a common perception has reasserted itself: that homelessness and public disorder are problems of big, progressive cities.
There's another way to view it: These are *American* problems that tend to pool in certain spots, and end up being disproportionately borne by big cities.
There's another way to view it: These are *American* problems that tend to pool in certain spots, and end up being disproportionately borne by big cities.
During your walk, run, chores, or commute today, pop in your earbuds and listen to this piece from my colleague @lizamelia.bsky.social (who edited Lost Patients).
It's the most intimate look at immigrant detention I've heard. It takes place at Tacoma's ICE facility.
It's the most intimate look at immigrant detention I've heard. It takes place at Tacoma's ICE facility.
She spent her wedding day in Tacoma’s ICE detention center, as policy changes swept through
"Inside ICE Detention: A Documentary" investigates Tacoma's immigration detention center during a time of swift policy changes under the Trump administration.
www.kuow.org
October 31, 2025 at 7:07 PM
During your walk, run, chores, or commute today, pop in your earbuds and listen to this piece from my colleague @lizamelia.bsky.social (who edited Lost Patients).
It's the most intimate look at immigrant detention I've heard. It takes place at Tacoma's ICE facility.
It's the most intimate look at immigrant detention I've heard. It takes place at Tacoma's ICE facility.
Reposted by Will James
5 yrs after a Black teen was killed at CHOP, city officials + some protesters say he was firing a gun before he was shot.
There’s no evidence of that in videos we’ve reviewed, including those filed by city to defend itself in a lawsuit from the boy’s father.
www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news...
There’s no evidence of that in videos we’ve reviewed, including those filed by city to defend itself in a lawsuit from the boy’s father.
www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news...
New Seattle CHOP videos contradict city’s narratives on teen death
A father’s civil suit reveals videos that could change how the public views the unsolved, highly politicized death of his son. A trial set for next week could be the public’s last chance for answers.
www.seattletimes.com
October 26, 2025 at 7:50 PM
5 yrs after a Black teen was killed at CHOP, city officials + some protesters say he was firing a gun before he was shot.
There’s no evidence of that in videos we’ve reviewed, including those filed by city to defend itself in a lawsuit from the boy’s father.
www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news...
There’s no evidence of that in videos we’ve reviewed, including those filed by city to defend itself in a lawsuit from the boy’s father.
www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news...
We dug through many hundreds of pages of court documents to find some new clues in the unsolved fatal shooting of Antonio Mays Jr. at CHOP, an unhealed wound from the protests of 2020 in Seattle.
New Seattle CHOP videos contradict city’s narratives on teen death
New Seattle CHOP videos contradict city’s narratives on teen death
A father’s civil suit reveals videos that could change how the public views the unsolved, highly politicized death of his son. A trial set for next week could be the public’s last chance for answers.
www.seattletimes.com
October 26, 2025 at 5:14 PM
We dug through many hundreds of pages of court documents to find some new clues in the unsolved fatal shooting of Antonio Mays Jr. at CHOP, an unhealed wound from the protests of 2020 in Seattle.
Every few days I think about a 22-year-old I met last year at Seattle's open-air drug market at 12th and Jackson.
As our interview wrapped up, he urged me to dig into the foster care system and what it does to people like him.
It is comforting to know that @claudiarowe.bsky.social did just that.
As our interview wrapped up, he urged me to dig into the foster care system and what it does to people like him.
It is comforting to know that @claudiarowe.bsky.social did just that.
On this week's @niemanstoryboard.org podcast, I spoke with @claudiarowe.bsky.social, author of “Wards of the State: The Long Shadow of American Foster Care,” which has been named a finalist for the 2025 National Book Awards.
niemanstoryboard.org/2025/10/23/n...
@nationalbook.bsky.social #booksky
niemanstoryboard.org/2025/10/23/n...
@nationalbook.bsky.social #booksky
National Book Award finalist Claudia Rowe on writing about teens and the foster care system - Nieman Storyboard
The author of ‘Wards of the State’ on preparing sources to be part of a book and covering the foster care system-to-incarceration pipeline
niemanstoryboard.org
October 25, 2025 at 8:28 PM
Every few days I think about a 22-year-old I met last year at Seattle's open-air drug market at 12th and Jackson.
As our interview wrapped up, he urged me to dig into the foster care system and what it does to people like him.
It is comforting to know that @claudiarowe.bsky.social did just that.
As our interview wrapped up, he urged me to dig into the foster care system and what it does to people like him.
It is comforting to know that @claudiarowe.bsky.social did just that.
Did the attention economy make us weird? Or did it just expose us to how weird so many of us already were?
One of my main issues with Bluesky is that 50% of the accounts on here are extraterrestrials.
Next time somebody asks me what Bluesky is like, I'll send them this
October 17, 2025 at 5:47 PM
Did the attention economy make us weird? Or did it just expose us to how weird so many of us already were?
One of my main issues with Bluesky is that 50% of the accounts on here are extraterrestrials.
Next time somebody asks me what Bluesky is like, I'll send them this
October 16, 2025 at 7:54 PM
One of my main issues with Bluesky is that 50% of the accounts on here are extraterrestrials.
Genuine question:
Why haven't we seen more organized and widespread opposition to the attention economy and what it's wrought in so many aspects of our lives: political polarization and radicalization, attention spans, childhood development, losing loved ones to conspiracies, screen addiction?
Why haven't we seen more organized and widespread opposition to the attention economy and what it's wrought in so many aspects of our lives: political polarization and radicalization, attention spans, childhood development, losing loved ones to conspiracies, screen addiction?
October 13, 2025 at 9:27 PM
Genuine question:
Why haven't we seen more organized and widespread opposition to the attention economy and what it's wrought in so many aspects of our lives: political polarization and radicalization, attention spans, childhood development, losing loved ones to conspiracies, screen addiction?
Why haven't we seen more organized and widespread opposition to the attention economy and what it's wrought in so many aspects of our lives: political polarization and radicalization, attention spans, childhood development, losing loved ones to conspiracies, screen addiction?
I shudder to imagine what a panicked, scrambling AI industry is about to inflict on human civilization in an attempt to make the math work on this.
I was already a hard AI-skeptic but this cements my long suspicion that there is no feasible path to anything close to return on invested capital for these data centers. Tech would need 15 to 25 times current AI revenues within the next 2-3 years just to break even. Not financially viable.
October 11, 2025 at 5:32 PM
I shudder to imagine what a panicked, scrambling AI industry is about to inflict on human civilization in an attempt to make the math work on this.
Several of the conservative influencers meeting with Trump, including Choe, are from Seattle.
Mining Seattle and other blue cities for shock content has been a reliable formula for success and power among conservative influencers for years.
Some reporting that keeps being relevant:
Mining Seattle and other blue cities for shock content has been a reliable formula for success and power among conservative influencers for years.
Some reporting that keeps being relevant:
October 8, 2025 at 11:46 PM
Several of the conservative influencers meeting with Trump, including Choe, are from Seattle.
Mining Seattle and other blue cities for shock content has been a reliable formula for success and power among conservative influencers for years.
Some reporting that keeps being relevant:
Mining Seattle and other blue cities for shock content has been a reliable formula for success and power among conservative influencers for years.
Some reporting that keeps being relevant:
"Slop" is okay, but I'm really hoping "munge" catches on.
Here's Brian Eno with the most devastatingly accurate description I've yet heard of things made with generative AI:
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/03/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/03/o...
October 8, 2025 at 10:41 PM
"Slop" is okay, but I'm really hoping "munge" catches on.
Here's Brian Eno with the most devastatingly accurate description I've yet heard of things made with generative AI:
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/03/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/03/o...
October 8, 2025 at 8:18 PM
Here's Brian Eno with the most devastatingly accurate description I've yet heard of things made with generative AI:
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/03/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/03/o...
Reading @edzitron.com on how the rush to automate jobs using AI is a function of bosses being increasingly disconnected from what their companies actually produce, reducing every job to its outputs:
www.wheresyoured.at/the-case-aga...
www.wheresyoured.at/the-case-aga...
October 2, 2025 at 7:34 PM
Reading @edzitron.com on how the rush to automate jobs using AI is a function of bosses being increasingly disconnected from what their companies actually produce, reducing every job to its outputs:
www.wheresyoured.at/the-case-aga...
www.wheresyoured.at/the-case-aga...
Hearing "antifa" in the news is a trip; To me, it's such a relic of 2017-2018, when many of us covered regular right-wing protests and leftist counterprotests in the PNW.
Appreciated this necessary refresher on antifa and all the mythologizing around it by @letsgomathias.bsky.social on @kuow.org:
Appreciated this necessary refresher on antifa and all the mythologizing around it by @letsgomathias.bsky.social on @kuow.org:
What’s behind the White House’s anti-antifa order
President Trump says he is designating "Antifa" as a terrorist organization and going after its funders.
www.kuow.org
October 1, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Hearing "antifa" in the news is a trip; To me, it's such a relic of 2017-2018, when many of us covered regular right-wing protests and leftist counterprotests in the PNW.
Appreciated this necessary refresher on antifa and all the mythologizing around it by @letsgomathias.bsky.social on @kuow.org:
Appreciated this necessary refresher on antifa and all the mythologizing around it by @letsgomathias.bsky.social on @kuow.org:
Alternative view: What they actually built was a bunch of janky, addictive toys.
2025 will go down as the year when all the subtext became text
September 29, 2025 at 5:09 PM
Alternative view: What they actually built was a bunch of janky, addictive toys.
A point missing from years of “learn to code” taunts:
Building a career out of any kind of creative work requires a level of risk tolerance, scrappiness, and entrepreneurship that’s probably alien to anyone aspiring to graduate college directly into a six-figure job.
Building a career out of any kind of creative work requires a level of risk tolerance, scrappiness, and entrepreneurship that’s probably alien to anyone aspiring to graduate college directly into a six-figure job.
At what point do journalists get to start taunting tech people with “Learn to write”?
September 29, 2025 at 4:59 PM
A point missing from years of “learn to code” taunts:
Building a career out of any kind of creative work requires a level of risk tolerance, scrappiness, and entrepreneurship that’s probably alien to anyone aspiring to graduate college directly into a six-figure job.
Building a career out of any kind of creative work requires a level of risk tolerance, scrappiness, and entrepreneurship that’s probably alien to anyone aspiring to graduate college directly into a six-figure job.
At what point do journalists get to start taunting tech people with “Learn to write”?
September 29, 2025 at 4:59 PM
At what point do journalists get to start taunting tech people with “Learn to write”?
Reposted by Will James
RIP Kaleb Horton
kalebhorton.ghost.io/2025-so-far/
kalebhorton.ghost.io/2025-so-far/
September 27, 2025 at 1:01 PM
RIP Kaleb Horton
kalebhorton.ghost.io/2025-so-far/
kalebhorton.ghost.io/2025-so-far/
Many Cascade PBS journalists I admire are losing their jobs. Seattle is also losing a valuable piece of its news ecosystem. I think of the many journalists scattered throughout local newsrooms who passed through Cascade PBS/Crosscut at some point, freelanced there, or got their start there.
BREAKING: Cascade PBS, which operates the website Crosscut, is laying off 19 people, reportedly including its entire news staff. In an email to staff, CEO Rob Dunlop blamed federal cuts, saying the nonprofit is "winding down our longform, written journalism."
September 23, 2025 at 4:06 AM
Many Cascade PBS journalists I admire are losing their jobs. Seattle is also losing a valuable piece of its news ecosystem. I think of the many journalists scattered throughout local newsrooms who passed through Cascade PBS/Crosscut at some point, freelanced there, or got their start there.
If I could make people understand one thing about the computer, it would be that if a piece of information feels too good — if it has that sweet, addictive pull — there's a good chance it's bad for you.
People have come to understand this about food. Maybe they can learn the same for information.
People have come to understand this about food. Maybe they can learn the same for information.
Wrote about the week. How the shooter's ID didn't appear to matter to ppl. How the discourse takes place in very same spaces that incubate/perpetuate hate & violence. How shooters now know that their acts will be flattened, analyzed, argued over & amplified. How all of this feels so dark & poisonous
Something Is Very Wrong Online
Our political conversations take place in very same spaces that incubate and perpetuate unthinkable violence.
www.theatlantic.com
September 13, 2025 at 12:26 AM
If I could make people understand one thing about the computer, it would be that if a piece of information feels too good — if it has that sweet, addictive pull — there's a good chance it's bad for you.
People have come to understand this about food. Maybe they can learn the same for information.
People have come to understand this about food. Maybe they can learn the same for information.