Crosscut Videos

The Pacific Coast’s only indigenous oyster, the Olympia, was eaten into near-extinction. It could be making a comeback.

Tiny compared to other oysters, the Olympia was for decades raked out of Washington's beds by the ton. A local delicacy that once fueled gold diggers in California and loggers in Washington, the Olympia oyster became a major industry, yet was so tiny you could hold it between your fingertips. Invasive Japanese oysters took over its habitat, but the might Olympia might be making a comeback, thanks to interested shellfish farmers.

Molecular virologist Dr. Jesse Erasmus is part of a team at UW Medicine aiding the global effort to find a COVID-19 vaccine. The team works around the clock in the race to produce an effective vaccine at record speed, trying to do in under a year what normally can take an average of 10 to 20 years. For Erasmus, focusing on a solution is a way of coping as the world shifts around him.

Equipped with emojis, volunteers and Sunny the dog, Henry Liu delivers groceries to seniors in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District.

Before the pandemic, Liu organized Mahjong games and sent pictures of his dog, Sunny, over WeChat to help make seniors feel young and engaged with their community. When the pandemic hit, Liu, a program manager with a nonprofit that serves primarily Chinese elders, was faced with a new set of challenges as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, anti-Chinese sentiment and elderly people who were too afraid to leave their homes. Liu started organizing volunteers to deliver groceries and connect isolated seniors to essential needs.

Erin Simmons is a front-end manager at Central Market in Mill Creek, Snohomish County. Daily life at the store has changed since the COVID-19 outbreak. In addition to having new safety measures such as plexiglass at checkout stands and employees sanitizing carts, Simmons says the store's atmosphere feels tenser than before. 

Local supermarkets aren't typically thought of as dangerous places. However, during a pandemic, stores become front lines. Customers continue to shop and people need to eat, casting everyday essential workers like Simmons into cornerstones of society.

Rep. Jayapal on USPS, police protests and the 2020 election.

Wolverines return to Mt. Rainier for the first time in 100 years. Biologists are ‘cautiously optimistic’ about the future of these tenacious mammals south of I-90.