Seattle’s Weird Flyers, Blood Testing Sample Concerns, and Jane Says Goodbye

0:00Long time Seattle partners, PCC community markets and Grand Central Bakery came together with a simple goal to make a better pizza. One that celebrates their deep roots and shared high standards of quality from sourcing to service. The dough is made using organic Pacific Northwest grown and milled Edison flour from Kernspring mills and 100% olive oil from Sega Hills. It bakes into a crust that's nutty, buttery and flavorful. Pick up a fresh hot slice at PCC's Deli or bring home a taken bake to taste this delicious local collaboration. This is CityCast Seattle. I'm Jane C.Hoo and here's what Seattle's talking about. I can't believe it, but this is my last episode. Creative producer Sam J. Leeds and Liam Billingham are going to join me to talk about their favorite flyers around town and reflect on the last year that we've spent building this show.

1:04And for our CityCast Seattle neighbors, we'll talk about our perfect Seattle days in our bonus segment. But first, blood samples from Seattle clinics are now being sent to Texas for testing, which has some locals concerned about medical data falling into the wrong hands. Here to tell us more is Seattle Gay News' Madison Jones. Welcome back to the show Madison. Hi, Jane. Thanks for having me again. Of course. Okay. So, which clinics does this apply to? And what kind of tester are we talking here? Yeah. So, specifically, we had the Seattle LGBTQ Center reach out to us, the executive director, letting us know that there had been this change. Essentially, the Department of Health had gone to them saying that they were looking to cut costs as far as the processing of HIV and STI tests. Okay. So, they had decided to opt for the Center of Disease Detection Facility, which is run by LabCorp down in San Antonio, Texas.

2:04Where were they being sent before? Here within the county. Okay. Okay. So, it was like being done here in the state and now we're having the samples being sent out of state to Texas. And generally speaking, yeah, like who is coming into this clinic for testing? Like how many samples are we talking? It is definitely one of the most prominent facilities in the city and in Capitol Hill, the city's LGBT Queue neighborhood where folks go to get these tests. So, I think this story is concerning folks because of the fact that the Trump administration and red states across the country have been very aggressive about collecting data, particularly on transgender people and patients who live here in the state of Washington. You know, we're very fortunate that our state representatives like our attorney general, Nick Brown, our governor, have been very on the ball about passing legislation and challenging

3:06the federal government in court to make sure that this data isn't given away. But if the data ends up being collected in Texas, lab court is a corporation that has a reputation of being very LGBT positive still if the attorney general of Texas or the federal government goes to Texas to this facility and says, hey, we want this information. I think people's concerns with that is reasonable. My first thought of on rating this piece was I would hope that HIPAA would protect some people, but I suppose maybe there's a chance this information could be subpoenaed even just anonymously. I don't know. Have you heard from folks or advocates who are concerned about this about what avenues would be used to try and get this information? Yeah. So, HIPAA for folks who aren't familiar with what HIPAA is, HIPAA is, there's actually both federal and state level HIPAA laws, but in a nutshell, HIPAA at the federal level is

4:06there to protect patient information and identity, making sure that medical professionals and stuff aren't sharing personal information. But there are exceptions to that, including research purposes and also like government subpoenas and stuff. So these instances where, for example, the attorney general of Texas was trying to get information regarding transgender patients in Texas and the Texas Supreme Court ruled in favor of the attorney general. So all of these LGBT organizations in Texas were legally required to give over this patient information to the attorney general. So HIPAA as a general thing is great, but from my understanding, HIPAA does not protect when the government gets involved like that. So I know that the state made this change because they wanted to keep costs down. Do we know how much of a cost difference we're talking here?

5:07And also what is a bigger picture in terms of why this has occurred? Like why is it suddenly more expensive to test here than in Texas? It's a good question. We reached out to the DOH and we had one of their public information officers give us an explanation. He just said that it was a significant enough difference that it made sense. And I suppose in normal circumstances, how big of a deal would it be to have this be outsourced to another state? But we don't live under particularly normal circumstances, I think, when we're considering how, especially the state of Texas, how aggressive local and state level politicians have been regarding this. Yeah, even if you just consider the logistics of transportation, it's wild to me that it could be that much cheaper. Just because you know, it's like you had to keep these samples relatively cold, I'm assuming.

6:08The difference of being able to test them somewhere in state versus Texas, like the transportation, how far you're actually having to transport them is so much further that yeah, I'd be really interested in the economics of that, but it kind of makes sense that maybe the DOH wasn't super forthcoming with all of that information right off the bat. So Madison, I know it's been a couple of weeks since you first reported on this. Have there been any updates or changes or I mean, are advocates looking for ways to try and get this change? Yeah, well, so the Seattle LGBTQ Center had put out a statement after we had published the story regarding the situation. Their hands are a little bit tied because of the fact that they're dependent on the Department of Health, Washington Department of Health to give them funding for this and help them run their facility. So at the end of the day, if it's what the Department of Health wants, they can't really say no, you know, they have to continue providing the service to the community.

7:12And I suppose it's better to still have folks able to get testing, even if the results are going to Texas than not at all. But at this point, we haven't heard anything else regarding the story, but we'll keep our eyes open. I wish there was more to say regarding the matter, but at the end of the day, it's kind of outlapped to the Washington Department of Health and what they want to do. Absolutely. Well, Madison Jones, thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you, Jane. Appreciate it. We're going to take a break and we come back. I am Liam and I are going to talk about our favorite flyers we've seen around town. Calling all bookworms and scenophiles joins SIFS book club. It's a new, bi-monthly screening and meet up for people who want to nerd out about books and film together. For the inaugural SIFS book club, we're reading Stephen King's carry and then watching

8:15Brian DePalma's 1976 adaptation of the movie on the big screen on Sunday, October 11th at 3.30 p.m. at SIFS cinema uptown. Be sure to arrive early and check out the vendors who are going to be tabling in the lobby, which includes local artist Chloe Ladwig and Max B, who are going to be selling prints, stickers and more featuring the carry white. And afterwards, we're going to be heading to the traveling goat for an informal book club discussion. If you didn't read the book, that's okay too. You can still join us. Again, this is Sunday, October 11th at 3.30 p.m. at SIFS cinema uptown in Loracmean and tickets are $7 for SIFS members, $12 for non-members and you can go to sif.net to get your tickets now. A piece of Seattle culture I've always loved is our flyer game. My neighborhood is generally pretty quiet, but our street is full of signs on every post.

9:17And I feel like it's just like a really fun analog way to leave messages for your neighbors. So joining me to talk about our favorites that we've seen around town and what makes a good flyer. Creative producer Sam J. Leeds. Hi, Sam. Hi, Jane. Creative producer Liam Billingham. Hello, Liam. I will remember you. Liam has been singing this all week. You guys in every meeting with had. It's been. It was either that or that green day song. Another turn of point, but I decided to go to the town of McLaughlin. Oh, man. I hope you all like my false set of the home. That was beautiful, Liam. Thank you. Okay. So we were talking about flyers. This came up in our morning meeting. We've seen a lot of good flyers in our time around Seattle. Do you have any favorites that come to mind? I feel like the classic in my mind is gaze eating garlic bread in the park. So I think this predates Liam, but Liam's probably heard us talk about this enough. It has come up once or twice for people who aren't familiar.

10:21There's a flyer put up. I believe now two, three years ago, it simply said gaze eating garlic bread in the park, B-Y-O-G-B being bring your own garlic bread. People did show up to the park and the gaze, we all ate garlic bread in that park. They've recreated it, I think, another time at least once. That's such a beautiful example to me of you show up, like you see a flyer and that actually create something happening in real life in an analog way. I actually didn't hear about it online. I think I actually saw the flyer out in the world. Yeah, I do think that that one of the things that's great, Seattle does feel like a really good flyer city. I think like some cities you live in, it's like they're at the coffee shop. But here in Seattle, I feel like there are a lot more experimental or avant-garde. It's not just the normal stuff that you would expect. I do feel like the IRL quality is important as we all continually try to be less online

11:28and touch more grass. I actually learned about orange goose, the coffee shop that I've been evangelizing for quite a while at this point. They started as a pop-up and the way I found out about them was they literally had flyers around the neighborhood that just said there's this coffee pop-up and it was a cute flyer at caught my eye. I was like, oh, I am so much more inclined to go check something out. If it's hyper-local to my neighborhood and I'm finding out about it, you were saying Jane in an analog way. And I think what makes a good flyer, I love an analog flyer. I don't want to see an AI flyer. If it's hand-drawn, even better, but I understand that that takes a lot of time. That probably is less common. I live near one of the schools and I was walking back from that drop off one day and there was this really cute photo of three, probably 13-year-old girls. And it was for their babysitting company. It was very touching because it felt like it was more than just a babysitting thing.

12:28It was like, we're part of this community. I love when younger people are advertising their services. There's a flyer in my neighborhood right now of a young person who wants to have a dog walking business. The flyers are, I mean, it's basically all text, but it includes some ASCII art. You're using all of the dashes and the slashes on your keyboard to make an image. Love that. And the one that I've seen is an ASCII art version of a rudimentary dog. It's nice. It's so much better than no offense to whatever company it is. But there's also a flyer that I see around my neighborhood that's very clearly an AI-generated image of a bunch of dogs that is... Everyone sees right through that. I know. I'm like, I want the kid to walk my dog. I don't want. I don't want your AI. I don't want a robot to walk my dog. I also question that person's taste if that's what they think is going to attract people.

13:32I think the handmade quality matters a lot. I think people do feel strapped for time and I see the temptation and doing an AI-generated flyer. I don't know. For me, I like the simple flyer. I would rather just have it be texts than have this AI-generated image. But my favorites are ones that are not even really promotional. The other day, I walked past a poll that just had a picture of a wolf on it. And I was like, okay, I mean, no QR code, no text, just an image of a wolf. Look at this wolf. Oh, and then another one was, I guess this is a little bit of an advertisement, but it was a picture of a real dog, Finley the Chai Chai. And it was like, have you seen this dog? So at first, you're like, oh, is this a lost dog? And at the bottom and very small text, it says, well, you should. And it's like, now you've seen this dog.

14:33And it has their social media accounts. That's like so delightful. But yeah, I was like, that's nice. I'd like to see this dog online. Sure. Why not? Mm-hmm. On a more personal note, last year, a neighbor and I hosted a meetup in Queen Anne for the gaze of Queen Anne, because I felt like I wasn't finding a lot of queer people who actually live in my neighborhood. And so a friend and I put together these posters that just said, are you gay, meet here at this time? And 15 people showed up. Well, I would say like maybe 90% of them found out about it because of the poster and not because of, you know, we posted on some websites as well. But yeah, it was very cool that people were like, oh, I want to meet gay people in my neighborhood. Seeing something in the wild makes more of an impression than like a Facebook event or whatever. Mm-hmm. It also just sparks joy. Yeah. Like one thing that I want to shout out, this isn't a flyer per se.

15:34It's a yard sign. There's a yard sign in Maple Leaf. It's a long 80th and every season it changes. And it's always a picture of Rupert, this dog. And it's like a little note from Rupert. So I think the most recent one was like, you know, I hope you have a great school year. Love Rupert. And I just love that whoever lives in that house, like takes the time to design this yard sign and put it in their yard. And I don't know how many people see it a day, probably hundreds, if not thousands. But it's always just kind of a nice moment to be like, ah, someone took the time to like put this here just for our personal joy. So that's always how I feel about a flyer too. Like sometimes, you know, it's an advertisement. But especially when it's kind of a silly one or kind of an avant-garde one, you're like, cool, people are still just like making stuff for the joy of making stuff. All right. So I'm going to break and we come back. We're going to let Liam and Sam host for a little bit for my last segment as your host.

16:41Okay. So I'm going to be honest, the notes for this segment currently, because I'm not going to be hosting it is just sobbing noises. Well, this is my last segment as your host. And I know. So Sam and Liam are going to take over for me here. And they're going to ask me some questions, apparently. We have had many conversations as a team about how being a part of making this show has changed our relationship to the city. And I'm curious, Jane, what comes to mind for you in terms of how your relationship to Seattle has changed? I think it's really easy as a Seattleite to get ingrained in your own little bubble. And I think this show has really helped me get out of my bubble in a big way. Like we've had so many wonderful guests on this show. I get to talk with you all in our contributors on a regular basis.

17:43And we don't always agree on stuff. And it is really refreshing being able to have those conversations with people and have a place to have those conversations here. To remember that, yeah, of course, we don't all agree on things. And we should be able to disagree and talk about them together. And I think also it's really driven home for me how much the city is built on just people doing stuff. I mean, you think about who's running for office? You think about who's building our small businesses, the people in their neighborhoods who are trying to make changes to their streets or to meet more people or to have events. And so much of it is truly just built by people who are like, I want this to happen. I'm not seeing it happen. I'm going to be the change. And I feel like we hear that a lot from guests too. That's really my takeaway is like the city is so built on people just doing what they think needs to happen.

18:44And I really respect that. And with that, what have you discovered a place, a person, an idea, something that you hadn't really encountered in Seattle before the podcast? I do think this podcast has really deepened my appreciation for our art scene in part because of you, Liam. I feel like I am a lot more turned on to the joy of going to see a movie in person. You and Chase are evangelists for that. I feel like I've seen more movies this year than I have in the last like five years before it. So that's that's on you. Very nice compliment. You're going to make Liam fully weep on my again. And also, I mean, I've learned more about Seattle's history this year from you Sam, then I previously knew like I have never been much of a history person to be honest. Like I always love a fun tidbit, but I think learning a bit more about the history really

19:45reveals the ideals that have really helped Seattle grow as a city. And like I think a lot of the tensions that exist in our city have always existed in some form and will always exist in some form. And it's nice to have more context for that like just the different eras of like who has had power in Seattle and like how things have changed over the last, you know, 150 years. Yeah, I think there's something comforting and a little infuriating at the same time in being like, oh, the same arguments have been happening in some form or another for decades, millennia. It like takes some of the ego out of it. And also I think ads, maybe some context to the feeling of urgency. I'm curious, Jane, you said you love like a little fun fact. Are there any fun facts that you've learned from this podcast that you find yourself sharing

20:47at parties or just in conversations with friends? Oh, man, put me on the spot. Well, I mean, the one that came up yesterday that I've been thinking about ever since is that Pike Place was almost shut down in the 1970s. They wanted to tear it down, which what? Yeah. Like, can you imagine? I feel like that's like the most iconic part of town. I have not heard that part of the conversation yet that is shocking to me. I do think I've learned a lot more about Japanese incarceration too. And this is a conversation that I feel like I've been having more with my family and with friends, just even just changing my use of the word internment to incarceration because I feel like incarceration better reflects the demands were on Japanese Americans at that time. I'm trying to think of something fun or though. Well, I have a question for you along these lines, right? Because it actually relates to conversation you had yesterday, which is like one of the cool things about doing this show is you've interviewed like actual celebrities, like you've

21:48interviewed Rick's, I would say Rick Steve's is a celebrity. You've interviewed Kenji Lopez, and then you've interviewed some like kind of Seattle celebrities. Katie Wilson, Zoe Khan, our buddy Sean Keely, like what is it? What is it? Steve Bidane. Yeah. What has it been like to like have to for lack of a bit of her to have access and to speak to these people? I always just go back to that everyone's just a person. Mm-hmm. At the end of the day, even though they're very well known, they're all just people doing their own thing. They've got their own viewpoints and, you know, they're, I think, all just trying to make their own contribution to our city in some form. And that makes a lot of sense. Should I get the guitar? Or what? What are you looking forward to with some downtime, like getting to enjoy in our city? Getting outside when it is sunny. I am looking forward to stopping by some of the local establishments that have opened

22:52in the last little bit that I still haven't had time to get to. Really excited about Cafe Blameless, which is created by one of our city cast Seattle neighbors, Sam, other Sam. Many other Sam. Many such Sam's. But you know, I feel like trying to go to a coffee shop midday is sometimes hard when maybe you got a recording to do in the morning. I'll still be around. I feel like I'll just be maybe out in the world in the middle of the day a little bit more depending. And I'm also looking forward to being able to make some weird art. Like I think that's something that I am hoping to have a little bit more time and space for. Mm-hmm. May we all have more time to make weird art? Where do you want to see us go with the show after you leave? Ooh. I want you all to take it in whatever direction you want to take it in. Like I feel like this kind of show is it's impossible for it to not have the fingerprints

23:54of everyone who's making it be a part of it. And I mean, both of you have been a huge part of the show and you'll continue to be a huge part of the show. But whoever comes into this role next, I think is going to bring their own flavor and their own voice and their own perspective. And I'm really excited to see that. So I hope the show continues to be a place for those big, sometimes difficult conversations, but also the smaller, corkier conversations that really reflect our city's character. And I'm sure whoever comes into this seat next is going to bring their own version of that. Cool. All right. Well, I want a chance to say my thank yous. This is me being earnest on Mayn. Sam, Liam, thank you so much for everything you have brought to this show. Again, it would not be the same without you and has been a real joy to work with both of you.

24:55The feeling is so mutual. Yeah. I was just thinking about how your balance of curiosity and openness to what each guest to comes on the show has to say, but also really bringing like a rigor to the facts and the truth of every story and having a real commitment to like the importance of both of those things being present and as much of the coverage that we do as possible. I really admire it and I'm really hoping that we can continue to hold to that in whatever shape the show takes next. So thank you. And I hope so too. Yeah. I mean, I think some of it is just also embracing uncertainty. There are things that we don't know sometimes and also there are things that we can't know. And there are just going to be different viewpoints regardless. And I think I also just want to say that none of this would work if it weren't fun. And I think I can speak for the team when I say that you facilitate a lot of that fun

25:59in your specific way. First time I've ever been called fun. Shocking, Jane. Absolutely shocking. I don't really believe that. But hey, that's okay. I'm not going to choose you being a liar and I'll just keep it into the podcast. I also want to give a big thanks to our executive producer, Ashley, our audience development manager, AKA King of social media, Ben Keenan. And also all of you all like everyone who has been on the show, everyone who has listened to the show written in told their friends about it, like talked to me around town about it. Like this is going back to what I said earlier, I feel like the city is made by people and it has been a real joy getting to meet and talk to you and like have real conversations with such a variety of people. And I really do hope you all continue to stick around and see what this team builds because

27:01I know I'm going to be tuning in and I am excited to see what direction you will take the show in on that note. If you are a city cast Seattle neighbor, you get to listen to us, Yammer on for just a little bit longer. We're going to talk about our dream Seattle days inspired by our conversation with Zoe Khan and Kika West off yesterday who both shared what they would be doing on their dream Seattle day. If you aren't already a city cast Seattle neighbor and you want to hear that, you can join us by going to membership dot city cast dot F M slash Seattle. It's $10 a month, $100 a year. You get the bonus segment, you get ad free listening, you get to come to some fun member events and you get to support the team, which you should absolutely do. All right, Sam Liam, I'll talk you all in the next segment.

28:01I'm your host, Jane C. Who for the last time I get to say that. Our executive producer is Ashley Smith. Our creative producers are Sam J leads and Liam Billingham. Post production this week was done by PJ Shahamat. Special thanks to Jessica Papa back for editing this week. Our audience development manager is Ben Keenan. Music is by Aaron Taylor Waldman, all the kimonos and Los Mucucetes with additional mixing by Tyler Lindgren. Our ad music is by Sven Lindball and Sarah the Elstermanalist from Epidemic Sounds, Viggeti Images. And listeners, we love hearing from you all send us some pictures of your favorite flyers by emailing them to Seattle at citycast dot F M or you can text them to us at 206 880 3931. All right, yes, if you want to leave a voicemail with a very long description of what it looks like, you could also do that. It is a holiday so we're not going to be releasing an episode that day but we'll catch you back in the feed on Tuesday. Until next time, see you Seattle.