//podcastplus.net/feed/check-it-out~e18e3deb A podcast from Sno-Isle Libraries for lifelong learners with inquiring minds. Check It Out! introduces the amazing people who work at, use and collaborate with the library district – and all of the services it offers to residents of Washington State’s Snohomish and Island counties. Fri, 17 Apr 2026 06:41:09 +0000 https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/checkitoutsnoisle/Episode_63_Becker.mp3?dest-id=1164734 Let’s m eet the baseball nut  who sticks up for  the guys behind the plate that every baseball fan loves  to  hate.   Yes, we’re talking about umpires.   In this episode of the  Check It Out!  p odcast ,  host Ken Harvey talks to his friend Jason Becker,  creator  of the  Umpire Inspire podcast .   “In my book, he’s a genius, and he’s producing a fascinating podcast for the officials behind America’s favorite round - ball sport. That’s baseball, and those are umpires,” Harvey  said  in introducing   Becker .   “F ans and players often disagree with what the umpire says and what the umpire does, which can make it a lonely job even when there are two of them on the fiel d.”   Becker humanizes umpires.  He explains why t hey love what they do ,  even when they don’t get paid to call balls and strikes and outs. T hey’re inspired to do it for the love of the game .    Becke... Fri, 25 Sep 2020 15:11:25 +0000 https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/checkitoutsnoisle/Episode_63_Becker.mp3?dest-id=1164734 https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/checkitoutsnoisle/Episode_62_Tolnay_v1.mp3?dest-id=1164734 In Episode 62 of Sno-Isle Libraries Check It Out podcast,  co- hosts Ken Harvey and Tricia Lee talk to  local  author Stewart Tolnay  and learn how h e ha s  used his  study of American  racial  history  to create interesting fiction and nonfiction.   Tolnay is a Ph . D .  professor emeritus of  s ociology at the University of Washington. His first fiction novel, “ Less Than Righteous ,” features a Black Vietnam War veteran, his white girlfriend and the struggles they face as an interracial couple in Everett in 196 9 .   Tolnay  is also the author or co-author of nonfiction works that include “The Bottom Rung: An African-American Family Life on Southern Farms”; “A Festival of Violence,” which  analyzes  Southern  lynchings  from 1882 to 1930;  and “ Lynched, ”  which  studies  the victims of Southern mob  violence.   Tolnay’s  work   resonated with  Harvey,  the  ... Wed, 26 Aug 2020 15:34:22 +0000 https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/checkitoutsnoisle/Episode_62_Tolnay_v1.mp3?dest-id=1164734 https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/checkitoutsnoisle/Episode_61_Chris_Ballew_v2.mp3?dest-id=1164734 Part 1: You Don’t Wanna Be a Rock-and-Roll Star  Chris Ballew  lived the  rock-and-roll l ife .   As  frontman  for the late, great Presidents of the United States of America, he wrote infectious,  goofy,  catchy hits about “Peaches”  and a “Dune Buggy”  when  heavy  grunge  dominated  Seatt le’s FM radio  waves .   He t oured all over the world.  He p layed to packed arenas and stadiums.  He e ven won  a Grammy award.   But that’s  the old  Chris Ballew.   Today, Ballew is a genial, funny everyman  who  now can  laugh about his discomfort  with his “Presidents” fame . H e’s  still  well-known   and beloved  in the Seattle music scene.  He  still makes  infectious, goofy, catchy  music  that his fans love.   And those are fans of  Caspar  Babypants .   Yes,  Chris Ballew  has become  a children’s musician... Mon, 01 Jun 2020 20:40:20 +0000 https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/checkitoutsnoisle/Episode_61_Chris_Ballew_v2.mp3?dest-id=1164734 https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/checkitoutsnoisle/Episode_60_Rodney_Clark_IoT_v2.mp3?dest-id=1164734 Rodney Clark helps deliver the future.   As the vice president of the Microsoft Azure Worldwide Internet of Things and Mixed Reality Team , Clark and his crew work with more than 8,000 partners and clients to connect billions of everyday devices to the cloud .   Sensors on stop lights , cash registers, auto mobile s, home appliances , exercise monitors , video doorbells . They all generate information and data that allows organizations to take action on that data and insights .   “ It’s a wave, it’s a reality,” Clark said.   It’s no longer “the future.”   “ The job that I have and the privilege that I have is working with companies who want to participate in this new reality and new opportunity of b uilding solutions that connect everyday devices and experiences to cloud and data , ” Clark said.   M icrosoft calls it “e dge to cloud , ” and Clark said t he comp... Mon, 18 May 2020 16:22:40 +0000 https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/checkitoutsnoisle/Episode_60_Rodney_Clark_IoT_v2.mp3?dest-id=1164734 http://traffic.libsyn.com/checkitoutsnoisle/Episode_53_Tom_Ranken_v1.mp3?dest-id=1164734 As the outgoing president and CEO of Washington CleanTech Alliance , Tom Ranken has been close to many of the biggest and some of the smallest businesses in the region. What they all have in common, Ranken says, is a goal to change the world. Ranken had plenty of business expertise -  Immunex , VizX Labs , Axio Research - on his resume before joining the Alliance in 2010 as its first full-time president & CEO. At that time, the clean-tech industry trade association had 35 members. Under Ranken’s leadership, the Alliance now represents more than 400 member organizations spanning 10 states and three Canadian provinces. “You may get into a controversy over climate change but you never get into a controversy over jobs,” Ranken says. “Everybody is interested in finding ways to get people jobs.” The definition of what qualifies as a clean-tech job has changed over the years. “We figure there are about 80,000 (clean-tech) jobs in the state, but the definition is important,” Ra... Mon, 30 Mar 2020 21:19:36 +0000 http://traffic.libsyn.com/checkitoutsnoisle/Episode_53_Tom_Ranken_v1.mp3?dest-id=1164734 http://traffic.libsyn.com/checkitoutsnoisle/Episode_52_IDK_mix1.mp3?dest-id=1164734 In this final episode of the second season of Check It Out!, hosts Ken Harvey, Jessica Russell, Paul Pitkin and Jim Hills relate their personal holiday dreams and nightmares and dive into library resources that may just help set a tasty dinner table. Hills, not beset by the piled-plate, food-touching phobia, shares that a holiday meal is best perceived as a single entity, the sum of its parts as measured both horizontally and vertically. The description, however, takes Russell back to a time in her life when space between menu items was required and the queasy realization that she may not have moved as far past those days as thought. Russell describes her southern roots by painting the mental picture of deep frying turkey in a Louisiana front yard. “Deep-fried turkey is the best,” Russell proclaims with no dissenters. The pot, she goes on to say, is the same one used for the crawfish boil. “In Mississippi, that (pot) is called a washtub,” Harvey says. Pitkin allows that as a child hi... Tue, 24 Dec 2019 20:38:24 +0000 http://traffic.libsyn.com/checkitoutsnoisle/Episode_52_IDK_mix1.mp3?dest-id=1164734 http://traffic.libsyn.com/checkitoutsnoisle/Episode_50_Amit_Singh_EdCC_mix1.mp3?dest-id=1164734 Fri, 13 Dec 2019 21:03:18 +0000 http://traffic.libsyn.com/checkitoutsnoisle/Episode_50_Amit_Singh_EdCC_mix1.mp3?dest-id=1164734 http://traffic.libsyn.com/checkitoutsnoisle/Episode_49_Eric_Klinenberg_mix1.mp3?dest-id=1164734 It may not come as a surprise that Eric Klinenberg gets a warm welcome when he speaks to librarians and supporters of public libraries. Klinenberg is the author of Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life that was published in 2018. The book makes the case that shared “social infrastructure,” such as libraries, is critical for the future of democracies and the literal survival of their citizens. He spoke to the American Library Association’s meeting in Seattle this past January, then to Sno-Isle Libraries employees this fall. The next day, his conversation with Sno-Isle Libraries Executive Director Lois Langer Thompson at a breakfast meeting for community members was captured for this podcast episode. “Palaces” isn’t the first time Klinenberg has posited the common-good perspective. In 2002, he wrote Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago . A sociologist as well as author, Klinenberg examine... Thu, 05 Dec 2019 20:00:00 +0000 http://traffic.libsyn.com/checkitoutsnoisle/Episode_49_Eric_Klinenberg_mix1.mp3?dest-id=1164734 http://traffic.libsyn.com/checkitoutsnoisle/Episode_48_Toby_Nixon_mix1.mp3?dest-id=1164734 Some children dream of being a firefighter or star athlete. After an early civics lesson in school, Toby Nixon knew he was interested in government. That early interest has turned into a life focused on public service and protecting the processes of government. Nixon was re-elected to the city council in Kirkland, Wash., in the fall of 2019, a position he’s held since 2012. Among the many current and former public-service roles Nixon has taken on, he has been a fire commissioner and a member of the Washington State House of Representatives from 2002-2006 where he was ranking member of the committee which has responsibility for overseeing Washington’s open government and election laws. And his day job with Microsoft includes serving as chairman of the board of directors of Bluetooth Special Interest Group, the Kirkland-based international organization that develops standards for Bluetooth technology. But of all his efforts, defending and watch-dogging open government holds a special place in Ni... Fri, 22 Nov 2019 23:27:55 +0000 http://traffic.libsyn.com/checkitoutsnoisle/Episode_48_Toby_Nixon_mix1.mp3?dest-id=1164734 http://traffic.libsyn.com/checkitoutsnoisle/Episode_47_IDK_mix1.mp3?dest-id=1164734 Even for the folks whose jobs are to know things about the library, Sno-Isle Libraries continues to amaze and surprise. In this episode, co-hosts Ken Harvey, Jim Hills, Jessica Russell and Paul Pitkin, “Go over the highlights of what we don’t know.” Service Center Hills points out the oddity that while the library district’s Service Center in Marysville serves all 23 community libraries, Library on Wheels and online services, it is not itself a library. Jessica Russell, Assistant Director of Technical Services - Collection Services, says that, yes, all the materials that are in community libraries flow through the Service Center, those items aren’t there for very long. “Our job is to get them out into the libraries and the hands of our customers,” Russell says. Pitkin adds the fact that for visitors and employees alike, the Service Center building can be a confusing place. “You see people wandering around looking lost because the building has been added on to three times. People ... Fri, 15 Nov 2019 19:03:56 +0000 http://traffic.libsyn.com/checkitoutsnoisle/Episode_47_IDK_mix1.mp3?dest-id=1164734