Seattle Now Creators & Guests

Patricia Murphy is an enterprise reporter for KUOW currently reporting on justice and public health.

Dr. Julia Marcus is an infectious disease epidemiologist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Population Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, and Adjunct Faculty at The Fenway Institute.Dr. Marcus's research focuses on improving measures to reduce new HIV infections and promote sexual health. Her work on using harm reduction techniques for epidemics has appeared in The Atlantic.Dr. Marcus received her PhD in epidemiology from the University of California, Berkeley, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research.

Dr. Vivek Shandas is a climate scientist whose work focuses on developing strategies for addressing the implications of climate change on cities. Currently, he is a Professor of Geography at Portland State University.Shandas received his Ph.D. from the University of Washington.

Jane C. Hu is a freelance science writer and journalist. She is a contributing editor at High Country News and she writes a newsletter about psychedelics called "The Microdose." She also contributes essays to The Last Word On Nothing.Hu's work has appeared in Slate, High Country News, WIRED, National Geographic, Smithsonian, Scientific American, Outside, and The Atlantic, as well as in the anthology "The Craft of Science Writing."Hu has taught health journalism at the CUNY Newmark School of Journalism and science writing at the University of Washington.

Karen Weise is a technology correspondent for The New York Times, Amazon, Microsoft, and the region's tech scene.

Jessica Malaty Rivera is a microbiologist and science communication strategist.

Dr. Margaret O'Mara (born 1970) is an American historian and professor at the University of Washington. She writes and teaches about the growth of the high-tech economy, and connections between high-tech and the history of U.S. politics.O'Mara's writing on technology, politics, and society has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, WIRED, MIT Technology Review, and The American Prospect. Her first book, "Cities of Knowledge: Cold War Science and the Search For The Next Silicon Valley," was published in 2005. Her second book, "Pivotal Tuesdays: Four Elections that Shaped the Twentieth Century," was published in 2015. Her third book, "The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America," was published in 2019. O'Mara has also appeared on major broadcast television and radio outlets, including CNN, MSNBC, PBS, BBC, CBC, and NPR. She is a public speaker, regularly lecturing before general and academic audiences about Silicon Valley's evolution and the impact of its people, companies, and politics on the United States and the world and about the past, present, and future of the American presidency.Prior to her academic career, O'Mara served in the Clinton Administration, working on economic and social policy in the White House and in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.O'Mara received her B.A. from Northwestern University, and her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.