KNKX Public Radio and The Seattle Times want to share a new podcast: The Walk Home. Listen to the first episode here. To get new episodes as they come out, look for The Walk Home wherever you get your podcasts or visit thewalkhomepodcast.org.

A year ago, Dr. Nick Mark worried he might not survive the pandemic. He's a critical-care doctor in Seattle who performs risky procedures, like intubations, on some of the sickest COVID-19 patients. He and his colleagues updated their wills and made sure their life insurance premiums were paid automatically.

Now that most students are back in school in the Northwest, there are a lot of feelings going around.

On the day I meet 86-year-old Chris Swanson inside her room at Horizon House in Seattle’s First Hill neighborhood, it feels like a party.

When 65-year-old Bonnie McGuire was vaccinated earlier this year for COVID-19, a huge weight of worry disappeared in an instant.

Emergencies do something to our brains. A few months after a catastrophe, people find themselves more irritable and less able to concentrate. Rates of depression and anxiety rise. Same with substance use and suicide. This has been observed in disaster after disaster.

Living during a global pandemic is inherently stressful. Stress can negatively impact how we make decisions.

It’s been about one month since the first coronavirus vaccine arrived in Washington state. Residents, some of them in tears, watched a nurse receive the first injection. This event was supposed to herald the beginning of the end of the coronavirus pandemic.

The beard is real. The suit is red. And he's separated from his guests by several feet and plexiglass. We meet Santas intent on creating memories, even in a pandemic. Note: This episode is especially appealing to those who appreciate the sounds of squealing children.

The coronavirus pandemic is testing our society’s safety net in ways we never imagined. There are millions of people across the country and thousands in Washington state who are unable to keep up with their rent.

College, in the minds of many incoming freshmen, is about so much more than education. It’s supposed to be a formative experience that creates lifelong memories and lifelong friendships, an adventure that sets the stage for the rest of your life.

Things are getting a little scary out there. The number of new coronavirus cases is on the rise. Hospital beds are filling up across the country. Deaths are climbing. Sobering stuff.

Now that we are several months into this pandemic, we are entering a phase that many doctors and researchers are worried about. Let’s take a look at where things stand.

In March of this year, as the novel coronavirus started to take hold of the region, students and teachers were notified that in person school was over and remote learning would get underway. At first, everyone thought the move to online learning would be temporary, but it wasn’t.

It’s been more than five months since the nation’s first novel coronavirus death happened, right here in the Seattle area.

Tammy Edwards survived COVID-19. It was miserable, but she made it. She had hoped that once the virus ran its course, she could then get back to her life and her work as a nurse in Tacoma.

Imagine getting out of prison after almost two decades, and being released into … this.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic landed in Washington, the economic fallout has driven more than a million people in the state to apply for unemployment insurance.

A lot of us this year have gotten used to relying on computer models for projections of how many new COVID-19 cases we can expect, or when the economy might start to rebound. But those models can’t tell us how we’re going to feel, or how lockdown and grief and social breakdown will change the way we see and experience the world.

We are a country wracked by illness, by economic crisis, and by tears in our social fabric that have existed all along, but are too gaping to ignore, once again.

In many ways, “family planning” is a misnomer. The “planning” part only goes so far. Even with all the tools at your disposal, a lot of it is mostly out of your control and up to chance. A million little things have to go exactly right to bring life into the world.

As the COVID-19 pandemic has unfolded, some clear patterns have emerged. One is that people of color are being affected by this virus at higher rates than white people.

COVID-era isolation affects all of us. And for people with special needs, it brings all sorts of particular challenges, many that can’t be solved with a Zoom call.

There is a lot to worry about right now: our jobs and our health. How will we be able to make next month’s rent or mortgage payment? Then there is the bigger question — will life ever be the same again?

Telling stories live is both the oldest form of entertainment, probably, and a newish thriving art form. In the Pacific Northwest there are a whole range of storytelling series and events. These usually happen in a smallish venue, maybe a coffee shop.

We explore the power of the antibody — a protein that our blood cells make when our body encounters a virus.

Today’s episode: Learning as we go.

Today’s episode: Confronting Mortality.

Today's episode: The Virus-Eye View.

Today’s episode: Saying Goodbye.

There’s a bunch of psychological research out there that suggests constraints — having your choices limited — actually promotes creativity.

When the novel coronavirus made its way to the United States, it landed here, in the Pacific Northwest. Transmission is a podcast about life at the heart of an epidemic.

When the novel coronavirus made its way to the United States, it landed here, in the Pacific Northwest. Transmission is a podcast about life at the heart of an epidemic.

When the novel coronavirus made its way to the United States, it landed here, in the Pacific Northwest. Transmission is a podcast about life at the heart of an epidemic.

When the novel coronavirus made its way to the United States, it landed here, in the Pacific Northwest. Transmission is a podcast about life at the heart of an epidemic.

When the novel coronavirus made its way to American shores, it landed right here in the Pacific Northwest. Now, the Seattle area is the epicenter of America’s COVID-19 outbreak.