Alec Cowan

Whether it’s news, documentary, or art, I craft my stories as sonic experiences built on compelling audio, human-driven narratives, and original sound design. I’ve brought those stories to local, national, and international media outlets in various formats, including spot/feature news, small and large market program segments, and acclaimed documentary podcasts at NPR and elsewhere. My work has been recognized by the Society of Professional Journalists and the Public Media Journalist Association.

At KUOW, I was a solo producer for the small team at Primed, a show all about the influence of Amazon, where I produced for hosts in the field, built immersive soundscapes, and provided critical research and narrative editing. As part of KUOW's The Record, I honed my interview and chasing skills as part of a daily flagship talk-show. From a weekly series exploring news-driven misinformation research to adapting a print story on a Washington man taking on Facebook, my segments brought eclectic guests to air while sharpening my ability to work with numerous hosts and formats on a quick deadline.

As a freelancer, I’ve done booking, mixing, and fact-checking work for a range of large and small-scale podcasts. I provided original music as a sound design and mixing producer for a series on the interconnected history of sickle cell treatment and the Black Panthers, and regularly work on scoring and mixing pilot projects for Oakland-based Studio To Be. On the booking front, I’ve brought popular guests to the true-crime podcast Small Town Dicks and pitched and interviewed cornerstone perspectives as an associate producer for the award-winning series, Lords of Soccer.

My biggest pride comes in the work I’ve been able to produce on KUOW’s Soundside. When The Record was sunsetted and producers were left to design KUOW’s new flagship program, Soundside, we knew we wanted to do something different with the talk show format. I began crafting more sonically interesting ledes, developed a themed science mini-series called “The Abstract,” produced lightly narrated audio profiles, and even pioneered two radio specials that became the first collaborative broadcasts of our program with stations across the state. I'm impassioned by human-driven storytelling that meets people where they are. 

Outside of work, I greatly enjoy hiking state and national parks, likely clogging the trail to stop and grab my 100th recording of trees and creeks. I write on a variety of subjects, from the fallout of the 20th-century nuclear family to the existential dread of growing up on Facebook. I’m in the midst of producing a life-long project called Listen Closely, an experimental “podcast vlog,” and I’ve also made a short-run independent series on growing up in the Pentecostal church. My favorite icebreaker is that I spent four summers touring the United States as part of a professional drum and bugle corp (“Like the NBA of marching band”). Oh, and I really like the Phoenix Suns. I hope to one day play a marathon game of D&D and I once got 3rd place in a college poetry slam.