Eavesdropping with public records ft. Daniel Walters, Nate Sanford & Erik Lowe

RANGE

This week, we’re telling you exactly how you can live your nosy dreams with public records.

Join host Luke Baumgarten and reporter Erin Sellers as they explore the vital role of public records in holding our electeds accountable.

First we have a lively roundtable with local reporters Nate Sanford of the Inlander and Daniel Walters of InvestigateWest (but formerly at the Inlander too!), who both submit a ton of records requests. We learned their best tips and tricks and how they use records to crack open stories that are crucial to our community. We also get to hear their stories from the journalism trenches. Walters recently finished an investigation into just how long 15 different Northwest governments take to respond to public records and — spoiler — it turns out the city of Spokane is the slowest.

Next we talk to local dad (and Spokane Reimagined founder) Erik Lowe, who shares how public records play into his work as a traffic safety and urban planning advocate.

Plus, in this episode we celebrate Sellers’ one year RANGE-iversary! Be sure to congratulate them on an absolutely stellar year in journalism and support their work!

12:44 Journalist roundtable with Nate Sanford & Daniel Walters

54:41 Public records with local Dad (and transit advocate!) Erik Lowe

01:10:00 Outtakes

This is now our THIRD episode in this new season of RANGE (see we can be consistent) and we’re still taking feedback. We’re the press for the people, and the pod for the people so you tell us: what do you want to hear? Submit feedback here!

We’re also still taking voicemails at 509-508-1055.