New Season "We Keep Us Safe" starting September 21, 2026.
In the summer of 2020, sixteen-year-old Antonio Mays Jr. traveled a thousand miles to join the racial justice movement of his generation. He arrived in Seattle during the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest, known as CHOP. Less than a week later, he was shot and killed there. The case remains unsolved. In this eight-part series, first published on NPR’s Embedded, KUOW’s Will James and The Seattle Times’ Sydney Brownstone track down key figures and eyewitnesses from the night of the shooting and surface crucial evidence that has never been made public.
We Keep Us Safe is a joint production of KUOW, The Seattle Times, and NPR’s Embedded.
Focus is KUOW’s home for immersive audio documentaries. Each season zooms in on a single story that challenges commonly held narratives about life in the Pacific Northwest and reveals something bigger about American society. Series include Adults in the Room and the Peabody-nominated Lost Patients.
Latest episodes
Showing 17 · updated from the feed
Adults in the Room: The Ultimatum
“You let Tom Hudson off the hook."
That was one of the first things Paul (not his real name) said to host Isolde Raftery during their first conversation earlier this ye
Aug 27 1 h 00 min
Adults in the Room Live: A behind-the-scenes look at an investigation 25 years in the making
The team behind Adults in the Room is hard at work on an Epilogue episode, set to release later this summer.
In the meantime, the team recently gathered for a live even
Jun 29 1 h 21 min
Adults in the Room: Bad Apples
A surprise archival interview with a former Garfield High School principal reveals that the teacher abuse problem at the school extended beyond Tom Hudson. Isolde discove
Apr 7 37 min
Adults in the Room: The Boy in the Photograph
As Isolde looks through records on Mr. Hudson from Seattle Public Schools, she comes across a document describing a photograph of Hudson and two students at a mountain la
Mar 31 30 min
Adults in the Room: The Bet
As adults, Isolde and Ella start re-investigating the question of Mr. Hudson’s guilt. For years, they've wondered if they spread unfounded rumors that drove Mr. Hudson to
Mar 24 32 min
Adults in the Room: Jonathan
The Garfield community—and, it seems, the whole city of Seattle—mourns Tom Hudson, remembering him as a great man and teacher. One of the students who was closest to him,
Mar 17 40 min
Adults in the Room: Blame the Messenger
The school district sends an investigator to Garfield to look into the allegations against Tom Hudson. Isolde and Ella feel like the entire school blames them for Hudson'
Mar 10 35 min
Adults in the Room: The Price of Belief
Garfield High School is shocked after learning their beloved principal is in an inappropriate relationship with a student.
In the fallout of the revelation about their
Mar 3 40 min
Adults in the Room: Mounting Danger
In 1998, a popular teacher at Garfield High School in Seattle—named Tom Hudson—falls into a crevasse while mountain-climbing in Olympic National Park. Hudson is accompani
Feb 24 33 min
Coming Soon: Adults in the Room (Trailer)
The production team behind Lost Patients returns on February 24 with a new investigative series: Adults in the Room. Seattle, 1999. At Garfield High School, Mr. Hudson is
Feb 3 2 min
Lost Patients Live: First-Person Stories from Seattle's Mental Health Crisis
Lost Patients compares the system for treating mental illness in America to an elaborate house, where every room, hallway and staircase was designed independently by a di
Jun 26 2024 54 min
Lost Patients: Disease Without Knowledge
"Something is preventing us from building a system that works for people with serious mental illness. In lieu of that, patients are often left to improvise recovery for t
Apr 23 2024 50 min
Lost Patients: The Way Out
After 10 months at Washington State's largest psychiatric hospital, Adam Aurand is discharged onto the streets of downtown Seattle — ejected into a world shaped by decade
Apr 9 2024 53 min
Lost Patients: Opening
In the middle of the last century, a movement to free patients from state-run psychiatric hospitals swept the U.S. This movement — deinstitutionalization — is widely blam
Apr 2 2024 46 min
Lost Patients: Nostalgia
After Carrie Davidson learned that her great-grandmother died in a psychiatric hospital, she spent years tracking down details of her life there. Was the asylum a refuge?
Mar 26 2024 47 min
Lost Patients: Against Their Will
Across the U.S., efforts are underway to make it easier to involuntarily commit people to psychiatric hospitals. It's a reaction to the sight of seriously mentally ill pe
Mar 19 2024 42 min
Lost Patients: Churn
Heidi Aurand has watched her son Adam spiral from one psychiatric crisis to the next for about eight years, bouncing between emergency rooms, jails, and homelessness. Now
Mar 12 2024 47 min
Chart trend
Position in the Documentary chart (US), last 90 days.
#1#10#18JunJulAugSep
#1
all-time peak
60
days in the top 3 since Nov 2024
Chart positions
Where Focus ranks today in each Apple Podcasts chart (US, Sep 18, 2026).
A curated, balanced selection of Apple Podcasts reviews.
Wow was this pod so interesting. I also graduated in ‘99 (not from the northwest) but everything mentioned about how young girls were treated and spoken to, as if sexual harassment and sexualizing young girls was normal or “funny” hit me hard. As I reflected, even as a little skater-rat with baggy jeans and too big Ts, so many instances came to mind.
I LOVED when she talked about how she wasn’t scared of her teacher (who was actively threatening her) because it meant he was afraid of her. Man! The description she gave made me, as a middle-aged woman, puff out my chest and take on the day with an air of confidence, I don’t usually have. Great show. Great research, and a topic not discussed nearly enough.
As a teacher, when considering this topic, I feel unions have too much power. I love my union and am grateful for them, but while I agree an investigation needs to be completed to protect the teacher, it needs to be quick and completed, not by the school district, but law enforcement. Also, the kids need to be believed and supported, until that quick investigation can be completed.
meln28 · Aug 2026
This was a well-crafted podcast with excellent reporting, although the subject matter is infuriating. I kept thinking it should be called No Adults in the Room.
lil’dove · Aug 2026
I just finished the Adults in the room and this was soooooo well done! This is not my usual kind of listen, but really happy it came up as a suggestion! I don’t have children, but this did bring me back to my school days… crazy how predators are protected in every profession! Sickening to find out that it also happens in the school systems.
Great job telling the story and captivating your audience!
JessCu · Aug 2026
The rumors were true that Isolde and Ella first reported on. Unfortunately I’m not surprised. An adult youth group leader of mine had a relationship with a tween when I was 14 and I was groomed by him to be silent. Thank you for sharing this story because we need to keep talking about it.
Sarting · Aug 2026
The narrator made the mistake of accusing someone based on rumors, and subsequently destroying the career of the alleged perpetrator. It turns out the rumors were true, but this doesn’t justify unethical journalism.
Rather than owning this as a mistake made by a teenager, the narrator justifies their actions due to a lucky outcome.
She tries to frame her actions as courageous because her and her friend stood alone against a “corrupt system “.
I see it as exactly the opposite. She stated herself that she has an agenda of revealing “men behaving badly”. It is fashionable right now to say things like this with “me too” and “cancel culture” and in general the demonization of men - so I see her as part of the mob.
This illustrates the problem when due process is not applied: narratives are built around alleged victims without the consideration that the person accused may be innocent. In the d west, this was called “vigilante justice”.
This podcast tries to present as an honest self examination of the events, ending in the the vindication of the narrator for the perpetrators suicide. However I see it as the narrator’s justification for unprofessional behavior and a warped conscience.
It isn’t “all about you”, and attempting to influence public opinion is NOT reporting a story.
Different_Drummer · Jul 2026
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