📰 Inside CDN 05/11/26

From the editor’s desk: Cascadia Daily News was born almost five years ago with a clear mission: Reestablish a daily regional news source that replicated the public service Northwest Washingtonians once got from their withering daily newspapers.

I think we’ve done that, to a large degree, thanks to a staff whose passion for good journalism has been matched by a receptive local audience. The growth process in this news marriage has been at times arduous and all-consuming, but also rewarding.

What impresses me the most is that our committed staff never even paused once we hit an initial benchmark. In the past six months alone, CDN has undertaken its own SpaceX-worthy slate of launches; in addition to a new slate of newsletters like this one, we’ve recently published a professional podcast, and just this week, a new glossy regional magazine and a wonderful piece of documentary video journalism.

I’ve written here before about our newsletter barrage, this being one example. This week, as promised, we added Cascadia Voices, our weekly opinion newsletter compiled by Deputy Editor Jon Bauer, sent Saturday mornings. And tomorrow, subscribers will receive reporter Annie Todd’s Ballot Box, an occasional newsletter analyzing local elections. In June, we’ll debut another highlighting CDN visuals, curated by staff visual journalist Santiago Ochoa. You can see the full lineup here.

An important note: We’ve done all this without adding staff, while maintaining the sort of enterprising daily journalism our readers have come to expect. I’m always keeping one eye open for the propensity to do too much, too fast, diluting our core task. It’s a fatal mistake at many startups, and one we’d like to avoid here.

That said, here’s a quick review of our new births:

CDN was immensely honored on Friday and Saturday to be invited by Lummi Nation to present the first public showings of our new documentary, “Respect the Rez: Inside the Lummi Blackhawks’ Title-or-Bust Season,” to members of Lummi Nation. Friday’s showing was at a Lummi Nation School assembly, followed by a special Saturday community screening at Silver Reef Casino Events Center.

CDN’s entire staff was honored to be warmly embraced by the Lummi community as we shared a meal, the film, and a Q/A with players and coaches. It was a wonderful way to honor the team and we were moved by the many stories of community members who testified about the power of sports as a multigenerational binding force in the Lummi community.

As an observer and adviser for this project, I found the 40-minute film, produced by CDN visual journalist Finn Wendt and Sports Editor Nick Zeller-Singh, and overseen by Managing Editor/Visuals Jaya Flanary, to be a delightful real-life glimpse into the second consecutive state championship season of the Lummi Blackhawks class B1 hoops squad.

Lummi’s team and coaches trusted Nick and Finn with generous access to their lives for months last winter, allowing “Respect the Rez” to rise above a simple sports documentary. The film relates how meaningful the school’s successful athletics programs have been to Lummi Nation’s quest to “bring our kids home” from other school choices, as Lummi Nation School Principal Heather Leighton eloquently states in the documentary.

The reception to the film in the room was heartwarming; I’ll never forget it.
Check out the first review of the film — and this event — by a hoops expert, Jim Carberry over at WhatcomHoops.com. (His only complaint, he told me afterward: “I wish it was longer!”)

“Respect the Rez” has two showings this coming weekend at the Pickford Cinemas. Both are sold out, but we’ll be announcing plans for the film’s distribution online and in other venues in the very near future. Stay tuned.

Our company also last week launched Cascadia Daily Life, a new magazine that brings a taste of the Cascadia region to the realm of magazine-quality imagery and layouts.

The first issue was delivered with CDN papers last Friday and will soon be available at other locations in our region. It’s a major accomplishment. If you don’t have a print copy yet, you can see the content from the first magazine online here.

CDN’s podcast, “On Background,” is a production of the newsroom, skippered by Audience Engagement Editor Alana Marcum. You can find season one, an audio tour through the minds and practices of CDN’s newsroom, on our website. We’re already working on season two, which will shift to content-specific episodes about CDN’s enterprise journalism, bringing together newsmakers and reporters to offer behind-the-scenes scoops about how headlines are made — and why they matter. Look for season two sometime in late summer.

Initial listener numbers for “On Background” are strong; we are thrilled that a large number of listeners are younger folks.

If you have ideas of podcast news subjects — or newsmakers you’d like to see us put on the spot in front of an open mic, send them to Alana at [email protected].

CDN is working hard to bring news, opinion, sports and lifestyle content to readers “where they live,” on various platforms and delivery systems that include a print newspaper, a 24/7 online news site awarded as one of America’s best, weekly and monthly newsletters, a podcast, a magazine and community events.

Thanks for supporting your independent local free press. It matters!

The Atlantic: “The Era of Rational Discourse is Over,” by Adam Kirsch (gift link). Hoo boy. It starts with “Americans have a long history of being hurried into war on false pretexts.” And then gets darker from there. Worthwhile if you’re still less than convinced about where the world ranks on the Dire Scale.

The Atlantic (again; someone cut me off!): “How Everest Has Changed Since Into Thin Air,’” by Jon Krakauer (gift link). The climber/author journalist writes that he always assumed his gripping, first-person account of the 1996 Mount Everest tragedy that claimed eight lives, including Seattle’s own Scott Fischer, would convince people that paying a huge amount of cash to be guided to the world’s highest spot was a bad idea. “I was wrong,” he says, noting the danger only fueled the fire, attracting more novices “like gamblers to a slot machine.” A worthy read for any mountaineer, armchair or actual.