It’s the big day! We’re finally blowing this berg to meet our date with destiny at the Urumqi airport. We’re headed 700 kilometers to the west, just inside China’s border with Uzbekistan. We woke up the doorman, who woke up the floor attendant, who made sure we didn’t steel any towels, and only then were we allowed to proceed to the airport bus waiting just a few blocks away….

Co-Hosts Jim Burke and Commissioner Heather Dudley-Nollette welcome Krista Hanan, Director of Early Learning with First Step Family Support Center. They discuss the The Great Diaper Drive 2026, because “all babies deserve clean diapers.”

KPTZ's Taylor Clark and Port Townsend Interim City Manager Steve King talked about the good work of the Trash Task Force, and about current situation with the Comp Plan.  Steve called for 'kindness and grace' and reflected on the importance of the planning process.    We also talked about the street painting process at Lawrence and Tyler being done along with the Port Townsend Farmers Market.  

Jefferson County Food Bank Association (JCFBA) is seeking a new executive director.  Rachel Perkins from the Jefferson County Beacon reports.  (TRANSCRIPT)

The Wreck of the SS Governor

Every Month, KPTZ’s Chris Bricker joins Co-hosts, Port Commissioner Pam Petranek, and Port Of Port Townsend’s Director Eron Berg, as we roam the Boatyard and explore stories from shipwrights, crews, and vessels  alike.

Today we visit Blaise Holly, master shipwright and owner of Haven Boatworks. He won the recent public bidding process for work on the oldest wooden  boat in the ferry fleet. In fact, she’s likely the oldest continuously licensed wooden vessel in the United States still running—the Carlisle  II.

We’ll talk about this special “floating museum,” how Kitsap Transit has kept this special passenger-only Ferry as a working back-up vessel to the MV Waterman for the Bremerton-Port Orchard route. Blaise has quite a history with the vessel, having done a major two-year renovation in 2021.

Wooden Boatbuilding School receives grant; PT wooden fire tower is historic (TRANSCRIPT)

(Airdate: September, 8, 2026) Cris Wilson talks to award winning author Brenda Miller about her latest book. Love you. Bye. At the center of this collection of essays and poetry, lies the story of Miller's journey as the wayward daughter, who becomes the devoted caregiver to her aging parents. The book chronicles, her father's gradual decline, and her mothers final months with remarkable vulnerability from the ritual of Passover to the silence of Hospice, and singing at deathbeds with a threshold choir, Miller weaves together the ordinary, and the transcendent, often, finding that the sacred is embedded in the mundane.

Monthly report to the Board of County Coissioners from Willie Bence, Jefferson County's Director of the Department of Emergency Management and Dr. Allison Berry, the county health officer for Jefferson and Clalllum counties.   This report was delayed to Tuessday because of the Monday Labor Day holiday.  

Instead of the normal two hours, we’ve been winding up one of the longest Happy Hours on record. We’ve been drinking two-for-the-price-of-one beers for three days now, and it was time to settle up and go home—which was our hotel just across the street. After paying our bills, we sauntered through the Holiday Inn lobby, tipping our non-existent hats to he members of the string quartet and to the doorman as we returned to the real world. Just outside the entrance, we encountered a Uyghur gentleman offering to exchange money…