And here we have the journalist in their natural habitat.

The Pod stays back, baby! Episode two is out and only a few hours late.

We’re still nailing down our format and process, so in the future, you can expect the pod a little earlier than 8 pm whatever time Luke actually gets this uploaded to the website…

Join host Luke Baumgarten and some of the RANGE team, Val Osier, Erin Sellers & our intern Holly VanVoorhis. Luke plays nature documentary voiceover artist to narrate a day in the life of a journalist navigating the treacherous waters of ethical audio use, then switches hats to lead a bit of reporter therapy. Unfortunately, it was virtual, so no one really knows what his couch looks like yet.

Next, we did a bit of self-plagiarism and stole a segment from our Wide Range newsletter: Luke, Val and Erin each brought in a piece of good news, a piece of bad news and a piece of embarrassing news. We all learned about:

• Statewide AI oversight
• Local transportation and traffic calming
• Some Idaho reproductive health news
• and Ellen Degeneres’ visit to Spokane (whether that one is good, bad or embarrassing is a bit subjective, but Val has thoughts.)

Finally, Luke sat down for a short interview with our intern Holly, who wrote a story this week about the facts and fiction of fentanyl. She debunked some myths, gave some additional context and answered some burning questions on the top of our minds like, can cops actually get a contact high?

We’re just starting to get our wobbly baby deer legs under us, but 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 a feedback form here!

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

And we continue to want to take your questions about civic government, rumors you may have heard that you want us to fact check or inquiries about our reporting (or reporting in general), send them to us at team@rangemedia.co with “Mailbox” in the subject line. We may answer your questions or fact check your rumors on upcoming segments of the pod 👀