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4.8

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The production team behind the Peabody-nominated "Lost Patients" returns with a new investigative series: "Adults in the Room" begins on February 24, 2026. Seattle, 1999. At Garfield High School, Mr. Hudson is a legend. With a thundering voice and imposing stature, Mr. Hudson — or “Tom” as select students call him — teaches biology and leads an elite outdoors program. But when teen reporters at the school paper start exploring a rumor that he sexually abused students, all hell breaks loose. Adults close ranks, and schoolmates turn on the young journalists. And then one day, a voice on the school intercom announces that Mr. Hudson is dead. Isolde Raftery is one of the students who first hears about and reports allegations against Mr. Hudson. Three decades later, she is an investigative journalist in Seattle. In "Adults in the Room," Raftery re-reports the story to understand what really happened in 1999. Was a whole school community groomed by a charismatic predator? Or was she part of a whisper campaign that cost the life of a great teacher? "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.

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Check latest episodes from Focus: Adults in the Room podcast

Coming Soon: Adults in the Room (Trailer)

2026/02/03

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 a legend. With a thundering voice and imposing stature, Mr. Hudson — or “Tom” as select students call him — teaches biology and leads an elite outdoors program. But when teen reporters at the school paper start exploring a rumor that he sexually abused students, all hell breaks loose. Adults close ranks, and schoolmates turn on the young journalists. And then one day, a voice on the school intercom announces that Mr. Hudson is dead. Isolde Raftery is one of the students who first heard about and reported allegations against Mr. Hudson. Three decades later, she is an investigative journalist in Seattle. In Adults in the Room, Raftery re-reports the story to understand what really happened in 1999. Was a whole school community groomed by a charismatic predator? Or was she part of a whisper campaign that cost the life of a great teacher? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lost Patients: Churn

2024/03/12

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, after treatment at the state's largest psychiatric hospital, Adam was just released back onto the streets of downtown Seattle. A mother asks: How could her son pass through so many institutions and none are able to stop his decline? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lost Patients: Against Their Will

2024/03/19

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 people on the streets and the cries of families who say it's too hard to get a loved one help when they're in crisis. But this gets at one of the most delicate questions our society has faced: When does our belief about what's best for someone override someone's right to decide for themselves? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lost Patients: Nostalgia

2024/03/26

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? Or a prison? This earlier era hangs like a shadow over our approach to care today. We peer into horror and nostalgia that surrounds our societal memories of these mental institutions — and try to sort out which narrative is true. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lost Patients: Opening

2024/04/02

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 blamed for seriously mentally ill people ending up on the streets. The real story goes much deeper than a loss of psychiatric hospital beds. It's about how incentives and decisions half a century created the dysfunction many people with serious mental illness are lost in today. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lost Patients: The Way Out

2024/04/09

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 decades of deinstitutionalization and failure to build community-based mental health care. His mother rushes to save him before he gets pulled back into the "churn." A Seattle Times reporter tries to pinpoint where the discharge process failed — and the investigation leads her to new conclusions about the limitations of psychiatric care in the U.S. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lost Patients: Disease Without Knowledge

2024/04/23

"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 themselves. They learn to live with their inner voices and build their own support structures. Can their stories give us insight into what a functioning system of psychiatric care might look like — and what might be getting in the way? You can find resources for people with mental illness and related stories from The Seattle Times and KUOW here:https://www.seattletimes.com/component/lost-patients-podcast/https://www.kuow.org/podcasts/lost-patients See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lost Patients Live: First-Person Stories from Seattle's Mental Health Crisis

2024/06/26

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 different architect. So what is it like to be shuttled from room to room? What sorts of tradeoffs are doctors working within this system forced to make every day? And what might it look like to design care around the needs of patients?KUOW and the Seattle Times convened a forum at the Seattle Public Library to hear perspectives and answer questions. Featured guests included: Laura Van Tosh, patient advocate and founder and convener of Mental Health Policy Roundtable Carolynn Ponzoha, patient advocate and content creator who goes by @psychotic.in.seattle on TikTok Timothy Jolliff, acting senior director of clinical programs at the Downtown Emergency Service Center in Seattle Dr. Paul Borghesani, associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington School of Medicine You can find resources for people with mental illness and related stories from The Seattle Times and KUOW here: https://www.seattletimes.com/component/lost-patients-podcast/https://www.kuow.org/podcasts/lost-patients See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Introducing Lost Patients

2024/03/04

Imagine a sprawling house in which every room, doorway, and hall passage was designed by a different architect. Doorways don't connect. Staircases lead to nowhere. Rooms are cut off from each other. That's how reporter Will James describes our complicated system for treating people with severe mental illness – a system that, almost by design, loses patients with psychosis to an endless loop between the streets, jail, clinics, courts and a shrinking number of hospital beds. Lost Patients is a deeply-reported, six-part docuseries examining the difficulties of treating serious mental illness through the lens of one city's past, present and future. With real-life testimonials from patients, families, and professionals on the front lines, Lost Patients provides a real, solutions-oriented look at how we got stuck here...and what we might do to break free. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Podcast reviews

Read Focus: Adults in the Room podcast reviews

4.8 out of 5

844 reviews

★★★★★

sierra525 2025/10/20

Thank you

Thank you KUOW for this important reporting and for helping me understand what is going on in our city and state.

★★★★★

Kent Basett 2025/04/30

Excellent

Excellent podcast. Well-produced, emotional, thoughtful, goes well beyond the headlines and expected narratives. I thought it could have featured more...

★★★★★

arukind 2025/02/02

Really worthwhile listen

Excellent podcast and reporting, great analysis of this issue. I recommend.

★★★★★

Rachel 688 2025/01/30

Bravo!

As someone with mental illness, I applaud the insight and enlightenment in this podcast. Well done! Thank you! 💚

★★★★★

TampaPierce 2025/01/25

A sensitive, honest, and thought provoking piece

This is such a work of art. I absolutely loved it. The episode “disease without knowledge” completely wrecked me. As someone with a sister who suffers...

★★★☆☆

ashley collins 1277 2025/01/27

🌅

🕊️ 👤🌄

★★★★★

Amy Abdel 2025/01/03

Much-Needed Mental Health Reporting

I can’t recommend this podcast enough.

★★★★★

Jennie Wynn 2024/12/06

Exceptional Reporting

An incredibly sensitive, in-depth portrait of people with serious mental illness, the people who love them, and how we as a society have failed them-f...

★★★★★

MJRev$ 2024/12/04

Enlightening

This was both sad and enlightening. It explains why we see so much sadness on the streets. Also highlights society’s callousness toward the homeless a...

★★★★★

EC transplant 2024/11/05

Exceptional and well worth the listen!

Very informative and thought provoking!

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