Deborah Wang
Contributing Reporter, Editor, and Host
About
Deborah is a contributing reporter, editor and host at KUOW. Since joining the staff in 2005, Deborah has done everything from political reporting to podcast hosting and she has served as interim news director. She is an award–winning radio and television journalist whose career spans more than three decades.
Deborah's first reporting job was at public radio station WFCR in Amherst, Massachusetts. In 1990, she went to work for National Public Radio and served as NPR's Asia correspondent based in Hong Kong. During that time, she covered the Persian Gulf War from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, and then spent months in southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq filing stories on the war's aftermath.
In 1993, she joined ABC News as a television correspondent in Beijing and Hong Kong, and covered, among other things, Hong Kong's handover from British to Chinese rule. In 1999, she set up the network's first news bureau in Seattle.
Deborah has also worked as an on–air anchor for CNN International, as host of IN Close on KCTS9 Public Television in Seattle. She is a long-time host on the TEDxSeattle stage.
In recent years, Deborah's reporting has focused on adolescents and mental health. She was the recipient of a 2018-2019 Rosalynn Carter Mental Health Journalism Fellowship.
Deborah has won numerous awards for her reporting, including the Alfred I. DuPont Silver Baton, the Overseas Press Club's Lowell Thomas Award and a Gracie Award from the Alliance for Women in Media Foundation.
To see more of Deborah's past KUOW work, visit our archive site.
Location: Seattle
Languages: English, conversational Chinese
Pronouns: she/her
Professional Affiliations: US Advisory Board Member, Rosalynn Carter Mental Health Journalism Fellowships
Podcasts
Stories
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Jayapal: Border agents admit 'enormous mistakes' in stopping Iranian Americans
A U.S. customs official admitted "enormous mistakes" when border agents subjected people of Iranian descent to long questioning at the Blaine border crossing, according to two congresswomen.
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How prohibition forever changed policing in Seattle
On a recent SoundQs segment we learned about historic bootlegger Roy Olmstead. Today we do a deep dive on another larger-than-life figure from that time, black business owner Doc Hamilton. Both men dealt in illegal alcohol, but had wholly different experiences with the temperance movement and the law.
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How safe are the bridges in the Puget Sound region?
There are more than 8000 bridges in Washington state. How safe are they? And how will they fare in the event of a major earthquake?
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This king of bootleggers was one of Seattle's biggest employers
Plus lot's of answers to your questions, on this special episode of SoundQs.
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What’s with Seattle bumper stickers these days?
On this episode a listener asks us to explore the patterns and messages of bumper stickers in the Pacific Northwest. But there’s a personal reason she wants to better understand Seattle’s bumper sticker culture.
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How do those holiday lights get on construction cranes?
The holidays are coming. Which means even our construction cranes start looking festive. One listener wants to know - who decorates construction cranes
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Is Seattle a target for nuclear attack?
Our region is home to global companies like Amazon and Microsoft - and it's home to large cache of nuclear weapons and military assets.
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What should you do in the event of a nuclear attack?
If you don't know, you're not alone.
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How is Amazon changing our lives?
Over the last year or so, the SoundQs team has gotten a lot of questions about one Seattle-based company. Amazon. Happily, KUOW's podcast Primed is finding answers to questions about how Amazon is changing our lives. Here's the first episode of their newest season, about Alexa and kids.
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Has any city figured out public toilets?
On this episode we try and figure out if any city has figured out public toilets, and what Seattle can learn