Funding for the ad placement of Mayor Harrell’s commercial came from some of Seattle’s biggest names, including Mariners majority owner John Stanton, Tod Leiweke, part-owner of the Kraken, and Brad Smith, the vice chair and president of Microsoft.

“These are big names. There’s a reason why these folks want Mayor Bruce Harrell to keep his job,” KIRO host Jake Skorheim said on “The Jake and Spike Show” on KIRO Newsradio. “They’re not necessarily saying they think he’s the best mayor in the history of the town, or even the best option. But of these candidates, they seem to think Harrell is the better option than Katie.”

“It’s a better option for their particular business interests,” KIRO host Spike O’Neill responded. “That’s what the election cycles are all about. Giving to the candidate who’s going to help your business, and your employees do better.”

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Mayoral race heats up

Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell and mayoral candidate Katie Wilson have participated in numerous debates leading up to the general election, discussing various Seattle-based topics.

Wilson earned nearly 51% of the vote in the August primary, compared to Harrell’s 43%.

“We need a mayor’s office that is responsive and effective, and right now we are failing,” Wilson said during an opening statement of an Oct. 3 debate. “We cannot have another four years when the rates of unsheltered homelessness go up and up and up. I cannot keep watching families like mine move out of the city because they cannot afford to live here … I know that together we can build a city that we can all believe in.”

Harrell, who served on the Seattle City Council from 2008 to 2020 before becoming mayor, has been exhibiting his experience as both a lawmaker and a Seattle native, having grown up and attended school in the city before assuming a leadership role.

“I need four more years to right the ship, and we’ve laid the foundation for it,” Harrell said.

It’s been a contentious race, marked by numerous allegations and controversies between the two. Harrell and his campaign team claimed that Harrell’s skin was edited to a different color in a photo posted by Common Power, which Kate Wilson and her campaign team later promoted.

Wilson was also accused of falsifying an endorsement from Claude Burfect, a prominent civil rights activist who was the first vice president of the Seattle-King County National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Earlier this year, former Seattle Deputy Mayor Monisha Harrell accused Mayor Bruce Harrell of sexism and running a toxic office where sexism was the apparent norm. Monisha is the mayor’s niece.

Listen to “The Jake and Spike Show” weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

KIRO host Spike O’Neill shared what it was like for him to ski for the first time at 31 years old.

“Horrifying, and then the most gratifying and invigorating feeling of being able to control yourself rolling down a hill. It’s an amazing feeling everybody should experience at some point in time,” he said on “The Jake and Spike Show” on KIRO Newsradio. “And we’re so blessed here in the Northwest, when we get snow, and we’re getting snow pretty regularly.”

Spike highlighted that people don’t have to travel very far out of the Seattle area to ski.

“You’re an hour out of town. Almost any direction you can get water skiing and snow skiing in the same day, and that’s the only place in the world you can do that,” he said.

KIRO host Jake Skorheim pointed out the various options for skiing in the area.

“We have Snoqualmie, which is great. If you’re out on Highway 2, you can head out to Stevens Pass. There’s Crystal Mountain over on the east side, there’s Baker,” he said.

Looking at the forecast, Jake noted that a weak La Niña is expected for winter, which typically brings cooler, wetter, and snowier conditions.

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to “The Jake and Spike Show” weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

Jake Skorheim and Spike O’Neill, co-hosts of “The Jake and Spike Show” on KIRO Newsradio, uncovered Spike’s chilling details of a potential ghost presence within his home and how he is grateful for the company of his ghost.

“Why do you think your house is haunted?” Jake asked.

“There are little things that happen around the house. I’d close doors, and they’d be open again. I’ll walk into a room sometimes, and it’s just colder than the rest of the house,” Spike said. “I have emptied a cabinet looking for a spice, put it all back inside, walk away, and come back 20 minutes later, and the spice is just sitting by itself on the counter. I just say, ‘Thank you,’ and I throw a little grace.”

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to “The Jake and Spike Show” weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

KIRO host Spike O’Neill thought: Why not give it a try?

“The Jake and Spike Show” on KIRO Newsradio asked the Mariners if they could have some dirt from the field.

“We asked for permission to go up and scoop some dirt out of the infield. And the Mariners were like, ‘Well, we don’t want to tell anybody to eat dirt. Maybe there’s a liability issue here,'” Spike said.

KIRO host Jake Skorheim said the official team spokesperson urged people not to eat the dirt.

“It’s not actually dirt. There is a chemical mixture that the field is made up of to absorb water,” Jake explained.

The show managed to acquire just enough dirt for Spike. Clinging to hope, he swallowed it down with some milk.

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Geoff Gould, president of the Pacific Northwest Giant Pumpkin Growers, knows all about growing the largest pumpkins.

“Carpinito’s Pumpkin Farm and Corn Maze, we had one grower, the one that won it, a repeat winner—2,088 pounds. So he got first place and a bonus,” Geoff told “The Jake and Spike Show” on KIRO Newsradio.

To create a pumpkin that large, Geoff said you would need a specific seed and fertile soil.

“You need the Atlantic giant seed variety to grow a big one that’s going to go a few hundred pounds or a few thousand pounds. You need good soil. You need to germinate those seeds at 80 to 90 degrees. You can’t just throw them out there in the ground. You need a lot of manure, water,” he explained.

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to “The Jake and Spike Show” weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

Lauren Edgar, 40, will embark on an intensive two-year training program, learning how to fly, spacewalk, and perform space station operations.

“Think about what a standout she must be,” KIRO host Jake Skorheim said on “The Jake and Spike Show.”

“The culmination of a lifelong dream, it’s going to be tough,” KIRO host Spike O’Neill responded. “The astronaut training is tough, as it should be. But kudos to her.”

Edgar has a master’s degree and a doctorate in geology from the California Institute of Technology, according to The Seattle Times. She also worked at the U.S. Geological Survey as part of the Astrogeology Science Center.

“She’s very smart, so I think she’s going to do well,” Jake said.

“Very proud to have a local there,” Spike shared.

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to “The Jake and Spike Show” weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

Jake Skorheim, co-host of “The Jake and Spike Show” on KIRO Newsradio, is offering a solution: Cap spending at twice the original budget. If costs exceed that threshold, the project must halt unless new funding is secured, and officials responsible for the overspending would face termination.

“No more blank checks,” Jake said. “It’s about making government responsible with taxpayer money.”

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to “The Jake and Spike Show” weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

During a segment on “The Jake and Spike Show” on KIRO Newsradio, Spike revealed that he received a fare evasion warning after failing to tap his ORCA card during his regular bike-to-train commute. Although the notice listed a $124 fine, it was ultimately classified as a warning with no payment required.

Under Sound Transit’s current policy, riders may receive up to four such warnings within 12 months before any financial penalties are imposed.

“It says right on the top, ‘This is a warning. No further action required.’ And I’m not special, everyone gets the same,” Spike said.

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to “The Jake and Spike Show” weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

“The Seattle Times had this really interesting piece that highlights why I think a lot of people find politics to be so gross,” KIRO host Jake Skorheim shared on “The Jake and Spike Show.”

While the Ethics and Elections Commission couldn’t find anything illegal, Jake said the contract felt “kind of icky.”

“You might even feel like you need to wear a bathing suit in the shower after you hear this story,” KIRO fill-in host Greg Tomlin said.

Sinderman is among the state’s most sought-after Democratic political consultants. He was paid by the City of Seattle on a taxpayer-funded contract, but was not a city employee. Despite this, he had a city email and access to top meetings while his firm continued to do campaign work.

In total, The Seattle Times uncovered Sinderman was paid $50,000 during Harrell’s transition period, $52,000 for the rest of 2022, $58,000 in 2023, and $67,000 in 2024.

According to the media outlet, each payment was slightly below the threshold that would force the city to post the job for competition. Therefore, Harrell avoided having to put the job out to the general public.

“Why not just be forthcoming with this? Like, why doesn’t the mayor’s office just be forthcoming? If they know that the threshold is $68,000, and they’re doing it at $67,000, doesn’t that kind of imply that they realize that this is a little bit underhanded?” Jake asked.

“Absolutely,” Greg replied. “There’s a lot of peculiarities here, and it all stems from this aspect of the story where Sinderman has one foot in the political and governing world and one foot in the consulting world.”

Political strategist could have used information from Harrell

He explained that Sinderman could have benefited from insider knowledge and then used that information to benefit his role in the private sector.

“We’re not saying that it did,” Greg noted. “We’re just pointing out what could potentially happen.”

He added that the situation “raises serious ethical concerns.”

“Being under a no-bid, multi-year contract for a quarter-million dollars looks like you’re sort of sidestepping normal hiring procedures,” Greg said.

Greg said he’s hopeful The Seattle Times article will prompt reform.

“Maybe there needs to be a change in guidance, or maybe even a change in the law that this necessitates,” he added.

Listen to “The Jake and Spike Show” weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

“That’s an outrageous statement,” the passerby, a local resident named Jonathan, said during her press conference. “You should have known better, and this is far too late. I think that’s an outrageous statement to make, and that’s why I walked over here, and I had to pass drug users. I passed a man with a needle out in his hand.”

“Gotta say, I’m a citywide elected official and I spend a lot of time all over the city,” Nelson responded. “And you’re right. I should have been more attuned to what was going on here.”

Jonathan joins ‘The Jake and Spike Show’

“Do you believe her when you asked her that she seemed to be unaware that it was closing?” KIRO host Jake Skorheim asked Jonathan.

“No, there’s no way. That was the last pharmacy in Lake City in that general vicinity,” Jonathan said. “We lost the Walgreens a year ago. We lost the CVS not long before that, and both of those closed due to theft. You could go into those at any time, and the shelves that weren’t bare were completely locked up, and there would be people out in front of them openly stealing things and then reselling them on the sidewalk directly in front of the location.

“So to imagine that this last bastion of really having a grocery store, really having a pharmacy, which also has full-time staff as security guards,” Jonathan continued. “That must mean she either never came to the neighborhood, or she’s full of it.”

Jonathan believes the reason that Fred Meyer location was doing so poorly was due to drug dealers using the Fred Meyer parking lot. Fred Meyer has a policy to call the police, but the police wouldn’t respond because it’s on private property.

“She mentioned this as well, that the city council failed to act and passed the law that would have matched the state’s law that made open-air drug use a crime,” Johanthan said. “That’s one of the reasons they’re simply not enforcing basic laws in these areas.”

Jonathan mentioned that Nelson’s meeting was taking place in front of an empty playground, and that most of the parks in the Lake City neighborhood look like this due to them being covered in trash and littered with people using drugs.

Jonathan also argued that, despite crime, including shoplifting, decreasing statistically, it’s really not the case.

“What has happened is Fred Meyer and Kroger and QFC, they have a policy where they will not report shoplifters,” Jonathan said. “They will not call the police, and they do not allow their employees to do that, and you as a private citizen cannot call either. So 911 will not take a report unless it’s from Fred Meyer, and they obviously won’t call. So when shoplifting occurs, it doesn’t count as a crime statistic anymore. So of course, the numbers look down. No one’s counting.”

Mayor Bruce Harrell announced Friday he is creating a comprehensive set of investments in his 2026 budget proposal to significantly increase food access in Lake City.

“He took that opportunity to basically say, ‘There’s nothing to see here. Lake City is fine,'” Jonathan countered. “He bailed on us about two weeks ago as well when he was supposed to come down, and when we did approach him a few weeks ago, he essentially threw a hissy fit and walked out of a meeting in Lake City because he doesn’t like to be questioned on where he is failing. I think that’s unfortunate because we need a mayor who’s going to do the right thing.”

“I’m certainly glad that you spoke out,” Jake said. “I hope that more meaningful conversations can actually happen now. I hope they actually take it seriously. It would be really great, especially when we have a mayoral race happening right now.”

Listen to the full conversation here.

Listen to “The Jake and Spike Show” weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

The initial decision sparked a firestorm of angry responses, resulting in a loss of nearly $100 million in market value after its stock plunged. Even President Donald Trump urged Cracker Barrel to go back to its old logo, posting about it on Truth Social.

We thank our guests for sharing your voices and love for Cracker Barrel. We said we would listen, and we have. Our new logo is going away and our “Old Timer” will remain.

At Cracker Barrel, it’s always been – and always will be – about serving up delicious food, warm… pic.twitter.com/C32QMLOeq0

— Cracker Barrel (@CrackerBarrel) August 26, 2025

“On May 16, 2024, Cracker Barrel’s new CEO, Julie Felss Masino, got on the phone with investors and unveiled the details of a strategic transformation plan her board of directors had approved the first of five pillars in the plan would be refining and a value evolving the brand across all touch points over the next months,” KIRO host Jake Skorheim said, referencing an article from Fox Business. “Masino and her board of directors dismissed at least four warnings by some top investor whose name is Sardar Biglari.”

Biglari is an entrepreneur and investor. When he was just in his 20s, he founded Biglari Holdings, a holding company that trades on the New York Stock Exchange. In an attempt to diversify his portfolio and investments, Biglari entered the restaurant industry. One of his significant investments was in Cracker Barrel.

“So he goes to the board and he says, this is folly,” Jake said. “This is a really bad idea, so much so that he even comes up with his own PowerPoint, which was a 120-page slideshow to show them why this is a bad idea and how bad this is going to fail and why this won’t work. Their response to him was, this guy’s an outlier. He’s crazy, and we shouldn’t listen to him, and they push through and do it anyway.

“He said the company’s $700 million remodel plan will not work. Exclamation point, that’s in quotes,” Jake continued. “He actually said that to them, and they told him to pound sand.”

The original 1969 logo for Cracker Barrel was also text-only, but, in 1977, the restaurant chain added the now-iconic imagery of “Uncle Herschel,” which became a staple of its branding for decades. Masino was named president and CEO for Cracker Barrel in July 2023.

“Why listen to the billionaire who invests in companies and winning propositions?” KIRO host Spike O’Neill scoffed. “So arrogant. $700 million rebrand.”

“So arrogant of these people just to think you can come in and change the way it goes just because you want to,” Jake said. “I don’t even know what they were aiming at, honestly.”

How other restaurants have successfully rebranded

“You look at other chains that have been successful in recent times because they’ve rebranded, like Applebee’s or Chili’s, they’re in the medium fast food, sit-down business.”

“I would say that’s slightly different, because Applebee’s didn’t change everything about their restaurant,” Jake responded. “They updated decor, right?”

“And they should have stopped,” Spiek said. “If they left Herschel on the sign, just leave the guy and cleaned up the insides and brightened things up a little bit, sure, I think they’d be happy chappies today. They didn’t change the food.”

Listen to the full conversation here.

Listen to “The Jake and Spike Show” weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

Cambridge stated it only added words it thinks will have staying power, providing longevity within the culture.

Do you know these new words? Play along with “The Jake and Spike Show.”

Delulu

“We’re going to start easy,” KIRO fill-in producer Sofia Silvia said. “The word is delulu. Have you heard this word?”

“Delulu? Sounds like delirious, delusional,” KIRO hist Jake Skorheim answered.

“Exactly, it’s a play on delusional,” Silvia said.

“Riz made it, I think, last year or the year before, and that’s short for charisma,” KIRO host Spike O’Neill added. “These guys speak in abbreviated language, and that kind of comes from the texting language that they use more often than verbal skills. And it’s transitioned from the text language into their vernacular, into real speak.”

Broligarchy

“I don’t know what that means,” Jake said. “I actually know what those words mean by themselves. I could put together what it probably means, but I’ve never heard of it.”

Broligarchy refers to a small group of men, particularly those involved in or owning a tech company, who are extremely wealthy and powerful, and either possess or seek political influence.

“If you watched any liberal news coverage of the last Trump administration’s inauguration, I’m sure that word broligarchy was used maybe no less than 20,000 times,” Spike said.

Skibidi

“I feel like we have to go back to skibidi because that’s the big one in the headline,” Silvia said.

“Um, it’s like, cool. It’s the new cool,” Spike answered. “Remember when Michael Jackson took ‘bad’ and made it like, it’s good. That’s bad. Oh man, it’s bad. Skibidi is cool. Something is skibidi.”

The Cambridge Dictionary defines skibidi as “a word that can have different meanings, such as ‘cool’ or ‘bad,’ or can be used with no real meaning as a joke.”

Trad wife

“Another one they did put on the list, though, is trad wife,” Silvia said.

“That’s pretty understandable,” Spike said. “A homemaker.”

“I’m a trad husband,” Jake added.

“On social media, it’s a little different because if you’ve ever seen those videos, you see a woman at home cooking and cleaning, they’re like, ‘she’s a Trad wife,’ and sometimes it’s used in a derogatory way,” Silvia said.

“That’s so silly,” Jake responded. “That’s ridiculous. Sometimes the husband stays home and the wife goes to work, what do you call him? You call him a trad husband? I would guess that would be trad hubby. No, it wouldn’t be trad hubby, because that’s not traditional. What would you call him in a derogatory way?”

“Ken,” Spike answered. “We call him a Ken.”

Listen to the full conversation here.

Listen to “The Jake and Spike Show” weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

It is legal to scatter ashes in the Puget Sound, as cremated remains can be scattered on all public navigable waterways under Washington state control.

“My mother-in-law lost her best friend of like 40, 50 years, a local lady who lived on the islands,” KIRO host Spike O’Neill said. “When she passed, my mother-in-law and her friends booked this sunrise ferry trip because the Washington State Ferry system accommodates those who want to spread ashes into the Puget Sound. It’s a very common request in our area. The Sound is such a part of the people’s lives up here in the Northwest.”

WSF offers these trips during non-heavy commuting times, typically between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. or later in the evening. The ferry service even provides a biodegradable “journey urn” made from Himalayan salt, so there are no piles of metal containers sitting at the bottom of the Sound thrown from the ferry. Journey urns range in price from $35 to $200.

Would you do this?

“I don’t know if I would want to do this with all the other passengers right there, because it’s kind of a private moment,” KIRO host Jake Skorheim said. “I’m not knocking anybody who does it. Would you do this?”

“Haven’t done that in particular,” Spike replied. “When my father-in-law passed, he was cremated as it was becoming much more common. The family took it upon themselves to spread his ashes in numerous places that he loved. The Columbia River, where he used to love to fish. Part of his ashes were spread in the French Alps, as he was a skier and he had a chance to go and ski the French Alps a couple of times during his retirement. My sister-in-law and her kid, during a scheduled trip to France, they made a side trip to go up to where he used to hike and ski. We’ve done the Southwest desert. He’s got some of his ashes spread there.”

This service is available along the following ferry routes: Anacortes/Friday Harbor, Anacortes/Orcas Island, Edmonds/Kingston, Mukilteo/Clinton, Port Townsend/Coupeville, Seattle/Bainbridge Island, and Seattle/Bremerton.

“There are places that don’t want you to do this, like Disneyland,” Jake said. “People are dumping ashes at Disneyland all the time.”

“Covert ash spreading is huge. It’s a big, big, huge secret thing that people are doing,” Spike added. “I know people who have had their remains spread at what was then the Kingdome.”

There is a $150 fee to reserve a memorial on a ferry.

Listen to the full conversation here.

Listen to “The Jake and Spike Show” weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

Ball pythons are native to Africa and are not part of the local ecosystem in Washington. The four snakes were likely abandoned pets.

“I do have a phobia I can share with you: toilet snakes,” KIRO host Jake Skorheim shared. “Does anybody else have that phobia? Here’s a little peek behind the curtain of my relationship with Dori Monson. Every time he would see a story anywhere in the world about a snake in a toilet or even just an image that popped up where a snake was in a toilet, he would send it to me. He continued this for years, and every time it scared the heck out of me, but it was also hilarious, so I had to give him credit for that.”

Ball pythons are non-venomous and typically range from 2-4.5 feet in length, and can live anywhere from 15-30 years. According to KOMO News, only two of the four ball pythons survived by the time they were located and taken into a preserve.

“I hate snakes and I still feel bad,” KIRO host Spike O’Neill said.

“Me too. I had that same feeling,” Jake added. “I was conflicted because I hate them. I hate snakes, and still I felt bad for them because they didn’t ask for this.”

Ball pythons are not native to any location in the U.S., yet have thrived in the Everglades, which is a real problem in Florida, because they are eating all of the native species.

“Somebody had these as pets and either moved out of the area and didn’t want to take them with them, or just decided they were a hassle, so they dumped these four baby ball pythons,” Jake said. “Actually, probably what happened was a mama snake had some babies, they didn’t want to take care of them, so they dumped these ball pythons.”

According to Scott Petersen, a local exotic animal care expert, ball pythons have become the most popular pet snake in the U.S.

Currently, the snakes are being held at the Reptile Zoo in Monroe, but they will eventually be rehomed.

Reptile Zoo in Monroe to close

Unfortunately, Oct. 18 will be the last day the Reptile Zoo will be open to the public, the organization announced on its website. The zoo was run and operated by Peterson and his son.

“They encourage visitors to get the word out and visit while they’re still in operation, but it’s going to go away,” Jake said. “They just never recovered after COVID. People didn’t want to go in as much.”

“I know he used to have a business where [Peterson] would bring these reptiles to schools,” Spike said. “My kids had the Reptile Man come through.”

“As much as I hate snakes, it’s a cool spot to go,” Jake stated. “He’s got, I think, an albino alligator up there. You can see all these cool reptiles.”

“Maybe he makes a really weepy video in the front seat of his car and appeals to Jeff Bezos or Kourtney Kardashian,” Spike added.

Listen to the full conversation here.

Listen to “The Jake and Spike Show” weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.