Millions of people are asking tools like ChatGPT questions every day. But your questions don’t just fly up into the ether. They go to a real place.

AI has a backend, and it looks like massive data centers sprawling across farmland in places like central Washington.

Data centers provide the essential infrastructure needed to run AI apps and everything else we do on the internet. And tech companies say they bring economic prosperity to communities that desperately need it. But those benefits come at a cost.

On this week's episode, we travel to a place where the data center boom is well underway to find out how the AI boom is reshaping small towns.

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It's been almost 25 years since the Nisqually earthquake, the last "big one" to hit Seattle.

But the region is due for an even bigger one -- one that could be more massive than the underwater quake that just hit off the coast of Russia.

The Nisqually quake did at least $2 billion worth of damage across the Puget Sound region. It hit Seattle’s historic brick and stone buildings hard, and the city has learned a lot of expensive lessons about what would make them safer.

So... is old Seattle worth saving? And is there a way to do it that won’t bankrupt the owners, or the city?

Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/boomingnotes.

Booming is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network. Our editor is Carol Smith. Our producers are Lucy Soucek and Alec Cowan. Our hosts are Joshua McNichols and Monica Nickelsburg.

Support the show: https://kuow.org/donate

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bellevue, Washington – Seattle's neighbor to the East - is having a bit of an identity crisis. For decades it’s been the younger sibling... trying to get out from under Seattle’s shadow.

But now, Bellevue is preparing for a major change. Workers are putting finishing touches on the long-awaited link across Lake Washington. When it’s finished next year, two of the largest cities in our region will be connected by light rail for the first time.

Bellevue’s older sibling, Seattle, has been in the limelight for a long time. Is it Bellevue’s time to shine?

Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/boomingnotes.

Booming is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network. Our editor is Carol Smith. Our producers are Lucy Soucek and Alec Cowan. Our hosts are Joshua McNichols and Monica Nickelsburg.

Support the show: https://kuow.org/donate

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Microsoft is spending $4 billion dollars on workshops, technology, and other initiatives to get artificial intelligence into the hands of millions of people around the world.

The company pioneering the AI revolution says it could be bigger than the Internet, bigger than mobile, and that the best comparison is the advent of electricity.

So, what does it mean for all of us? Booming host Monica Nickelsburg spoke with a tech historian who takes us back in time to search for lessons learned the last truly revolutionary technology that took over the world.

Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/boomingnotes.

Booming is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network. Our editor is Carol Smith. Our producers are Lucy Soucek and Alec Cowan. Our hosts are Joshua McNichols and Monica Nickelsburg.

Support the show: https://kuow.org/donate

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For nearly a century, Washington’s timber industry produced everything from paper to 2x4s to the massive wood beams that hold up the Tacoma dome. But the industry’s been on a long decline since the 1990s.

Now, President Trump wants to reduce foreign competition and increase U.S. logging to bring back those jobs. Could Trump’s strategy revive the timber industry in the Northwest?

We went to a sawmill in the foothills of Mt. Rainier to find out.

Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/boomingnotes.

Booming is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network. Our editor is Carol Smith. Our producers are Lucy Soucek and Alec Cowan. Our hosts are Joshua McNichols and Monica Nickelsburg.

Support the show: https://kuow.org/donate

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Microsoft’s latest round of layoffs leaves even more tech workers in Washington without a job – and with a new worldview called "cruel optimism."

Just a few years ago, a job in tech was considered a straight shot toward economic security and affordability in Seattle. But today, employees are afraid that if they lose their job, they won’t be able to find another one. To understand how the shift is affecting tech workers psychologically, Booming talked with Samuel So, who started interviewing tech workers caught up in the first round of mass layoffs back in 2022.

Why are tech workers suffering from "cruel optimism"? And what does it mean for an industry that was once seen as the last bastion of the American Dream?

Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/boomingnotes.

Booming is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network. Our editor is Carol Smith. Our producers are Lucy Soucek and Alec Cowan. Our hosts are Joshua McNichols and Monica Nickelsburg.

Support the show: https://kuow.org/donate

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mayor Bruce Harrell has a big to do list. He’s got to fix bridges, build housing, and spruce the place up for the World Cup next year. But to make all this happen, he needs federal dollars... money the city could lose.

The Trump administration has used executive orders to cut funding for cities that don’t cooperate with its immigration enforcement agenda. And now, Seattle is fighting back.

So we asked the mayor, how does Seattle spend its federal money? And if that money goes away, what can we do to replace it?

Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/boomingnotes.

Booming is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network. Our editor is Carol Smith. Our producers are Lucy Soucek and Alec Cowan. Our hosts are Joshua McNichols and Monica Nickelsburg.

Support the show: https://kuow.org/donate

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Seattle is one of the wealthiest and most expensive cities in the U.S. One out of every fourteen Seattleites is a millionaire.  By some estimates, costs in Seattle have risen more than 20% in just a few years.

On today's episode, we ask more than 300 Seattleites: How much money would it really take to live comfortably in this city of millionaires? And if you can't make enough, what can you do to feel more comfortable here?

Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/boomingnotes.

Booming is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network. Our editor is Carol Smith. Our producers are Lucy Soucek and Alec Cowan. Our hosts are Joshua McNichols and Monica Nickelsburg.

Support the show: https://kuow.org/donate

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.