Knute “Mossback” Berger is an editor-at-large at Cascade PBS and host of "Mossback’s Northwest" television series and podcast.
Cascade PBS’s Knute Berger and Nick Zentner explore how geology and history have shaped the Pacific Northwest—from ancient floods, earthquakes, and eruptions to the region’s enduring mysteries. What remains unknown, and what can we expect from the future?
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Cascade PBS Ideas Festival will return in 2027
KEEP CONNECTED - JOIN OUR NEWSLETTERThe 2026 Cascade PBS Ideas Festival was a full-day celebration of ideas, journalism, and public discourse held on Saturday, June 6th, in Seattle's historic Fremont neighborhood. The event featured live podcast recordings and studio television tapings from major media outlets including The Atlantic, NPR, The New Yorker, CNN, PBS, and Pushkin, with programs such as Fresh Air, Radiolab, The Political Scene, Radio Atlantic, and Open to Debate live on stage. Speakers included Ibram X. Kendi, Nancy Pelosi, Monica Lewinsky, Laverne Cox, Kenny Mayne, Tonya Mosley, Adam Schiff, and others drawn from journalism, politics, culture, and the arts. Beyond the main sessions, the festival included community meetups, speaker meet-and-greets, food trucks, DJs, live music, happy hour - and surprises. The festival brought together more than a thousand PBS supporters for what has become a highly anticipated annual event that fosters intellectual discourse and expands understanding of the issues shaping our world.
Emmy-winning actress, producer, LGBTQ+ advocate, and author
Speaker Emerita, United States Congress
Author, Chain of Ideas: The Origins of Our Authoritarian Age
Activist, Writer, Producer
Co-Host Fresh Air / Creator and Host of Truth Be Told
Former ESPN Host, Podcast Host
Emmy-winning writer, Emmy-nominated actor, and Comedian
Author of America, U.S.A.: How Race Shadows the Nation's Anniversaries
Host, Mossback's Northwest
U.S. Senator, California
Geologist, Host of Nick on the Rocks
Host, Seattle Now / KUOW
Host, Radio Atlantic
Host, The Political Scene
Distinguished Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute
Host, KEXP's Sounds of Survivance
Host, The Newsfeed
Host of CNN Podcast, "One Thing"
King County Executive
Writer and Host, First America
Musician / Writer
Author, Citizenship: Notes on an American Myth
Senior Correspondent, Radiolab Co-Host
Storyteller, Speaker, Mentor, Teacher and Counselor of the Spirit
Author, MOTHERLAND: A Feminist History of Modern Russia; Founding Partner, Washington Correspondent at Puck
Host of Democracy in Color podcast, Author, and Columnist at The Guardian, The Nation
Musician, Helms Alee, Lozen, Tacos!, and Uukwuuk
Moderator-in-Chief
Cascade PBS, Arts and culture writer / television host
Theoretical Physicist and Cosmologist, Author of The Edge of Space and Time
