Focus: We Keep Us Safe podcast | Listen online for free

37 episodes

We Keep Us Safe: The Chase
05/10/2026 | 36 mins.
What really happened the night Antonio Mays Jr. was killed? Protesters claim he was attacking CHOP and they had to defend themselves. But new evidence from that night turns everything we thought we knew about the shooting upside down.
We Keep Us Safe is part of Focus, a dedicated documentary channel from KUOW Puget Sound Public Radio in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR network.
Get in touch with the team by email at focus@kuow.org. Support KUOW and projects like this by donating at kuow.org/donate/focus.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
We Keep Us Safe: Pocket's World
01/10/2026 | 38 mins.
Who was Antonio Mays Jr.? What was he up to at CHOP? A deep dive into Antonio’s last few weeks leads to perplexing rumors, new details about the night he was killed and conversations with the people whose lives were changed by his death.
We Keep Us Safe is part of Focus, a dedicated documentary channel from KUOW Puget Sound Public Radio in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR network.
Get in touch with the team by email at focus@kuow.org. Support KUOW and projects like this by donating at kuow.org/donate/focus.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
We Keep Us Safe: This Ain’t Coachella
28/09/2026 | 34 mins.
After police retreat from their precinct, protesters begin occupying roughly eight blocks of Seattle. It's their attempt at a police-free world. But as rumors spread, fear and paranoia take over, setting a dangerous stage for Antonio Mays Jr.'s arrival.
We Keep Us Safe is part of Focus, a dedicated documentary channel from KUOW Puget Sound Public Radio in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR network.
Get in touch with the team by email at focus@kuow.org. Support KUOW and projects like this by donating at kuow.org/donate/focus.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
We Keep Us Safe: The Standoff
24/09/2026 | 38 mins.
In the summer of 2020, protests are happening all across the country. But Seattle is different. A confrontation between protestors and police outside a precinct leads to the birth of CHOP. A thousand miles away, Antonio Mays Jr. hears about what’s happening in Seattle. He was shot and killed there three weeks later.
We Keep Us Safe is part of Focus, a dedicated documentary channel from KUOW Puget Sound Public Radio in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR network.
Get in touch with the team by email at focus@kuow.org. Support KUOW and projects like this by donating at kuow.org/donate/focus.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
We Keep Us Safe: Who Killed Antonio Mays Jr.?
21/09/2026 | 35 mins.
When 16-year-old Antonio Mays Jr. was shot and killed inside Seattle's CHOP protest zone in 2020, protesters claimed self-defense. For years, that version of events went unchallenged. Reporters Sydney Brownstone, Will James and David Gutman investigate what really happened the night Antonio died.
We Keep Us Safe is part of Focus, a dedicated documentary channel from KUOW Puget Sound Public Radio in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR network.
Get in touch with the team by email at focus@kuow.org. Support KUOW and projects like this by donating at kuow.org/donate/focus.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

About Focus: We Keep Us Safe

New Season "We Keep Us Safe" starting September 21, 2026. In the summer of 2020, sixteen-year-old Antonio Mays Jr. traveled a thousand miles to join the racial justice movement of his generation. He arrived in Seattle during the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest, known as CHOP. Less than a week later, he was shot and killed there. The case remains unsolved. In this eight-part series, first published on NPR’s Embedded, KUOW’s Will James and The Seattle Times’ Sydney Brownstone track down key figures and eyewitnesses from the night of the shooting and surface crucial evidence that has never been made public. We Keep Us Safe is a joint production of KUOW, The Seattle Times, and NPR’s Embedded. 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. Series include Adults in the Room and the Peabody-nominated Lost Patients.

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