Two Cities, One Industry: Big Tech, Power, and Politics in Seattle and San Francisco

Sept 29, 2026

6:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Members: $15
General Admission: $20

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A Live Taping of Blue City Blues & GeekWire Podcasts

Seattle and San Francisco have shaped the modern tech industry, but they've also transformed politics, housing, culture, and civic life. How did two very different cities become the twin capitals of tech, and where do they go from here?

Featuring historian Margaret O'Mara (author of The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America), GeekWire's John Cook, and journalist Jonathan Weber (author of City on the Edge: Technology, Politics, and the Fight for the Soul of San Francisco), the conversation will explore how these two distinct cities became the twin capitals of tech—and how the relationship between Big Tech and the local governments that host it continues to evolve.

Recorded live for both podcasts, the discussion will be hosted by Blue City Blues co-hosts, political consultant Sandeep Kaushik and journalist David Hyde.

Speakers

Margaret O'Mara

Author of The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America
Bio

Margaret O'Mara

Author of The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America

Margaret O’Mara is the Scott and Dorothy Bullitt Chair and Professor of American History at the University of Washington.

Margaret is a leading historian of Silicon Valley and the author of two acclaimed books about the modern American technology industry: The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America (Penguin Press, 2019) and Cities of Knowledge: Cold War Science and the Search For The Next Silicon Valley (Princeton, 2005). She also is a historian of the American presidency and author of Pivotal Tuesdays: Four Elections that Shaped the Twentieth Century (Penn Press, 2015). She is a coauthor, with David Kennedy and Lizabeth Cohen, of the widely used United States history college textbook, The American Pageant (Cengage).
John Cook

Co-founder of GeekWire
Bio

John Cook

Co-founder of GeekWire

John Cook is the co-founder of GeekWire, a national technology news site and community. He started GeekWire in 2011 with veteran journalist Todd Bishop, building on more than two decades of combined experience covering the Pacific Northwest technology community.

As co-founder and publisher, John oversees business, event and community operations, bringing the GeekWire community together in creative, informative and fun ways.

A sought-after voice on startups, venture capital and the changing economics of the tech industry, John started covering the technology beat in the Seattle area in the 1990s as a tech reporter for The Eastside Journal before moving to The Seattle Post-Intelligencer and The Puget Sound Business Journal.
Jonathan Weber

Author of City on the Edge: Technology, Politics, and the Fight for the Soul of San Francisco
Bio

Jonathan Weber

Author of City on the Edge: Technology, Politics, and the Fight for the Soul of San Francisco

Jonathan Weber was named the Los Angeles Times’s first-ever Silicon Valley reporter in 1990. He was later editor in chief of The Industry Standard, which chronicled—and lived—the first dot-com boom. He served as editor in chief of The Bay Citizen, a local news non-profit, and oversaw West Coast news and global technology coverage for Reuters. He was most recently the founding editor in chief of The San Francisco Standard. He holds a B.A. in Philosophy from Wesleyan University.
Sandeep Kaushik

Co-host, Blue City Blues
Bio

Sandeep Kaushik

Co-host, Blue City Blues

Sandeep Kaushik is an experienced political and public affairs consultant based in Seattle, with expertise in public relations, political communications, and strategic advisory work for elected officials, civic leaders, governments, and non-profits. He has worked on multiple political campaigns, including those for Seattle's last two mayors and several successful ballot measure campaigns. His current practice focuses on high-profile policy issues such as affordable housing, ridesharing, short-term rental regulation, transit funding, and universal pre-K.

Sandeep has a background in communications, having served as deputy communications director for King County Executive Ron Sims and as a political columnist for Seattle's The Stranger and a correspondent for Time Magazine and the Boston Globe. He holds degrees from Reed College and Princeton University and serves on the executive committee of the Downtown Emergency Services Center.
David Hyde

Co-host, Blue City Blues
Bio

David Hyde

Co-host, Blue City Blues

For nearly 2 decades, David Hyde worked for NPR-affiliate KUOW in Seattle, most recently as a Murrow-award winning politics reporter. He departed in 2024 to dedicate himself full time to podcasting and other journalism and writing projects. Blue City Blues builds on the success David had creating Seattle Nice. Each week Blue City Blues takes a deep dive look at the many shared issues facing blue cities.