Riding the rails — over a floating bridge: GeekWire Podcast takes the train across the lake to Microsoft

GeekWire

Tech News, News, Technology

4.8 • 127 Ratings

🗓️ 11 April 2026

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week on the GeekWire Podcast: we take the show on the road — or rather, on the rails — recording on Sound Transit's 2 Line as we ride the world's first light rail on a floating bridge from Seattle's Northgate neighborhood to Microsoft's campus in Redmond.

Along the way, we talk tech news, chat with fellow passengers, and get a behind-the-scenes look at the engineering from Sound Transit's Henry Bendon.

After arriving in Redmond, we sit down with Microsoft President Brad Smith to talk about the company's two-decade role in making the Crosslake Connection a reality — and hit him with a trivia question he didn't see coming.

We also discuss Anduril's autonomous warship facility on Seattle's ship canal, golf star Bryson DeChambeau's acquisition of Bellevue-based Sportsbox AI ahead of the Masters, and more.

With GeekWire's John Cook, Todd Bishop, and Kurt Schlosser. Edited by Curt Milton.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This show is brought to you by Microsoft. Light Rail is now connecting Seattle in the east side,
0:06.1	crossing Lake Washington on a floating bridge. It's a milestone decades in the making,
0:11.0	and one the business community helped build. Microsoft donated land, raised money, and invested $400
0:17.0	million in the infrastructure that made it possible. Why? Because you can't have healthy
0:22.6	businesses without a healthy community, and you can't have a healthy community without healthy
0:27.5	businesses. We're all in this together. Microsoft.
0:34.3	Hi, and welcome to Geekwire. I'm Geekwire co-founder Todd Bishop. And I'm Geekwire co-founder John Cook. We are coming to you from Sound Transits Two-Line. I think we're underneath the university right now. We're on the one line? This is the two-line, I'm pretty sure. Are you sure you're on the right train? He rides it all the time.
0:54.5	We never do.
0:55.2	So maybe we're on the wrong train.
0:56.8	But it's said to Redmond.
0:57.8	It says two-line to downtown Redmond. We're trying to get to Redmond. We're trying to get to Redmond. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Are we good? We're good. Okay. Okay. Okay. Good. Thank God. This week on the Geekwire podcast, the first podcast ever recorded on the first light rail ever to cross a floating bridge.
1:19.6	It's an engineering marvel decades in the making.
1:22.8	The bridge, that is, not the podcast.
1:24.8	Although juggling a couple of handheld mics and a portable recorder on a crowded train,
1:29.8	we did have to overcome some logistical challenges to make it happen. Let's jump in.
1:35.2	We are traveling, it seems, from Seattle's Northgate neighborhood across Lake Washington to Microsoft's campus in Redmond.
1:42.9	We're experiencing firsthand what has quickly become
1:45.1	the daily commute for many tech workers and others across the region. This is the Cross Lake
1:49.6	connection, the line that took nearly 60 years, John, to get from idea to reality. It's been
1:55.9	open for less than two weeks. Microsoft is our podcast sponsor this month, and we've got some special surprises planned.
2:03.4	We'll be talking about the train and our experiences as we go.
2:06.4	And if all goes according to plan, I think we might just have the best geekwire trivia
	...

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