Sydney Gladu, an investigative journalist podcast producer, lives in Seattle. But growing up in Bend, she worked as a bagger at Newport Avenue Market.
That’s where she realized she loved hearing people’s stories. Customers’ and coworkers’ gossip and news — she couldn’t get enough. And podcasts like “This American Life” lit up Gladu’s interest not just in top-shelf audio storytelling, but relieved her of the dyslexia that had hereto then made reading a tortuous affair.
Gladu graduated from Bend High School in 2014. Now 30, she recently spoke with the Source about her gripping, Oregon-centered, six-part podcast “Not Just A Terrible Story.” It’s an independent investigation into educator sexual misconduct at Centennial High School in Gresham, Oregon.
Over the course of the first season, Gladu follows Stacie Love, who married her former high school English teacher in the early 2000s. Charismatic and young for a teacher, Brett Fischer made a habit of picking popular, conventionally pretty students to serve as his teacher assistants…