Focus: Adults in the Room Mehr vom Sender

The creators of Lost Patients return with a new investigative series: Adults in the Room begins on February 24, 2026. Seattle, 1999. At Garfield High School, Mr. Hudson is a legend. With a thundering voice and imposing stature, Mr. Hudson — or “Tom” as select students call him — teaches biology and leads an elite outdoors program. But when teen reporters at the school paper start exploring a rumor that he sexually abused students, all hell breaks loose. Adults close ranks, and schoolmates turn on the young journalists. And then one day, a voice on the school intercom announces that Mr. Hudson is dead. Isolde Raftery is one of the students who first heard about and reported allegations against Mr. Hudson. Three decades later, she is an investigative journalist in Seattle. In Adults in the Room, Raftery re-reports the story to understand what really happened in 1999. Was a whole school community groomed by a charismatic predator? Or was she part of a whisper campaign that cost the life of a great teacher? About Focus: 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. Previous KUOW documentaries include the Peabody-nominated series Lost Patients, which explored America’s failing, maze-like system for treating serious mental illness