Seattle's "Mind of a Serial Killer" exhibit blends museum, immersive attraction and true-crime spectacle to fuel our morbid curiosity.

Why it matters: The traveling exhibit at Pacific Place explores notorious serial killers — including several with Pacific Northwest ties — their victims and the investigators who tried to understand and catch them.

What to expect: Don't expect to race through it. It takes about 90 minutes to two hours.

• There's bios of the killers and victims, material on criminal psychology and the FBI's behavioral analysis work, alongside videos, artifacts and reconstructed rooms.
• The FBI section recreates an earlier era of criminal investigation, complete with ringing telephones and clacking typewriters. (For this reporter, the soundtrack delivered an unexpected jolt of old-newsroom nostalgia.)

The details: The room recreations are considerably darker. Ted Bundy's section — whose killings began in Washington — includes a replica of his Volkswagen Beetle, complete with the passenger-side door handle removed.

• A 1970s living room in the BTK section includes the body of a young girl hanging upside down. Jeffrey Dahmer's kitchen has a torso inside a freezer and a heart bubbling in a pot.
• Walking into John Wayne Gacy's recreated basement, I found myself bracing for a smell that wasn't there.

What they're saying: The crowd on a recent visit included couples, groups of friends and parents with adult children.

• "You hear the podcasts and read about the crimes, but fully immersing yourself in the experience is different," Samantha Burns, visiting from Arizona, told Axios. "If you're into true crime and have a strong stomach, I'd recommend it."

The tension: Organizers make a visible effort to keep victims from disappearing behind their killers.

• The Green River Killer Gary Ridgway section includes a tiny graveyard with signs bearing victims' names.
• The tour ends in a candlelit memorial room where visitors are invited to leave messages on a blackboard.

Yes, but: There's still a contradiction the exhibit can't quite escape: The victims are remembered, but the killers are why everyone is there.

If you go: The show runs through September. Tickets run about $28–$37; ages 14+.

My thought bubble: I'm not easily shocked, but a few of these rooms got to me. I wouldn't take a kid.

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Seattle will provide free meals to all Seattle Public Schools students starting this fall, using $3.6 million the City Council approved this week.

Why it matters: The vote caps a weeks-long discussion between Mayor Wilson and City Council members over how soon to offer universal school meals.

Catch up quick: Wilson had proposed starting free breakfast and lunch for all students this September.

• Councilmembers Joy Hollingsworth and Dionne Foster then proposed pushing the start to the 2027-28 school year.
• In the meantime, they wanted to prioritize food assistance for low-income families during weekends and school breaks.
• The two sides later agreed to tap unused money from an affordable housing project to do both starting this fall.

What's next: Starting in the 2028-29 school year, city officials expect the state's new high-earners income tax to pay for universal school meals — should the tax survive legal and electoral challenges.

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🚈 Sound Transit now says its light rail line to West Seattle won't open until 2035, three years later than previous estimates. (West Seattle Blog)

Seattle's largest apartment project, the 1,131-unit Seattle House on Sixth Avenue between Battery and Bell, is set to open this fall after six years of construction. (Puget Sound Business Journal)

🕯️ Paul Dorpat, the late, longtime Seattle historian behind The Seattle Times' "Now & Then" feature, will be honored with a 6:30pm public memorial at MOHAI on Aug. 30. (Seattle Times)

🏢 Seattle developers are turning empty office space into housing as the city grapples with high commercial vacancies and a shortage of homes. (KING 5)

It may be about to get harder for smaller influencers to make money on YouTube.

Why it matters: Platforms are changing their policies to reward creators with loyal communities over broad followings, making it harder for influencers with big, passive followings to sustain their momentum.

• Carmen Vicente, a social content strategist, calls this the looming "influencer cliff."

The latest: YouTube announced Monday it's doubling the watch-time threshold for new creators to earn money from ads and subscriptions.

State of play: More platforms are shifting creator monetization programs to prioritize engagement and loyalty over scale.

• X said last week it will replace its creator revenue-sharing program with an original content rewards program for creators using its premium paid tier.
• Snapchat replaced its Spotlight Reward Program with a monetization program that incentivizes creators to post regularly and generate sustained watch time.
• TikTok shuttered its $1 billion U.S. Creator Fund in 2023 and replaced it with the "Creator Rewards" program, which favors original videos with "qualified views."

The big picture: Ad dollars are shifting to niche creators, who are expected to capture 45.5% of U.S. influencer marketing spend this year, per eMarketer.

What we're watching: YouTube's higher bar could push smaller creators toward other ways to make money.

Gus was a street cat in Olympia before finding his way to Seattle Humane.

He's been in his new home for three months — and it's clear "he's adjusting just fine to indoor living," owner Tracy M. tells us.

• "I call this state 'toy drunk,'" Tracy said of the peak levels of chill seen in this pic.

📸 Got a pet that deserves the spotlight? Hit reply and send us their name, some cute pics (horizontal if possible) and what they most like and dislike. They might just become our next featured star!