November 5th: How sausages feed Australian civic duty
Vote a little. Have a sausage. Make a day of it! You might as well – it’s not exactly optional.
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Democracy sausages
Voter registration in Australia is compulsory. You can spoil your ballot, or not send it in – but that would be contrary to cultural norms, says Dr. Peter Chen. He’s senior lecturer of political science at the University of Sydney. He explains why Americans will never adopt a compulsory voting system (and what precisely goes into a democracy sausage).
Judge elections
Do you know the judges on your district court? Superior court? Appeals court? State supreme court? Probably not… and yet, they’re on your ballot. Why do we elect judges? We asked University of Washington law professor Hugh Spitzer and political science professor at the University of Pittsburgh, Chris Bonneau.
Gab comes to Sammamish
During Shabbat on October 27th, Robert Bowers walked into Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue and committed the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in American history. Bowers had been using the social media site Gab to post anti-Semitic content for some time, and when his connection to the site came to light they were dropped by many digital partners. But as KUOW’s Sydney Brownstone found, Gab soon found a new home with Sammamish based domain registrar Epik.
Mike Daisey's A People's History
Mike Daisey’s new show is called A People’s History, based on the book by Howard Zinn. Daisey wanted to contrast the history of working class people in America with the history he was taught growing up.
Rest in peace, Super Mario
And: the namesake of Super Mario passed away this weekend at the age of 84. The Tukwila landlord was not a carpenter, or a plumber. He did not have a mustache. No word about whether he was prone to wearing overalls. But Mario Segale inspired one of the most famous characters in video game history – and it all began with an overdue rent check.
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Bill Radke
Host
Bill hosts Week In Review and Words in Review. After starting with KUOW as a University of Washington student in 1985, Bill was KUOW's morning host in the '90s and the creator of past show, Rewind, a news-satire show heard on KUOW and nationwide on NPR. Bill moved away to Southern California to host American Public Media's Weekend America and Marketplace Morning Report and returned to KUOW in 2012.
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