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November 5th: How sausages feed Australian civic duty

caption: The foundation upon which Australian democracy rests.
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The foundation upon which Australian democracy rests.

Vote a little. Have a sausage. Make a day of it! You might as well – it’s not exactly optional.

Listen to the full show by clicking the play button above, or check out one of the show’s segments below. You can also subscribe to The Record on your favorite podcast app.

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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