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This reality show about glassmaking will blow you away

caption: An eyeball lamp made by Blown Away contestant Edgar Valentine.
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An eyeball lamp made by Blown Away contestant Edgar Valentine.
Courtesy Edgar Valentine

A peek inside the world of competitive glassblowing. Oh ye of little faith: congrats on the court victory. Leaving on a jet plane not knowing where you’re going. And a look at the parallels between the Japanese internment and today.

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.

Blown Away

Epic couples’ races around the world (clothing optional). Survivalists being voted off islands. A hetero-capitalist display of romance. This reality television show is nothing like this. It’s about… glassblowing. Bill Radke spoke with local contestant Edgar Valentine.

Conflicting rulings on faithless electors

Remember the so-called faithless electors, who defected from the will of the people to vote for Colin Powell despite having been pledged to Hillary Clinton? The Supreme Court of Washington ruled that electors must vote for the state’s popular vote winner – in direct contradiction of a Colorado state ruling saying electors can vote for the candidate of their choice. Washington faithless elector Brett Chiafalo spoke with The Record in May.

Take an adventure with no clear destination

When you’re planning a vacation, you probably have a destination in mind: a nice beach, a new city, your favorite mountain. But what if you let a stranger decide where you go? A new Seattle company called Explorer-X is offering that experience, and might not tell you where you’re going until you arrive at the airport. Jake Haupert is a co-founder of Explorer-X; Allison Williams is a Seattle Met reporter who went on one of those trips.

Frank Abe and Shawn Wong on John Okada

An increasing number of parallels are being drawn between the Trump administration’s internment of immigrants and FDR’s internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. Seattle author John Okada wrote a book called No-No Boy about a character who refuses to play along with the government that imprisoned him. A book about it called John Okada: The Life & Rediscovered Work of the Author of No-No Boy, just won an American Book Award. Frank Abe was the book’s editor; Shawn Wong was one of the contributors.

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