Welcome to the Week Junior Show.
This week's wellbeing feature in the magazine is all about clearing out clutter, because having a tidy up can make you feel happy and relaxed.
Tidying up is a great way to discover old things you've not seen or not used for a while.
So I want to know what is something you like rediscovering when you're clearing up?
Now, I... won't lie to you, my room is an absolute tip.
There's a lot of stuff in there, mostly papers that I've saved through the years.
And I do keep a scrapbook, so I try and keep them all safe somewhere.
But every now and again, when I'm tidying up, I'll find an invitation to a party, or maybe a birthday card someone has sent me, or perhaps just a nice note that I have been left by somebody.
And I put that in my scrapbook.
That's what I like rediscovering, basically memories.
I enjoy rediscovering memories.
Vanessa, how about you?
I too am not the world's tidiest.
So what I tend to discover is clothes that I haven't seen for a while.
Eve, how about you?
I too am also, clearly we're a bit of a messy bunch here.
I'm also not super tidy.
But when I am tidying up I really enjoy finding my old diaries that I used to write when I was a child stored underneath my bed.
And then I usually do a dramatic reading for my parents.
And I remember very vividly finding one that said I wrote in it when I was 10 and I said when I'm older I want to be a journalist, which I thought was really cute.
Oh, that's amazing.
Living 10 year old Eve's dream.
Dreams come true. that's a nice thing to rediscover.
Uh, now let's talk about the cover of this week's issue.
Vanessa, can you tell me what's going on, please?
Well, we've got a lovely tiger and a cub on the cover this week, because it seems that India has doubled the number of tigers in the country over 12 years.
Um, Apparently in 2010, when they counted them, there were 1,706.
And in 2022, that had gone up to 3,682.
And so now three quarters of the world's tigers live in India.
Now, there are several types of tiger, but we're talking specifically about Bengal tigers, because those are the ones that live in India.
All right.
So how did they do it?
Well, it took a lot of careful thought because, as we've seen in other areas, there's often tension between humans and wildlife, particularly the sort that eats farm animals.
And so the schemes in India made sure that they worked with the local populations and made sure that they shared in the benefits of having tigers around from tourism, for example.
That's sort of the big reason.
And anyway, the conservation teams.
They improved tiger habitats, made sure that the tigers had prey to eat, which meant that they weren't eating farmers' animals.
They reduced illegal hunting by improving the policing, and they reduced human and tiger contact where possible.
And it seems that the tiger populations do best in areas where people are better off because there's money for compensation and people can really see the benefits.
So in other words, when you help humans, you help nature.
I didn't think of it that way, but I guess that makes sense.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's lovely, isn't it?
Yeah.
Really positive success story.
Really good success story.
Yeah.
Also, I just want to mention the dragon in the corner of the magazine as well, next to the T on the week there.
Ah, yes.
Fire breathing and scorching the H of the...
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Brilliant Dave again.
Brilliant Dave with his extra little details.
Attention to detail.
That's excellent.
Now it's time for real or rubbish.
And this is the bit of the show where someone tells me a story.
I have to guess if it's true or false.
Eve, I believe it's your turn this week.
It is.
And today we're talking about something that could be could be quite tasty, depending on how you feel about chicken noodle soup.
So a company that makes chicken noodle soup has created special soups, soup-flavored lozenges for people to suck on.
And so lots of people have chicken soup when they're feeling ill.
But now, if heating soup feels like a little bit too much effort when you're not well, people can just have a soup-flavored lozenge instead.
And so it tastes like savory broth, chicken, vegetables, and egg noodles.
And a director of the soup company said when you're sick, nothing is truly more reassuring than chicken noodle soup.
So we thought, why stop at the soup bowl?
So Bex, is this real or does it have a taste of untruth?
What a super story you have for me.
Good.
Thank you.
It sounds very Willy Wonka, doesn't it?
The idea of a soup lozenge.
This is very Charlie and the Chocolate Factory kind of vibes.
The thing is, one of the best bits about soup is it's warm.
Like it's a hearty meal that's warmed up for you.
And if you are feeling a bit sick, it's you know.
It's something that is nice to have and can make you feel a bit better, because it's like a hug in a bowl.
But the idea of having it in a lozenge form doesn't, it's not what soup was built for, right?
I suppose, but I guess there's something, there are two things that make soup warm.
One is the actual temperature and one is the flavouring, the cosiness of the flavours.
You know, I have a...
I have a spoonful of soup and think, ah, that tastes delicious.
And that makes me feel at ease.
So if I wasn't feeling very well and I was laying in bed and I was thinking oh, I can't get up to make my soup.
If I could just pop a soup lozenge in my mouth, then I would, you know, it would still taste nice.
It would not be very filling though, would it?
Well, I guess you could have a whole packet of them.
Oh, God.
Oh, dear.
You're making it sound a bit like an oxo cube, to be honest, like some kind of stock cube that you just suck on and then it tastes like chicken or vegetables.
Yeah, and it would kind of melt in the mouth, which would be quite nice, I think.
I can just imagine it now, that idea of, you know, that soupy goodness.
In my head.
What you've said to me is like a block of soup will go in my mouth and then immediately melt everywhere and I'll be like But imagine it, it tastes of chicken noodle soup and you're thinking, oh lovely, will it have like a little slab of chicken or a little noodle in there, or would it just be the taste of it?
Again, i don't want a chicken just unfurling.
I don't know.
Actually, that's a good question.
I'm wondering if you know, like some things, how it's like a lozenge might have um, like a kind of gooey bit in the middle.
I wonder if it has like special gooey, gooey soup in the middle.
Um oh, that would be oh, like an eclair, But lozenges are meant to be, you know lemon blackcurrant, orange.
They're not meant to be chicken, noodle, garlic.
I like the idea.
I know if this is real, I know where it's coming from.
I get it.
Because soup is meant to be a thing you have when you're ill and lozenges are a thing you have when you're ill.
And clearly they've thought, let's put our hands together and make it into one big thing.
But at which point, why stop here?
Why not just get some soup made of lemon juice lozenge, and just so you can drink a lozenge?
You know well yeah, maybe you could pitch that.
Well, that's just lemsip, basically.
Oh no, maybe someone thought let's do it the other way around.
Actually okay, now you say it like that.
I guess that makes sense.
Right well, I consider the everything you've told me.
Um, i just don't know what to believe.
Uh, let's talk about our book of the week, which is school for fireflies, by erica gomez.
It's about best friends, siddy and zadie, who are enrolled in a strange school to learn some magical skills.
At the new school, they uncover an old mystery that will need them to bring out their very best detective skills.
So we've got a message here from the author.
Hi there, listeners of The Week Junior Show.
My name is Erica Gomez, author of The School for Five Lives, which has been selected as Book of the Week in the current issue of the magazine.
And I'm here to answer a very important question.
What was my favorite children's book growing up?
I really loved the Spiderwick Chronicles.
When I was little, I used to imagine all sorts of weird creatures crawling out of the cracks on my bedroom wall, and Spiderwick Chronicles has almost every weirdly wonderful monster.
I would love to exist in the real world.
The Spiderwick Chronicles, good choice.
Now, moving on to the Week Junior inbox, we've had a lot of messages this week.
Vanessa, what's caught your eye?
Well...
Aria followed the instructions on our how-to page last week and sent a message to say my mum and I made these shiny hearts to spread joy on Valentine's and put smiles on my siblings' faces.
It was the most fun I've had since Christmas.
Thank you, Week Junior, for the inspiration.
And I have to say, they look absolutely beautiful.
They are great.
One is orange, red and yellow or gold.
The other is pink, silver and blue.
And they look brilliant.
I've got to say, Eve, would you fancy making these?
Yeah, they look really nice.
I think it would look really nice to kind of hang it up like on my windowsill and have the light catching it.
But also, I think I've mentioned before on the podcast that I really like crocheting.
So I'm thinking, you know Valentine's Day this week, maybe I should crochet a little heart to hang up somewhere around the house.
Yes, it is the season.
Why not?
And Eve, what else have you seen in the inbox?
So we had quite a short message this week from 10-year-old Ollie, who sent a photo of his dog and said even my dog likes playing Uno.
And it's a picture of his dog, like standing at the table with Uno cards laid out in front of him.
It looks like he's playing Uno No Mercy, which is like a really intense version of Uno that my family and I have played, where I'm sure one of the cards says something like you have to pick up 10.
So it's like, it's pretty, pretty intense.
And I remember playing it once at Christmas and my brother, he was literally holding so many cards.
But yeah, it's a very fun version of Uno.
Yeah.
I mean, first of all, we've got to point out that the dog we don't have a name for the dog, but the dog looks very cross, looks furious.
Well, it has got quite a few cards in front of it.
It's got a lot of cards.
I was just trying to count them in the photograph and I'm trying to work out if there are 10.
I think there's some stacked up.
So, yeah, yeah.
The dog is not having a great day.
The dog is not happy.
Good play's way out of it.
Good play's way out of it.
Think also, the dog knows what he's doing um, second thing is yeah, i love uno so much.
That's a great game.
Uh, there's a game you can play where there's a game on either side the dark side and the light side and you can switch up right eve.
That's pretty fun.
Yeah, i've played that one as well with my friends although it's quite funny because we've played it before where we're really excited to sit down and play this new version of uno, but you only flip to the other side if someone plays the card.
That makes you all turn around, and we got to the end of the game and no one had played that card, so we just played a normal game of uno.
Um, but it was still fun.
Oh okay um well, you know what?
If ollie and his dog were there, they'd probably teach you how to play it properly.
Um, brilliant stuff.
Well, thank you so much to everybody who's been sending in things to us this week.
We've also had a voice note from eden.
Uh, so let's give it a listen.
Hi, my name is eden and i have a joke for you.
Why did the fisherman stop fishing?
Why, because it pulled a muscle.
I think this is a great joke.
I haven't heard this one before.
Big fan of that.
Vanessa, what do we think?
Yeah.
I mean, you know, fish jokes.
I'm all for them.
Yep.
Yeah.
Eve, I heard you giggling away there.
Yeah.
Classic one, Eden.
Loved it.
It's a great one.
Big, big fan of that.
Thank you.
I love that we're curating a jokes corner here.
And if you want to send us a joke or tell us what you've been up to recently or what other pets you've had that have been playing card games, you could email hello at theweekjuniorcouk or you could record a message, like Eden did at funkidslivecom slash theweekjunior.
Now let's dive back into this week's issue of the magazine.
Vanessa, what's your favourite story of the week?
Well, as usual...
I've been a bit greedy.
But on our big news spread, we cover the story of the rebuilding of the landmarks in Mosul.
And Mosul is a city in Iraq, and parts of it date back thousands of years, thousands of years.
And it includes Nineveh, which was, like this, international hub for trade and culture and is even mentioned several times in the Bible.
Anyway, in 2014, an extremist organization called Islamic State controlled the city and, And they destroyed a lot of the historic religious buildings because they clashed with the group's beliefs.
When forces backed by the US came to retake the city from IS in 2016 and 17, yet more damage was done.
So how did they start to repair the damage?
Well, it took an international effort.
I mean, it's a lot of damage, so it took an international effort.
After IS was driven out, many countries worked together, through the United Nations, to restore and repair the ruined old city and
A lot of money came from the United Arab Emirates and the EU.
And it was to restore landmarks like the Al Nuri Mosque and Al Hadba Minaret.
And we've got a picture of it in the magazine.
And your eyes aren't deceiving you.
It really is.
The minaret really is a bit wonky.
It's sort of famously, a bit like the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
It's sort of famous for not being quite straight.
And I just felt that it's such a positive story about the international effort to rebuild after conflict and to take seriously people's kind of culture and understanding of themselves.
It was considered of global significance, this city.
Anyway, there are people who actually live in the city as well.
So Mahmoud Thanan, who is a tailor who lives near the mosque, said watching the Hadba minaret rise again is a joyous day.
He said, I feel our pride soaring high as well.
And Muslims and Christians lived side by side in Mosul.
The Syriac Catholic Al-Tahira and Al-Sa'ama churches have also been restored.
And Oz Hasso, who is a Christian from Mosul said, hearing the bells of the churches ring again after eight years is the most wonderful feeling.
So it just makes my spirit soar, that story.
Going on to my second story, because I'm so greedy.
Now, what I love about working at the Week Junior is the wide area that we cover.
And this week we've got tigers, as I was mentioning.
We've got supersonic jet aircraft.
We've got Vikings, which Eve's going to talk about.
Cyclists.
The fossilised sick of some sort of sea creature, which I was thinking about with Eden's joke.
But our all about feature this week is about storms.
And I'm really interested in how they name them.
And apparently it's the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands who work together on this.
And they ask the public every year to suggest names for storms.
And they then draw up a final list.
So there's like a list of names.
So when the storms come in, you know, they're ready to name them.
And can you remember the name of the most recent storm, Bex?
Was it Eowyn?
Exactly.
Well done.
It was Eowyn, which despite the name, the sound of it actually starts with an E. So the next...
I found out the names of all the next storms.
Well, if there are any.
Floris Gerben Hugo Izzy James, Kayleigh Lewis Mavis Nisha Occia Poppy Raffi Sayura Tilly Vivian, Vanessa would have been better.
And Wren, which is spelt with a W like the bird.
And apparently well, it was the US National Hurricane Centre who started this idea of naming storms.
And they don't use Q U X, Y or Z, And so the Europeans don't use them either, to sort of stay in line with the naming conventions from the US National Hurricane Center.
And yeah, I just found that really fascinating fact.
And that's why I like working at the Week Junior.
You know what?
I don't know if I mentioned it on the podcast, because I heard that the Met Office do name you can name storms obviously after people and real life names, because I was tempted to nominate my own name and have Storm Becks for next year.
Well, you see, yeah, because you're very likely to be named.
Eve, possibly.
But I'm way down the end of the envelope, the alphabet.
So, you know, I'm never going to get my day in the pouring rain.
If we work through the storms, you never know.
Then I thought a Storm Bex would be really fun.
But then I thought, oh, gosh, then everybody would take the mickey out of me.
If something bad happened, they'd be like, oh, Bex is full there.
But I didn't know about their alphabet, certain letters not being used.
That's really interesting.
I had no idea about that.
Yeah, I mean, this made me kind of think about the names.
I mean, maybe they didn't.
Yeah, I suppose there aren't that many names that start with Q and U. Yeah.
Whenever we, and we're doing names, whenever we get to Q, we always say Queenie.
That's always the name we go for.
Yeah, that's true.
Quinton is another good one.
Yeah.
I'm sure we have some listeners right now who are like my name begins with a Q.
If your name begins with a Q, let me know.
Let us know.
Yes, please send it in.
Please email us hello at theweekjunior.co.uk.
And then also, maybe you'll get a storm named up, or maybe you won't know.
You won't because you don't have Qs.
But I want to know if your name starts with Q, let me know, please.
Now, Eve, what is your pick of the week?
So my pick of the week is from our entertainment page, which is all about the upcoming Jorvik Viking Festival, which is running in York next week from the 17th to the 23rd of February.
So this is a festival that's held by the Jorvik Viking Centre each year.
And it's held in York because many years ago, when Vikings travelled to Britain from Scandinavia, which is part of Northern Europe, one of the places they settled down in was York and they called it Jorvik, and they stayed there for about 100 years.
There's lots of events going on at the festival, but my favourite has to be something called Poo Week.
So this is actually an event that's been extended from poo day because it's so popular.
And it's inspired by a famous piece of ancient Viking poo that was found underneath a bank in York in 1972.
And the Viking poo was actually fossilized, which means it still actually looks like a piece of poo.
And experts who study ancient poo, who are known as paleo scatologists, were able to identify that the Viking, who did the poo, mostly ate bread and meat.
And so I was reading about this and it used to be on display at the Archaeological Research Centre.
And in 2003, during a school visit, a teacher was holding the display stand where the poo was being displayed and the display stand collapsed and it fell on the floor and it broke into three pieces.
No.
I know, how awful.
Luckily, it's since been reconstructed and it's now on display at the Jorvik Viking Centre.
But I was just thinking, imagine, you know, coming home from work that day.
How was your day at work?
Oh, I broke the Viking poo.
But what a school trip for the ages.
You know you would not stop talking about that school trip if you were on it.
Oh my, at the time you broke a poo.
Yes, poo.
Incredible.
Just incredible.
Yeah, I loved it.
Well, happy Viking Festival Poo Week to all who celebrate, I suppose.
Now it's time for this week's big debate, and we're talking about Valentine's Day.
So here's what you've got to know.
Valentine's Day is named after Saint Valentine, but not much is known about him.
He was probably a Roman priest in the 3rd century AD.
Although people have marked the day for hundreds of years, Valentine's Day became especially popular in Victorian times.
New printing presses could make lots of cards quickly, and the postal system became much better.
Valentine's Day isn't the only celebration of love that takes place on this day –
For instance, in Finland Istavanpavia, which translates as Friends Day, is celebrated on the 14th of February.
So the question for this week's big debate is, is it time to ditch Valentine's Day?
Here's how it works.
Each person has 60 seconds on the cards to make their case.
Today saying no to Valentine's Day is Vanessa.
So Vanessa, I'm going to get up the timer here.
Stopwatch.
Lovely.
So whenever you're ready, go for it.
Valentine's Day.
It's a bit much, isn't it?
Now, there is more to my argument than that, but that is definitely the foundation of it.
I mean, perhaps it did start out as a lovely idea you know, a special day for people to take a moment out of their usual lives to point out to loved ones that they, you know well, are loved.
You know, that's a really beautiful thing.
But I feel like it's been hijacked by businesses who want to sell products teddy bears and huge cards, and chocolates and flowers and special meal deals.
And I think it's all about romantic love now between two people.
And I think that's a bit mean, because lots of people could feel excluded from such a narrow definition of what love means and could be.
I also think it's a lot of pressure on people who feel that they have to spend money to show they love someone, which is surely the opposite of what love means.
In Finland...
The day's about friendship.
I'm not going to try and say it.
And obviously I don't want to expunge the 14th of February from the calendar, but I think it could do with a serious overhaul.
Oh, lovely.
I started to jiggle the stopwatch there.
I think we were one second over.
We can allow that.
And Eve, you're saying no, love is in the air.
So whenever you're ready, tell us more about it, please.
Oh, well, I just think Valentine's Day is just such a nice thing.
You know, it's a centuries old tradition.
And it holds lots of really fond memories for so many people.
And I just think celebrating love is just a really lovely thing to do.
And it's not just all about big companies.
Sometimes.
Valentine's Day encourages people to support small local businesses as well, because someone might take their loved one out for a special meal at maybe their local Italian restaurant, which is nice for the local businesses.
And they might also buy flowers from the local flower shop or gifts from somewhere nearby.
So it's probably actually a very busy time of year for those local businesses, which is very nice.
Also, it doesn't need to be expensive.
You don't need to spend loads of money.
You could celebrate love for someone by making them a present or a card.
You know, you could bake them a cake or make a collage of all their favourite things.
Or I would crochet someone something.
So I just think it's all about the thought.
And that's why Valentine's Day is great.
Excellent.
Sadly, our listeners couldn't see Vanessa making funny faces during.
Yes, I feel that that was a bit. mean that was very but i did it anyway yeah i enjoyed it anyway trying to distract eve as i was holding up the clock i was shaking with laughter so um right this is a tricky one so we want to know your opinions on this week's big debate tell us what you think about valentine's day you can get involved right now go to theweekjunior.co.uk slash polls to vote and tell us your thoughts or of course you can comment your opinion by your voice go to funkidslive.com slash the week junior and let us know what you think about valentine's day In the last big debate, Elena and Joe discussed whether children should be allowed to use AI.
Eve, what were the results?
So 61% actually voted in favour of children being allowed to use AI, which is very interesting.
Yeah, that is.
We've been sent a voice note as well from Vanessa, but not this Vanessa, a different Vanessa.
Not me.
Don't worry.
Tell us her opinion on the debate.
Hello, The Week Junior.
My name's Vanessa, and I think that children like me shouldn't be allowed to use AI, as it's not getting us to use our imagination.
Vanessa, what do you think about this one?
I think that's a really interesting idea.
I mean...
People who work in AI say that it helps you to use your imagination in a different way.
But I think I'm with my Vanessa actually on this.
And anything that pushes us to use our imagination and keep using it all the time.
I think it's a really good thing.
And I would worry that AI might take some of that away.
I would agree.
Eve, how about you?
Yeah, I'm with the Vanessa's on this one.
Yeah, I just think that it limits people's creativity.
Yeah, absolutely.
Well, thank you so much to Vanessa, not that one, the other one, for sending in a voice note.
Much appreciated.
And first Vanessa, second Vanessa, I don't know, our Vanessa, Vanessa here right now.
Tell us the comments that we've had for this one.
Well, we had some really interesting ones.
So somebody said, yes, so children can learn how to use it.
They should be allowed to use it because yes, so children can learn how to use it and learn more about the world.
And then somebody else said, which is a very interesting point about fairness.
If adults can use AI, then why can't children?
If it's that dangerous, then adults shouldn't be using it.
And they could make a child AI version, which is safe.
Yeah, absolutely fair point.
And of course, we do love to hear what you've got to say.
So let us know your opinion on this.
Just go to theweekjunior.co.uk slash polls.
Now, we do love to hear your opinions on the big debates we have.
So if you've got an opinion on Valentine's Day, let us know what it is.
Just go to theweekjunior.co.uk slash polls.
Now, before we go, it's time to find out the truth between this week's real or rubbish story.
Eve, can you remind me what it is, please?
Yeah, so this is the soup company that's made chicken noodle soup flavoured lozenges for people to enjoy.
The more I think about this, the more I just think in my head.
It makes me think Those little stock pots you can get that's like kind of jelly.
And that's all this is.
It's just they've invented a stock cube.
I have always thought I know this is weird, but I've always thought something about those OXO stock jelly cubes.
They look kind of appetising.
Maybe I'm the target market for the soup lozenges.
Maybe it's just you.
I get the idea of it, but it feels too Willy Wonka for me.
It feels a bit too mad.
Yes.
And if I want a soothing sensation, I want warm soup and not chicken lozenge.
Call me crazy.
Call me crazy, guys.
So I'm going to say the story this week is rubbish.
But I'm willing to accept I could be wrong.
Should we do a drumroll?
Drumroll, please.
It's real.
Oh, no.
Who's having that?
Yeah.
It's a company called Progresso, which makes canned soup.
And so they've created this chicken noodle soup flavoured lozenge.
And apparently their first batch sold out because it was so popular.
So the company had to make some more.
Yeah, the second batch won't though, will it, as they realise it's disgusting.
I think you could take it the other way as well.
So maybe you could get chicken soup and...
Like, chill it and make it fizzy and turn it into a fizzy drink.
Vanessa, what are you doing?
How horrid is that?
No.
Wouldn't that be horrid?
That's where I draw the line.
Fizzy chicken soup.
This is why I'm not Willy Wonka.
Oh, my goodness.
Because I don't have tempting ideas.
This is why I went to your house for dinner, to be honest.
I mean, oh, my goodness.
Well, with the idea of fizzy chicken soup mulling around my head, I've got to say goodbye.
Ugh.
Thank you so much to the Week Junior team, Vanessa and Eve.
Of course, don't forget to rate, review and subscribe, or follow us wherever it is you get your podcasts from.
And tune in to next week's episode, where we'll be joined by some more members of the team for some stories, debates and chat.
See you then.
Bye.
For five pounds by heading to theweekjunior.co.uk forward slash podcast offer.
