And welcome to the Week Junior show.
I'm Bex and I'm joined by writers Eve and Joe from the Week Junior, the magazine making sense of the world for 8 to 14 year olds.
Now, in a week where the US and the UK agreed a new trade deal and authors and illustrators were celebrated at the British Book Awards, we're going to be discussing some of the other stories, events and people that inspired the Week Junior team this week.
So make sure you're listening closely, because at the end of this episode we'll be asking a question about what you've heard.
And if you answer it correctly, you could win a prize.
But before all of that, Joe and Eve, hello.
There is something I want to talk to you about, please.
In this week's magazine there's a story about a new exhibition at the Natural History Museum called Space.
Could life exist beyond Earth?
And it got me thinking.
If aliens came to Earth today and they wanted to learn more about humans, what is one thing you'd like to show them?
Eve, what do you reckon?
Well, I reckon once I kind of got over my initial fear Well, there's aliens.
I think I would want to show them pizza, just because it's so great and you can have so many different toppings on it.
And I would kind of want to show them all different varieties and then see how they feel about pineapple on pizza.
Because it's one of those great debates that, you know, humanity is always having.
I personally am against pineapple on pizza.
So I would love to know what the aliens think.
I'm hoping the aliens would be on my side and they'd be pro pineapple.
I'm not going to lie.
Oh dear.
Sorry, sorry.
Joe, what would you do with your alien day out?
If aliens did come to Earth, I think I'd take them to a football match.
I'd probably dress them up, give them this nice disguise and they could come and sit with me.
A nice seat by the edge of the pitch so you've got a great view.
And then I could go and get them a coffee or a bovril at halftime.
We'd have a great time.
I've got it all mapped out.
And Football's massively culturally important as well.
So I feel like it would be a worthwhile endeavour.
I'd really be showing them something about humanity, this global international game that brings people together.
I have been to a theme park this week in Germany.
So my first thought was, I'm going to take these aliens on a roller coaster.
I want to see what their reaction is to being flung in the.
I mean, they probably are quite used to being flung in the air actually.
But to doing the loop, the loop and to going, maybe having some water blasted in their face.
It feels like I'm testing them, really.
But I want them to have.
I wanted to have a nice time, and the visual image i have in my head is of an alien on a really big ride going.
How many arms has it got?
That's how i'll find out, because with the g-force coming against you, like you can't protect yourself.
Maybe we'll get an arm, just like waving from behind their head.
We won't know, maybe a tentacle, um.
So i think that's what i would do.
So we want to hear what our listeners think about this.
Tell us what you would do with an alien.
You could email hello at theweekjuniorcouk or leave us a voice note at funkidslivecom.
Slash theweekjunior.
All you've got to do, grab a grown-up and look for that big red button and record your voice.
And if your voice note is played next week, you could win a Week Junior Roving Reporter badge.
Now two weeks ago, we asked listeners of the podcast to share their best animal impressions, and everybody's still sending them in.
This has really taken off it.
So we've got one now from listener Elsa.
Hello, Week Junior.
And when I heard your impressions of your animals on the podcast, I wanted to send in mine of a lamb.
My name's Elsa and I'm 10 years old.
This is my lamb impression.
Thank you.
Oh my goodness.
Was that a lamb then?
That's amazing, Eve, right?
I know.
I think, Elsa, you sounded just like Shaun the sheep.
So that was amazing.
I loved it.
10 out of 10.
Lovely stuff.
Thank you very much, Elsa.
And we've got another one here from Martha.
So my animal noises is I'm going to start with a cat.
That was my cat noise and I'm going to do a horse now.
And I'm going to Ends my thing with a pigeon.
Thank you, The Week Junior.
Bye.
Three in a row?
That's pretty decent.
Joe, do we think that was better than your horse impression a few weeks ago?
I think anything was better. a few weeks ago.
We were at an event at work last night and it still got brought up.
I'm never moving past this horse impression.
It's going to sort of haunt me for the rest of my life.
I need to get away from it.
I think you need to take some tips from Martha here.
Martha, thank you for giving us cats, horses and pigeons a whole menagerie.
We do love hearing your voice notes.
So if you want to tell us what you would do with an alien who visited Earth, please send us a voice note at funkidslivecom.
Slash theweekjuniac.
Now I think we should turn our attention to the actual latest magazine, because I want to know what's been in the headlines this week.
Joe, what do you have for me?
So on our big news page we have a story about the new Pope, who is the leader of the Catholic Church.
Now the eyes of the world have been on Vatican City, which is the world's smallest country and the home of the Catholic Church, since Pope Francis, the last Pope, died on the 21st of April.
And when the Pope dies, a special meeting takes place, called the Conclave, during which a new Pope is elected.
The Conclave happens in the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City and involves a group of 133 senior priests called Cardinals, or at least it involved 133 on this occasion.
Now, after each round of voting, officials send smoke from the chapel's chimney.
White smoke means a new Pope has been chosen and black smoke means voting must continue.
And on the 8th of May, white smoke was seen rising from the chimney and it was announced that Pope Leo XIV had been elected.
The new pope's real name is Robert Francis Provost, and he's the first pope from the US having been born in the city of Chicago.
He held a mass on the 9th of May saying he wants the Catholic Church to illuminate the dark nights of this world.
Yeah, it was very exciting.
I remember, when the white smoke came, my friends messaging me being like there's a new pope.
There's a new pope.
It was quite a big moment.
It feels like quite a cultural and historical moment when it happens, right, Joe?
Yeah, it felt massive.
I didn't really know much about it until I wrote the stories first for the week junior, but it's incredible.
This slightly secretive meeting at the conclave and hundreds of thousands of people turning up to mark the occasion yeah, i feel like it's something that almost transcends the catholic church.
It's a massive cultural event right across the world and everyone, like i said, was turning their attention to what was going on in vatican city.
And now we have new pope, leo the 14th right.
Yeah, best of luck to him.
Best of luck to him.
I'd say I'm sure he'll be fantastic, but I've got no idea whether he will or not.
But I'm sure he will.
I'm sure he will.
Yeah, they know what they're doing.
It's fine.
Now, Eve, what's another story that you've seen in the news this week?
So this story is about a new animal that's arrived at Chester Zoo.
The new animal is something called a fossa which, I have to admit, is quite I wasn't quite aware of until I read about this story.
His name is Zaza and he is seven years old and he's arrived from San Diego Zoo in the US.
So fossas live in Madagascar and they're an endangered species.
There's less than 2,500 left in the world.
And Zaza has been sent to Chester Zoo as part of a breeding program.
And he's joining a female fossa there called Sharla and he's now settling in with her.
So, yeah, I mean, I thought I'd never heard of Fossas, really.
And I was looking at this story thinking, oh, I've never heard of this animal before.
But then one of our designers in the office Phil, reminded me that they're actually in the film Madagascar.
But in Madagascar, in the film, they don't call them Fossas.
They call them Fusas.
And they're the animals, the cat-like creatures that attack King Julian and all the lemurs.
And King Julian's going, ah, the Fusa.
So now, whenever I watch that film, I kind of never really knew what the animals were that were attacking them.
And now I know.
Honestly, I wouldn't have known either.
I thought I'd never heard of them.
But now you've said that.
Yeah, I get it.
Great reference point.
Thank you very much.
Now moving on, it's the bit of the show.
Well, I've been waiting for it.
Hopefully you have been as well.
My favourite bit, my weekly test.
So this is real or rubbish.
I hear a story.
I have to guess if it's true or false.
And Eve, I think it's your turn this week, right?
It is my turn.
And we're talking all about dolphins today, Bex.
Because have you ever listened to a dolphin and wondered what they're saying when they're kind of clicking and squawking and whistling and making all those crazy noises?
I'm not going to lie to you.
Dolphins are going to freak me out a little bit.
I think they're too clever, too intelligent, and I'm a bit scared of them.
But carry on.
We'll see what you say.
Well, maybe this will make you realise just how lovely they are.
Because Google has come up with a way to help humans talk to dolphins through artificial intelligence, which is a computer system that can learn from experience.
So this is the result of 40 years of research by an organization called the Wild Dolphin Project.
And two divers are going to test the system by swimming up to some dolphins and they're going to pass a toy to each other.
And then they're going to play a dolphin-like whistle from an AI device.
And they hope the dolphins will mimic the sound to request the object.
So Bex, does this story sound real or have you dived into a lie?
Oh, my goodness, right.
Okay so, like I said, dolphins do scare me a little bit.
I don't know what it is about.
I think years ago I saw a Simpsons episode where dolphins kind of sprung up.
Something about them.
It scares me a little bit and I think they're too clever for their own good.
I don't trust them.
So you're saying to me that Sorry, this isn't my personal vendetta against dolphins.
You're saying to me that the scientists will get together and they'll make a noise with each other to try and get the toy, and then they're going to see if the dolphins then mimic that noise.
Yeah.
So they've got an AI device that's going to make the kind of dolphin whistly noises while they're holding the toy and they're going to see how the dolphins react.
So they're using this noise.
Say... Do I want to do a dolphin impression?
No, but I'm going to have to.
Say they like that.
They say they do that.
Yeah, they don't know.
In dolphin that could mean something like hey, where's the nearest cinema?
And then they pass a toy to each other, and so the dolphins will be like, why are they asking for the cinema when they're passing a toy to each other?
But maybe it will confuse the dolphins, because how do they know what they're actually saying?
Are they saying the dolphin word for toy is my point, i guess.
Well, i suppose You know it sounds like this project is in early stages.
So, you know, because they're still testing it out.
So if it does confuse the dolphins but the dolphins understand that something's being said then I'm sure they could kind of refine it a bit so that you know they can, by process of elimination I don't know how they would do that, but by process of elimination work out the dolphin word for toy.
Yeah, I guess it's like when you're learning a new language and you're speaking to somebody who's fluent in that language.
And what you're saying doesn't quite make sense.
Yeah.
But you can kind of figure out from context, I suppose.
Yeah.
So, you know, the dolphins might figure it out.
Yeah, I mean, they're clever.
They're too clever.
They will figure it out.
And then they'll steal all of the toys.
I don't trust these dolphins.
I have an inkling this might be real because I know people are fascinated with them.
But I also think it's a bit optimistic.
I'm not going to lie.
I mean, and also, why do we let them be?
Why do we need to bother them?
You know, those dolphins can chill out.
Communicating with them might be useful, because then you know you could ask the dolphins.
So guys, what's bothering you?
And then they might say, oh, well, actually there's a lack of fish in this area.
And then, I don't know, help them get some more food.
But then where does it end?
Are we going to try and speak to every animal in the world?
Maybe, maybe a bit of a Doctor Dolittle vibe going on.
Oh my goodness.
Okay.
Well, this is opening a whole portal of moral and emotional dilemmas for me.
So while I think about that, it's time for our book of the week, and this week it is The Blockbusters, by Frank Cottrell-Boyce.
So here is a little bit from him to tell us more about him.
Hello, I'm Frank Cottrell-Boyce, I am the UK Children's Laureate and I'm popping in to tell you about my new book, which is called The Blockbusters, written by me and illustrated by the remarkable Stephen Lenton, which is the story of a group of children from a very ordinary school accidentally find themselves on the set of a massive hollywood blockbuster movie.
Uh, the blockbuster movie is called genius squad.
One writer, the genius, and they find themselves in the strange, magical world of movie making.
It's a real world, but it's very, very strange, and i've made movies all my life.
I've made lots and lots of movies.
Um, what's something you may have seen?
I made the.
I helped write the scene where paddington met the queen, for instance, And I made a film of Michael Morpurgo's Kensky's Kingdom.
So I knew lots about films, but I've never written about them before.
And it was very, very exciting to write about it.
I hope you like the book.
My own favorite book growing up was The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling, which is set in a jungle, hence the name.
And it's full of amazing stories.
And I love that book.
So that was my favorite growing up.
And I do hope that The Blockbusters is yours when you grow up.
What a lovely man.
I've met him and interviewed him and he's a joy.
And if you want to win a copy of the Blockbusters, well, stay with us until the end of the show.
And you could do just that if you enter our prize draw.
Now, while we were hearing from lovely Frank Cottrell-Boyce, we were joined by the Week Junior Deputy Editor Rahul, who looks after lots of pages in the magazine, including the Wellbeing page.
So, Rahul, welcome to the show.
And what are you telling us about this week?
Hi, guys.
Thanks for having me.
It's nice to be here.
I'll be talking about this week's wellbeing page, and this week's wellbeing page is about walk to school week.
So that's taking place from May the 19th to the 23rd and it's organised by a charity called Living Streets and basically it's encouraging children and their carers and parents to walk to school.
And the wellbeing page explains some of the benefits of walking to school, which include walking makes your muscles and bones stronger.
It boosts your heart rate, which is good for learning and can help you concentrate.
And if you walk home from school as well, it can really help you unwind after a long day of learning.
Now I do the school run with my three kids four or five times a week.
And yeah, when I thought about it, we actually do quite a lot of fun stuff on the way to school, which includes stopping and spotting cats and trying to give them a stroke if they stick around, but normally they run off.
We often see quite a few dogs as well.
So we give those a pet.
We often have to dodge a bit of dog mess as well.
So you've got to have your wits about you.
And yeah, We also bump into lots of other kids on the school run and have a nice chat.
So it's super social.
It's just a really nice way to start the day, really.
Yeah, it seems like a.
Really it's always good to have as much exercise as possible, get some steps in, but also like to see the world around you and to kind of take it all in right.
Yeah, absolutely.
Especially at this time of year, the weather's been glorious.
I mean, when it's warm and sunny and, you know, all the flowers, etc. are out, it's, yeah, it's a really stimulating and fab way to start the day.
And what is your personal favourite thing to look for on a walk?
Is it a dog?
Is it a cat?
Is it flowers?
Is it birds?
That's a good question, actually.
To be honest, I've just got my eyes on my kids going haywire, just trying to make sure that It can be quite busy right.
So there's relatively narrow streets.
You're navigating other kids, you're navigating parents, you're navigating commuters.
So I'm just trying to get them to be respectful of the public space and the pavement and yeah, be road aware.
I've got an image of your walk to school being an absolute like catastrophe zone, just like everything, like potholes, people everywhere, stuff going on.
It's proper chaos, but in a joyful way.
Oh, brilliant.
Well, thank you so much for telling us all about your wellbeing tip.
And if people want to find out more, they can read a little bit in the magazine, right?
Yeah, absolutely.
Wellbeing page.
Yeah.
Keep your eyes open.
Walk to school week.
Perfect.
Thank you very much, Rahul.
Excellent stuff.
Now it's time for this week's big debate, and the question is should pets be allowed on the furniture?
Eve and Joe are going to be going head-to-head to take a side on this argument, but before we hear from them, here's some information you might need to know.
In 2024, studies found that there are around 30 million pet dogs and 12 million pet cats in the UK.
Most pet owners love to spoil their pets and allow them lots of treats.
The UK pet care industry is worth £10 billion.
Some people think trends such as allowing pets to sit on furniture, buying pet-friendly cakes or taking them on luxury flights has gone too far.
Experts recommend washing your hands properly after coming into contact with pets, and also washing your hands before eating.
This can be quite difficult though, if pets are allowed to sit on or near the same furniture as where you eat.
So should pets be allowed on furniture?
Joe is team yes.
Eve is team no.
Each of them has 60 seconds to make their case, and then I will make my mind up on who I think has given me the best argument.
Joe is going to go first.
I'm going to get the little clock up here for me.
So, Joe, whenever you're ready, take it away.
All right.
So pets are part of the family and should be allowed to get up on the furniture like other members of the house.
As long as they're kept well groomed and treated for fleas, it should be fine.
And you can train them not to scratch and claw at things.
And besides having a pet next to you while you're sitting on the sofa stroking it, having a cuddle can be a really nice bonding experience.
And animals can provide comfort to humans when they're upset, but they can't really provide that comfort or at least it's a lot more difficult for them to do so if they're not allowed into certain spaces in the house, if certain spaces are no-go zones.
And if letting them on the furniture does become a problem, it doesn't have to be forever.
It doesn't have to be permanent.
They can be trained to stay off it further down the line.
A lovely, concise argument.
Excellent stuff.
So Joe has said his part, but maybe Eve has something else in her mind.
So Eve, whenever you're ready, tell me.
Okay.
So I mean, I've actually never had a dog or a cat, so maybe I'm a bit biased, but I think that furniture is for humans only.
It's a human only zone, no animals allowed.
I just think, imagine if you've got a lovely new sofa and then a dog comes along and chews it or gets its dirty paws on it, or a cat uses it as a scratching post.
It's just, that would be so annoying.
Furniture is expensive to clean and to replace if it gets damaged as well.
So it's not ideal.
Also, animals can carry germs and bacteria, which they might spread on the sofa.
I personally quite often eat my dinner on the sofa.
And so if a dog was jumping up, getting his germs everywhere, it would be a bit much for me.
And also they could get a hold of human food as well, because they're kind of they get closer to the food if they're on the sofa maybe, which might be bad for them.
You know, things like chocolate and grapes are dangerous for dogs.
So they should be kept away from those types of food.
And I just think you've got to set rules with pets.
Oh, I've just realized I'm massively going over.
You've got to set rules with pets.
I'm done.
I rambled too much about, you know, oh, expensive furniture.
I mean, I was worried.
I was thinking, where's she going with this?
Cause we're not much time left.
So don't worry though.
Joe was under, you were a little over.
Here we go.
I've got to say, I come at it from different angles.
So I've had two pet dogs previously.
The first one was not allowed on the furniture.
The second one was because she was a little smaller.
She was a little Jack Russell and she.
We had to put a special cover on on the sofa because the hairs and everything like that.
Which, you know what, I felt was a small price to pay for having a little pet to cuddle up to.
I quite enjoyed it.
It was quite lovely.
You do make a good point though, about the chocolate and the grapes, and the food might be around that they can't eat.
But you can move it.
You can move that food.
I'm inclined to agree with Jo, but I do know that if you want to keep a cleaner household, it might, you know, to keep that expensive furniture eve that you've got.
Um, i've not even got expensive furniture, so i don't know why i'm.
I'm just imagining a world where i've got like the most amazing sofa, and then no way would a dog be allowed on it, and then maybe i would understand as well why my dad doesn't let us eat dinner on the sofa.
At home, we're not allowed to eat dinner on the sofa.
Um, but are you his pets?
No, but we are his children and we are not allowed.
I thought the rule would kind of disappear after six months or so.
But it's been years later and we're still not allowed.
Maybe if I actually owned my furniture, I wouldn't.
Yeah, that's the thing.
I mean, maybe it's a different thing when you actually own it.
So this will be fascinating to find out from our listeners' and readers' point of view.
So if you've got an opinion, go and tell me right now.
You can vote at theweekjunior.co.uk.
You can also email your thoughts to us at hello at theweekjunior.co.uk. or send us a voice note.
Just go to funkidslivecom, slash theweekjunior, scroll down until you see that big red button and then grab a grown-up and record your voice.
Now, last week's big debate was about whether typing is better than handwriting.
So what did the Week Junior listeners and readers vote with, Eve?
Well, the results are in.
It was quite close this one, but 55 said that typing is better than handwriting because it's easier to correct your mistakes.
Quite a close one there.
We've also got a voice note from Kai with their thoughts on this week's debate.
Hi, I'm Kai and I feel very strongly about this big debate.
I am dyslexic, so it's really hard to do handwriting.
And I feel like I can put more down on a computer than on paper.
Thank you.
Bye.
That's a good point.
I mean, we didn't really mention for a lot of people with dyslexia, it is easier to type, right?
Yeah, definitely.
So that is a very good point, Kai.
One of my very good friends is dyslexic, actually, so I feel bad for not mentioning it last week.
But yeah, Kai, thank you so much for getting us in touch with that.
Very, very good point.
So we also want to know what our readers and listeners have said about this, Joe.
Any more thoughts?
Yeah, so one said, I think typing is way quicker and we're using typing right now.
And in 10 years, it's going to evolve and there's only going to be typing.
And another said handwritten letters are more personal and someone would be thrilled to receive a handwritten letter instead of a typed one.
Yeah, me too.
I've got to say I'd much rather receive a handwritten, swoopy writing letter than a little typed one.
So thank you so much for getting in touch with this week's Big Debate.
And like I said, if you want to vote on our newest topic, go to theweekjunior.co.uk slash polls.
Now we want to hear some Week Junior readers, what they've been up to this week.
Elena, you are here to tell us some of the many messages that you've received, right?
Hello, Bex, and hello, listeners.
Yeah, as usual, it's been very hard to choose messages because readers of the Week Junior are up to so much.
But I've chosen a couple.
I've managed to narrow it down.
There's this message.
Leon, Karis, and Eva showed a picture of them raising money for children in need.
Over the Easter school holidays they made biscuits and they set up a stand in front of Leon and Eva's house.
And they raised 51 pounds and 32 pounds, which is just amazing.
Yeah, they made really colorful cookies.
It's sort of like all shades of blue and red and pink and they look beautiful.
And yes, I just thought that was brilliant.
And that's like such a good amount of money to get.
Yeah, lovely stuff, well done, guys.
And um yeah, i can see they've even drawn a picture of a very cool looking pussy, the bear to to demonstrate this on their little on the table.
Um so yeah big, big fan of that.
And yeah, great amount of money to raise.
Um joe joe, would you eat those cookies?
Yeah, they look, they look delicious, don't they?
And i think 51 pounds is an amazing amount to amount to raise.
I was loving how i don't know why, but i was loving how specific the figure was as well.
Like they, they did it to the decimal point 51 pounds, 32.
I don't know if that's a very boring thing to be impressed by.
Every penny counts.
Yeah definitely yeah um yeah, over 50 quid is just just incredible and it looks delicious.
And I hadn't actually noticed the pudsy bear on the front until you pointed out and I leaned in and looked at it and that's an amazing drawing as well.
So, massive congratulations and thanks for sending it in, guys.
Yeah, for sure.
Uh, and Elena, what else have you seen?
We also got a message from Patrick, who shared a picture of himself with a huge number of old magazine issues.
And he said, these are the week juniors that have been collecting since the start of 2022.
Now, I chose this picture because we get quite a lot of magazine collection pictures in our inbox, but it has been quite a while since I saw such a big one.
Like, there must be at least 100 issues in there.
Well, actually, if he's been collecting since...
2022, that means it's about 150, 100-ish.
There's 52 weeks in a year.
Yeah, yeah.
Good speed math.
And Eve, can you see any pictures there, any stories or any covers that you remember fondly?
Yes, you know, I love the...
The snowman, the Christmas one with the.
That was one of our cover competition winners from, I think, the year before last for our Christmas cover competition, which I love.
And also just, I can also see a Snoopy one as well, which I remember.
Yeah, I remember writing that story.
I absolutely loved it.
But something I love about this is sorry to make this about me for a second, but I've worked at the Week Junior since 2022.
So I feel like this is Patrick has accidentally collected all of the issues I've worked on.
That's lovely though, and yeah, it must be nice to see some of the stories from the last few years, kind of like still living in Patrick's house there.
Brilliant stuff yeah, thank you so much, Elena.
Yeah, just to say Patrick, we hope you get to collect many more.
Yeah, and yeah, thank you so much everyone for sending us your messages.
Don't forget, if you send us a voice note, you're in with a chance of winning a roving reporter badge, and yeah, I'll be back next week with the latest messages from everyone.
So I'm giving it back to you, Bex.
Lovely stuff.
Thank you very much, Elena.
Now let's turn our attention back to the magazine this week and the team's favourite stories.
Joe, who's been your Hero of the Week in the magazine?
My Hero of the Week is Lily Jan Mohamed, who's on our People page and is believed to be the fastest eight-year-old girl to run a five-kilometre race.
Now Lily achieved this at Battersea Park Run in London, setting an astonishing time of 20 minutes and 16 seconds.
She must have been a blur as she ran around that track.
She said, when I crossed the finish line and heard my time, I couldn't believe it.
I was just so happy and proud.
And as a big park run fan myself, I found this a particularly inspiring and particularly amazing story.
That is incredible.
Oh my god.
Yeah it's, it's unbelievable.
I mean it's just astonishing some people at parkrun.
I remember running around once and being passed very swiftly by a guy pushing a pram with a baby and i just some.
Some of the achievements are just well running, oh no, just the mind boggles.
And well done, massive welcome to lily.
Yeah, i've done a parkrun and um, i started off very strong and ended less, so let's put it like that um Eve.
Every issue of The Week Junior is packed with some amazing facts.
What's been your favourite this week?
So Jo mentioned earlier that Vatican City, where the Pope lives, is the world's smallest country.
But something I just think is amazing is that its area is only 017 square miles, which you know might be hard to put into perspective, but it's.
If we imagine, the world's largest country, which is Russia, is over 65 million square miles.
So just the difference in size between Russia and Vatican City is just insane.
It kind of makes you realise just how small it really is.
Yeah, absolutely.
What a good fact.
Jo, any funny things you've seen this week?
Yeah, the funniest story I've seen is one on our animals and environment pages.
And it's about a head-bopping sea lion called Ronan, who has been found to be better at keeping a beat than humans.
Scientists in the US first discovered her talents more than 10 years ago, but wanted to see if she'd improved in that time.
And to put her to the test, they filmed her bopping her head to the beat, as a drummer played at three different tempos.
They then did the same with 10 university students and found that Ronan was more accurate.
I love this.
You know what?
My friend is a drummer.
I might send him the story and see if he can maybe bop along with the sea lion.
Um, incredible stuff.
I've also uh, spotted an animal focused story this week some penguins now in Teesside in England so up in the northeast of England um, a group of nannas have been knitting some jumpers for penguins.
I love the story so much because, basically I think the jerseys are there to look after some penguins on Phillip Island in Australia because uh, rescuers had to put them on the birds to make sure they didn't basically, I think, eat the feathers that had fallen into some oil.
Basically recently,
And I love this because the pictures that the Week Junior have provided are incredible.
So, okay, so there's a few different penguins here.
One of them has a lovely rainbow outfit on, Happy Days.
One of them has a penguin, like a classic penguin book cover.
One of them I did love because there's a little mini replica of a Superman outfit, but with a P instead of an S, And I've also just noticed one of them is a Batman outfit.
In the middle, there was a mini Batman outfit.
And Batman, of course, is the perfect hero for penguins.
Bats, Batman, is it?
Bats flying?
I don't know.
Anyway, in my head, it feels like it makes sense, but it doesn't.
I just feel like penguins.
Well, penguins are big villain in Batman, isn't it?
Yeah, there you go.
That's the connection.
Thank you for joining us.
I know there's something here.
There definitely is.
So if you want to go see all of those knitted jumpers for penguins, go and check out the magazine.
Now it's time for the moment of truth.
I need to talk to you about the real or rubbish story.
Eve, can you remind me about this fantastic tale?
Or fin-tastic tale.
Fin-tastic.
Very good.
Yeah, so this is about how Google has come up with a way to help humans communicate with dolphins and maybe decode some of those squawks and clicking noises that they make.
Okay, well, so as discussed, I don't trust them.
But I do think that other people like dolphins a lot and care about what they have to say.
So I think because they are clever, people feel like they can engage with them.
So I'm going to say the story this week is real, but I am terrified about it.
Okay.
So shall we do a drum roll?
Yes.
It's real.
Oh, no.
You've overtaken us now, Bex.
It's 10-9 to you.
10-9.
Oh, my goodness.
Oh boy, I'm going to get even better and better.
Well, I'm thrilled about that.
Lovely stuff.
Finally, it's Listen Up.
This is the part of the show that gives you the chance to win the copy of our Book of the Week that we mentioned earlier.
It's the Blockbusters by Frank Cottrell-Boyce.
All you've got to do is answer a question about something that's been said in this episode.
So you definitely know the answer.
If you think you want to win a little copy, then grab a grown-up and head to theweekjuniorcouk slash.
Listen up for your chance to enter.
All you've got to do is fill in our online entry form and enter the prize draw before the closing date of the 22nd of May at 1159am.
The Week Junior team will randomly select a winner from all of the entries with the correct answer.
And if you're under 16, you must have a parent or guardian's permission to enter, and terms and conditions apply.
You can find out more at theweekjunior.co.uk slash terms.
All right, are you ready?
Listen up.
Pope Leo XIV is the first pope born in which country?
If you know the answer to the question, go to theweekjuniorcouk forward slash.
Listen up to enter our giveaway.
Lovely stuff.
Thanks, Jo.
And that brings us to the end of this week's episode.
So thank you to Eve and to Jo, Rahul and Elena, of course, as well.
Next week I'll be back discussing more of the amazing, strange and fascinating things that are happening in the world.
And don't forget to send in your voice notes.
If you do, you've got a chance to win a roving reporter badge.
And also we would love you to rate, review and subscribe, or follow us wherever it is you listen to this podcast.
If you like The Week Junior Show, you'll love The Week Junior magazine.
If you want to find out more, head to theweekjunior.co.uk to see a little bit about it.
We'll see you next week.
Bye.
Thanks for listening to this podcast, which is made by the same people that make The Week Junior magazine.
You can get six free issues of The Week Junior or three issues of The Week Junior Science and Nature for £5 by heading to theweekjuniorcouk forward slash podcast offer.
