I'm Bex and welcome to the Week Junior show.
Today I'm joined by two of the team from the Week Junior, the magazine making sense of the world for 8 to 14 year olds.
We've got associate editor Laura and acting assistant editor Kate.
So lots to cover in today's episode.
We're going to be talking about the European leaders promising support to Ukraine, sharing some tips to help nesting birds and having a big debate on whether councils should collect bins less often.
Now, on the 8th of March, it's International Women's Day.
That's a day celebrated around the world to highlight the achievements of women.
So I'm wondering, who's a woman that inspires you?
Now, of course, I want to say the people in my life, you know, my friends, my family.
But I'm also going to say Dolly Parton, because she's amazing.
She's been singing and acting and writing songs for years and years and years.
Some absolute iconic tunes.
But also, she, I know, has a special charity where she sends books to children regularly.
And she's a very big believer in literacy and reading.
And I just think that's pretty cool.
So she uses her platform for good, which is excellent.
She's my pick for International Women's Day.
Laura, how about you?
Oh, that's a good one.
Yes well obviously obviously yeah, obviously my mum and lots of my friends who are just incredible.
But yes, just to mention someone that readers might know, mine would be Serena Williams, the tennis player, because I just think she's incredible.
I'm quite a big tennis fan.
And I actually saw her in flesh once. at Wimbledon.
She was only practising, but she was just amazing.
She's so powerful and she just seems like a very positive role model.
Excellent stuff.
And Kate, how about you?
I'm sure a lot of people would get this answer, but I am going to say my mum.
She was an English teacher and she introduced me to so many great stories and plays and Hollywood musicals like Guys and Dolls.
So yeah, definitely my mum.
Anyone who likes Guys and Dolls is good in my book.
Absolutely great right there.
Now let's go on to this week's cover story.
Can you tell us a little bit more about it, Laura?
I can, yes.
So this is a huge news story, which to be fair, is still developing every hour that goes by.
Obviously, we went to press on Wednesday, the 5th of March.
So yeah, it's been developing since then.
And it's about the conflicts between Russia and Ukraine and the current attempts to bring it to an end.
So, just to recap, obviously this conflict has been going on since 2014, but it got a lot worse just over three years ago, when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
And I'm not going to go into all the details of this because it's a huge news story.
It's quite complicated.
So you have to you have to read it for that.
But the photo on our front cover is quite a solemn one.
And it shows 19 country leaders, mostly European, except for Prime Minister Trudeau from Canada, standing together.
And it includes our Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, and President Zelensky from Ukraine.
And, as I said, it's quite a formal sort of posed picture and it's got quite a lot of meaning behind it.
Basically, this is Europe and Canada, of course, standing with Ukraine literally in this photo and symbolically to show their support for Ukraine.
The leaders were at a summit on March the 2nd in London and they were there to discuss how to best support Ukraine.
And one of the reasons that this summit took place is because of another meeting that took place in the US a few days before between President Trump and Zelenskyy.
And this meeting was supposed to be?
To sign a deal which would give the US access to minerals, which are basically valuable metals which are mined from the ground, in exchange for the US continuing to support Ukraine.
But this meeting went really badly.
So the two leaders actually disagreed on how the war should end.
And it sort of descended into a bit of an argument.
And since then, the US has withdrawn military support for Ukraine, which is quite a big deal.
It's quite a big problem for Ukraine because the US has helped them a lot.
They've sent them billions of pounds worth of weapons and military equipment.
And it could mean that European countries who've also helped Ukraine a lot will need to step up and help Ukraine more in the future.
But you can find out more about all this.
And, most importantly, how all these leaders which are on the front cover are working really, really hard at the moment to try and find a path to peace.
And that's on page two.
Thanks, Laura.
Yeah, really important story and a very iconic picture on the front, I think.
So definitely worth checking that one out.
Now it's time for Real or Rubbish.
This is the bit of the show where I hear a story and I have to guess if it's true or false.
And we all know I get quite competitive about this.
So, Kate, what do you have for me this week?
So yes Bex, this week it's a story of a cat who very nearly used up one of her nine lives but was saved by a special cat scan.
So in Italy, a doctor performed a cat scan on his cat at the hospital where he works.
Cat scans are used to take pictures inside the body like an X-ray.
So this was a real emergency because the cat had fallen from the roof of a six-story building.
And Dr. Fanelli described his cat Athena as being between life and death.
So after the scan, he performed an emergency operation and saved his cat's life.
Finelli said that he had to act really quickly by checking his cat with a cat scan to save its life and that the whole family absolutely adores her.
So Bex, is this real?
Did a cat get a cat scan or is this rubbish?
You give me pause for thought here, Kate.
Oh, I'm not done.
I'm not done with the cat funds, don't you worry about that.
Right, OK, I'll pepper them in as we go.
So I feel like I thought...
I feel like cat scans are meant for humans only.
And also, I feel like cats are too small.
Also, how do you get a cat to stay still in a cat scan?
Well, you know, I think the cat was very badly injured.
You know, he probably wasn't moving around too much.
So it was a real emergency.
You know he had to kind of.
He worked in the hospital and used his initiative and quickly rushed him into the cat scanner to check him out.
I feel like it's just quite a lot of like medical equipment on a cat.
I feel like it's not built for cats because they're so little and tiny.
What did they actually find then?
Was it something in the body that he had to operate on, I guess?
Yeah, they found something wrong.
And so he kind of quickly performed an emergency operation to save his cat's life.
I mean, it's handy that this man had a cat scanner to hand.
But also surely, if you were in the hospital, wouldn't you be like come on rules and regulations, health and safety.
We can't have cat fur flying all over the shop.
I know what you're saying.
I think it was it was obviously a quiet time.
The CAT scanner must have been available to use and he was able to kind of just quickly check him over, check her over and yeah, decide on what the operation was needed to be.
On the one hand, this seems really unbelievable, the idea of a cat in a cat scan.
But on the other hand it feels like it should have absolutely happened before, because just the sheer joy of being able to say a cat is in a cat scan is quite fun.
And yeah, I assume it's not named after cats.
So I don't know why it hasn't happened previously.
But also, I just feel like it's not healthy for the cat to be in a scanner.
That's my main problem.
I think it was just.
It was a very lucky coincidence that he was able to kind of Put her inside the CAT scanner.
You know, he was a doctor.
He is a doctor.
And yeah, saved one of those nine lives.
All right.
Well, I have to have a think about this one.
Maybe I'll get it right or maybe it will be a catastrophe.
And I'll get it wrong.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I was saving that one.
And while I consider it, let's go to our book of the week, which is Grump Fort by Jamie Hammond.
It's about Moe, who's in charge of protecting his village from monsters.
Now, to prove himself as a hero, he goes out into the Forbidden Woods to catch a monster.
However, he stumbles into Grump Fort, a secret monster fortress where the fearsome Grump Snatcher is kidnapping other monsters.
Moe must go on a monster hunt with a troll, a gnome, and a fire-breathing snotwoggle.
Yes, you heard me snotwoggle to stop it.
So Laura, tell me what's caught your eye in the week junior inbox this week.
Yeah, so we had a message from Niall to say this half term it was sunny, so I built a bug hotel with my little brother, Josh.
I thought you might like to see, and this photo is amazing, this bug hotel.
So it's in the shape of a house and it's got lots of little sections to it.
And yeah, bug hotels you kind of stuff them with lots of different little things, like I think I can see leaves in there and straws.
Yeah, maybe some can't see lots of different types of leaves and things that bugs can crawl in and out of basically, and keep snugging.
And yeah, after a few days, we saw little bugs coming out.
Niall said so that was a big success.
So thanks for sending that to us.
I love that.
Laura, if you were to make a bug hotel, if you to be in a bug hotel, which of the rooms here would you go in?
If you were a bug?
I'd actually thought about this.
The red one, I don't know what it is.
It looks like like maybe like wool or something.
Yeah, it looks very cozy.
Yeah, I'd be snug as a bug in there.
Love that so much.
Uh, now tell me kate, what have you seen this week in the inbox?
Uh, we had a lovely message from um, a reader called ira, who wrote in to say i made the flying dragon for saint david's day, which was on the 1st of march.
Um, from issue 481, and she added in her message that her name ira, is welsh for snow.
Such a lovely name, Beautiful name.
And such a brilliant dragon.
Such a great dragon.
Oh, my goodness.
So this dragon is a proper Welsh red dragon ready to fly off into the sunset.
I love this so much.
Have either of you guys tried to make it?
Do you fancy making a little dragon for yourself?
Yeah, it wouldn't be as good as Ira's.
That is just a brilliant example.
It's so intricate and love it.
Love it so much.
It's brilliant.
And actually she's done more than what was on our how-to page, because we left instructions for how to make the dragon.
And you can make its wings flap up and down.
It's really cool.
But she's created a little backdrop for it there as well.
And it's got like clouds and grass and sky and sun.
And it's, yeah, it's absolutely brilliant.
I love it.
Oh, I didn't realize that bit wasn't in the magazine.
Ira's really gone for gold here to properly celebrate St.
David's Day.
Oh my goodness, we love it.
Thank you so much, Ira.
Now we've also been sent in a joke this week from Charlotte.
We are turning into a Joker's Corner here on the Week Junior, which I'm very happy about.
So let's give it a listen.
Hi, The Week Junior.
My name is Charlotte and here's my joke.
What was the famous avocado's famous saying?
Holy guacamole.
Kate, Laura, Kate, any thoughts on this excellent podcast joke?
Oh, it's brilliant.
I mean, what a joke and what a rhyme.
It's just so satisfying to say.
Holy guacamole.
Holy guacamole it is.
Laura, how do you feel about food pun jokes?
Oh, absolutely love them.
Love guacamole.
And yeah, I just love saying the word.
It's just a fun word, isn't it?
Holy guacamole is great.
Charlotte, thank you so much for that.
And, of course, if you want to send in a joke or tell us what you've been up to recently, do send us a voice note.
Go to funkidslive.com slash theweekjunior.
Just look for that big red button and then record your voice.
Or if you want to email a picture to us of what you've been up to recently, just email it to hello at theweekjuniorcouk.
Now let's dive back into this week's issue of the magazine.
Laura, what was your favourite story this week?
So I've picked out our how-to, which is how to help nesting birds this week.
So obviously spring is in the air at the moment.
You might have noticed there's lots of birds tweeting.
And this is the time of year that birds start to build their nests, which are built purely to raise chicks, basically.
So for incubating eggs, which means keeping them warm, and also to keep... young birds safe when they hatch um so yeah there was there's quite a lot of interesting facts in this so um all nests are different so some birds nest in the ground in in burrows like rabbits and and obviously lots nest in trees and there's loads of different materials that they use as well so um cobwebs moss there's one bird which uses up to 1500 feathers um to keep their nest and their chicks warm um And in this article, you can find out how you can help nesting birds.
And there's lots of different ways you can help them.
So it starts with.
I mean there's things like feeding and providing them with water, because obviously, like making nests, it requires quite a lot of energy.
So, for instance, blackbirds and blue tits carry more than twice their body weight around when they're building the perfect nest, because they're sort of ferrying materials back and forth.
So, yeah, feeding them, keeping them safe.
So keeping any naughty cats in, particularly around dawn and dusk, can help.
There's lots of things you can actually provide as well.
So, you know, provide materials for nesting.
So, for instance, if you've just brushed your pet and you've got loads of fur around, don't put it in the bin, put it outside, put it in the crook of a tree or somewhere where it won't blow away.
And you might find next time you go down and look that it's disappeared, because some birds will take that to line their nests with it.
So yeah, basically there's lots of fun ways that you can help out birds and lots of fun facts about nesting birds as well.
So that was my favourite this week.
Yeah, my mum used to do that when she would brush our Labrador who had a lot of hair.
She'd leave some of the hair outside and yeah, sure enough, you'd see, you'd be like oh, it's up in that tree now.
Oh, okay, lovely.
Kate, what have you seen this week?
Yes, so my pick of the week is from our book club pages.
And I was lucky enough to chat to scientist Adam Rutherford in time for British Science Week, which runs between the 7th and the 16th of March.
So Adam is the author of Where Are You Really From, which won the STEM award at our book awards last year.
STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths.
And in the interview, we chatted about how there are lots of different types of scientists.
Some are good at art, some are good at maths, some are explorers, others work in labs.
But all scientists are curious about the world and want to find out how stuff works.
Adam is a geneticist, which is a scientist who studies how certain features passed from parents to children over generations through their genes.
Genes exist in the cells of all living things and are made of DNA, which is a chemical that carries all the information about your body and characteristics, such as your hair and your eye colour.
Adam's book takes readers on an amazing adventure through millions and millions of years of human history and tells the story of how the human species came about, from prehistoric times to the present day.
Adam said that he loved science when he was growing up, especially dinosaurs, and really enjoyed watching David Attenborough programmes and movies with scientists in them, like Doc Brown in Back to the Future.
He encourages all of us to have that same sense of curiosity and said something really great, which is that the three most important words that a scientist can say are I don't know, and that science isn't just about knowing stuff.
It's about not knowing things but having the curiosity to find out.
That's great.
Oh, what a good man.
And yeah, I've heard great, incredible things about that book.
So good to hear all of that.
And curiosity is very important.
Thank you.
Right now it's time for this week's big debate.
And we are talking rubbish.
No, not really.
Don't worry.
We're talking about bins.
So here's what you got to know.
In 2022, UK homes generated 25.7 million tonnes of waste.
And out of all of that waste, just 44% was recycled.
Local councils are in charge of organising how waste is collected from people's homes.
And the collections vary between areas.
Households have different bins for their waste.
So paper glass, metal and plastic usually go into recycling bins and non-recyclable rubbish goes into black bin bags and food goes into food bins.
Refuse collectors operate a regular service, emptying the bins usually every one or two weeks.
Bristol City Council in England is currently thinking about having rubbish bin collections every four weeks instead of every two, which some people aren't sure about.
So the question for this week's big debate, should councils collect bins less often?
Here's how it works.
Each person has 60 seconds to make their case.
First up, we're going to have Kate saying, yes, we want less frequent bin collections, please.
So I'm going to get my timer up here.
Here we go. and I'll waggle it in front of the camera, don't you worry, Kate.
So whenever you're ready, take it away.
Okay, so I am arguing that bins should be collected less frequently.
My first point is that it will help to encourage people to recycle more, and that a lot of things that could be recycled still end up getting thrown away in our general bin bags.
Research has found that people are more likely to recycle their waste if general rubbish is collected less often.
Secondly...
It might make people more aware about just how much rubbish their household is producing, which will encourage them to buy fewer things that will just end up in the bin.
They might recycle more food waste in a food recycling bin or even a compost heap.
And all of this stuff will help the planet and encourage people to be more mindful of what and where they are throwing stuff away.
And finally, if councils collected our general rubbish less frequently, This would save them money which they could spend on other services, such as local parks and libraries.
Excellent stuff.
And under a minute as well.
Thank you so much.
So next up, it's Laura's turn to change our minds.
So Laura, whenever you're ready, go for it.
So I feel quite strongly about this one.
So it sounds like a really good idea.
And I am...
I'm someone who takes out my recycling far more than I take out my non-recycling.
So in theory, I should be for it, but I'm not.
And I'll tell you why.
It's leaving rubbish to build up for a whole month is not very nice.
It smells, it can attract pests.
So I used to live in a seaside city and this happened there.
So people's bins were collected less often and they got really full.
So they had to put the bags next to the bins instead of in the bins, which meant that seagulls and foxes used to rip them open and And the streets were just strewn with rubbish.
And it was just, it's just horrible.
It's not very nice.
Also, some people end up dumping it in other places, like by the side of the road.
So that's not good.
Also, some people have more stuff to get rid of, like nappies.
And some people can't recycle as much.
So for instance, I can recycle all plastic.
My mum, where she lives, her recycling service, she can only recycle bottles.
And thirdly, bin collections provide jobs for people.
So that's very important.
Lovely stuff.
I'll let you have that.
Great points there, guys.
Thank you so much.
Lots and lots of reasons to get in touch with this week's big debate, because I feel like lots of people will have real life experience of this one.
So if you've got an opinion on bin collections, you can get involved right now.
You can go to theweekjunior.co.uk slash polls to vote and tell us your thoughts.
Or of course, you can comment wherever it is you're listening to the podcast.
But most importantly, we love to hear your voice.
So you can record a voice note by hitting the big red button at funkidslive.com slash theweekjunior.
In the last big debate, Jo and Rahul discussed whether books should always have happy endings.
Kate, what were the results?
Yeah, so for this one, 60% said no, books shouldn't always have happy endings.
Yeah, that's interesting actually, quite a high percentage.
Laura, what opinions did we have here?
So yes, so we had quite a few comments.
So one person wrote in to say in life there can be ups and downs and it's important to experience that sometimes.
Somebody else said, in my opinion, I enjoy reading books with happy endings because they make me feel warm.
This encourages me to read more books.
So that's quite a good point.
And somebody else said I think stories should have happy endings because they can make the reader happier and be friendlier to other people, which is really nice.
Lots of good opinions there.
Yeah.
Thank you so much for getting in touch.
We love hearing what you think about our big debates.
Like I said, if you want to tell us a little bit more about your thoughts on this week's, go to theweekjuniorcouk slash polls.
Now, before we go, it's time to get back to our meowsing kind of works.
Uh, real or rubbish story.
Kate, can you remind me what it was please?
Yes, i can.
Uh, this week's real rubbish is the story of a doctor who gave his beloved injured cat a cat scan at the hospital where he works to save her life.
I this is one of those stories where i'm like it kind of makes sense, like yeah, i can see that happening, but i feel like the red tape and the bureaucracy and the cleaning supplies you'd have to go through to clean all of the cat fur off of that cat scan it wouldn't be worth thinking about, to be honest.
So I'm going to say this is rubbish.
I'm going to say it, rubbish.
There we go, done.
Yeah.
Should we do a drum roll?
Okay, let's do a drum roll.
I can reveal, Bex, that this story of a cat in a cat scanner is real.
It is real.
Is it?
So Dr. Sinelli, it is real.
He worked in a hospital and he took his cat for a cat scan at his workplace once.
Umberto Perini Hospital in Aosta, Italy.
And he said that the intervention saved his pet's life.
Oh my goodness.
Well, okay.
I'm very happy for the cat.
Less sad if the person next in had allergies to cats.
But yeah.
I think he did get into trouble though, didn't he?
He did, yeah.
Oh, okay.
Okay.
I say good.
I don't mean good.
He's my hero though.
I mean, I'm glad that he saved his cat.
That is excellent.
But I am sad... that I did not get the answer right.
So you tricked me again.
This is not, I'm in a bit of a slump here for the real rubbish stories.
I've got to get my act together.
That is it for this week's episode of the Week Junior Show.
Big thank you, of course, to Laura and Kate.
Don't forget to rate, review and subscribe, or follow us wherever it is you get your podcasts and tune in to next week's episode, where I'll be joined by some more members of the team for some stories, debates and chat.
See you then.
Bye or three issues of The Week Junior Science and Nature for £5 by heading to theweekjuniorcouk forward slash podcast offer.
