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 wimbledon tennis championships came to an end and the uk and france agreed a new boat plan, we're going to be discussing some of the other stories that inspired the week junior team.
Make sure you're listening closely, because at the end of the episode we'll be asking a question about what you've heard and if you answer it correctly, you could win a prize.
But first, before all of that, Joe and Eve, there's something I want to talk to you about.
There is a feature in the magazine all about theme parks.
So it got me thinking, what is your favourite theme park ride?
Joe, how about you?
Well, I don't have too many to choose from.
And I've never actually been on a roller coaster.
I remember, I know, shocking.
I remember going to Drayton Manor as a kid.
And for some reason I was happy to go on the theme park rides but not on the roller coasters, which I now find quite weird as an adult, because I'd say a lot of theme park rides look more intimidating than roller coasters.
One I did enjoy was a ride called Apocalypse, which I believe closed a few years ago.
It's one of those tall towers that lifts you up high and then drops you straight down really, really quickly.
It was terrifying.
And you'd rather do that than a roller coaster?
I am a big roller coaster fan.
I also love Drayton Manor.
So yeah, I'm a big supporter of Drayton Manor there.
Lovely stuff.
Thank you, Jo.
How about you, Eve?
I am really scared of roller coasters.
But one ride I do really like is the Flying Fish at Thorpe Park, because it's a ride, but it's kind of like a mini ride and you ride around a little fish.
And I remember when I went on it as a kid, it felt like the biggest ride in the world.
And then I went on it again as an adult and realised that actually it's kind of quite low key, but it's really fun and it's a good way to still go on a ride even if you're quite scared of roller coasters.
Yeah, fair enough.
Get the feeling of the ride, but not the fear of the ride, I suppose.
Yes, exactly.
So I'm in the minority here.
I love theme park rides.
I love roller coasters.
I'm a big fan.
My favourite roller coaster, because I love roller coasters, is Ripsaw at Alton Towers.
I don't think it's there anymore.
But you basically, you sit in a straight line and you go round in a big circle.
And as you're going round in a circle, your seats are being flipped and turned upside down at the same time, and water is spurting up at you.
I loved it.
It's everything I wanted in a ride.
I loved it so much.
But my other favorite one is in a theme park called Europa Park in Germany.
And they have different lands themed around different countries of Europe.
And they got a new roller coaster last year in the Croatia themed area.
And it's themed around Nikola Tesla.
And it is one of the best roller coasters I've ever been on.
It is absolutely brilliant.
And I wanted to go and queue up for it immediately afterwards.
But I feel like if I did, neither of you guys would be joining me in the queue, right?
No, it's not my thing.
Well, I don't know, because I've still got this thing where I've got to actually go on a roller coaster.
So I'll get back to you in maybe a couple of years time, once I've finally taken the leap.
At the moment,
Look, if you want a roller coaster buddy, I am with you entirely.
I love them.
And I would love to know what our listeners at home think about this as well.
If you've got a favourite theme park ride, tell me right now.
You could email hello at theweekjuniorcouk or leave us a voice note at funkidslivecom.
Slash theweekjunior.
All you've got to do is grab a grown-up, 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, last week, we asked what everyone's top tips for staying cool were.
And we've got a message here from Lydia.
Hey, Week Junior.
My name's Lydia.
My favourite way to cool down on a warm day is to jump into the water in my swimsuit.
Jumping into the water?
Yeah, that's a great shout.
Why did we not say that last week?
Yeah, I know.
We were too busy going on about ice cubes and... Yeah.
I mean, Lydia's absolutely smashed it there.
Straight away, a classic jumping into the water.
Excellent.
We also got a message here from Sia as well.
Hi, the Week Junior.
I'm Sia from Mumbai, India.
I like to cool down by stuffing lots of pieces of ice into my mouth.
Or I like to go to the club on hot days and jump into the pool.
Bye.
Firstly, I'm loving how international this podcast is.
Brilliant stuff.
Thank you so much, Sia, for getting in touch.
Secondly, I love that visual image of sticking as many pieces of ice in your mouth as possible.
I was doing that.
I was actually doing that last night.
I was eating some very spicy noodles and I ran to the freezer, grabbed ice and stuck it in my mouth.
So I can kind of sympathise with the action.
Yeah.
Sia's absolutely smashing it out of the park there.
We love hearing your voice notes.
Thank you so much to Lydia and Sia for sending them in.
And if you want to send us a voice note about your favourite theme park ride, wherever in the world it may be, you can send us a voice note at funkidslivecom.
Slash theweekjunior.
Now let's turn our attention to the latest magazine, because I want to know what's been in the headlines this week.
Joe, what have you got for us?
So it's a story on our big news pages about the world's first malaria treatment for babies and young children being approved for use.
Malaria is an infection spread by mosquitoes and it's common in tropical parts of the world.
If people aren't treated quickly, it can be fatal.
Until now, babies and young children with malaria have been given medicines designed for older children, which isn't always safe, because their bodies process the medicine in a different way.
Now the new malaria treatment can be dissolved in milk and tastes like sweet cherry, which makes it easier for babies to drink.
And now that it's been approved, it's set to be rolled out across countries in Africa in the coming weeks.
Oh, that is such a good news story.
That's amazing.
Thank you so much, Jo.
I'd not heard of that story at all.
Eve, what is another story you've heard this week?
So my story is about how, On the 9th of July, a year-long strike by video game actors in the US came to an end.
So a strike is when people refuse to work as a form of protest.
And the strike began in July 2024, and it was over the use of artificial intelligence, also known as AI.
And AI is a computer system that learns from data to create content.
And the actors on strike were voice actors and motion capture performers who actually act out the movement for characters in games.
And then that helps the game designers to do the animation of characters.
And they were worried that AI could be used to recreate their work.
And they said this wouldn't be fair without their consent or if they weren't paid for it.
So a deal was made between the actors and several video game companies.
And now video game companies must receive written approval from performers before they're allowed to use AI to recreate the voices or performances.
And they'll also get a 15% pay rise.
And there will be more safety rules for motion capture performers, because sometimes they have to do quite risky stunts.
And I just thought it was a really important story because I think people forget about the amount of behind the scenes work that goes into video games.
And without them we wouldn't have of the the best video games going on today.
Yeah, that is a big news indeed, so i guess well done to the video game actors for forgetting what they got.
Now it's time for my favorite part of the show real or rubbish?
This is the bit where someone tells me a story.
I have to guess if it's true or false, fact or fake news.
So eve, what do you have for me this week?
So this story is about some spies in Germany who have had their identities exposed by wearing socks that feature the brand of the German Foreign Intelligence Agency, which is called the BND.
So the BND launched some new clothing, including socks, T-shirts and bags, because they wanted to recruit new people.
But what they didn't intend was for existing employees to wear the items, and some staff members were a bit silly and accidentally exposed who they worked for and gave away their identities.
And the agency said they need to stop wearing them.
But staff said the socks are really comfy.
So, Bex, is this story real or do you spy a lie?
Oh, what a great story.
I mean, weirdly, I've been reading about spies recently, so this is right up my street.
I love this so much.
I love the idea of enticing people to work for you, no matter what kind of company you are, by giving away socks, because everybody needs socks.
That's just a universal basic thing to have.
But also, if you're a spy, surely you're not daft enough to think you'll wear those branded stuff.
People will you know.
It's basically wearing your name badge and you're not meant to do that.
If you're a spy, well I have you know.
The socks are quite classy, They're kind of plain.
It just has BND on it.
So it's quite subtle.
Maybe some spies thought it could be misinterpreted as a sports brand or something.
And also maybe it's like the ultimate double bluff.
A spy would surely never wear socks with the BND logo on it.
Maybe, no, you would be wearing them ironically, like, ha, ha, ha, of course I'm not.
Ha, ha, ha, ha.
I'm just like, love the brand.
Yeah.
So they were caught and they've been...
So they were spies in Germany for Germany?
Yeah, for the German intelligence agency.
Right, okay.
And they've been caught out by wearing this stash.
I've got to say this is a good story because, like you know, people have fallen apart for less and for more.
So I genuinely can't tell whether this is real or not.
And also like if they were in another country wearing that, a lot of people wouldn't know.
Like if I saw somebody in the UK wearing something that said BND, I'd be like, okay, fine.
I mean-
I'd just assume, yeah, you're right, it was a sports thing or a football team.
But the foolish mistake, if this is real, is they were in their own country.
That's the problem here.
Also yeah, just weird to recruit people by giving them clothes, especially if you're a spying agency.
I don't know this one, but what are we doing this week?
Okay, well, I'll consider that one.
And while I do, let's talk about our book of the week.
This week, it's the Museum of Lost Umbrellas by Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick.
It's about Dilly, a girl who realises she's descended from a line of powerful cloud witches and can fly using an umbrella.
So she's got to use her powers to keep the island of Olipest safe.
We've actually got a message here from the author.
So this is Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick.
Hi, my name is Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick and I'm the author of the Museum of Lost Umbrellas.
My favourite book when I was a child was The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
I read all the time.
I had a real thing about Enid Blyton.
I loved school stories and I loved adventure books and stories with magic in them and books set in other places and times.
And I also adored comics and summer specials.
And Christmas just was not Christmas without an annual or two.
I hope you're having a lovely summer and I hope you found something great to read.
If you'd like a chance to win a copy of the Museum of Lost Umbrellas, stay with us until the end of the show to find out how you can enter our prize draw.
Now, we've just been joined by this week's guest editor, Stevie.
Stevie is deputy editor of the Week Junior Science and Nature.
Hello, Stevie.
Welcome to the show.
What's going on this week?
Hi, Bec.
So I have a question for you.
Are you ready for a summer of adventure?
Always.
I'm always ready for a summer adventure, Stevie.
Thank you for asking.
Brilliant.
So, well, I'm here to talk about our Scavenger Hunt photo contest.
So this is our annual nature photography competition that gets you outdoors exploring and having epic adventures.
OK, well, this sounds very good to me.
What does everyone out there have to do?
So all you have to do is find 10 natural treasures from our Scavenger Hunt list, which you can find on the website.
Snap some brilliant photos on your hunt and upload your favourites to our competition website at tinyurlcom.
Forward slash sn-sh25.
It's a bit of a mouthful, but you'll get there.
So, whether you're hitting the beach, climbing hills or just chilling at home, you can join in from anywhere.
There's a stack of goodies worth over £1000 up for grabs, including some Swish camera gear from our partners at Canon UK.
Okay, this sounds amazing.
I love the idea of winning something like this.
So any top tips for people who want to get in touch?
Yes, definitely.
So the judges are looking for clear, colourful and interesting images of natural treasures.
The winning image will appear on the front cover of Science and Nature.
So the most important thing is that the picture is in focus and that you can send us the best quality you can.
I mean, yeah, top tip to be in focus.
Definitely a good shout, especially if it's going to make it to the front cover.
I love this.
When does the competition start and close?
How long do we have here?
So the hunt begins at 12pm on the 18th of July and closes on 25th of August.
Happy snapping and good luck.
Excellent stuff.
It's open now.
So on your marks, get set, go.
I love that.
Thank you so much, Stevie.
See you soon.
See you soon.
Brilliant.
Now it's time for this week's big debate.
And the question is, are fruit sandwiches a good idea?
So Eve and Jo are going to go head to head to take a side on this argument.
But before we hear from them, let's hear some information that you need to know.
At the end of June, Marks & Spencer launched a strawberries and cream sandwich.
It became a top-selling sandwich in their shops only two days after it hit the shelves.
The sandwich is made of strawberries, whipped cream cheese and a sweetened bread.
It was inspired by the Japanese furutsu sando, a sandwich filled with fruits such as strawberries clementines kiwis, cut into neat triangles.
The invention of the modern sandwich is thought to date back to the Earl of Sandwich.
In 1762, he asked for his meat to be served between two slices of bread, so he could eat while playing cards.
Now, the question this week, are fruit sandwiches a good idea?
Joe is team yes, Eve is team no.
They'll each have 60 seconds to make their case.
Then I'll make my mind up on this one as well.
So let's hear from Joe first, who thinks fruit sandwiches are a good idea.
So, Joe, I'm going to get this timer up here.
Whenever you are ready, take it away.
So fruit sandwiches are a work of genius.
That's one of the lines we've used in the big debate story in the magazine and i'm sticking by it.
They're a main course and dessert all in one.
Essentially, you can get to your pudding without having to skip your main meal.
Plus, they contain strawberries, so they're going towards your daily helping of fruit and veg, and the british strawberry season is short, so enjoy them while you can.
And, as has been said, the sandwich was inspired by the Japanese furutsu sando, and it's good to learn from other cultures.
And I also need to say that when I realized this was what we were going to be discussing on the podcast yesterday, I went out and bought one of the strawberry sandwiches on my lunch break to do a bit of personal market research.
And my conclusion is that they are indeed delicious, having tasted one myself.
They are sweet, they're refreshing, they're filling, they're amazing.
Love that so passionate joe.
Joe's like out in the field, a field reporter.
Um okay well, that was.
That was quite an impassioned speech there, joe.
Uh eve, let's see if you can match it.
Whenever you're ready, go for it.
God, how can i follow that?
But firstly, i think that strawberries are really tasty on their own.
It makes more sense to chop them up and put them in a bowl and maybe add some cream or whatever you like and eat them like that, because they're much nicer fresh.
I don't think it sounds very appealing that you know the sandwiches look great in photos, but I'm not sure I fancy strawberries that have been sitting in a sandwich for a little while.
Doesn't sound too appealing to me.
I'm also just all about savoury sandwiches, savoury sandwiches for the win.
Ham, eggs, bacon, tuna, hummus, anything like that.
And you can add vegetables and salad leaves as well.
But I think fruit is just where I draw the line.
It also doesn't seem very filling.
The strawberries are sliced up, so it kind of looks like you only got one or two strawberries in there anyway.
I think I'd be hungry an hour later.
And I also think that the order of a meal should be savoury followed by sweet.
And this just really kind of throws me off kilter.
So I think we shouldn't have fruit sandwiches anymore.
Oh, another great debate there.
Great argument.
Okay.
I'm really torn on this one.
And I'll be honest with you.
I'm obsessed with the sandwich.
I haven't tried it yet.
I've seen it everywhere.
It keeps coming up on my social media.
I really am desperate to try this.
And my point is that, well, we have jam sandwiches, which is basically fruit, but in a jam form.
So why not fruit sandwiches, I guess?
Although having said that, Eve just made me very hungry with her talk of various vegetables.
The other thing I have about this one is, let's face it, it's basically a cake.
Sweet bread, cream, strawberries.
It's essentially cake in a sandwich.
And I have got a very sweet tooth.
So I think I'm pro the fruit sandwich, but I've not tried it.
So I can't be 100% certain, but I'm...
I think I'm desperate to try it, basically.
But luckily, I don't have the final say on this.
It's what our readers and listeners think.
So we want to hear about your verdict on this week's big debate.
You can get involved by voting online at theweekjunior.co.uk slash polls.
You can also email your thoughts to us at hello at theweekjunior.co.uk or send us a voice note.
We love them.
Go to funkidslive.com slash theweekjunior.
Scroll down until you see that big red button.
Grab a grown-up and record your voice.
Your message could be in next week's episode.
Now, last week's big debate was about whether school summer breaks should be shorter.
So let's find out what the Week Junior listeners and readers voted.
Well, I think this comes as no surprise, but 89% said no, longer summer holidays are better.
Yes, that doesn't surprise me too much.
Joe, any opinions in the inbox?
Yeah, we've had a few.
One said, yes, because I'm bored at home when my friends are travelling.
I don't do anything, so I wish to go to school.
And another of the other opinions said no, because students who have worked hard all year need a long time of rest and teachers who have to plan their students' lessons need a long time to make sure that their lessons are the best that they can be.
I love this, thinking of the teachers as well.
So we do love getting your thoughts in about the big debate.
Like I said, you can send us a voice note at funkidslive.com slash theweekjunior.
Now we've heard about our readers' and listeners' opinions on the debate.
We've got editorial assistant Elena here now to share some of the messages she's received from readers this week.
Hello, everyone.
Lots of messages recently.
I think you can really tell that some of our readers and listeners are already on holiday and they've got time to do stuff.
I think you messaged us to tell us all about his new hobby.
He said, I really enjoyed learning how to create a picture to make my first tapestry.
I particularly enjoyed learning how to do the running stitch to make the border around my design.
I love this, Theo.
What Theo has done, because he also sent us a picture.
He embroidered his own name and was presumably his age, seven years old, with a little smiley face.
And it looks amazing.
Does anyone embroider here?
I mean, I'm not an avid embroiderer, but I learned how to do it at school when I did textiles GCSE.
And I love the running stitch.
One of my favorite stitches, along with Theo.
Maybe the next stitch you could learn would be chain stitch, where you do a little loop and then you kind of go through the loop while it's still a loop.
And I've explained that really badly.
You can watch the video and it makes it like a chain and it's really cool.
But I love it, Theo.
Can't wait to see what tapestries you do next.
Yeah, keep sending them.
I have a tapestry kit at home because I've wanted to try it for ages.
And Theo might have just inspired me.
Yeah, he's inspiring me to finally pick it up.
Maybe this is what I do after the podcast.
Anyway, we also got a message from CB and Ira, who well, they sent us a picture of them in a paddling pool reading The Week Junior and said we love The Week Junior and wait for the postman to deliver it every week.
This is us reading it in our paddling pool 10 minutes after it came through our door.
All right.
Well, I don't think we can emphasize how jealous we are over here.
I mean it's quite gray at the moment, but I think I would have really loved a paddling pool through the heat wave last weekend.
I'd like to think that the paddling pool was set up for the express purpose of making the week junior reading experience more pleasurable.
Like 20 minutes before the magazine arrived.
It wasn't there and they set it up just to sort of lay in the pool and read it.
Like it's not there all the time.
It's like a week junior specific.
I love that.
I've always wanted an invention that lets me read books in the pool in the summer.
I think that would be one of the best advances that... that technology could have.
Anyway, thank you so much, Theo, CB and Ira for sending this in.
And thank you to all of our readers and listeners.
And a reminder that we love voice notes and that if we feature yours, we will send you a roving reporter batch.
See you all next week.
Bye.
Thank you very much, Elena.
Now it's time to turn our attention back to the magazine this week and the team's favourite stories.
So Joe, who's been your hero of the week?
My hero of the week is Joe Wicks, the famous fitness coach.
He's teamed up with the UK government to launch an animated YouTube series called Activate, which is our cover story this week.
The aim of the series is to encourage children to keep fit and exercise over the summer holidays.
Each episode is five minutes long and features an animated version of Wick's leading exercises, such as star jumps, jogging and squats.
Wix's own children helped him test it.
He said they absolutely loved it and that it made him so happy to see them enjoy something he'd poured his heart into.
And Activate can be viewed on Wix's YouTube channel.
Oh, I love this.
OK, yeah, that's a good excuse to get active and get fit over the summer holidays.
Eve, what's been your favourite fact you've learnt this week?
So this is from our science and technology page where we have a story about some new technology that had a fault during this year's wimbledon tournament, and the story is really interesting.
You can read about it on the science technology page.
But the fact i loved was that the longest ever tennis match at wimbledon lasted 11 hours and five minutes.
I just think i could never play tennis for that long.
That would be.
That'd be crazy.
I can't play tennis for 11 minutes, let alone 11.
That is a very, very long match indeed.
Um Right well, I found out something cool this week from the magazine about some book-eating beetles.
Now, this is in Hungary.
Their oldest library has an infestation of paper-eating insects.
They're called drugstore beetles or also bread beetles, I think.
And they've started to eat all of the books.
So they've had to put 100000 of their 400000 books into special sealed crates to try and destroy these books.
I'd be gutted.
I'd be devastated if my books were being eaten by these little insects.
And I don't think I would have any sealed crates to hand to hide them away.
But fingers crossed, all of those incredible books get saved.
And, of course, you can find out more about all of those stories right now in this week's issue of the magazine.
Now, it's time for the moment of truth about our real or rubbish story.
Come on, Eve, remind me of this story, please.
So this is about the spies in Germany who have had their identities exposed because they wore socks that had branding of Germany's intelligence agency, the BND.
And the BND has told them to stop wearing the socks because they are exposing who they work for.
I mean, that's like me working for MI5, MI6 and wearing socks that say, yeah, MI5.
But then I think if I did, people would be like Oh, that again is an ironic, that's a silly thing, Bex.
You would never work for MI5 and they'd be right.
Or would they?
Maybe this was the ultimate double bluff.
This is one of those things that I can feel like is a classic human error situation.
Although spies are meant to be really clever and crafty and smart, it's easy to go wrong, especially at the point of having a really good comfy sock.
So I don't know with this one.
I'm going to say...
I'm going to say the story this week is rubbish.
I'm going to go rubbish this week.
Drumroll.
Okay.
Drumroll, please.
Yeah.
You're right, Bex.
It is rubbish.
Yeah, because...
Why would spies do that?
Well, the BND has released merchandise to boost its image because they hope that more young people will apply to work there.
However, they haven't had to order spies to stop wearing the clothes in public, because I think the spies are probably a little bit more savvy than that.
You would like to think so, wouldn't you?
But still, people have been caught out on different things.
All right.
Well, that was a very fun story.
Thank you very much, guys.
Now finally, it's time for Listen Up the bit of the show that gives you the chance to win a copy of our book of the week, which is The Museum of Lost Umbrellas by Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick.
All you've got to do is answer a question about something that's been said in this episode.
And if you think you know the answer, grab a grown up and head to theweekjuniorcouk slash.
Listen up to fill in our online entry form and enter the prize draw before the closing date of 24th of July at noon.
Now 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.
Find out more at theweekjunior.co.uk slash terms.
So are you ready?
Listen up.
What is the name of Joe Wick's new animated YouTube series?
If you know the answer to the question, go to theweekjuniorcouk forward slash.
Listen up to enter our giveaway.
Lovely.
Thank you very much, Jo.
That brings us to the end of this week's show.
Thanks, of course, to Jo, Eve, Stevie and Elena.
Next week, we'll be back to discuss more of the fascinating stories that are happening in the world.
And don't forget to send in your voice notes for a chance to have your voice on the podcast and win a roving reporter badge.
Plus, of course, please do rate, review and subscribe, or follow us wherever it is to get your podcasts from.
And if you like The Week Junior Show, you'll love The Week Junior magazine.
Head to theweekjunior.co.uk to find out more.
Bye or three issues of The Week Junior Science and Nature for £5 by heading to theweekjuniorcouk forward slash podcast offer.
