and welcome to The Week Junior Show.
I'm Bex and I'm joined by writers Jo and Kay from The Week Junior, the magazine making sense of the world for 8 to 14 year olds.
In a week where Chancellor Rachel Reeves gave a major speech ahead of the budget and a rare diamond was unearthed in Botswana.
We're going to be talking about some of the other stories that inspired and entertained The Week Junior team.
So 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 before we begin now, I've spotted a story in the magazine this week about the opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo in Egypt, which is the world's sixth largest museum.
So it got me thinking, if you could open a museum on anything, anything at all, what would it be on?
Kay, go for it.
I would choose a hair clip museum, because I used to go to a shop that had lots of hair clips for sale in shelves.
And I used to just love looking around at them, but I would very rarely actually commit to buying one of the hair clips.
So I think a museum would work better for me.
I love that you went all that way to look at hair clips and you were like, you know what?
They can stay here.
Joe, do you have a museum for me?
I do.
I do.
I'd open a museum looking at the history of pets.
I'm not really sure why, but it just kind of occurred to me today.
I think it would be interesting to dive into the past and look at people started owning pets and how they changed over time, because one thing that i was thinking today is where do hamsters come from?
Like, what are they?
Are they scurrying around in the wild or what you know gerbils where?
Where have these things come from?
Because like, dogs are kind of developed from wolves, but hamsters what would a hamster be developed from like?
I don't really know.
And who decided to keep them?
Why did they think?
You know what?
I'm going to pop them in a cage and give them a wheel, Exactly.
Exactly.
Precisely.
Like, I think it's a I think it's an amazing idea.
I think maybe I shouldn't have said it on the podcast, but be my next venture museum.
Someone's going to steal it from you, Jo.
Mine is true to form.
I love chocolate.
A lot of listeners might know.
So first of all, I was thinking, broaden it out and do history of chocolate.
That's quite cool.
But I think actually the advertising of chocolate is fascinating.
Going from the posters in World War I and how they used to advertise Cadbury's and all the Mars, and then to present day when you've got adverts on TV.
I just think it's really cool to see how things get marketed.
And also...
I just love chocolate, so I'd probably give out some free samples, let's face it.
I think that's what my museum would be.
But I wondered if our listeners at home have better ideas, what museum would you like to open?
Tell us right now.
You could email hello at theweekjuniorcouk or leave a voice note at funkidslivecom.
Slash theweekjunior.
Just 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 everyone what their favourite after-school club was, and we got loads of messages.
So thank you so much.
This is amazing.
First up, shall we hear from Louis?
Hello, Louis Junior.
My name's Louis and my favourite club is Cubs from the 3rd Canberra Scouts Group.
We do loads of fun activities and camps.
On one camp, we went air rifle shooting and I hit an eight on the target.
I love your podcast and so bye.
Big shout out to the Cubs in Camberwell.
It sounds quite an exciting gang that they've got going on there.
Love that for Louis.
Thank you very much for sending that in.
Next up, Matilda, I believe, got in touch.
Hello, my name is Matilda and my favourite after school club is Food Club, because we make such delicious food.
We sometimes even make treat food like cupcakes and even garlic bread, which is absolutely delicious.
Thank you.
I wonder if Matilda's accepting people to join her club, because any club that has cupcakes and garlic bread involved, I think I'm going to be signing up.
Okay, well, that's another club that I'm going to tick up for.
Alyssa also got in touch.
Hello, The Week Junior.
My name is Alyssa and one of my favourite clubs to do is an art club called Art K and I do it every Tuesday and And it's really fun and we do lots of nice art and I made lots of good friends there.
Thank you, The Week Junior.
Bye.
I love it.
Art and friends.
What's not to like about that?
I love the idea of just making pals, doing some art.
Alyssa, that sounds pretty dreamy.
Thank you very much for that.
And finally here, we've got one in from Ellen.
Hi, Week Junior.
My name is Ellen and my favourite club is Brownies.
My school is releasing a new club called Art Club and that is my favourite thing to do.
So this will be my new favourite club.
Bye!
Ellen's getting involved with two clubs.
She's got brownies.
And she's got Art Club.
Oh, Ellen, you're going to be very, very busy indeed.
Thank you so much to Louis, to Matilda, to Alyssa, to Ellen, to everybody who got in touch this week.
It was a very, very busy week indeed.
And, of course, if you want to tell us this week what you'd open your favourite museum about, you can send us a voice note right now.
Just go to funkidslive.com slash theweekjunior.
Now, let's turn our attention to the latest magazine.
We've got to talk about what's been in the headlines this week.
Kay, what story do you have for me?
So, as you mentioned earlier... about the Grand Egyptian Museum.
This amazing museum has opened in Cairo Egypt, and it's actually the world's sixth largest museum now.
It cost £900 million to complete it and it contains around 100000 artefacts and covers 7000 years of Egyptian history.
And in the entrance hall there's this giant, 11 meter high statue of an Egyptian pharaoh called Ramesses II, and there's also this 4600 year old boat, known as the Great Boat of King Khufu, which is also on display, and it's one of the oldest wooden artifacts ever discovered and it's really well preserved.
And as well as this, the really big attraction at this new museum is the complete collection of King Tutankhamun.
And this is the first time that the whole collection of his tomb has been on display since it was first discovered in 1922.
And so, on the 1st of November, world leaders from around 80 countries got together at the museum for a really special party the ancient kings and queens in the sky.
And they're hoping that around 500 million people will go to this museum every year.
And the tourism and antiquities minister, Sharif Fathi, said this museum is a gift from Egypt to the world.
Oh, that's so lovely.
That's so nice.
I have to say, the idea of having a party in a museum would terrify me, in case somebody knocked something over or something got broken.
Because the artefacts in there, they sound incredible, Kate.
Is there something in particular that you would have liked to have seen?
Would it be the drones?
Would it be the Tutankhamun stuff?
Oh yeah, I think the tomb of Tutankhamun would be very cool to see.
Yeah, it's the kind of thing you learn about at school.
So actually seeing it in real life would be quite incredible.
Brilliant stuff.
Maybe I'll be planning my trip there.
Joe, what's another story you've seen in the news this week?
It's...
A story from around the world pages about the Sagrada Familia, which has become the tallest church in the world.
Now incredibly, construction of the iconic building in Barcelona began in 1882 and still isn't finished for a variety of reasons.
But they're still going and they're still plugging away at it.
And they recently lifted part of its central tower into place, making it 16291 meters tall at its highest point and allowing it to claim top spot when it comes to height.
I am kind of obsessed with this building because I've been to Barcelona and I've never been inside it, but I've seen from the outside how incredible it is.
Have you been, Joe?
No, no, I haven't.
Barcelona is definitely a city on the bucket list.
It looks so beautiful, but it's not somewhere I've been.
But yeah, hoping in future, maybe not too distant future.
I have kind of spoken with people about potentially going fairly soon.
So looking forward to it if it happens.
Well, hopefully the church will be near a completion and a little bit better for you to see.
Lovely stuff.
Thank you, Joe.
Now moving on, it's time for my favourite part of the show, Real or Rubbish.
This is the bit where I hear a story, I have to guess if it's true or false, fact or fake news.
So Joe, I think it's your turn this week.
Go for it.
So this week's Real or Rubbish is about a wellness company coming up with a novel idea, a glow-on-the-go clinic in London, which was a 12-minute beauty treatment for people sitting in the back of a taxi.
The company has this new LED light mask.
You put it on...
And it emits different colours of light designed to make the skin healthier.
And the idea of glow on the go was to give people a chance to try it while in the back of a taxi and on the move.
And what you need to decide, Bex, is if this is true or a glaring lie.
Oh, so you're saying, OK, you said it's 12 minutes, this treatment.
Yeah, 12 minutes.
OK, does that mean the taxi has to be just 12 minutes long or can you go a bit further afield?
I think you can go a bit further afield.
I mean, the mask isn't kind of welded to your face.
You can take it off, you know.
So you can, yeah, you can have a bit of a, you can enjoy the sights of London as well.
You don't have to sit there with a mask on the entire time.
Okay.
I like the idea of just being kicked out after 12 minutes just wherever you are.
Like, no, you're done.
Out you go.
And so are the benefits just to make your skin look better?
To glow it more?
Yeah, I wasn't too sure about this one.
I was thinking apparently, is light supposed to to improve your skin health?
The only thing i was thinking that they sometimes say that sunlight can not be can kind of have an impact on your skin, can't they?
So it kind of makes sense, but i'm not.
I'm not really sure of the kind of exact specifics about how the light actually helps but um yeah, it's supposed to, and different colors as well, whatever.
Whatever that does.
I have seen people wearing masks a bit like that.
That's why i'm a bit like oh, this could be.
I've seen people have electronic masks on their face.
They're kind of like, I guess pulse, I don't know something into them.
So that's why I'm like, okay, well, that is believable.
Is that the only thing you get in a taxi?
Is it just that?
Or do you get some other treatment as well?
I think it's the only thing you get in the taxi and you get a taxi ride as well.
Yeah.
And is it a lot more expensive?
Do we know?
No, no, no.
It was actually given by the company.
The taxis were provided for free to kind of promote this mask and there's a chance to try out the mask.
So it was kind of a bit of a novelty.
And I suppose the idea was to... support this idea to promote this idea this selling point that you can use this mask on the go i mean i don't know would you really want to sort of be in in your day-to-day life be kind of in in a taxi with a mask on i don't know maybe the taxi driver would wonder what on earth you were doing if you suddenly took that out and stuck it on your face i don't know but well i mean presumably he would know the mask was in his taxi you'd hope yeah but like but like if you're if you're in the back of a taxi and you sort of suddenly suddenly like like just in your day-to-day life and you suddenly kind of pull a mask out of your your bag i mean you might wonder kind of what's going on you know and sort of starts emitting flashing colors i mean but anyway but yeah they they provided this kind of experience for free and it was to promote uh this on-the-go mask treatment my my problem with this joe is that interesting idea and i'm kind of leaning towards it could be real my problem with it is that if you've got a lot of people go in different taxis all the time you'd have to wear the same mask that maybe the person before you wore and the person before that and the person before that wouldn't it be quite grubby by the end of it if you're all putting your faces in this mask and then suddenly it's picking up a lot of other people's kind of moisture and dirt and grog like yeah that's a that's a very good point and i'm not sure i i'm not sure whether it was the same mask that was used time and time again i mean my sense would be that they had different ones but i don't really know because it's this is a new product it's a product that i believe you can buy online so it's not like it's the only mask in existence sort of thing um so i'd imagine they switched to masks because yeah to be honest if i was signing up to this kind of thing i would wouldn't particularly want to put a mask on that say 15 people had used before me yeah i mean it's kind of off-putting isn't it yeah you'd hope they've at least wiped it down or something but um right well while i think about that i i kind of i'm thinking I would use it.
No, I wouldn't.
Would I?
I don't know.
Right, I'll consider my options while we do.
It's time to talk about our book of the week, which this week is Time Lions and the Chronoloop by Crystal Sutherland and Martin Seneviratne.
It's an action-packed sci-fi adventure about British Sri Lankan twins, Patrick and Pearl, who love history and inventing.
When Pearl invents a working time machine, the twins go on adventures to ancient Egypt, to Greece and to Rome.
But soon things go badly wrong and they need to work out how to put things right.
Now, this is a really great book.
I've read it myself.
It is wicked.
And I can heavily recommend it.
So if you want to win a copy of Timelines and the Chronoloop, stay with us until the end of the show to find out how you can enter the prize draw.
Now, we're joined by Associate Editor Laura to talk about this week's very exciting magazine cover.
Hello, Laura.
Hello, how are you?
I'm good.
How are you?
I'm good, thanks.
Tell me what's going on this week.
So on our cover this week we have a very recognisable face poet, writer and performer, Michael Rosen.
And the reason is that on November the 13th, it is Michael Rosen Day.
Yes, he has a whole day dedicated to him.
And you can actually find out what his reaction to first hearing this was inside the magazine.
Slight spoiler.
He compares himself unfavourably to Beyonce.
But of course, at The Week Junior, we think Michael Rosen is much bigger than Beyonce.
No shade to Beyonce.
We just love Michael lots.
So on page 14, you can read our feature all about Michael Rosen.
And Eve actually spoke to Michael recently for the feature.
And in it she asks him loads of questions what he was like as a child, what his favourite book was when he was 10, why he started writing poems.
And you can see a picture of a very young Michael Rosen as well, which is really cute.
And there's lots more to read about his thoughts on writing and some of his most famous books.
But of course the reason we're talking about Michael Rosen is, as I said, because it's Michael Rosen Day approaching.
And yeah, it takes place on the 13th of November.
And to celebrate, there's this huge poetry party which everyone is invited to, including everyone listening.
So it's a live streamed event.
So around 250,000 children will be joining and you can be one of them.
And the idea is to celebrate poetry, basically, and Michael Rosen, of course.
So, yeah, reading it, listening to it, writing it.
And the theme this year is funny poems about food, which is quite specific.
And on the day, Michael Rosen will be performing some of his brilliant food inspired poems.
So you might have heard Chocolate Cake.
I think he'll be reading that one.
And children will get to ask him lots of questions as well.
And he'll perform four winning entries from the Funny Food Poem Competition, which he launched recently back in september i think and we had it on our how-to page, so some of the readers listening might um hopefully, have entered that.
Um so yeah that's, that's what's planned and it just sounds great.
So you can.
You can read more in uh, our all about michael rosen feature.
I love michael rosen.
I've interviewed him a couple of times and he's just always fun and always really chatty and exciting and got something cool to say.
How can we kind of get involved?
Laura, he is, he is yeah, there's lots of fun facts in there as well, and one of the things that eve asked him was what his favorite foods are, which is really funny because they're two very different things and he points out that you can't eat them together.
But i won't spoil it uh, but no, he's really fun um, and it should be a great event, and if you'd like to join the live streamed event and be in with a chance to ask him a question, you just need to ask an adult or a teacher to sign up and it's free and the link.
We've got our own link and it's tinyurlcom slash.
TWJ hyphen Rosen hyphen day.
So you can sign up there.
Brilliant stuff.
Thank you very much, Laura.
We'll all go and sign up to see what Michael Rosen is up to.
Now it's time for this week's big debate.
And the question is, are tourist taxes a good idea?
So Kay and Jo will go head to head on this one to take a side each on this argument.
But before we hear from them, here's some information you need to know.
The Scottish island of Orkney receives 450000 visitors every year, which is around 20 times more than its local population.
The number of tourists has led to heavy traffic on the roads and damage to famous historic sites like the Ring of Brodgar, which is an ancient stone circle.
So...
Are tourist taxes a good idea?
Joe is team yes, Kate is team no.
Each of them have 60 seconds to make their case and convince me.
So let's hear from Joe first.
Joe, whenever you are ready, take it away.
When tourists visit beautiful places, they create extra work for local people.
There's rubbish to be collected, paths to be fixed, beaches to be tidied and lots more.
And this kind of stuff costs money.
So Orkney Council is saying it needs extra funds to deal with the extra work tourists bring.
And I say, that's fair enough, really.
And the stats support my argument.
Research shows that 71 of travellers want to help protect destinations and 80 are happy to pay more money to protect special places for the future.
So let's do it.
Plus, tourist taxes are already making a difference worldwide.
For example in Greece, which uses the money it raises each year to take action on climate change and improve tourist facilities.
Oh, lovely stuff.
Thank you.
Well rounded off and under a minute.
Happy days.
But now it's time for Kay to tell me what her point of view is.
So, Kay, go for it.
Holidays are already really expensive.
If you think about the travel to get to the place, accommodation for when you're there and then tickets to visit places of interest or just buy souvenirs.
All of this money brings money to the local businesses in that place.
And as a result these businesses could really suffer.
And actually in the Highlands in Scotland tourist taxes have been rejected because businesses are worried that they'll lose customers.
Also, it's difficult to know where the tourist tax money will actually go and whether it will be spent well in maintaining and improving tourist facilities for visitors.
So there are just loads of other things to consider.
Oh, lovely.
Also under a minute.
Now, this is a tricky one, I think, because it's like, actually, hey, you're right.
How do we know where the money is going to go to?
Who will decide what happens with the money?
And also, how do you collect it?
Do you charge an extra fiver on their ticket or do you just put your hand out when they get off the bus and say five pounds please.
This is a tricky one, but luckily it's not about my opinion.
This is about the listeners and readers.
So if you've got a thought on this, tell me right now.
You could vote at theweekjunior.co.uk slash polls.
You could email your opinions to hello at theweekjunior.co.uk or send us a voice note.
Go to funkidslive.com slash theweekjunior.
Scroll down till you see that big red button, grab a grownup and record your voice.
Now, in last week's Big Debate, we asked if feeding pigeons should be banned.
Let's find out what the Week Junior listeners and readers voted.
Joe?
So 61 of readers and listeners said feeding pigeons shouldn't be banned because it helps the birds survive.
That is fair.
Kay, any opinions on this?
Yeah, so two people got in touch and one said, no, because pigeons are actually very clean birds.
My aunt is a pigeon doctor.
They are also very intelligent.
And another person said, why should people be so cold to poor pigeons?
They are creatures too.
They were extremely helpful during the wars and carried messages.
However, people should not feed them foods that make them sick.
It causes more problems, makes them poo more, and it's just plain evil.
Wow, some big strong opinions on pigeons.
Who knew?
Well yes, like I said, if you've got an opinion this week on our Big Debate podcast, All you've got to do is vote at theweekjuniorcouk slash polls.
Now, every week, the readers of The Week Junior get in touch with lots of messages about what they've been up to.
And editorial assistant Elena is here to share some of her favourites.
Hey, Elena.
Hey, Bex.
Hi, everyone.
Last week we had a voice note from Alba, who told us that she's been at her grandma's house recently.
Hello, Week Junior.
My name is Alba.
And this week, I went to my gran's house.
It was very, very fun.
We got up to lots of things and we found my great granddad's old stuff and I had a really nice time.
Bye, week junior.
Oh, bye, Alba.
I love this so much.
I also went to my grandma's house the other day and I just find it so special to ask her about her life and try this out the next time.
I really love asking her about what, what, She was like when she was my eight.
In her case, it was the 1950s.
So, yeah, just something else to do when you next go to your grandma's house.
Kate, what did you think about Alba's message?
Yeah, I love that.
And I love going through my grandparents' old things.
I actually have some really old figurines from my granddad's house.
And recently I was just having a look at them and I'm really happy that I've got them now.
Yeah, it's so special.
I love sort of, I don't know, picking at the things that I want.
Yeah, we also had this message from Aston and Sheldon.
They said, we live in London.
We have just returned from Baku, Azerbaijan, where we were visiting our mom's side of the family.
We took a few issues of the week junior, I assume, and read them together with our cousins.
They loved it.
Here's a photo of us in front of the famous flame towers of Baku.
Wow, it's so international.
I live in London too, but my family is back in Spain, so I know how special these family moments can be.
And I also took some magazines to my nieces, who are 10 years old so kind of the average of our reader's age and they really loved it too.
So I just love that it's so international and seeing the week journey around the world.
Jo, what did you think about Aston and Sheldon's picture?
Yeah, it's amazing, isn't it?
I'd never heard of the Flame Towers of Baku.
And I looked them up and they are.
They look kind of astonishing, really impressive something I'd really like to visit one day.
And also there's something I always find there's something really kind of special about seeing people with pictures of the weak junior in other countries.
It's kind of like a really nice feeling to feel like something you've contributed to is sort of going global and international and is going all around the world.
Yeah, it's really nice.
So A big thanks to Aston and Sheldon for sending that lovely picture in and that lovely message.
Yeah, just imagine you're on holiday.
Maybe when you go to Barcelona to see the Sagrada Familia, you just spot someone reading The Week Junior.
It would be crazy.
Yeah, yeah, no, you know.
Maybe we'll get noticed someday, you know.
Yeah, ask for autographs or something.
Well, probably not, but, you know.
We can dream.
We can dream.
We can dream.
Well, thank you so much, Alba, Aston and Sheldon.
And thank you to everyone for sending in your many messages.
Weekly reminder that if you send us a voice note and it's featured in the podcast, like Alba's, you will get a Robing Reporter badge.
Thank you again and see you all next week.
Lovely stuff.
Thank you very much, guys.
Now it's time to turn our attention back to the magazine this week and the team's favourite stories.
Kay, who's been your hero of the week?
So my hero is a 10-year-old girl kent called poppy and um she was asked to do a test to find out if she had a learning difficulty known as dyslexia but she actually discovered that she has a really high iq which is a measure of your intelligence and poppy has now been admitted to mensa which is a society for some of the smartest people in the world and she says her dyslexia is her superpower I love that so much.
I remember when I was probably Poppy's age, I was obsessed with the idea of being in Mensa.
I had no reason to be.
Absolutely no reason.
But there's something about it just seemed really cool.
So well done to Poppy.
Joe, what's been your favourite fact from this issue?
My favourite fact this week is one that I had no idea about as a football fan.
So on our People page we've got a really nice story about Michaela, a year six pupil who won a poetry competition run by the Premier League.
One of her awards was to have the Premier League trophy brought to her school.
But what I didn't know was that there are actually two Premier League trophies.
One stays with last season's champions over the course of the next season.
So that currently is Liverpool.
And the other is kept for use online. by the Premier League.
So yeah, seeing double when it comes to Premier League trophies.
Yeah, I had no idea about that.
That's a great fact.
Thanks, Joe.
One thing that I was really interested in in the magazine this week is upcycling school uniforms.
Apparently the airline EasyJet has donated some old staff uniforms to a charity.
They're going to upcycle them into school clothes for families who are struggling to afford them.
I just thought it was really good.
What a lovely thing to do.
So yeah, you can check out all of those stories and more in this week's issue of the magazine.
Now it's time for the moment of truth.
Joe, we've got to talk about Real Rubbish.
Can you remind me what this story was, please?
Yeah, it was a story about a wellness company's glow on the go clinic idea in which they got people to try out their new LED face mask while sitting in the back of a taxi.
The mask is designed to make skin healthier, and the on the go treatment in the taxi lasted 12 minutes.
But Bex, a glow-on-the-go clinic in a taxi.
I'll be happy to be able to stop saying that.
Is that real or rubbish?
Oh, Joe, it is driving me mad.
I don't know about this one.
I know that people do use these masks.
Like I said, my hesitancy is the fact that, like it's weird to wear a mask that someone else has just had on their face,
But I think this week I'm going to go for real.
I think the story this week is real.
I wouldn't use it, but I think it's, yeah, I think it's correct.
Should we do a drumroll?
Yep.
Yeah, it is.
It is real.
It is real.
Yeah, it was to promote this new skincare treatment.
The taxi promotion only lasted one day and the rides were free.
So well done, Bex.
Thank you.
Well, you know, I'd like the free taxi rides.
I think I'd do it just for that alone.
Thank you very much, Joe.
Now, finally, it's time for Listen Up.
This is the bit of the show that gives you the chance to win a copy of our book of the week.
This week, it's Time Lions and the chrono loop by Crystal Sutherland and Martin Senevaratne.
And all you've got to do is answer a question about something that's been said in this episode.
So 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 the 13th of November at midday.
We've got to also say congratulations to Mattia, who won a copy of Dracula and Daughters two weeks ago.
So 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.
So are you ready?
Listen up.
What country is Orkney in?
If you know the answer to the question, go to theweekjuniorcouk forward slash.
Listen up to enter our giveaway.
Thank you very much, Kay.
That brings us to the end of this week's show.
Thank you, of course, to Joe, Kay, Elena and Laura.
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 voice notes as well.
Then you can have a chance to get your voice on the podcast and win a roving reporter badge.
Of course, we also love hearing what you think about the pod.
So do rate, review and subscribe or follow us wherever it is you get your podcasts from.
And if you like The Week Junior show, you will love The Week Junior magazine.
Head to theweekjunior.co.uk to find out more.
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.
