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 writers Eve and Joe.
So lots to cover in today's episode.
We're going to be talking about Trump's tariffs, Saturn's moons and the 2035 Women's World Cup.
There's also going to be a big debate about whether women should design statues of women.
So there's also an interview on this week's book club page with Laura Meecher and Ed Smith, who wrote Welcome to Our Table.
That's a book that takes readers on a little journey around the world.
So it got me thinking, what's your favorite meal to eat with friends or family?
I'm going to go first because I've decided.
I'm going to go nachos and tacos.
That's my favorite food.
We all get like nachos.
My friend is amazing at making the biggest pot of nachos you've ever seen.
As much cheese as possible in different layers.
We've got the salsa, we've got the guac.
So we basically go for gold and I'll share nachos.
So that's my favorite.
Eve, how about you?
I actually have a confession first, which is I don't like nachos.
Delete podcast immediately.
I'm out.
No, no.
I know.
I feel so terrible.
My best friend.
Whenever we go out for lunch or dinner, she's always like does anyone fancy sharing nachos?
And I always have to say to her, I'm so sorry.
I don't like nachos.
I'll go with that.
I feel like such a terrible person.
Yeah.
You are a terrible person, Eve, but you can redeem it with this choice for food.
Yes.
Well, my choice would be it's something my family and I call Kostraki chicken, which is when we went on holiday a few years ago to the Greek island of Naxos.
We stayed in this tiny little town called Kostraki and we'd go to this restaurant every day, because it was the only restaurant in the town.
We went there every day and they did this chicken and like potatoes roasted all together in a lemon sauce and it was really nice, and so my mum kind of had a go at making it herself when we got back from Greece.
And it's so good and we call it Kostraki chicken and every time I go home for the weekend it's kind of my.
My big request for what I'd like to have for dinner is Kostraki chicken, because it's just so good.
That sounds amazing and delicious as well.
That's a proper hearty, hearty food combo.
All right Jo, can you top that?
My choice is a bit more mundane.
So I do like cooking.
I like cooking for friends sometimes.
I do find it a bit stressful.
So kind of occasionally I don't mind doing it.
And I was never a really good cook.
And then I taught myself to be a bit better at it over COVID, when we obviously all had quite a lot of free time on our hands.
But my go-to meal now is a chili.
It's kind of warm, it's wholesome, and I like a decent amount of spice, but not too much.
And then some sour cream on top, and this might be a bit weird, but I tend to add grated cheese to the top of it too, which I think maybe.
No, I love grated cheese on a chili.
It's great, all right okay, apparently it's not.
Then there you go.
Uh, I'll just roll with it.
Yeah, put cheese on everything, in my opinion.
And and are you serving that with rice, joe?
Yeah, rice.
I do quite like it on a jacket potato as well.
But I always feel like when you put it on a jacket potato, it loses something.
Rice is the go-to.
But I mean, you can put it on anything, can't you?
Chili, chips, mashed potato.
Maybe not mashed, but yeah, it works.
Just get something on a plate and get chili on top of it and you're fine.
Good advice, to be honest.
Yeah, I'll take that.
Well, I'm very, very peckish now.
So to try and distract myself from how hungry I am, let's talk about the cover of this week's new issue.
Jo, what is going on?
Yeah, so our cover story this week is something that has kind of dominated the news over the last few days, and it's the tariffs that US President Donald Trump has introduced on almost every country in the world.
Now, tariffs are a type of tax and are a payment that companies must give to the government for importing goods, which means tariffs bringing them in from other countries.
So Trump has put a 10% tariff on goods from most of the world's countries, including the UK.
And it means that a US company importing goods worth 100 would have to pay the US government an extra 10 on top of that.
So why have they been introduced?
Well, Trump has argued that the US has been treated unfairly by other countries when it comes to trade.
He said the tariffs would even things up while bringing in money for the US government.
And he also hopes the tariffs will encourage companies to open factories in the US because it could be cheaper to make the products on US soil rather than bringing the parts in from abroad.
The tariffs can have drawbacks.
If US companies are having to pay more to import items and parts, they'll have to raise their prices when they sell the finished items to the public or lose money.
And there was a bit of news that came in yesterday not long after the week Junior had gone to press.
So, to begin with, Trump said that he would be putting higher tariffs on a number of countries, so more than the base 10 rate.
An example is the 46% tariff that he put on goods from Vietnam.
But yesterday he announced a 90-day pause on these.
It's probably annoying for you that Trump didn't think about your publishing deadlines.
But yeah, big, big story there.
Yeah.
I know, it's like, you know, how dare he?
He should be looking across the pond at the weak junior and thinking they've got the weak junior US there, so he should be well aware of it.
We need to get him a subscription, I think.
Yeah, we do, we do.
Maybe he thinks he's got bigger fish to fry, but I'd argue not.
I don't need to be the president, it's fine.
Well, thanks, Joe.
Thank you for explaining that, because it is a tricky one, but that was great.
Right, it's time for Real or Rubbish.
This is the bit of the show where someone tells me a story.
I have to guess whether it's true or false.
Eve, what do you have for me?
So my story is all about a 15 foot easter themed edible sculpture of a dog that has been built in central london for dogs to eat.
Okay okay, come on then hit me with it.
Yes, So this sculpture was handcrafted using dog friendly chocolate and it was installed by a pet food company called James Well Beloved.
And it's packed with vitamins and minerals and it ties in with the trend for Easter eggs for dogs.
And it's located on the Strand and dogs and their owners can stop by for the dogs to kind of enjoy the big treat.
And the road is close to traffic, so there's no need to worry about cars getting in the way or anything.
So dogs can just go straight over and have a nibble.
But Bex, do you think this story is true or have you stiffed out a supersized lie?
You know, what's really annoying is I usually am on the strand nearly every day.
And this is one week where I'm away from London.
So I'm not there.
I can't tell.
That's really annoying, because normally I'd be like I know exactly what you're talking and it's there or it's not there.
But I don't I don't know.
So that's frustrating for me personally.
That's not helpful.
So I do know that chocolate is bad for dogs, but we're saying this is dog friendly chocolate.
I also enjoyed that you said it was the growing trend for dogs to have Easter eggs as if that was a normal thing.
What?
It's the thing, the in thing right now is dog friendly chocolate.
And, you know, we're approaching Easter.
We're getting to Easter time.
Everyone's looking forward to an Easter egg.
The perfect opportunity to give you a dog.
If it's dog friendly chocolate, you know, a dog friendly Easter egg.
We're saying this egg is massive.
I'm drawing an egg in the air as we speak.
This big egg, and then dogs can just go up to it and nibble it.
Oh, do you know what?
This isn't even an egg.
So this is not an egg.
This is a massive sculpture of a dog.
Okay.
It's just, it's Easter themed because it's chocolate, I suppose.
Well, I mean, yeah, sure.
Anything in a shape, chocolate is kind of Easter themed or Christmas themed, in my opinion.
Also just putting it out there chocolate tastes better in a shape, but that's another thing entirely.
So...
The problem I have with this, out of many problems, is say dogs are little, say they're smaller than us.
You know most of them at least.
If the dogs are going to eat this sculpture and it's say a sculpture of a dog they're going to be nibbling from like the paws up until like the knees of the dog.
So you're going to have this sculpture that is never going to be touched on top and will slowly collapse because the dogs can only reach the legs to nibble at right.
That is a good point, but maybe they've...
Maybe they've put little step ladders next to it so the dogs can kind of bound up the step ladders and nibble at the nose or the ears or something.
If this isn't true, they should absolutely do that, because I want to see a dog on a step ladder eating a chocolate nose.
So where did we, is this up now, did you say?
Is it?
Yes, it's up at the moment.
The annoying thing is as well you send a dog company well, a pet food company and part of me is like is that real?
Then it kind of sounds real, but also you could make it up and how would I know?
And it's a nice idea.
But also, that's a lot of dog slobber.
Like a dog eating a little place and then another dog comes along to it.
And then another dog comes along.
That's a lot of mixture of dogs.
Well, it's just like when you go to a restaurant.
You know, when you go to a restaurant and there's a bowl of dog water, dog water, a bowl, a dog bowl with water in it for dogs to go and have a little sip um, i thought you were gonna say, when you go to a restaurant and you eat someone else's food, you know, you just like take a bit of their plate and then they take someone else's.
Yeah, as i started that sentence, i was like no uh yeah, i mean, when dogs share a dog food but a dog bowl of water, i would you call that a water bowl for dogs.
Yeah no, you're correct over there.
You know, I don't know about this.
I really want it to be true, but I'm furious.
I'm not near the strand right now because I wouldn't normally be there.
So while I think about that and try and think about the idea Oh, they should have.
Maybe the dog was a chocolate Labrador.
That would make sense, wouldn't it?
If you made a chocolate sculpture of a chocolate Labrador, that would be Oh yeah, because we don't know what type of dog they've made.
We don't know what type... Do we know what breed of dog they've done here?
I'm not sure, actually.
I could maybe say a golden retriever or a...
King Charles Spaniel.
They're kind of the only dogs I could recognise, I think.
So while I think about that and that might be the most fun one we've had ever let's talk about our book of the week, which is Marvellous Messages by Rose Eiling-Ellis.
In the book, Rose invites readers to join her, her cat Halo, her sign language interpreter Dev and a magical tour guide called Perky the Pigeon on a time-travelling, globe-trotting adventure.
Now, during the journey, you can learn about the origins of British Sign Language, find out about ancient languages and secret codes.
Plus, it makes you think about communication in a completely new way.
Now, it's time for our reader messages.
We've got some interesting stuff in the Week Junior inbox.
Joe, what's caught your eye?
Well, River sent a message to say, I did my first painted portrait this month.
I love painting portraits with my mum.
And she sent us in a lovely picture.
I've got to say, River here, for a second I thought it said, painting portraits of my mum.
And I thought, oh my goodness, does your mum have a green nose?
But no, I don't think it's of mum, just with mum.
River, thank you so much for sending that in.
Eve, have you ever done any portraits of anyone?
You know what?
I don't know if I have, but I remember a few years ago for my friend's birthday, I did a painting of the night sky for my friend.
And then I drew, I painted like two silhouettes of me and my friend stargazing, because there was one time where we're both just laying on a picnic rug and we saw a shooting star and it was really cool.
So I decided to make her a painting of that moment.
So yeah, but that's the only thing I can think of that I've painted.
I can't remember if I've painted a portrait in recent times.
That's amazing.
That's so, so good.
I wish one of my friends would do that for me if any of my friends are listening.
We've also had another quite incredible piece of artwork, haven't we, Eve?
All themed around today's theme, I guess, chocolate.
Yes, exactly.
It's because we're in the run up to Easter, of course.
Yeah, we had a message from Barbara to share a painting she's done for her school's Easter garden competition.
And it's inspired by her love of Cadbury cream eggs.
And the scream by, is it pronounced?
Edvard Munch.
Is that how you say it?
Yes.
And it is an incredible painting.
It looks like the scream and it is called the scream.
But the scream is like spelt with cream from cream egg.
And usually in the painting where the person is kind of holding on to their face.
Instead, their face is a cream egg and there's little chicks dotted around it.
Oh, it looks amazing.
I love it.
It is wonderful.
It combines two of my favourite things, artwork and puns. with a little dash of chocolate as well.
So I'm very, very impressed with the scream.
Yeah, my goodness.
Thank you so much for sending that in.
Joe, any thoughts on that one?
Oh, I love it.
I love it.
And it's kind of.
I think the sort of sinister grin that's etched into the cream egg is maybe even spookier than the original.
I hadn't even noticed that.
Yeah, it took me a second to notice it.
It's quite cool.
Yeah, a little smile there.
To be honest though, if I was to make that myself, it would take everything I had to not eat my artwork today as soon as I've made it, because it is actual, real cream eggs and some mini cream eggs at the bottom.
We've also had a joke here from Eva.
Why should you always invite mushrooms to the disco parties?
Why?
Because they're such fun guy.
I'm a big fan of that joke.
Thank you very much, Eva.
I genuinely love mushroom fun guy jokes.
I always think they're funny.
But thank you, Eva, for sending in that message.
We do love your voice notes.
So if you've got a really cool joke, do send us a voice note at funkidslive.com slash theweekjunior.
Or you can email us at hello at theweekjunior.co.uk.
So let's dive back into this week's issue of the magazine.
Eve, what's your favorite story this week?
So my favorite story this week is from our science and technology page.
And it's all about Saturn.
So astronomers, who are scientists who study space, have found 128 new moons orbiting around the planet Saturn.
So an orbit is a regular repeating path that an object in space takes around another object.
And so Saturn now has, with these newly discovered moons, it now has a total of 274 moons.
And it holds the title King of the Moons because it's the planet in our solar system with the most moons.
Jupiter is in second place with 95 known moons.
And so the newly discovered moons are very small.
They're no more than three miles wide, which is you know.
To compare, Earth's moon is 2159 miles across.
So...
These moons, they're tiny little babies in comparison.
But studying the moons in greater detail could help scientists to learn more about how they were formed.
And it could also solve some questions about Saturn's rings, which are made up of chunks of ice, water and dust.
And scientists think that Saturn's rings were made or they were formed from pieces left behind by a moon that was ripped apart by the gravity or the pulling force of Saturn.
Wow, I didn't know that.
So what are the newly found moons called?
Well, at the moment, their names are just strings of numbers and letters, so not very exciting.
But they will eventually be given names based on Norse, Gallic and Inuit mythology.
So the first known moon of Saturn was discovered in the 17th century.
And originally, the first seven moons to be found were given numbers.
But then in 1847, someone thought it's time to give these moons proper names.
We can't just keep giving them numbers.
So they named them after Greek names. which are gods and goddesses.
And the names include, well, the first one to be found is called Titan.
And then there's also Dion, Tethys and Rhea.
And as more moons were found, they were given names from Greek mythology, until there were no names left from Greek mythology.
So now the names come from Norse, Inuit and Gallic mythology.
And although we don't know the names of the new moons at the moment the names of some of Saturn's other moons are quite hard to pronounce but I'll give them a go.
They include Angraboda, Fenrir and Hurrican.
I think that's how you pronounce them.
But yeah, they're very, very cool names.
I'm excited to see what names are given to the 128 other moons.
Wow.
Yeah, loads of moons to name.
Well said there, Eve.
Joe, what's been your pick of the week?
My pick of the week is a story from our UK news pages.
And it was the announcement that the UK is set to host the 2035 Women's World Cup.
So Gianni Infantino, the president of FIFA, which is the group that organizes world football, said the bid from England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales was the only valid one for the tournament.
So it looks set to go to the UK because of that.
And I know that might seem a long way off at the moment, 10 years away.
It feels like an eternity.
But in the more immediate term, we've got the Women's Euro 2025 tournament to look forward to this year.
And England are the defending champions, having won it in 2022.
And Wales have also qualified.
So 2035 is a long way off, but we can look ahead to this summer, and it should be a great summer of football.
I didn't realise that was happening this year.
That's really exciting.
Thanks, Joe.
Thank you.
Time for this week's big debate.
And we're talking about women's statues.
So here's what you need to know.
There are 12 statues along Edinburgh's Royal Mile in Scotland, and all 12 of them depict men.
A charity has raised money for a statue of the Scottish doctor Elsie Ingalls to be made and displayed in Edinburgh.
So Elsie Ingalls was a campaigner for women's health and a suffragist.
That's someone who campaigned for women to be able to vote.
The charity asked artists to send in their ideas for the statue, but then picked award-winning sculptor Alexander Stoddart to design it.
But not everyone's happy about this because they think a woman should make the statue instead.
So the question for this week's Big Debate, should women design female statues?
Here's how it works.
Each person has 60 seconds to make their case today.
Arguing that women should design women's statues is Jo.
So bear with me, Jo, while I bring up the clock of doom.
Whenever you're ready, take it away.
Yeah, so not enough female artists are given the respect they deserve.
And this was the chance to show a female sculptor's work to a huge audience in a major city.
I mean, Edinburgh attracts more than 4 million visitors a year.
And the subject of the statue means it would have made sense for it to have been designed by a woman, because Ingalls fought for women's rights and her statue is a celebration of female achievement, plus lots of women and girls, including Girl Guiding.
Edinburgh raised funds for the statue.
So they really should have had a say in who designed it.
And anyway, Stoddart holds the title of Sculptor in Ordinary for Scotland, which is a royal role.
And he already has five sculptures displayed in the city centre.
So it should have been time for women to get a chance, and a female artist should have been picked to design the sculpture.
Lovely stuff.
Thank you, Joe.
Did you say A Sculptor in Ordinary?
Is that what it's called?
A Sculptor in Ordinary.
Yeah, it looked odd as I was reading it out, but I'm pretty sure that's right.
And it's a royal royal.
I don't know much about it, but it sounds quite exciting, doesn't it?
Or a slightly odd title.
Really weird title, but I love it.
That's great.
Thank you very much, Joe.
And now it's time for Eve to argue her case as to why it doesn't really matter.
So Eve, when you're ready, take it away.
So firstly, the most important thing is that the statue is made well.
And it doesn't matter whether it's made by a man or woman to do that.
Alexander Stoddart is a very experienced and famous sculptor and he's designed some of the best-known monuments in Edinburgh.
So offering him the job seems fair because he's just so good at what he does.
Elsie Ingalls, you know, should have a lasting tribute that future generations can see.
So the important thing is that Stoddart designs a good statue to represent her for years to come, so that more people can learn about her in the future.
And also...
The issue shouldn't be who's designing the statues, but the fact that firstly, we need more women represented in artworks anyway.
I always see so many statues of famous men from history when I'm just kind of walking around.
But what about the women?
So I think what we should be focusing on is not who's designing the statues, but who is represented in them.
Interesting debate this week and I will be very fascinated to see what our readers and listeners think.
If you've got an opinion, you can go to theweekjuniorcouk slash polls to vote and tell us your thoughts on this week's big debate.
You can also comment your opinion wherever it is.
You're listening to the podcast or record a voice note by hitting that big red button at funkidslivecom slash theweekjunior.
So in the last big debate, Eve and Kay discussed whether April Fool's Day is unkind.
Jo, what were the results?
But 87% said no, pranks on April Fool's Day aren't unkind.
Interesting.
That's quite a high percentage.
We had a voice note here from Olivia to say her thoughts on this as well.
Hello, Junia.
My name is Olivia.
And this week's big debate is, is April Fool's Day mean?
I think no and yes.
I think no because it can just be a little bit fun and some pranks are harmless.
But yes, some people don't like pranks if they can scare them.
Thank you.
Bye.
Excellent stuff.
Thank you, Olivia.
We love getting voice notes in.
And Eve, what did our readers and listeners have to say about this?
So we had a few comments.
One person said I don't think it is nice to trick my friends and family because I don't want to hurt their feelings, which is a very nice thing to say.
Fair enough.
And someone else said, part of April Fool's Day is to fool other people, surprising them or making a fool out of themselves.
It may be unkind, but it's the whole point.
It's fun.
Yeah. which is also a very fair point.
Yeah, very, very good point.
So, like I said, if you've got an opinion about this week's big debate about statues, go to theweekjuniorcouk slash polls to vote, or do what lovely Olivia did and send us a voice note.
Go to funkidslive.com slash theweekjunior.
Now, before we go, it's time to reveal the truth about this week's real or rubbish story.
Eve, can you remind me about this one, please?
Yes.
So this is about the 15-foot-
Easter-themed edible sculpture of a dog that's made out of chocolate, specifically designed to be friendly for dogs.
And dogs can go and have a little nibble and eat it.
15 foot's really tall.
I've just realised that.
Like, say a tall person is six foot.
That's double a tall person and then some.
15 foot, that's actually, that's the thing that's just caught me for a second.
So I feel like...
If there was a 15-foot sculpture of a chocolate dog, I feel like that would have been on my radar, because I do love chocolate.
And even if it was dog chocolate, I feel like I would know about it.
Not that I've got a Google Alert set for chocolate dogs.
But I do think... Just more for the mechanics, I think, of the height of it.
Maybe they could break it apart and feed it to the dogs, because I can't imagine a dog being able to go up and nibble it because, like I say, the structural integrity would fall apart.
I'm going to say...
To my sadness, I think the story this week is rubbish.
I think that's what I'm going to say this week.
Okay, should we do a drum roll?
Yeah.
You're right, it is rubbish.
I did think, do you know what?
I did think it would have been the kind of thing that would be on your radar.
But yeah.
So basically there is a sculpture of a giant dog that's been built outside Somerset House in London, but it's not made of chocolate.
It's actually made of clay and earth.
And it was installed by the pet food company James World Beloved to tie in with an exhibition about soil that's opened at Somerset House.
I see.
I see.
Well, you did nearly, you know, to quote Common Parlance, you had me in the first half.
You really did.
I genuinely thought maybe this is the one.
But then it was just that 15 foot thing that made me think that's a big dog.
15 foot.
Yeah.
And the other thing as well is that this week the weather has suddenly got quite warm.
And you know, we weren't even questioning the fact that there's this giant chocolate statue in central London of a dog.
Like, surely... I mean, I...
It wouldn't have melted melted like all the way down, but surely it would have you know.
Its ears might have flopped or something.
Oh yeah, it would go from a collie to a sausage dog very quickly, the way it would just flatten itself out.
Yeah, well, I'm thrilled I got that right because had I got it wrong, I would have felt like a fool.
So that is it for this week's episode of the Week Junior Show.
Thank you, of course, to the Week Junior team, Eve and Jo.
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.
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.
