And welcome to the week junior show.
I'm bex and i'm joined by writers k 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 king and queen visited canada and rihanna's fun-filled smurf song was released, we're going to be discussing some of the other stories, events and people that inspired the week junior team.
Make sure you're listening closely, because at the end of this episode, we'll be asking you a question about what you've heard, and if you answer it correctly, you can win a prize.
All of that, though.
Uh, joe and kay, there is something i want to talk to you about, because in this week's issue, there's a story on the entertainment pages about the festival of sport, which is taking place between the 1st and the 4th of august in warwickshire in england.
Now it's a chance for kids to try out lots of different sports while being coached by some pretty big star names, and adults will need to bring their trainers as well.
So that got me thinking.
What sport would you like to try, joe?
What would you go for?
Oh well, I'd like to try ice hockey, but I think I've mentioned that on the podcast before.
So I'll say skiing as people I know have been and said it's really fun.
I have done one of those sort of terrifying dry ski slopes before where you slip over and it's really spiky and not very pleasant.
But I'm talking more about maybe going abroad and gliding down a nice snowy slope with a lovely mountainous view.
Although I can't actually ski, so it might not be quite as simple as that.
Probably some training involved first.
It's all right, you could just go on that little um, that little uh, the ride that takes you up to the top and then bring you back down again.
Just keep going up and down.
Yeah, i could go up and then just sort of roll down, maybe like tumble down the mountain and then go up again.
Be fine yeah, seems fine.
Um, we'll get you on those skis one day.
Joe, uh kay, how about you?
I would love to try judo or another type of martial art.
I did used to do some karate when i was younger, but I didn't stick with it for very long.
And I've got some friends that do kickboxing and boxing.
Oh, yeah.
Kickboxing is a great shout.
Yeah.
I want to do a bobsled.
I think you know, sometimes there's a skill in life that you absolutely don't have and you've never done it, but you just think I think I'd be excellent at that, for no reason at all.
I think bobsled, it looks fun.
It looks great.
That's my aim in life now is to become a bobsledder.
If anyone's listening and can help me with that, please do let me know.
So that's skiing, judo and bobsleigh.
You know what?
It's going to be incredible when we reach those heady heights at the Festival of Sport.
We would love to hear what our listeners think about this.
So tell us what sport you're bursting to try by sending an email to hello at theweekjuniorcouk, or leave a voice note at funkidslivecom.
Slash theweekjunior.
Just grab a grown-up, look for the 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.
Speaking of which, last week we asked listeners to share messages telling us their favourite flower, and we've got one here from Charlotte.
Hi, my name's Charlotte and I love the week, Junior.
And my favourite flower is a daffodil, because when we went to Belton's house on Mother's Day there was so many and it was so beautiful.
Bye.
Daffodils that is a great shout.
I don't think we mentioned daffodils last week.
Uh, they are such a fun sunny plant so, uh.
Thank you so much, charlotte.
That was excellent, and of course we want to hear as many voice notes as possible.
So if you want to tell us what sport you would love to try, just send us a voice note at funkidslivecom.
Slash the week junior.
Now let's turn our attention to the magazine, shall we?
Because i want to know what's been in the headlines this week.
Joe, what have you got for me?
Uh, so on, On our UK news pages is a story about camping in Dartmoor National Park in southern England.
And it particularly caught my attention because I've just come back from a camping trip in Dartmoor, although I didn't do the kind of camping that's described in our article.
So Dartmoor is the only place in England and Wales where you can pitch a tent without permission from a landowner.
This doesn't mean you can do it just anywhere, but it does open up more areas for camping, or wild camping rather.
But in January 2023, two Dartmoor landowners won a court ruling that allowed them to ban camping on their land, saying it was to protect their cattle and the environment.
The court's decision was challenged by the Dartmoor National Park Authority, which argued that wild camping was part of Dartmoor's heritage.
The initial court ruling was overturned in July 2023.
The landowners then appealed to the Supreme Court, which has now ruled against them.
The National Park Authority said it was delighted and relieved by the outcome.
Oh, that's really interesting.
I knew something had been happening, but I hadn't properly followed it.
So thank you for explaining it.
That is fascinating.
So wild camping on Dartmoor still on.
Kay, what is another story that you found out about this week?
I got to write about a donkey sanctuary clinic in...
Ethiopia in the capital city which is called Addis Ababa, and Ethiopia is actually home to a fifth of the world's donkeys, and lots of people there rely on donkeys to carry things that they need to do their jobs or to farm, and a lot of donkeys weren't getting the treatment they needed before this sanctuary clinic opened and And yeah, it's just really nice.
One donkey owner said that told Al Jazeera News that he travelled for more than an hour with his two sick donkeys to receive some treatment.
And yeah, they got it all for free.
Oh, wow.
Oh, that is a lovely story.
Thank you very much, guys.
Two interesting stories this week.
Now moving on.
It's the moment we've all been waiting for in my favourite part of the show, because so far
I'm winning.
It's real or rubbish.
Now, this is when I get told a story.
I have to guess if it's true or false, fact or fake news.
And I believe, Kay, it's your turn to try and trick me this week.
So if you've ever seen a wind turbine, you'll know there's a propeller.
It's got propeller like blades that turn wind into energy.
And normally they have a lifespan of around 20 years.
And now a Dutch firm has turned these turbines into homes.
They're inside the nacelles of the wind blade and of the wind turbine.
And they measure 10 meters long and three meters high.
And they're big enough to be classed as a home under Dutch housing rules.
And they're accessible by a lift inside the shaft of the turbine.
And the company says that the views from the wind turbine homes are really wonderful.
So do you think this story's real or are there lies blowing in the wind?
Oh, now, okay.
So are the wind turbines, they're not working anymore?
You're not living inside a working wind turbine?
I think they are working, yeah.
And you just live in a little house that's, accessible by a lift the ones i'm thinking of the ones i'm thinking of are not that big like i'm thinking of like tiny poles almost so these you say 10 by 3 meters yep and that's that's everything that's a that's a toilet that's a kitchen that's a living room that's a bedroom yeah maybe just a sort of studio type flat do you not think it'd be really loud living with the the the propellers going right outside your window I guess like some people live near busy roads or airports I suppose so I just feel like trying to get to sleep and just saying like every day would be quite a lot or trains you sort of have that if you live near a train track I guess so and tell me so you're going in why is it not at the bottom why do you have to get a lift up there I think there's more space in the bit where the wind turbine is.
Maybe a bit like a clock.
Oh, okay.
I think I'm imagining the wrong thing.
I think in my head I'm thinking of the very thin, tall wind turbines and I'm like how is there space in there?
But maybe I'm misremembering what a wind turbine looks like, because the idea of it being 10 by 3 metres is blowing my mind.
And how many of these are around?
Do we know?
Or is it like a common thing?
Are people living in them already?
Is it a full-time thing?
I think they're just suggesting it first to see if people are interested in it.
Yeah.
OK, I think he might be winding me up here, but let's let's think about it.
Let's consider our options and I'll get back to you at the end of the show.
While I do think about it, it's time for our book of the week.
And we've got a message here from the author, Janine Hayat, who's going to tell us a little bit more about it.
Hi, my name is Janine Hayat and I'm the author of a book called Evie and Miriam's Family Tree.
This book is about two girls who are in the same year seven class, but they are not friends.
Evie is in a group of sort of popular kids whose parents are all friends with each other, but she's starting to feel a little trapped in that group.
Miriam is more on the fringes.
Her parents don't have as much money as some of the other parents.
The other kids, like Evie's friends, think she's weird and bully her, and she really just wants to hang out with her big brother Hassan.
But then they're partnered up for a school project and they discover that they've both found these letters in their grandmother's things, written in the same nonsense language.
The book is about Evie and Mariam trying to solve the mystery of why they both have these strange letters, and the answer traces back to their great-grandmothers, who were friends in India in the 1930s.
We get to flashback and meet their grandmothers in that time.
But meanwhile, as they're trying to solve the mystery, Evie and Mariam need to navigate their present day, including tension with their friends, bullying and challenges with their families.
This book is about how we each have a family history and sometimes we don't realize how connected our families are to each other, even though we might seem really different on the surface.
It's also about how our past affects our present.
You might be able to hear that I was born in the US and my favorite author growing up was an American author named Judy Blume.
Her books are actually really old now, but they still feel super realistic and current about the experience of growing up And I think they feel as true in the UK as they did to me in the US.
One that really stuck with me is called Blubber, which is told from the point of view of a girl whose friend is a bully and gives their classmate the nickname Blubber after she gives a presentation about whales.
I love how it's told from the point of view of someone who goes along with the bullying at first, because it shows that not everyone is just good or bad.
Sometimes good people make bad choices.
And no one likes being mean, but it actually takes a lot of courage to speak out against meanness.
I definitely see the influence of Judy Blume and that particular book in Evie and Miriam.
So thanks so much for having me on your podcast.
And if you do read Evie and Miriam's Family Tree, I would love to hear whether you liked it.
Bye.
All right.
Well, if you'd like a chance to win a copy of Evie and Mariam's Family Tree, stay with us until the end of the show and you can find out how by entering our prize draw.
Now, while we were talking about that, we were joined by Vanessa, editor of The Week Junior.
Welcome to the show, Vanessa.
You all right?
Hello.
Hello, everybody.
Hello.
So what do you have for us this week?
Well, actually, I've sneaked in a bit, really.
Rahul would usually be giving a well-being tip, but he's been on holiday.
So I'm stepping in. enough to help.
So why appropriately?
Well, this week's feature in our wellbeing page is about asking for help, which sometimes can be quite a tricky thing to do.
I think the first thing is recognising when you're finding something difficult.
And this is a real life skill, because when you face a task, it's Is your attention wandering.
Are you sort of fidgeting?
Are you looking out of the window, getting distracted?
Or is it a bit more than that?
Do you feel a bit cross?
Are you feeling uncomfortable or even a bit unsafe?
These could be your body telling you that there's trouble ahead and you don't fancy tackling it.
So look out for these signs, notice these signs, and then think about what's causing the discomfort.
Then ask for help.
People like helping.
A survey found that in eight out of 10 situations where people were asked for help, they gave it.
And if someone says no, they will probably have their own good reasons for it.
You know, maybe they don't know the answer and embarrassed, or maybe they're in the middle of doing something else and they haven't got the time right now to help you.
But it has been found that students who ask for help get better marks.
And the reason for that is not just because they're helping each other solve the problem, but they are facing the problem, not avoiding it.
And that's real strength.
So yeah, asking for help.
I think this is an incredibly important thing, because not only are you recognising maybe I need the help, but also asking other people means they recognise it and they can look out for you and just check in on you as well.
It's a really helpful thing to do, right?
Exactly, exactly.
And I have to say that recognising that I am avoiding a problem means has taken me years and years to do.
In fact, I've probably only been able to do it for the last few years.
So if you can kind of get in early and get that skill, it's incredibly handy.
And also, asking for help isn't a weakness.
Some people think, oh, no, this is really embarrassing, or people will laugh at me.
They won't.
They really won't.
If you turn the situation around.
If somebody asked you for help, would you start laughing at them or tell them they're stupid?
No, of course you wouldn't.
You would help.
So just...
You know, there are so many things sort of wrapped up in this about you know understanding yourself, understanding others, empathy.
You know, it's a really powerful thing.
And like you say, people are always a bit flattered as well.
If you're the person someone's turned to, you just think, oh, my goodness, yes, I am.
I am the best, I think.
Look at me helping.
Yeah, yeah, I know.
It's awful, isn't it?
But you know you get a little buzz from helping other people and you might have a nice chat along the way.
Yeah, it's a really, really important tip.
Vanessa, thank you so much for telling us all about it.
Okay, thanks.
Bye, everybody.
Thanks, bye.
Now it's time for this week's big debate.
And the question is, should SUV drivers pay more?
So Kay and Joe will be going head to head a little later to take a side on this argument.
But before we hear from them, here's some information you need to know.
SUVs or sports utility vehicles are a type of car, usually bigger than average.
They are becoming very much more popular because the driver is able to sit higher up.
They have lots of space inside and they can drive over rough ground.
Different SUVs have different engines and environmental impacts.
For example, some run on both petrol or diesel fuel and some are electric or a mixture of both.
In 2024, 33% of new cars bought in the UK were SUVs and they made up 54% of global car sales.
SUVs are becoming more popular, but some say they're bad for the planet.
So should SUV drivers pay more?
Kay is team yes, Joe is team no, and each of them have 60 seconds to make their case.
Then I'll make up my mind on which side I agree with more.
So we're going to hear from Kay first, who thinks they should pay more.
Let me get up my big stopwatch here.
All right, Kay, whenever you're ready, take it away.
So...
SUVs are a luxury and just like any luxury like going on a big holiday or buying a really, really big house you need to be prepared to pay for this, and this happens with higher value homes.
They have to pay more council tax to local governments, so this should also happen with larger cars, and SUVs actually take up way more space than normal cars, and more than a million of the SUVs that were sold in the past year were too large to fit in regular car parking spaces.
They're also really heavy and this leads to more wear and tear on the roads, and we pay road tax to fix the roads, so these drivers should have to pay more.
And yet, if they have to pay more, people who are buying cars might be a bit more, might think a bit more about buying SUVs.
I'll give you that.
You just squeaked in there.
I think you noticed me waving the timer around.
Joe, your time is going to happen now to tell me why you disagree with Kate.
So whenever you're ready, take it away.
So people should be able to have a car that suits their lifestyle without being made to pay extra for it.
And some people do really need SUVs, such as those with large families.
For people living in areas with bad roads and there are plenty of bad roads about in the UK SUVs might be the safest way to travel.
And some people feel safer in them too for other reasons, because you sit higher up than in a regular car and you can see more of the road.
And And not all SUVs are the same anyway
Not all SUVs were created equal.
Electric powered models cause less pollution than old diesel or petrol ones.
So it's not really fair to just charge more for all bigger cars.
Instead, what could be fairer is taxing people based on how much and how far they drive.
Oh, that's interesting.
Okay.
Two very good debates there.
I did appreciate Kay's point about parking spaces and also the fact they're heavier.
So wear and tear on the road.
But yeah, maybe people actually need these cars.
So maybe, Joe, you're right.
Maybe they should pay for... where they're going and how far they're going.
That's a very tough one this week.
So luckily, it's not my opinion that counts, really.
I want to know what you're thinking right now.
I want the readers and the listeners involved.
So we want to hear your verdict on this week's big debate.
You can get online right now to theweekjunior.co.uk slash polls and vote.
You can also email your thoughts to us at hello at theweekjunior.co.uk or send us a voice note.
Just go to funkidslive.com slash theweekjunior.
Scroll down until you see the big red button.
Grab a grown-up and record your voice, and then your message could be in next week's episode.
Now, last week's big debate was all about whether phones should be muted in public.
Let's find out what the Week Junior listeners and readers voted.
The results are in and 69 of you said you do find it annoying when other people play loud music or videos on public transport.
All right.
Hi, then, I thought.
We've also got a voice note here from Tim with his thoughts on the debate.
Hello, my name is tim and i think phones should be muted.
Or you have headphones, because there can be offensive lyrics with swear words in them and if there's a baby, say like on a bus, it could start wake up and start crying.
So, and like kay said um, people have headphones for a reason, so they can just play it on their headphones and just and listen to it by themselves.
Yes tim, i agree with you muting phones.
My phone is constantly muted.
I don't think i've heard my phone make a noise for years and years and years.
Actually uh, so big fan of tim.
Uh, anything else going on there, joe?
Uh, yeah.
So someone else said uh no, because you, If there's an emergency call or important message, you might miss it.
Oh, that's a good point as well.
That's a very good point.
Okay.
Well, we do love hearing what you've been up to.
And now it's time to hear from Elena.
Editorial assistant Elena is here to tell us about the Week Junior readers' opinions and what they've been up to recently.
Hello, everyone.
Like many people, I feel I was on holiday last week, but I'm very happy to be back now and, as usual, we've had many, many messages from our readers and listeners.
And first I wanted to give a shout out to Hannah, who sent us a voice note to update us on some pretty big news.
Hi Week Junior.
My name is Hannah and I just found out that I got the part of Lady Macbeth in our school play Macbeth.
Also yesterday I made a big strawberry cake that had five layers.
It was very yummy.
That is big news.
What a big week for Hannah.
I mean, Lady Macbeth, big role.
That's a classic villain role.
And also, as if it's possible to get five layers in a strawberry cake.
I was going to say, I've never quite managed to do more than three, I feel.
I thought that was the maximum.
I want to see a picture, please, Hannah.
Yes, please send it over.
These kids nowadays, they're on another level.
Also, Elizabeth sent in a picture of her and her sister holding up an issue of the Week Junior and standing on a bridge over a stream.
And she said, here is a photo of me and my little sister Rosie on a holiday in Wales.
We walked up the bath to Snowdon, stopping at Watkins Pools.
We took a favourite magazine to stop and read on the way up.
It looks absolutely stunning.
And also we've had so many readers sending us pictures from Snowdonia.
I wanted to say, Vanessa also knows about this.
We were telling we were talking about, if we ever do an event, a Week Junior event, we're just going to do it in Snowdonia, because that's clearly where Week Junior readers want to be.
You know what?
I've never been to Snowdonia and now I feel like I'm missing out.
I feel like I've really, I've missed the boat on this one.
Jo, have you been to Snowdonia?
Yeah, I have.
I actually walked up Snowdon when I was quite young, not as young as Elizabeth and her sister.
I think we did me and my dad did a route called the Horseshoe on Snowdon, which is quite a scrambly rocky route.
And it's a rather unpleasant, very, very slim ridge on it.
And I think I was quite young and I remember getting quite upset at the top of this ridge.
And my dad, I think, was panicking a bit because I
I was stood still and didn't want to move.
And I didn't want to go forward or backwards.
And he was a bit worried we were going to be trapped on this kind of ridge forever because I just wouldn't move.
So that's kind of a curious story about me having a slightly unpleasant experience.
So well done me.
Yeah, I wasn't that young.
I wasn't as young as these two here.
But perhaps that was the time I found out I didn't have much of a head for heights.
That has continued into adulthood.
But there we go.
I bet you didn't expect that when you asked me that question.
No, you could have hung on for longer.
You probably would have bumped into a weak junior reader by the sound of things.
Yeah, there's a lot of them around there, apparently.
Excellent.
Well, Elena, maybe we should all go into Snowdonia.
I have been several times, and I can assure you it's beautiful.
Anyway, thank you so much, readers and listeners, for sending us your messages.
And please send us voice notes regularly.
We love listening to them.
And if you get featured, you're in with a chance of winning a Roving Reporter badge.
So I think you should do it.
Anyway, I'll be back next week with the latest messages from everyone.
And it's over to you, Bex.
Lovely stuff.
Thank you very much, Lena.
Now it's time to turn our attention back to the magazine this week and the team's favourite stories.
Joe, who has been your hero in the magazine this week?
My hero is Steena Blackstenius, who plays for Arsenal.
And at the weekend, on Saturday, Arsenal won the Women's Champions League and Black Stenius came off the substitutes bench to score the winner in a 1-0 win in the 74th minute.
And we've got a lovely picture on the cover of the Week Junior this week of the team celebrating their triumph.
And we've got a story about it on our UK news pages.
Lovely stuff.
Yeah, big, big story.
Now Kay, every issue of the week junior is packed with some amazing facts.
But what is your favourite this week?
I love this fact about Sarah Bruggins.
She's a cyclist and she's broken the world record for cycling from Land's End to John O'Groats and back again.
And she has beaten the male record by more than six hours and the former female record by more than four days.
Wow.
And the other kind of really cool part about it is that she couldn't walk for a while as a teenager due to illness.
And yet she's broken this incredible record.
Wow.
Well done, Sarah Ruggins.
Uh, that's a really feel good story.
Uh, Joe, what's been the funniest story you've read this week?
Uh, so it's a story about seal pups in a seal sanctuary in Cornwall, England.
That doesn't actually sound that funny, but it gets better.
Uh, The seal sanctuary rescues them and releases the seal pups back into the wild.
And it recently teamed up with the university to track the pups once they were released.
But what I thought was funny was some of the brilliant names given to some of the pups who we've named in the article in the Week Junior and had their journeys tracked.
So a pup called Maggot travelled 150 miles from Cornwall to Brittany, France.
Another called Dung Beetle headed to Ireland.
And another, the best one yet, called Whirlygig, swam straight back to his original home in Devon, the idea that he's like yeah bye, see you later, i'm just gonna go home.
Yeah yeah, he just kind of, you know, gave up.
It was just like home, sweet home.
Yeah, i'm not gonna take this magnificent journey to france, just home is where the eyes.
I respect whirligig's choices there, And also, what a gig's name.
Now, lots of stuff is happening in this week's issue of the magazine.
I've enjoyed the People page this week.
Now there is an artist called Nena Kalu, who is one of four artists who has been shortlisted for the Turner Prize.
This is a massive award, very, very famous.
And, well, the work is quite incredible.
It's like using scrap material and fabric to make lots of big, colourful knots.
And it looks amazing.
I do love anything.
I'm drawn to colour anyway.
Apparently, it's really fresh and exciting work.
And she's got a person with learning difficulty with learning difficulties to be shortlisted for the prize and I just thought uh, that was absolutely incredible and I can't wait to see who wins.
So uh, lots of stuff to check out in this week's issue of the magazine, but now it's time for the real big story of the day.
It's the moment of truth.
Kay, can you remind me about this week's real or rubbish please?
This is the story that you can actually live inside a wind turbine um, in Holland, and um, It's quite small, but yeah, you know it's kind of – it would have amazing views.
Now, Holland, I think, I think, is famous for windmills.
Yeah.
And I'm – my problem here is I'm thinking of wind turbines as being very small, you know the kind of like straight up and down, like white things you see from a train.
And I can't imagine living in them.
But maybe – I don't know whether you're tricking me and saying – wind turbine actually it's windmill and that's part of the trick this week i genuinely don't know i feel like you're trying to catch me out and i can't catch the lie which is annoying to me um i am gonna say the story this week is rubbish just because i can't imagine living in a windmill and i'd be very distracted by the the fan going around um so i'm gonna say rubbish this week should we do a drum roll yeah you're right it is rubbish ha has created one pilot home from a nacella that has been removed from an old wind turbine however the designer believes that this is the first of its kind and there are no plans for people to start living in wind turbines oh okay all right well i look i'm i'm not gonna lie guys i'm very happy i'm very happy right now i'm i'm sorry to be a sore winner but That's who I am.
Let's move on to this week's Listen Up, as this is the part of the show that gives you the chance to win a copy of our Book of the Week.
Now, this week, you might have heard, it's Evie and Mariam's Family Tree by Janine Hayet.
Now, 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 listenup to fill in our online entry form and then enter the prize draw before the closing date of the 5th of June at 1159 am.
The Week Junior team will then 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.
So the question is, who won the Women's Champions League?
If you know the answer to the question, go to theweekjuniorcouk forward slash.
Listen up to enter our giveaway.
Lovely stuff.
Thank you very much, Joe.
And that brings us to the end of this week's show.
Thank you to Joe, Kay, Vanessa 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 voice notes.
We love to hear them.
And it'll give you a chance to have your voice on the podcast and win a roving reporter badge.
Also, remember to rate, review and subscribe or follow us wherever it is you get your podcasts from.
And of course, if you like The Week Junior show, you'll love The Week Junior magazine.
Go and check it out.
You can find out more at theweekjunior.co.uk.
See you next week.
Bye or three issues of The Week Junior Science and Nature for £5 by heading to theweekjuniorcouk forward slash podcast offer.
