A Mandarin Hip-Hop Masterpiece 🎤
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Description
🇺🇸 Is this the craziest presidential election is US history? Maybe not. 📓 What if you could take a whole year and choose to learn whatever you want? We speak to a young person doing it! 😷 Plus: fun facts to impress your friends! 🎩 And: the Trivia Question of the Day!
Links
🇺🇸 You'll be surprised to learn these 10 Bizarre Facts from U.S. Election History
🗣 Pretty interesting to read Why Defeated Presidential Candidates Deliver Concession Speeches
😷 Do you know what kids did During the 1918 flu pandemic
🎩 Explore 10 things you may not know about Abraham Lincoln
📧 Email us curious facts, crazy stories, and all your questions: hello@thetennews.com
Transcript
Bethany Van Delft: [00:00:00] How many people voted in this year's election? And how cool would it be to spend the year learning whatever you wanted to? I am Bethany Van Delft and we'll get into all this and more on today's The Ten News. The show where in the time it takes to clean all those old Halloween candy wrappers from under your bed, we find out what's up in the world.
[00:00:25] Okay, let's get into The Ten News.
[00:00:27] Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three,two, one.
[00:00:33] Over 150 million people voted in this year's election, which is the highest overall turnout in more than a hundred years. And with a record number of mail in ballots, it's no surprise it took a few extra days to count enough bows to project a winner.
[00:00:49] Some states are still counting! But this isn't the first time a close election it's taken a while to call our correspondent. Pamela Kirkland has more.
Pamela Kirkland: [00:00:59] Let's see, go back to the year, 2000 and one of the wildest presidential elections in America's history. Texas Governor George W. Bush was running against Vice President Al Gore in a really, really tight race.
News anchor clip: [00:01:16] "Stay with us. We're about to take you on an exciting and bumpy ride"
Pamela Kirkland: [00:01:20] So tight, it all came down to the results in one state, Florida.
News anchor clip: [00:01:26] "Vice President Al Gore, NBC news projects that he wins the 25 electoral votes in the state of Florida"
Pamela Kirkland: [00:01:32] The difference in the number of votes between Bush and Gore was small, like really small.
[00:01:39] So Florida law required the counties to do a recount and run all of the ballots through the voting machines.
News anchor clip: [00:01:45] "Again, CNN right now is moving our earlier decoration of Florida back to the too close to call column."
Pamela Kirkland: [00:01:55] The vote was even closer, 6 million [00:02:00] votes, just 537, separated Bush and Gore. So there was another recount, but this time it was by hand.
[00:02:10] Some counties were taking longer to count votes because the machines that they had used to mark them and they were going to miss a court deadline to finish the recount. On December 8th, 31 days after the election, the Supreme court intervened. You remember them? The Supreme court justices voted five to four to end the recount. Five days later, Al Gore said he would end his campaign and George W. Bush became the elected president. Traditionally the losing candidate calls the winner to congratulate them and announce the end of their campaign. Like Al Gore did twice in this case. It's called the concession speech. And while it's not required by law, it's become a tradition in American politics dating as far back as [00:03:00] 1896.
[00:03:01] It's not just a nice thing to do, like telling your opponent good game when it's over. It means the campaign is over and American should come together. President Trump still hasn't conceded or said Joe Biden has won the election, but what's even older than the concession speech is the peaceful transfer of power from one president to the next.
Bethany Van Delft: [00:03:30] Did you know that during the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918, most schools in the U S closed just like they did this year. But Instead of online distance learning, because there was no internet back then kids kept busy with reading chores and actual jobs, like farm work, paper routes, even working in factories. So there are some things to be grateful for.
[00:04:01] [00:04:00] What, if you could take an entire year to learn whatever you wanted to? I spoke to a young person who's doing exactly that.
[00:04:12] So my name is Tyler Newman, um, I'm 18 years old and I'm based in New Jersey, uh, specifically West Orange. Uh, for years, I'd really just been looking forward to the time that I'd finally go to college, you know?
Tyler Newman: [00:04:27] Um, so I was planning to go to Stanford, uh, which is where I'd be a freshmen now, um, had COVID not hit, but once I found out that one, Stanford would be virtual for, um, for all incoming freshmen and also just all students in general, I was kind of disappointed because it felt like that experience I looked forward to for so long was kind of like crumbling.
Bethany Van Delft: [00:04:52] You made a pivot and you turned your gap year into, into a learning [00:05:00] experience that you call the year of mastery. So talk to me about that. Like where did that idea come from? What is it exactly?
Tyler Newman: [00:05:08] Yeah, so at first came to me because. I have always had so many interests. Um, whether it be from like film to like Mandarin Chinese, um, to writing or, uh, entrepreneurship.
[00:05:24] Uh, so due to me having so many, like things that I was interested in, I often wasn't able to pursue all of those, um, all of those passions of mine during my high school and middle school years. Um, so now when this gap year kind of came around, I thought, wow, this is like my chance, you know, to finally pursue all those passions and kind of take a deep dive into things that I never was able to fully experience, uh, during school.
[00:05:54] So I was thinking like, how neat would it be to like each month be able to like, do a new thing? Like, [00:06:00] because, I personally, since I do have so many interests, like it can be overwhelming to bite off like learning Mandarin and then like learning a hip hop dance and stuff, like all the same time, you know?
[00:06:11] So I was thinking like, why don't I just like compartmentalize everything into like one month. So I was thinking that could be a really cool thing to provide myself with the structure that I so much like longed for and missed from school. But the reason that I made it a community experience, as opposed to just a like solo expedition, so to speak, is because while I did have that structure with the new framework that I was coming up with my, coming up with for myself.
[00:06:41] Um, I feel like it wouldn't be complete without having that community aspect as well, because community is what makes everything really special.
Bethany Van Delft: [00:06:50] Um, how are people responding? You know, you put the call out. If you, if you want to get in on this and you want to share this year of mastery. You know, [00:07:00] please join me on this. On this journey.
Tyler Newman: [00:07:02] The initial response was really positive. I think that a lot of people had been searching for some kind of community, um, during this time, because there's such a wide spectrum of like where people are in terms of how they're reacting. Um, I feel like the people that like me maybe might not be able to, uh, go socialize as much, you know, um, and are on a gap year are really searching for other gap year students that are like-minded that they can spend time with, um, virtually.
[00:07:33] So I think that, that was definitely a selling point for the year of mastery.
Bethany Van Delft: [00:07:37] What advice specifically, would you give to kids struggling with distance learning and other school challenges and you know, how to find different ways to connect and get excited about learning during these times?
Tyler Newman: [00:07:49] I think one thing that will help kids at this time is like finding people to lean on whether it's like asking for help with your family members or friends.
[00:07:58] Um, finding [00:08:00] people that are like-minded, um, like having a like experience, I think will help people. During this time.
Bethany Van Delft: [00:08:07] This has been, thank you so much. This has been so, so, so great. Getting to know you a little bit and getting to chat with you. And you were talking about Mandarin and hip hop at the same time, and I, I hope that your year of mastery ends with a Mandarin hip hop video.
Tyler Newman: [00:08:23] That'd be really cool.
Bethany Van Delft: [00:08:25] Isn't she the coolest? To hear more of my conversation with Tyler visit TheTenNews.com.
[00:08:32] It's time for your trivia question of the day!
[00:08:38] Which organization honored President Abraham Lincoln, with an award in 1992? Was it A), The Wrestling Hall of Fame, B) The National Chess Association, or C) The Tall Clubs International Foundation. Did you guess it?
[00:08:56] The answer is [00:09:00] A! The Wrestling Hall of Fame. Apparently Honest Abe had an impressive record as a pro wrestler before he became our 16th President. A little late to the game, but better, late than never. Time's up, ah.
[00:09:17] That's the end of The Ten for today. You can catch new episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The Ten News is a co-production of Small, But Mighty Media in collaboration with Next Chapter Podcasts and distributed by iHeart Radio. The Ten News writing team is led by editorial director, Tracy Crooks, with contributions from
[00:09:36] Steven Tompkins and Pamela Kirkland. The Creative Producer is Jenner Pascua. Marketing is led by Jacob Bronstein with social media and web support by Steven Tompkins and Adam Pharr. Editing and sound designed by Pete Musto under the production direction of Jeremiah Tittle. Executive Producer, Donald Albright and show creator
[00:09:55] Tracy Leeds Kaplan round out the team. If you have any questions [00:10:00] about the show, a story idea, or just some fun facts you want to share, email us at hello@thetennews.com. And don't forget to subscribe, rate and review The Ten News on Apple podcasts, iHeart Radio, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
[00:10:18] I'm Bethany Van Delft. And thanks for listening to The Ten News. Now go discover something you want to learn more about. I think it's going to be Abraham Lincoln's wrestling career for me.
