Beating The Winter Blues 🧠
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Description
🤝 What exactly is a presidential pardon? And why are President Donald Trump's pardon choices rubbing some people the wrong way? 🍑 What happened with the Georgia runoff elections? Let’s find out, and learn what it means for the rest of the country! 🐺 Learn all about red wolves with a special listener-submitted fun fact! 🧠 What are the winter blues? And what does the sun have to do with your brain chemistry? Plus! See if you can guess the answer to the Trivia Question of the Day: A Chinese spacecraft recently brought what back to Earth?
Here are 2 ways to help the Red Wolves:
Associate of Zoos & Aquariums - Saving the Endangered American Red Wolf
Defenders of Wildlife - Red Wolf Adoption Kit
Links
🤝 Learn all about how presidential pardons work
🐺 Do a deep dive into the captivating world of Red Wolves
🌓 Explore the incredible lunar sample that Chinese robot Chang'e 5 just brought back to Earth!
🎇 Join us on Instagram
Transcript
Bethany Van Delft: [00:00:00] What is a Presidential pardon? What does the sun have to do with your brain? And what did a Chinese spacecraft just bring back from the moon? I'm 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 count all the holes in a block of moon cheese, we find out what's up in the world.
[00:00:23] Okay, let's get into The Ten News.
Various Voices: [00:00:26] Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.
Bethany Van Delft: [00:00:33] As the transition from one President to the next approaches, you may be hearing about Presidential pardons. That brings us to our The Ten News definition breakdown. Yeah.
[00:00:49] A pardon is a power given to the President by the Constitution that allows them to grant clemency, which means absolving someone from punishment for a crime. The power to [00:01:00] grant Federal pardons was created by the writers of the Constitution as a check and balance on the Federal criminal justice system.
[00:01:07] Checks and balances are the way that U.S. Government makes sure none of the three branches of government, the Legislative, the Judicial, or the Executive becomes too powerful. So it's not a big deal for an outgoing President to issue pardons, but this President's pardon picks have raised some serious concerns based on the offenses.
[00:01:29] And folks are asking if he's going to try to preemptively pardon himself before leaving office. And if that's actually allowed under the Constitution. Just a couple of weeks left until Inauguration Day, we'll soon see which way the clemency crumbles. See what I did there?
[00:01:50] In our last episode, our correspondent Pamela Kirkland reported from Georgia on the super important runoff elections happening there.
[00:01:59] Now that voting is [00:02:00] over she's back with an update. Let's find out what happened and what it means for the rest of the country.
Pamela Kirkland: [00:02:07] The peach state has turned blue. We told you about the two Senate elections happening here in Georgia. Well, we have not one, but two winners. It's been projected that Democrats, Reverend Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff will win the two seats for US Senate in Georgia. Warnock will become the very first Black Senator to represent the state.
[00:02:30] Warnock's lead over his opponent Senator Kelly Loeffler is large enough that once all of the votes have been tallied, his opponent wouldn't be able to win. Jon Ossoff is also leading his opponent, Republican David Perdue by enough votes for him to also be called the winner. The two wins mean the Democrats will have control in the Senate. With each party holding 50 seats soon to be Vice President kamala Harris will be the tie breaking vote. Stay with The [00:03:00] Ten News. We'll keep you posted.
Bethany Van Delft: [00:03:04] A listener named Coco emailed us an important fact to share, did you know that the Red Wolf is the world's most endangered canine? According to the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the species was designated as threatened with extinction all the way back in 1967.
[00:03:24] Today while roughly 245 red wolves live in captive breeding facilities. There may be only about 20 roaming wild in their native habitats in Eastern North Carolina, with some estimating that population at fewer than 10. Oh no! For more information about red wolves and how you can help protect them visit The TenNews.com.
[00:03:46] And a big, big, thanks goes out to Coco for writing to tell us about this.
[00:03:54] She usually brings us stories about amazing dogs and natural wonders, today our [00:04:00] super science contributor Laine Farber is here to help us understand how our brains work and why winter can sometimes affect our mood.
Laine Farber: [00:04:10] It's January, one of the longest and coldest months of the year. And with all the fun of the holiday season behind us and more distance learning ahead for many of us, some people might begin feeling a little down in the dumps. Sometimes feeling sad is not a bad thing. We go through many emotions on a daily basis, which is healthy. Just like the movie Inside Out, teaches us, all of our emotions are important and valid. "Okay. What abstract concept are we trying to comprehend today? Loneliness."
[00:04:44] But if you're feeling a little extra sad during the winter months, you might be experiencing something commonly known as the "winter blues". Now what causes winter blues might surprise you. One reason we might feel a little extra gloomy [00:05:00] during this time of year is because of the sun.
[00:05:06] I know, I know, that sounds strange, but let me explain. So the sun, you know, that big yellow thing in the sky, well, it does more than just warm our planet. It makes plants grow, generates weather patterns and helps keep humans happy and healthy. Now, before we can understand exactly how sunlight affects our mental health, we need to learn about brain chemistry. Step into my lab and explain. Brain Chemistry - 101: the brain is a complex organ that does so many incredible things like breathing, talking, walking, and even feeling emotions. The brain relies on special hormones called neurotransmitters to function properly.
[00:05:54] Neurotransmitters are natural chemicals used to send and receive messages between [00:06:00] brain cells. Too much or too little of these different neurotransmitters can lead to mental health issues. Sunlight causes our brain to release a neurotransmitter called Serotonin. Serotonin is known as the "happy hormone" because your brain releases it when you're feeling good.
[00:06:18] During the winter months, we get fewer hours of daylight. Less sunlight means less serotonin, which can leave us feeling down in the dumps. Now feeling blue looks different for everyone. You might feel extra sleepy, a little unmotivated, or even sorta hollow, like a piece of you is missing. So you're probably wondering, how do I beat the winter blues?
[00:06:44] Well, the best way to beat the winter blues is to get outside and get active. So slap on some sunscreen and enjoy those beautiful UV rays. And remember mental health is just as important as physical health. So take [00:07:00] some time to take care of yourself in the new year.
Bethany Van Delft: [00:07:03] Great advice Laine. I'll tell you I get the winter blues, something fierce. One little thing that helps me. Is remembering the Winter Solstice is the shortest day of the year. And every day after that, gets a little bit longer, little bit longer. And in no time, it's Spring again. Yay. Take good care of yourselves, Ten'ners. To learn more from Laine Farber, check out her Nature Nerds podcast.
[00:07:36] It's time for your trivia question of the day,
[00:07:42] A Chinese spacecraft recently returned to earth with what intel? A) a friendly martian B) moon, dirt, or C) equipment left behind by astronauts. Did you guess it? The answer is [00:08:00] b! China's first mission to collect samples from the moon surface makes it just the third country to ever do so.
[00:08:08] Neil Armstrong archival clip: [00:08:08] "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind"
Bethany Van Delft: [00:08:13] The lunar rocks will be studied in the lab in hopes of helping scientists better understand the moon and its relationship with the earth.
[00:08:23] Here's to hoping next time they find Martians or moonshins moon, moon, moon people? Just somebody to be your friend. "I claim this planet in the name of Mars. Isn't that lovely."
[00:08:39] Up, that's the end of The Ten for today, but 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 iHeartRadio. The Ten News writing team is led by Editorial Director Tracey Crooks, with contributions from Stephen Tompkins, Pamela [00:09:00] Kirkland and Laine Farber.
[00:09:01] 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 design by Pete Musto under the production direction of Jeremiah Tittle. Executive Producer Donald Albright and show creator Tracy Leeds Kaplan round out the team.
[00:09:21] If you have questions about the show, a story idea, or a fun fact 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. iHeartRadio, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your podcasts. I'm Bethany Van Delft and thanks for listening to The Ten news.
[00:09:42] Now go outside and get some mood boosting sunshine. Unless it's raining. Then listen to all the back episodes of The Ten News. Bye!
