Celebrating Women's History 👩🏽💼
LISTEN + SUBSCRIBE HERE
Description
🏳️🌈 What is the Equality Act? What can the Equality Act do to expand the rights of the LGBTQ community? 🌊 We're joined by a professional manatee rescuer for a special That's a Job!? segment! 👩🏽💼 Let's celebrate Women's History Month with Five Fascinating Facts about how it all got started! 🏡 Plus! Let's get moving with today's Trivia Question of the Day!
Links
📝 Sign up for The Ten News-letter!
📸 Join us on Instagram
🏳️🌈 Learn everything there is to know about The Equality Act
🙎🏾♀️ Discover how you can celebrate Women's History Month
✍️ Find a copy of the transcript for today's episode here
Transcript
Various voices 0:00
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
Bethany Van Delft 0:07
From friendly sea creatures to fighting for equality, in the next 10 minutes, we'll get the lowdown on what's up in the world. I'm Bethany Van Delft, and this is The Ten News. Over the past few weeks, congress has been involved in a major fight over a historic piece of anti discrimination legislation called the Equality Act. Its focus: equality for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, or LGBTQ community. First introduced in 2015. The Equality Act looks to expand the protections of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bans discrimination based on race, religion, sex, and nation of origin. The new Act also makes it illegal to treat people unfairly or differently because of their sexual orientation or gender identity when it comes to things like housing, employment or education.
A Kid 1:09
Excellent.
Bethany Van Delft 1:11
The thing is, while the House of Representatives voted in support of it two years ago, the Senate voted against the Equality Act so it didn't go forward. Critics argue it limits religious freedom, which has been used as a reason for businesses not to serve same sex couples, for example, but the democrats who have the majority in both the House and the Senate are pretty sure they can get it through this time around. And it would be a huge deal if they do since Gallup reports that about one in six adults in Gen Z identify as LGBTQ. So chances are, this probably affects somebody you know. If you've ever wondered whether you could grow up to be a professional manatee rescuer, you are in luck. Our correspondent, Ryan Nerz is about to find out in "That's a job?"
A Kid 2:08
No way.
Ryan 2:11
Since I moved to Miami six years ago, I've fallen in love with many local animals like iguanas, which looked like shrunken dinosaurs. And Ibises bright white birds with long beaks and even longer legs. But of all the animals here, I do have a favorite. So when I got to interview an expert on my favorite local animal, I was ready with some weird questions. I have to ask you, do you speak manatee?
manatee man 2:41
The thing that I do to communicate using a sharp hum and it squeals and squeaks. It has a very low pitch.
Ryan 2:53
That's pretty good. But actually, it sounds more like this.
Ouch.
What you just heard is the insanely high pitch squeal of the West Indian manatee. And that man, you heard the one who speaks manatee. Well, that's the manatee man.
manatee man 3:15
I believe people are meant to be doctors, police officers, videographers, musicians, and I was just meant to rescue manatees and now I'm living my dream.
Ryan 3:23
Meet Jamal Galvez. Instagram handle @realmanateeman. And his actual job is rescuing manatees in his home country of Belize. He got the job when he was just 11 years old. After watching a manatee research boat near his grandma's house. He pestered the crew until they let him work with them.
manatee man 3:45
And so I went out with these researchers. I didn't even ask my grandma's permission, which had some consequences, and I get that, but that's not for this conversation.
Ryan 3:54
His grandma, well, she got over it. And two decades later, that pesky kid has become an official National Geographic Explorer, and the program coordinator for the Belize manatee conservation program.
manatee man 4:09
You'd be surprised on the impact a little love can have on the world today.
Ryan 4:13
And Jamal really is having an impact on a species that's listed as vulnerable to extinction. Manatees, in case you don't know are big, loveable aquatic mammals with paddle shaped tails and whiskers like walruses. And when I say big, I mean 10 feet long and 1000 pounds. They're vegetarians who chomp so many plants. their teeth are constantly getting replaced by new ones. But let's let the expert tell it
manatee man 4:42
Manatees are generally social aquatic loners. These animals are not glum. They don't have BFF or girlfriends, that you would refer to these. Oh, or best friends.
Ryan 4:53
That's right. Manatees are loners. So that high pitch squeal you heard that's most likely a mother speaking to its baby.
manatee man 5:02
They are very dependent on their mother for everything. The mother teaches the calf with the goal to get freshwater where to go to get different phase of vegetation. Where to selter, how to rest, how to come to the surface to breed.
Ryan 5:15
In fact, many of the manatees that Jamal rescues are orphans, and of his many manatee stories, the one about a wayward orphan might be his most inspiring. In August of 2016, Belize was hit hard by Hurricane Earl. During the storm, a three day old manatee got swept up by a tidal surge and carried inland.
manatee man 5:39
And I looked towards the sea and I realized this this manatee was washed out of the sea, across the marina, across the major highway, across the motel, into the back of a motel. So she was just like flapping around in a puddle of water, literally, a puddle of water.
Ryan 5:54
Jamal helped rescue the orphan and a team nursed it back to health. They started by serving her milk formula from a baby bottle. After three months, she went from 24 to 60 pounds. Jamal named the manatee Hope and he still sees her out swimming today.
manatee man 6:11
She's good for a beacon of hope during a time of disaster. That's why I gave her the name Hope and to me hope is a special manatee to me. I'll always remember her.
Ryan 6:20
Manatees can be a symbol of hope, but they also face many threats from boat collisions to the destruction of their habitat through human intervention and climate change. That's why we need people like Jamal Galvez, looking out for manatees so that the next generation will get to enjoy them as much as I do.
manatee man 6:40
So the next generation it doesn't get to only see manatees in movies and documentaries and coloring books but can actually go there on a boat and observe these animals.
Bethany Van Delft 6:56
While we're surely thankful every single day for all the incredible women in our lives, March is an extra special time to learn about and celebrate female greatness. For more than that. Here come five fascinating facts about Women's History Month. Number one. It all started in Santa Rosa, California in 1978, with a women's history week, where hundreds of students celebrated women's cultural, historical and societal contributions to the United States.
A Kid 7:30
Awesome.
Bethany Van Delft 7:31
Number two, in 1981, Congress made women's history week an official thing. Then, in 1987. They declared March Women's History Month.
A Kid 7:43
Way to go.
Bethany Van Delft 7:45
Number three, every year the celebration as a special theme. This year, it's valued women of the vote refusing to be silenced. Pretty fitting, since women voters just played a huge role in getting our first female vice president elected.
Number four, and especially big reason for the elections outcome was the work of incredible activists and all around Boss Lady, Stacey Abrams for organization fair fight partnered with several groups across the state of Georgia to register 800,000 new voters. That's amazing.
Stacey Abrams 8:23
I know what I want. And that is justoce. I know why I want it. And I know how I'm going to get it, by moving forward every single day. Thank you so much.
Bethany Van Delft 8:34
And number five, many of those new voters were people of color, under 30, voting for the first time. female leaders continuing the work of women activists before them. You absolutely love to see it. Thanks, Miss Abrams. It's trivia time. What 139 year old object was recently relocated in the city of San Francisco. Was it A) bathtub, B) a bridge or C) a house?
Did you guess it? The answer is C) a house. You heard that right. Last week, a two story Victorian house found a new home. The six block journey two years of planning, heaps of paperwork and a whole lot of money. The house was hoisted onto giant dollies to move it from point A to point B to clear path the city had to rip out parking meters, trim tree branches, and move traffic signs. Lots of people have ventured outside to see the house roll Along On its epic journey traveling at speeds up to one mile per hour.
Sound Bit 10:04
Not so fast.
Bethany Van Delft 10:06
And guess what? You can check out a video the big move at thetennews.com Times up but before we go, here's a quick note for the grownups. Thanks for hanging out with us on today's episode of The Ten News.
A Kid 10:24
Yay.
Bethany Van Delft 10:24
To keep the fun going, sign up for The Ten News ten-ers club, a membership with exclusive things you won't find anywhere else, like bonus content, behind the scenes photos, early news of upcoming stories and exclusive audio call outs. Plus, as if there could be more, your very own principle Ten News press pass. That's thetennews.com Thanks for listening to The Ten News. Look out for new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday. The Ten News is a co production of Small But Mighty Media and Next Chapter Podcasts and it's distributed by iHeartRadio. Our editorial director is Tracey Crooks. Editing and sound designed by Pete Musto, who also co wrote today's episode with Ben Austin de Campo. Our creative producer is Jenner Pascua. Steven Tompkins is our head of audience development. And our production assistant is Sarah Olender. Ryan Nerz contributed to today's episode. Our production director is Jeremiah Tittle. And The Ten News is executive produced by Donald Albright and show creator Tracy Leeds Kaplan. Do you want to be part of the show? We would love that. Have a grown up help you record a question a joke or a fun fact you want to share and email it to us at hello@thetennews.com and show your love for The Ten News. Go to your favorite podcast app and submit a rating and review because it really helps others find the show so they can join the fun too. I'm Bethany Van Delft, and thanks for listening to The Ten News. Has anybody seen my house? I left it here like six months ago and now, it's gone. It's like it up and walked away.
