Cramming The News 🙅🏻‍♀️ (10/13/20)

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Description

Today’s episode: 🏛️ Find out what’s supreme about the Supreme Court 🏀 Learn how the NBA kept Covid off the basketball court 👩🏻‍💻 Meet Olivia Seltzer, the 16-year-old founder of The Cramm, a news source for teens.

Links

👩🏻‍💻 Sign up for The Cramm, "a fun, easy way to know the world's happenings": TheCramm.com
🏀 Go behind the scenes of the NBA Bubble at Walt Disney World: Inside the final days of the bubble
🏛️ What is the Supreme Court? Get the run-down on the United States Supreme Court at Brittanica Kids
📧 Send us an email: hello@thetennews.com
🌅 Get social: The Ten News on Instagram

Transcript

Bethany Van Delft: [00:00:00] Hey there! I am Bethany Van Delft and this is The Ten News. The show where in the time it takes for you and eight friends to build a house together in Minecraft, we find out what's up in the world. It's the stuff grownups are talking about explained and a lot more fun. It's Tuesday, October 13th. In today's episode, we'll find out what's Supreme about the Supreme Court, look back at how the NBA kept Covid off the basketball court, and meet a teen who is helping her generation stay on the ball.

Okay. Let's  get into The Ten.

Counting Voice: [00:00:40] Ten nine eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.

Bethany Van Delft: [00:00:46] You may have noticed a lot of talk lately about the Supreme Court, but what's it all about? And what does the Supreme Court even do? To help us with some answers, let's go to our correspondent, Pamela Kirkland.

Pamela Kirkland: [00:01:01] It's called the highest court in the land, the marble palace, the SCOTUS, the Supreme Court of the United States.

[00:01:09] And if you have a big legal problem, this is the place to get an answer. The first, Monday of October marks the beginning of the Supreme Court session. So last week was just kind of like back to school for the men and women who work at the Supreme Court known as justices. Their job is to hear some of the most important cases in the country and using laws that are already written, decide which side makes the better argument.

[00:01:37] Sometimes the justices agree. Sometimes they don't. But the justices on the court are trusted to follow the constitution and make the best decisions they can. Getting a seat on the court isn't easy. The president picks a person to appoint or nominate for the job. Then, the Senate decides whether they get the job by voting on it, and the [00:02:00] majority wins.

[00:02:01] There've been 114 Supreme Court justices in the history of the court. Only four of those have been women. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor was the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court. Ruth Bader Ginsburg was the second. She recently passed away leaving an empty seat for a new nominee, but she was world famous for her legal opinions. She was nicknamed the notorious RBG and was a trailblazer for women's rights. She spent a lot of her career arguing that men and women are equal and laws should treat them the same way. And even though her side didn't always win. She was known for writing her arguments with passion.

[00:02:45] The constitution does not specify the number of justices the Supreme Court should have and leaves it to Congress to decide. In September the president nominated Judge Amy Coney Barrett to fill the seat that Justice Ginsburg held.

Bethany Van Delft: [00:03:00] Being confirmed a Supreme Court justice is a lifetime appointment. An empty seat on the court is a really big deal because the person who fills it could impact the court's decisions for decades.

[00:03:12] We'll all be keeping an eye on the status of the SCOTUS.

[00:03:26] Since July sports fans have watched as the NBA, WNBA and NHL all rolled out safe solutions to resume their seasons postponed by the Coronavirus. How did they do it? Players, staff, members of the media lived in bubbles. That sounds funny, right? But what exactly is a bubble? To put it simply, it's a group of people who only have close contact with each other and agree to practice social distancing with everyone else.

[00:03:58] Just like the bubble you've stayed in with [00:04:00] your loved ones at home. Okay. But for the NBA, the bubble was the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida. Teams stayed in designated hotels onsite from July all the way through the October post-season. Shout out to the Lakers. All playing games in nearby arenas without fans. Staying in the bubble was the best way to prevent a Coronavirus outbreak between athletes.

[00:04:26] Good thinking. Well, players didn't have access to the Disney Park rides during their stay, which explains why we never got it that picture of LeBron and AD riding space, mountain together. There were like lots of activities they did to stay busy between games. These included things like golfing, swimming, and playing all the video games they wanted.

[00:04:48] Jelly! All fun aside, bubbles have worked. It went so well that NBA players were even allowed to have some family members and longtime friends attend games, which [00:05:00] explains all the cute babies you've seen sitting courtside lately. And with all the success in these leagues, you probably probably wondered why didn't MLB immediately go the way of the bubble.

[00:05:12] Especially since coronavirus outbreaks amongst the Marlins and Cardinals temporarily benched both teams. Simple. The league is too large with too many games for everyone to have stayed in one location, but that changed during the third round of playoffs, when the MLB relocated to, to neutral bubble sites, Petco Park and Dodger stadium, California and Globe Life Park and Minute Maid Field in Texas.

[00:05:38] If there's anything to take from this it's that players will have to uphold all safety precautions by wearing masks, practicing social distancing, and getting tested regularly. Everyone has to be all in at all times, which is something athletes are used to. Even if one person tests positive for coronavirus, it could [00:06:00] spread around the bubble quicker than a fast ball over home plate.

[00:06:04] Let's hope it works.

[00:06:14] There are young people just like you out there finding meaningful ways to make a difference in our world. I caught up with 16 year old Olivia Seltzer, founder of the popular newsletter, The Cramm to learn more about how she's sparking change by sharing information. For anyone out there who doesn't know, why don't you tell us what The Cramm is?

Olivia Seltzer: [00:06:34] The Cram is a daily newsletter for gen Z. Basically what I do is wake up at 5:00 AM every day to read the news, create relevant stories, and then rewrite them in a way that truly speaks to gen Z, so we have news that's engaging, digestible and accessible. Then I send this out in a newsletter via email, text, social media, IGTV, a podcast, basically everything out there and multiple languages to readers [00:07:00] in over 100 countries all over the world with the goal of educating and activating our generation.

Bethany Van Delft: [00:07:06] Holy guacamole. How did you get this idea?

Olivia Seltzer: [00:07:09] When I was 12 years old and it was the 2016 US presidential election. I remember the day after I went to school, the majority of the kids at my school are the children of undocumented immigrants.

[00:07:21] And there was, there was a lot of talk about what was going on in our government. And I think it was one of the first times we all really felt this direct connection to what was happening in our government. Um, so we all were talking a lot about the news and politics, but at the same time, none of us were actually reading or watching the news because it's primarily written by and geared towards an older demographic.

[00:07:43] And I saw this as a really huge problem, but if you don't know what's going on in the world, you can't really do anything to fix the problems that need to be fixed. So my whole life I've always loved writing, so I kind of figured, okay, why don't I just create the solution? So a couple months later, in February of [00:08:00] 2017, I sent out the very first newsletter and I've been writing them every single day since. Now we have about 500 youth ambassadors all over the world who work to spread the cram in a variety of different ways.

Bethany Van Delft: [00:08:05] Oh, that's incredible. And are they also contributors and interviewers and content providers?

Olivia Seltzer: [00:08:06] I have an editorial team who helps with sending in stories from their respective locations. So I can try to, I can try to give like a broader spectrum of gen Z and the kinds of stories happening around the world. So it's not as like US centric. They also interview inspiring young people to feature in newsletters. I'm a big believer in the ripple effect of activism.

[00:08:26] If you have these big youth activists, you're going to see more youth activist across every field who are going to be inspired.

Bethany Van Delft: [00:08:33] What would

Olivia Seltzer: [00:08:33] you say to

[00:08:34] Bethany Van Delft: [00:08:34] kids who aren't old enough to vote, but want to make a difference?

Olivia Seltzer: [00:08:39] So I think that it's a matter of making sure that you are informed for when it is your time to vote, because I've noticed that that's a really big problem is that a lot of people turn 18.

[00:08:48] They've never been exposed to politics before, because they haven't been expected to be because they can't get involved in that traditional kind of way. And then they don't vote because they don't know who to vote for. So make sure that when it is your time to vote, [00:09:00] you are informed about the issues that you feel confident voting, make sure that you are getting involved in all of those unconventional ways that gen Z are.

[00:09:07] Are creating whether that is raising awareness on social media, participating in a protest or rally, or even creating one of your own.

Bethany Van Delft: [00:09:15] Fantastic. Thank you. So, so, so much for taking the time to talk with us. I know that you're busy.

[00:09:22] Thank you.

Olivia Seltzer: [00:09:23] I mean,The Cramm would be nothing if we didn't have people like you supporting so thank you so much.

Bethany Van Delft: [00:09:29] To hear more of my talk with Olivia, go to TheTenNews.com.

[00:09:33] It's time for your fun back to the day. Did you know that for most people it's impossible to lick your own elbow? Go ahead and try it. I'll wait. Oh,

[00:09:48] okay. I tried it. It's not possible.

[00:09:54] Well, time's up. That's the end of The Ten for today. You can catch new episodes on Tuesdays [00:10:00] and Thursdays. The Ten News is a coproduction 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 Steven Tompkins and Pamela Kirkland.

[00:10:17] The creative producer is Jenner Pasqua. Marketing is led by Jacob Bronstein with social media and web support by Bryn Jura and Adam Pharr. Editing and sound designed by Edgar Comey and Greg Cortez under the production direction of Jeremiah Tittle. Executive producer Donald Albright and show creator Tracy Leeds Kaplan round out the team.

[00:10:40] If you have questions about the show, a story idea, or a fun fact you want to share, email us@helloattennews.com. I'm Bethany Van Delft and thanks for listening to The Ten. Now go tell your friends everything you learned today. [00:11:00]