Sleeping In😴
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Season 2: Episode 28 Description
In today’s episode: ⏰ Daylight Saving Time is almost here! 🎉 Are you ready to turn your clock back on November 7th? ⌛ Correspondent Anya Schultz shares the history of why we change our clocks twice a year. 😴 And get some interesting facts about Daylight Saving Time around the world. 🗞️ In the news: A big climate summit and pet scorpions? 🎡 And test your time-zone knowledge in today's Trivia on the Ten. ✅
Sources for the episode:
Fun Facts About Daylight Saving Time | CAMP
Rise at 11? China’s Single Time Zone Means Keeping Odd Hours - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
AMTRAK STOPS TRAINS AS TIME ROLLS BACK - Chicago Tribune
Twins Born at End of Daylight Savings Time Rare Age Twist | PEOPLE.com
Northern Lights: 'Rare treat' as phenomenon seen from Yorkshire coast - BBC News
Ancient dog-sized scorpion fossil discovered in China | TheHill
How time zones confused the world - BBC News
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TRANSCRIPT:
Bethany Van Delft 0:02
What do bug collectors and Benjamin Franklin have in common? The answer might rock your clock. Today we're sleeping in an extra hour and talking about Daylight Saving Time. I'm Bethany Van Delft. It's Thursday, November 4th, and this is The Ten News.
Various Voices 0:23
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
Bethany Van Delft 0:31
On November 7th, Daylight Saving Time ends. We're falling back and turning our clocks back an hour. Have you ever wondered how Daylight Saving Time came about? Correspondent Anya Schultz is here to tell us how founding father Benjamin Franklin played a part.
Anya Schultz 0:51
Did you know that more than 100 years before anyone use Daylight Saving Time Benjamin Franklin brought it up as a joke about candles? He was on a trip to Paris when a loud noise woke him up super early in the morning at 6 am. When he opened his eyes, he saw that the sun was already out. This gave him an idea. If the people of Paris move their clocks to make more use of the daylight they could save a lot of money on candles. He published his idea in an essay in 1784. Fast forward to now and there are 70 countries that use daylight saving time. So what is it? Daylight Saving is the practice of changing our clocks twice each year to line up the time we're awake when the sun's out. An easy way to remember it is with the expression spring forward and fall back. In March we spring forward or move our clocks one hour ahead of that way we can get more daylight during the long summer days. And in the fall, we move the clock back an hour like we did this week, so we won't have to wake up in the darkness during the winter months, spring forward, and fall back. But why do we do this? Benjamin Franklin wasn't too far off. Most countries do use the time change to save money and energy. The first countries to use Daylight Saving were Germany and Austria back in 1916 to conserve energy during World War I. And the United States joined in two years later but stopped the practice once the war was over in 1919. The US adopted it again during World War II and then made it a national policy in 1966. But not everybody thinks it's a good idea. Some people don't like that their sleep patterns get messed up twice each year. They think it should just be the same time all year round. Hawaii and most of Arizona don't change their clocks. And there's movement and 40 other states in the US to end the yearly time change. But states have to wait for the federal government to approve before they can stop changing the clocks. If you live somewhere that follows daylight saving time, you might have noticed it started to get darker earlier this week, and maybe it was a little easier to wake up in the morning. What was 10 am last week is now 9 am this week. Whatever time it is where you live, we hope you get a good night's sleep.
Bethany Van Delft 3:31
Have you ever heard the myth that changing the clocks helps farmers? It turns out Daylight Saving Time has nothing to do with farmers, although they may like the extra daylight. Here are five fascinating facts about Daylight Saving Time. Number one, in 1895 George Hudson, a New Zealand bug collector, also known as an entomologist, suggested moving the clock ahead in spring so he could catch more bugs. Number two, let's be honest, we all say daylight savings time, but it turns out its daylight saving time. No need for that extras although we all get some extra z's thanks to the clock going back. Oh. Number three, though China is almost as wide as the continental United States, the whole country is officially in just one timezone Beijing time. I wonder if that means some people eat dinner in the middle of the night. Number four, when the clocks change most of us are asleep, but passengers on trains, buses, and flights that operate overnight are suddenly off schedule. Some trains actually just stop for an hour to let time catch up. Number five, for one pair of twins born in Massachusetts, the order they were born was changed by daylight saving time when the clock went back after Samuel was born, his brother Ronan ended up being older than him despite being born second. Daylight Saving Time sure caused some confusion in the past, so I'm hoping to change the class this year goes smoothly. Do you have questions about where things stand with COVID? Or the latest on the vaccine approval for kids from five to eleven? Yep. Well, we want to hear from you. Tell us what questions you'd like The Ten News to answer in our next update about the pandemic. Send your audio to hello@thetennews.com or leave us a voicemail at 877-TEN-NEWS. That's 877 T E N N E W S, and you just might hear your question answered on the show. Now let's see what else is going on.
Bethany Van Delft 5:58
There is a really important meeting of world leaders happening right now. The United Nations Climate Summit is underway in Glasgow, Scotland. The goal is to get countries to commit to reducing greenhouse gas emissions to stop global warming. Let's do this. On Halloween, the skies in the northern hemisphere glowed with the colors of the Aurora Borealis, though in the United States it was more of a trick than a treat because weather conditions didn't really allow many people to see them. Also known as the Northern Lights, the Aurora Borealis occurs when particles from the sun reach the Earth's atmosphere. And no one wants to run into a scorpion, but the small ones we're familiar with might seem harmless now. Scientists discovered the fossil of a scorpion in the South China Sea that was the size of a dog. Yikes! We can probably guess that it did not make a good pet. Lucky you, it's time for...
Various Voices 7:01
What, what, what's the big idea?
Bethany Van Delft 7:05
Trivia on The Ten. What large country does not observe daylight saving time and has a time zone that's half an hour off most other nations? Is it a) Canada b) India or c) Australia?
Bethany Van Delft 7:29
Did you guess it? The answer is b) India. Indian Standard Time is half an hour different than most other places. Okay. And in neighboring Nepal, the timezone is on the quarter of the hour so there's only 15 minutes difference between India and Nepal. Cool beans, man. Time is up. But before we go, we have a quick note for the grownups. Thanks for listening to The Ten News. Look out for our new episodes on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and extras on Saturdays. The Ten News is a co-production of Small But Mighty Media and Next Chapter Podcasts and is distributed by iHeartRadio. The Ten News creative team is changing clocks and includes Tracey Crooks, Tessa Flannery, Pete Musto, Adam Barnard, and Nathalie Alonzo. Anya Schultz contributed to this episode. Our production director is Jeremiah Tittle and our executive producers are Donald Albright and show creator Tracy Leeds Kaplan. I'm Bethany Van Delft, and thanks for listening to The Ten News. I am so excited for an extra hour of sleep, less excited for it getting dark earlier, but what are you going to do?
