2021 Top Picks 📰 AND Guest Arav from The Week Junior
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Season 2: Episode 51 Description
In today's episode: 📰 Host Bethany Van Delft helps us wrap up the new year by sharing our picks for the biggest news stories of the year. 🌎 Have you heard of The Week Junior and did you know that they have a Junior Council made up of cool kids who are interested in Journalism?🎧Listen as we sit down with Junior Council member, 13-year-old Arav, to learn more about the Council and The Week’s Junior Voices survey. And test your supply-chain knowledge in today's Trivia on the Ten. ✅
Sources:
Joe Biden inauguration: When are he and Kamala Harris sworn in? - BBC News
Egypt's Suez Canal blocked by huge container ship - BBC News
U.S. Vaccine Rollout Expands to Children Ages 12 to 15 - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
Sixth Assessment Report — IPCC
A Look Back At A Weird Summer Olympics : NPR
Beeple sold an NFT for $69 million - The Verge
Top 10 Cryptocurrencies In December 2021 – Forbes Advisor
Are billionaires who go to space astronauts or tourists? (slate.com)
SpaceX is about to break its own annual launch record – Spaceflight Now
Canada taps into maple syrup reserves to deal with massive shortage : NPR
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TRANSCRIPT:
Sound Bit 0:01
Tonight's top story, a stunning headline, top stories, now to a story a lot of people are talking about.
Bethany Van Delft 0:06
The New Year is almost here. Can you believe it? So we're counting down some of our favorite things from 2021. Today, we're sharing our picks for the biggest news stories of the year. I'm Bethany Van Delft. It's Thursday, December 30th. And this is the Ten News Top Picks.
Various voices 0:27
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1,
Bethany Van Delft 0:35
The Week Junior is a news magazine that keeps kids up to date on what's happening in the world. And get this. They have a junior council made up of cool kids who are interested in journalism. We sat down with junior council member, 13-year-old Aarav, who shared the findings of The Week Junior's voices survey. So thank you so much for joining us. We're so excited to talk with you. Could you introduce yourself to our listeners?
Aarav 1:04
Yeah. So I'm Aarav. I'm part of The Week Junior Council counsel at The Week Junior. So really what The Week Junior Council is, is it's more of a way for, people or kids between 8 and 14 can really express themselves. As for me, I'm 13. I have a dog Maverick and I have two siblings. But outside there, not really too much that's super interesting.
Bethany Van Delft 1:30
I mean, that already sounds super interesting. Tell us a little bit about The Week Junior. I know it's a weekly magazine for keeping kids 8 to 14 informed about the latest news around the world. What do you like about the magazine?
Aarav 1:43
So what I think really wrapped me in The Week Junior is that it's more politically neutral, right? Like you don't have to listen to Oh, my God, the Democrats are so better. Oh, my God, the Republicans are so bad. And it also doesn't really like have that, like the attitude of the role is going to end tomorrow. It's more of just okay, here's a positive, here's a negative, how can you help. And then it also has more like, you know, fun, like pages, right? One thing that I really liked about it, or when I first saw the magazine was probably a section on page eight, which is called the Big Debate. So every week they give out a different question. And you can respond to whether you agree or disagree, but they give out the prior week's response every other week, too. So I think that is probably what I liked about the Week Junior the most.
Bethany Van Delft 2:36
That is such a fantastic way to start a conversation. Really, I love that. So you mentioned that you are on the council, that you're a member of the Junior Council. So you describe the Junior Council a little bit. Could you tell us what do you do on the council? And what's it like to serve on a council?
Aarav 2:56
So for the council, really what it is, is you learn about like journalism, you learn about other people, you learn about what you can do as a journalist. So The Week Junior council, at The Week Junior is really about, you know, trying to develop yourself into a journalist. But the junior counsel is more about you know, learning about journalism, and really, you get to meet a lot of fun people.
Bethany Van Delft 3:23
Oh, my goodness, that's so cool. You get this like life experience there and, and get to have fun to do you get an experience serving on a council with other people. Like I know, when you're working in a group like that you have to be able to, you know, get along with people and communicate well with people and be respectful. Are those things that that you learn there at the council?
Aarav 3:43
Absolutely. So it's a very different age group between eight and 14. So that's obviously you know, a large age group to work with, but you have to know what everybody's interest is, and developing it and mixing it can read two very interesting stories. For example, you know, we were talking about how to solve food insecurity and hunger, and everybody had their own different stance, but you have to find the common ground in between that to see okay, what is the solution? How can we write this? How can we inform everybody in The Week Junior community?
Bethany Van Delft 4:17
this is really important to let you're learning it at such an important age. You know, there are grownups as you know, who can't do this. What a cool, cool opportunity and a cool thing. So The Week Junior put out this cool survey that asked kids what they wish adults knew? What were some of the biggest findings of that survey?
Aarav 4:39
So I think the two big points that I really think are important, are that 75% of kids believe their actions can make a positive difference in the world. And 82% of kids who answered that survey city don't feel heard in wish adults would listen more. So I really don't like the second part. And you see how those two numbers are right next to each other, right? Because you have this, these people who want to change the world, but they're not really, they're not really admired or, you know, acknowledged in power, yeah, by adults. So, like what I said, what I think, at least, is that I have seen the world around me where it's like, there's this like, dispute between generations. So I think that really that division has really like a set, it's not really set apart, but it's minimizing the amount that everybody can achieve. And, you know, when kids get involved earlier, right, when kids get involved in the world, they can actually have like, bigger impacts in the like, you know, older adults that get involved, right, like, young people can't really get their voices heard enough.
Bethany Van Delft 5:58
Do you have any advice for our listeners on how to share their opinions with the adults in their lives?
Aarav 6:05
So if you want to express yourself to adults more, then you might want to try to, you know, seem to have more knowledge on it, right? Because if somebody comes up to you with just an idea, that's not as effective as Okay, here's a plan to how I can execute this. Do you have any advice? In that sense? Adults might listen to you more, right? Because what often happens in the real world, is that okay, well, you might, it might be good for you, but what's in it for me? Right. It's really you know, about backing up your ideas, backing up what you have to say. And then if it also isn't you there, just push for it. Right. Really, it's about pushing for it.
Bethany Van Delft 6:49
I love that. That's such great advice. Thank you so so much, once again for joining us.
Aarav 6:55
Yeah, you're welcome. Thanks
Bethany Van Delft 6:57
Aarav it was so great talking to you. If you'd like to learn more about the Week Junior magazine or the Junior council, check out our show notes for the links. Up next, it's time for the 10 News top picks of 2021. In drumroll, please. The biggest news, the cCapitolinsurrection. On January 6, a violent mob broke into Congress to try to stop the transfer of power from President Trump to President Biden, Trump supporters were wrongly told that the results of the election were tampered with and encouraged to do something about it. Representatives and Senators had to flee the building. Investigations, trials, and arrests are ongoing for the people who participated in the violence that day. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris sworn in as President and Vice President
Sound Bit 7:56
Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. Do solemnly swear That I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States.
Bethany Van Delft 8:03
Kamala Harris was the first woman and the first black person and person of Indian descent to become vice president, Lady Gaga in Jennifer Lopez performed and Amanda Gorman, the youngest Inaugural Poet and US History delivered an inauguration poem. What a day it was. A boat caused big headaches.
Sound Bit 8:25
This is not the view you want when navigating the Suez Canal.
Bethany Van Delft 8:28
The Suez Canal was blocked in March by an enormous container ship called the ever-given. It took six days to get unstuck. The delays cost over $9 billion. And there's a new C shanty on tick-tock all about it. COVID vaccines became widely available.
Sound Bit 8:49
Breaking news pharmaceuticals giant Pfizer has announced that its anti-Coronavirus vaccine is 90% effective.
Bethany Van Delft 8:56
In April 2021 COVID vaccines became available for all adults in the US and in May kids over 12 were included. And at the very end of October, five to 11-year-old vaccines were approved. Finally, Earth got a bad report card.
Sound Bit 9:15
We come to Glasgow with global ambition to save our people and to save our planet. But we know fine three gaps.
Bethany Van Delft 9:23
The UN's report on climate change came out in August and it urged the world to take action and some strides are made at the CLP 26 meeting of world leaders.
Sound Bit 9:37
The final Olympic event in women's gymnastics has become the most anticipated event of the games.
Bethany Van Delft 9:43
The 2021 Summer Olympics were held in Tokyo, Japan after months of delays due to COVID. The US took on the most metals 113 total and most of them were won by women. yay us. Simone Biles got the very day Interest twisties and had to pull out of a few events, but she helped promote mental health care for the athletes. Check went big the economy of Roblox is moving to over half a billion a year Roblox stock became available to the public and the company's value is growing. And if T's exploded after an artist called people sold an artwork as an NFT for $69 million and cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Dogecoin polka dot and tether are worth trillions of dollars. The US left Afghanistan after its 20-year military presence in Afghanistan, US troops withdrew and the Taliban to control their great fears that hard-won women's rights will be taken away and many girls’ schools have been forced to close already. Billionaires raced to space and there it is. You can see it right there. That red flare off in the distance. Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson and you suck Amaya Zawa are the billionaires that have traveled to space this year. Elon Musk has not gone himself but his company Space X will launch 30 rockets into space by the end of this year. The good news is in representation.
Sound Bit 11:20
Chang is a spunky girl. She's super fun and silly. She loves rock and roll of all types and shreds the electric guitar.
Bethany Van Delft 11:29
In TV, film, and sports representation is slowly but surely growing for many groups, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, black people, indigenous people, Latin X people, members of the LGBTQ community, and women, great strides are made from the NFL to the White House to Shang chi to Sesame Street. Thank you. Lucky you. It's what? What's the big idea trivia on the 10? There are supply chain issues all over the world in 2021. But it was big news when Canada had a shortage of locally made products. Is it a) Canadian bacon? b) Swedish Fish or c) maple syrup? Did you guess it? The answer is c) maple syrup. The Canadian government had to bring some maple syrup out of its strategic reserve. In other words, the government had saved maple syrup over the years in case of a shortage. The reason for the lack of syrup in 2021 was a short mild spring. Maple syrup is made from maple sap which has to be harvested in weather conditions that are just right. Good thing the Canadian government was prepared. otherwise would have to find something else to put on our pancakes. Jelly. Maybe. Ah, time's up. But before we go, here's a quick note for the grownups. Thanks for listening to the Ten News. Look out for new episodes on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and extras on Saturdays. The Ten News is a coproduction of Small But Mighty Media and Next Chapter Podcasts and is distributed by iHeartRadio. The Ten News creative team is making pancakes and includes Tracey Crooks, Tessa Flannery, Pete Musto, Adam Barnard, and Nathalie Alonso. 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. And happy happy happy new year everyone.
