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What does it actually mean when people talk about a Presidential Cabinet? And who selects who goes into a Presidential Cabinet 📚 What are The Ten News' Top 10 Books of the Year for 2020?? ☂️🤩🎶 What happens when The Ten News gets a visit from iconic entertainer and host of Julie's Library podcast, Julie Andrews, her daughter Emma Walton Hamilton and granddaughter, Hope Hamilton? The Ten goes Twenty, that’s what! See if you can guess the answer to the Trivia Question of the Day: Which beloved tale is the world’s most-translated children’s book?
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🤔 Get to know the people who make up Biden's Cabinet
📚 Check out all the wonderful stories featured on Julie Andrews' podcast Julie's Library
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💌 Email us! hello@thetennews.com
Transcript
Bethany Van Delft: [00:00:00] What's in a President's cabinet? What were some of our favorite books of the year? What happens when The Ten News gets a visit from an iconic entertainer and her family? The Ten goes 20, that's what! I'm Bethany Van Delft. And we have so much to get into on today's special 20 minute episode of The Ten News. The show where in the time it takes to spell supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, we find out what's up in the world.
[00:00:33] Okay, let's get into The Ten News. Ten, nine, eight seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.
[00:00:42] President-Elect Joe Biden has begun assembling his administration's team and nominating his cabinet, that's the group of government officials who serve as the president's closest advisors. Biden has publicly pledged to create the most diverse cabinet in US [00:01:00] history. Yes, you did Biden! Cabinet nominees have to be confirmed by the Senate first, but several of Biden's picks so far seem to indicate he may be on track.
[00:01:10] Here's what some of the Biden administration might look like. If confirmed.
Male voice: [00:01:14] The dream team, let's do this.
Bethany Van Delft: [00:01:19] Janet Yellen as the first female Secretary of the Treasury. Retired Army General Lloyd Austin as the first African American Secretary of Defense. Alejandro Mayorkas as the first immigrant and Latino Secretary of Homeland Security.
[00:01:38] Xavier Becerra as the first Latino Secretary of Health and Human Services. Neera Tanden would be the first woman of color to direct the Office of Management and Budget. And Cecilia Rouse would be the first African-American to chair the Council of Economic Advisors. The President-elect also [00:02:00] selected an all female White House senior communications team, which doesn't need Senate approval.
[00:02:05] With many positions left to fill. It'll be interesting to see how well Biden's cabinet reflects the diversity of the country.
[00:02:19] 2020 has been a crazy year for people all over the world. But some cool things happen too. So as we close out this year, let's take a look back at some of our favorite things from 2020, because who doesn't love ending things on a positive note? This week, we're sharing our favorite books of 2020. It's The Ten News, top 10.
[00:02:48] Number Ten - From the Desk of Zoe Washington by Janae Marks. A captivating debut novel tackling topics of family, love and justice in a smart and compelling fashion.
[00:02:59] Number [00:03:00] Nine – Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo. A novel packed with the exploration of imperfectness forgiveness, loss, and grief.
[00:03:09] Number Eight- We Dream of Space by Erin Entrada Kelly. Set in 1986, this middle grade novel does a fantastic job of blending the exploration of friends, family, and science!
[00:03:22] Number Seven - Class Act by Jerry Craft.
[00:03:25] A funny, powerful companion book to New Kid. Class Act follows Drew's experiences. One of the only people of color in an esteemed private school,
[00:03:35] Number Six - Tristen Strong Destroys The World by Kwame Mbalia. The second book in the Tristen Strong series is an action-packed adventure from start to finish, and it's written in a page turning style that both young and older readers can enjoy.
[00:03:52] Stick around 'till the end of The Ten to hear the rest of our list.
[00:04:00] [00:04:00] If you've ever seen the Sound of Music, the original Mary Poppins or any of the Princess Diaries movies, you've seen the amazing talent of the legendary Julie Andrews. Now, also a bestselling author, Julie Andrews hosts a podcast with her daughter, Emma Walton Hamilton, who is a writer and arts educator, and Emma's daughter Hope Hamilton, a 17 year old student and actress.
[00:04:26] The podcast called Julie's Library features these three generations discussing their favorite children's books, speaking with authors and bringing stories to life. I recently got the chance to speak with them about what it's like to host the podcast with your family. It was really exciting.
[00:04:46] Hello. Thank you so much for joining us.
Julie Andrews: [00:04:51] Hello, this is Julie.
Emma Walton Hamilton: [00:04:52] Hi, this is Emma. It's such a pleasure to be here!
Hope Hamilton: [00:04:55] This is Hope. Thanks for having me.
Bethany Van Delft: [00:04:57] The first question, was it always [00:05:00] intended to be done as a family project? And why was it important to you to do it as a family project?
Emma Walton Hamilton: [00:05:06] We wanted the podcast to be something that could be multi-generational that families could sit down and listen to all together, parents, grandparents, children of different ages.
[00:05:17] And so what better way to do that we thought then to have multi-generational voices on the podcast, if possible. And so it was a natural fit.
Julie Andrews: [00:05:25] Indeed. It was. Yeah.
Hope Hamilton: [00:05:27] I don't think I knew that I was gonna to be on the podcast at first. I think it was like, oh, they want you for one episode. And then, you know, it did really well. And so, oh, they want you for another episode and yeah, it was really nice and it was quite a nice surprise and it was super fun. So.
Julie Andrews: [00:05:45] It is super fun.
Hope Hamilton: [00:05:46] Yeah. I think it's. Really cool that we all get to work together and kind of experience this together. Cause it's a new thing that none of us have done before.
Julie Andrews: [00:05:56] No, and it is pleasure of doing it together. Isn't it Hopi?
Hope Hamilton: [00:05:59] Yeah.
Julie Andrews: [00:06:01] It's just a lovely. Cozy feeling of, of us all enjoying the moment. And I think we believe in what we do and it's just lovely to bring it to audiences.
Hope Hamilton: [00:06:14] Yeah, definitely.
Bethany Van Delft: [00:06:15] So to talk about that a little bit more, how do you approach it from a multi-generational perspective?
[00:06:22] Because you have such different points of view coming into this, how do you approach it and give voice to the different generations?
Julie Andrews: [00:06:32] Well, the one thing that Emma and I do believe in very firmly is that the best idea wins, whether we're writing or doing the podcast or coming up with a thought. And so we might discuss it or even discuss it somewhat heatedly sometimes.
[00:06:49] But I think we both recognize that the best idea does win out. And the one that resonates and makes the most sense is where we go. [00:07:00] Emma, do you want to add anything to that, darling?
[00:07:02] Yea, I would just
Emma Walton Hamilton: [00:07:03] say, I think it also helps that we are, that. Almost everybody in the family is creative too, to one degree or another. And so we all have creative backgrounds.
Julie Andrews: [00:07:12] Or we think we are darling, anyway.
[00:07:14] That's exactly. But I mean, we all in various ways have worked in theater and we've worked creatively together, other capacities before the podcast.
Hope Hamilton: [00:07:23] Even if we're working together. I think what we all know is that first and foremost, we're family, we're not colleagues.
[00:07:30] And so it's kind of a different. Way of approaching it because at the end of the day, you've just, you go back and you live with that.
Julie Andrews: [00:07:38] That's nicely put Hopi darling.
Emma Walton Hamilton: [00:07:41] The love and the kindness that we share with each other comes first. So we don't really, even if we, we don't even argue, but even if there's like a slight problem.
Julie Andrews: [00:07:52] Like me getting a little bit bossy once in a while, Hopi right?
Emma Walton Hamilton: [00:07:56] A few, a [00:08:00] few too many acting notes.
Julie Andrews: [00:08:03] No, but she put it so well when we're not collaborating from far, we are family first and it, from my point of view flows that much more easily. And, uh, it truly is fun and lovely to do and to share it, is a gift for me.
Bethany Van Delft: [00:08:24] How do you choose the books that you read and the guests that you have?
Emma Walton Hamilton: [00:08:28] We started out by all of us, agreeing that we wanted the choices to be as diverse as possible to address as broad, a range of subjects and cultures and ideas and people as possible because we wanted,
Julie Andrews: [00:08:43] Can I just interrupt darling and say that the one thing we decided on was picture books though, that's the kind of themes that we go for.
Emma Walton Hamilton: [00:08:52] That's true, we are sticking to picture books at this point, or at least the season one was specifically picture books, but we wanted all the picture [00:09:00] books we chose to be as diverse as possible because our audience is diverse because our listeners are diverse and we wanted children everywhere to be able to hear themselves and see themselves reflected in the stories we chose.
Julie Andrews: [00:09:14] But because we choose or set ourselves the task of reading, mostly picture books, of course, on the podcast, we can't show the pictures, but we do try very hard to choose subjects that we can read aloud well, and then with the help of sound effects, music and so on, hopefully the listener can picture what those lovely artistic contributions would be, but it's, it does make it difficult. Mostly the pictures in a picture book, tell the story as well. Certainly as much as the text, I think that's probably one of the biggest challenges we had.
[00:09:57] Isn't it Emma?
Emma Walton Hamilton: [00:09:58] Yeah. To find stories that [00:10:00] stand alone without the art, you know, and
Julie Andrews: [00:10:02] Yet have the diversity as well. Right.
Bethany Van Delft: [00:10:06] Hosting a podcast with three generations of my family would be, bananas. I wondered how Julie's Library was handling the additional challenge of recording their podcast while social distancing.
Emma Walton Hamilton: [00:10:19] Because we've been recording during COVID, um, our early episodes were recorded in a recording studio, but we had to obviously lock down and so American Public Media sent gear to both of our homes. And we set up Sam, our son, our engineer, uh, set up the gear for us in my closet and mom's closet.
Julie Andrews: [00:10:42] Yeah. We commandered an upstairs guest closet for me and he made it soundproof and brought in all the stuff that I would need.
[00:10:51] I could not have imagined managing it without his help.
Emma Walton Hamilton: [00:10:56] But it was, it was very funny because here we [00:11:00] are recording this whole thing from our closets and invariably we would be recording, but also on zoom with the authors or the guests so that we could see each other. And so that it would feel authentic and connected and you know, suddenly feeling embarrassed to meet the great Jackie Woodson standing in your closet, but happily she was in her closet too.
[00:11:19] So that was fun. It is a very small closet.
Bethany Van Delft: [00:11:24] Oh, sorry, just in case, you're wondering. No, I'm not sitting in my closet right now. Okay. Back to the interview. What do you hope families and kids will take away from listening to Julie's Library.
Julie Andrews: [00:11:36] Oh, the love of books, the feel of books, the joy that. I mean Hopi, you are the best example.
[00:11:46] I've you read how many books a week? You're a great reader. And it's such a joy to see how passionate you are about it.
Hope Hamilton: [00:11:57] Yeah. Um, I. I [00:12:00] mean, since I was little, I've always grown up around books and people who love to read. And I grew up with my mom reading to me every night before bed. So it became like a, it's just something I love to be able to get swept away into another story for a little bit to kind of get away from real life is so fun. It's true.
Emma Walton Hamilton: [00:12:22] And, you know, I think also another piece in addition to really hoping to convey the, the joy and the pleasure of reading and reading together as families is the idea of enriching an experience or reading experience in multiple ways. So thinking of not just reading the book that's of course the most wonderful and best part, but then perhaps you know, doing a drawing or an activity related to the book or having an inspiring conversation about the themes that the book raises or the questions that the book raises.
Hope Hamilton: [00:12:55] Enrichement and the immersion is so important to further [00:13:00] your joy and understanding. I think of the story. Um, can I say, for example, uh, last year I was in a production of Little Women with my local theater company and I mean, a few of the other. Cast members went to the Louisa may Alcott house together. And we took the tour and we learned all these extra cool things about, you know, the original Little Women family, and how she wrote the books and everything. And so it was a really important and enriching experience to kind of understand and be able to relay the story better to your audience.
Emma Walton Hamilton: [00:13:38] There's a wonderful educator and literacy advocate who's who talks about books for children being windows mirrors and sliding glass doors. And I love that image and I think that's very much part of what we hope for the podcast to be for our listeners is ways to see [00:14:00] themselves reflected ways to see the world reflected and maybe ways to take a step out into a new adventure that they might not have experienced before.
Julie Andrews: [00:14:09] I have to say it's a new adventure for me too. Uh, at my age, I never thought I'd be doing a podcast and particularly one with my family. Imagine, you know what pleasure that brings to me. At the end of the day when we've recorded one and it felt reasonably good and we trusted that it was going to turn out. Okay. It's such a lovely feeling.
[00:14:34] We are so thankful to Julie Andrews, Emma Walton Hamilton, and Hope Hamilton for sharing their story with the 10 news. And for all of the stories they share on their podcast, Julie's Library. If you haven't checked it out, definitely do it is so, so good.
Tracy Leeds Kaplan: [00:14:53] Hey parents and awesome guardians. I'm Tracy Leeds Kaplan, Executive Producer of The Ten News. And who are you?
Owen: [00:15:00] I'm Owen, your son!
Tracy Leeds Kaplan: [00:15:01] What do you think about all the fun facts that are in the show?
Owen: [00:15:04] I think they're very interesting.
Tracy Leeds Kaplan: [00:15:07] Did you know that if you go to the website, thetennews.com, you can submit your own fun fact.
Owen: [00:15:13] You can do that? Yeah.
Tracy Leeds Kaplan: [00:15:15] We want to hear from everybody with all of their crazy fun facts that they know that's pretty cool. Visit our website, thetennews.com. And while you're there, you can sign up for our newsletter, learn more about the team and share your feedback on the show. Anything else you want people to know about the show?
Owen: [00:15:31] Not really.
Bethany Van Delft: [00:15:35] Earlier in this episode, we started counting down our top 10 favorite books of 2020.
[00:15:40] Here are the final five. Number Five - The Tower of Nero by Rick Riordan. This action packed finale of the number one best-selling Trials of Apollo answers all the questions fans of the series have been dying to discover.
[00:15:56] Number Four - The Silver Arrow by Lev [00:16:00] Grossman. This one is a timeless middle grade fantasy. Perfect for fans of Roald Dahl and the Chronicles of Narnia.
[00:16:07] Number Three - Stamped: Racism, Anti racism And You by Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds, the title says it all here. The authors explore racism and anti-racism at a time when people are more ready than ever to begin talking about these tough topics.
[00:16:24] Number Two - Before The Ever After by Jacqueline Woodson. Told in lyrical verse, this novel takes a look at a family past their prime and explores professional sports and their toll on Black bodies and The Tens Number One pick - Ghost Squad by Claribel A. Ortega, a fun-filled supernatural fantasy that's been described as Coco meets Stranger Things with a hint of Ghostbusters.
[00:16:51] Do you have a favorite book of the year that didn't make our list? Email us at hello at the tennews.com and tell us all about it.
[00:17:03] [00:17:00] It's time for your trivia question of the day!
[00:17:07] Lots of great books get translated into different languages. So people all over the world can enjoy them. Can you guess which beloved tale is the world's most translated children's book? Is it a) Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, b) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, or c) The Little Prince. Did you guess it, the answer is c) The Little Prince was originally written in French by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Since its publication in 1943, it's been translated into 300 languages and dialects and it's sold over 200 million copies worldwide. I get it. That book is amazing. I have like three copies. They're all in [00:18:00] English though, but.
[00:18:03] Time is up.
[00:18:05] 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 Steven Tompkins.
[00:18:25] The creative producer is Jenner Pascua. Marketing is led by Jacob Bronstein with social media and web support by Stephen 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.
[00:18:44] If you have questions about the show, a story idea, or just 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, [00:19:00] iHeartRadio, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. I am Bethany Van Delft and thanks for listening to The Ten News.
[00:19:07] Now go cozy up with a book you and your grownups can enjoy.
