The Terrible Handwriting Task Force 💌 (9/29/20)
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Description
In today’s episode we’ll: 📚 Find out what "back to school" has been like for some kids living abroad 💌 Polish up our Postal Service IQ 📮 Ask an expert about vote-by-mail.
Links
🤓 Learn more: Surprising Facts About the U.S. Post Office
✍🏽 Find your congressperson and send them a letter: U.S. House of Representatives
🦆 Read more about: "Fear of Ducks Phobia" or Anatidaephobia
👉🏾 We want to hear from you! Email us with questions, comments, or story ideas: hello@thetennews.com
Transcript
Bethany Van Delft: [00:00:00] Hey there, I'm Bethany Van Delft and welcome to the ten news. The show where you give us ten minutes and we tell you what's up in the world. It's the stuff the grownups are talking about explained and a lot more fun. And it's just for you.
[00:00:16] [Rocket launch count down, 10, 9, ignition sequence started, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0]
[00:00:27] In today's episode, we'll find out what back to school has been like for some friends living abroad, polish up our postal service IQ and ask an expert about vote by mail. Okay, let's get into The Ten News.
[00:00:42] The start of this school year has been a lot different from what most of us are used to. Many kids are learning online while others are getting used to masking up for class.
[00:00:54] There are different rules in different cities, different states and different countries. [00:01:00] We checked in on ninth grader, Leo sixth grader, August and third graders, Zuora and Miles. To find out what school during the pandemic looks like for them in Tokyo, Japan. Here's what they had to say.
Kid voice 1: [00:01:13] We are doing a hybrid of Tuesdays and Thursdays on campus, and then Mondays, Wednesdays thru Fridays online.
[00:01:22] Um, when I'm not there physically, it's usually quite easy. Um, we just have classes most of the day and then have like a couple breaks in between where I can just hang out at home. I think it's cool to like when you're at home, you get to like, choose what you, how you want to split up your work .
Kids voice 2: [00:01:39] In person it's normal at first. But always my mom has to take my temperature check before school and she returns it in a form on the computer. Parents are not allowed in campus, so we have to walk up the hill, Parker bikes, and then say goodbye.
[00:01:57] Also, when you get to school, you have to like [00:02:00] do your temperature again and for your hands, there's hand santizers at each desk and you'll also have to bring a backup mask. And do you have to zombie arms to social distance.
[00:02:15] Of course, afterward masks the whole entire time.
Bethany Van Delft: [00:02:18] I wondered if it were all up to them, would they choose distance learning or going to school in person?
Kids voice 2: [00:02:25] I would do in person school, because I like being with my friends and the school's turning out good and fun.
Kid voice 1: [00:02:34] Distance learning because it's safer.
Kids voice 3: [00:02:36] It's safe if you stay more at home, but like it's still better if you have a couple days in person.
Kid voice 1: [00:02:42] You can ask your teacher questions in real life and like things that you were wondering and online, it's kind of harder to contact them and stuff. So that's like, The one thing that I liked about it. And also that I get to see my friends two days of the week.
Kids voice 2: [00:02:58] I would just like [00:03:00] everyone to be safe and try to act normal. And like don't panic.
Bethany Van Delft: [00:03:05] That's some great advice from Zuora. Thanks friends. It's time for today's trivia question. Can you guess the definition of the word anatidaephobia? Stick around till the end of The Ten to find out.
[00:03:31] You may be you hearing a lot of talk about the post office. And how important it is as more and more states move to vote by mail for this year's elections. But there's so much more to know about the post office. Here are our favorite facts.
[00:03:45] Number one, although it seems like there's a Starbucks on every corner.
[00:03:50] The largest retail network in our country is actually the postal service. According to the USPS website, it's bigger than [00:04:00] McDonald's, Walmart, and Starbucks combined. One key difference though, is that the postal service is a not for profit agency. It's not in the mail game to make money. The U.S. has over 30,000 post offices that deliver billions of pieces of mail each year.
[00:04:17] Things like medications, paychecks, and voting ballots. People even use the postal service to mail, live bees, chickens, and even baby alligators.
Male voice: [00:04:29] Message!
Bethany Van Delft: [00:04:30] Number Two: Can you guess whose face appeared on the first stamp?
Male voice: [00:04:35] LeBron James? LeBron James?
Bethany Van Delft: [00:04:36] No, it wasn't LeBron James and trick question. It was two people. George Washington, our first president graced the 10 cent stamp and on a 5 cent version was Benjamin Franklin founding father, and our first postmaster general.
[00:04:54] Number three. Part of the role of the trusted postal worker is to deliver everywhere. [00:05:00] Even the most remote locations like Supai, a tiny village at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, belonging to the Havasupai tribe. First they have to drive 67 miles from Peach strings, Arizona, then pack the mail onto a mule.
[00:05:16] Who clumps eight miles down into a Canyon and finally drops it into a mail box. What a trip!
[00:05:23] Number Four: Last but not least the unsung heroes of the postal service. Did you know that there's a terrible handwriting task force. At the remote encoding center in Salt Lake City, Utah, 1000 experts translate address scribbles in an average of four seconds.
[00:05:43] So make their lives easier and practice your penmanship. While there is a lot of talk about the cost of running the postal service, it is a big part of people's lives. The postal service doesn't just deliver the mail. It also provides jobs and [00:06:00] connects communities. So what can you do to show love to the post office?
[00:06:05] Buy stamps! With those stamps mail letters to your Congress person and tell them to support the U.S. Postal service. And always be kind to your mail carriers, they just might be delivering a birthday gift from your grandma.
Barack Obama: [00:06:30] "If you can find the time to get a free taco, then you can find the time to go vote."
Bethany Van Delft: [00:06:37] Now that we are pretty much experts on the post office. Let's talk about an important topic for this year's election vote by mail. Let's go to our correspondent, Pamela Kirkland, who spoke with David Becker at the Center for Election Innovation in Research.
Pamela Kirkland: [00:06:52] Thanks Bethany. The history of the post office brings us to a very important way we still use the post office [00:07:00] today. Coronavirus has already changed the way we do a lot of things, including how Americans vote as the country continues to deal with the pandemic. You may have heard politicians and election officials talk about vote by mail, but what exactly does that mean?
[00:07:17] We asked some kids what they thought.
Kid voice - Avia: [00:07:20] It's when you have to work and you can't go, so you just mail it.
Kid voice - Isaih: [00:07:25] I'd write who I would want to be president and put it in the mail.
Pamela Kirkland: [00:07:30] We brought in an expert to answer some of our questions.
David Becker: [00:07:34] My name is David Becker. I run a nonprofit based in Washington, DC. It's called the Center for Election Innovation and Research, and we work with election officials all over the country to help them run elections that work for voters.
Pamela Kirkland: [00:07:47] We asked him what people should know about voting by mail in their local elections and the presidential election on November 3rd.
David Becker: [00:07:56] It's basically just an opportunity for voters to receive a ballot in the [00:08:00] mail, rather than going to a polling place to get their ballot. And in every state voters can do that.
Pamela Kirkland: [00:08:05] David says with Coronavirus still being an issue, expanding voting by mail for everyone is one option that helps election officials keep people safe.
David Becker: [00:08:16] In a pandemic loaders are gonna need choices. Voters are obviously very concerned about unsafe situations. They're going to want to find opportunities to vote in ways that might seem less risky. Um, for election officials, one big advantage, um, to expanding choices for voters is they want to spread voting out across as many days and voting methods as possible. So that there aren't a lot of people trying to vote at the same time and a single polling place on election day.
Pamela Kirkland: [00:08:45] But let's hear from Josiah who had a question about voting.
Josiah - kid voice: [00:08:49] How do they actually know who voted or not?
David Becker: [00:08:56] Yeah. So that, that is a really good question, and I have my own sixth grader and he asks [00:09:00] similarly, uh, wise questions about this. Um, so first of all, there, we have a secret ballot in the United States and that means it's impossible for anyone to know how any particular person voted, whether they voted for a particular candidate or not. But we do know whether or not someone voted. We don't know who they voted for, but we do know whether or not someone voted.
Pamela Kirkland: [00:09:23] And David says it's important to keep in mind that with so many people voting, it might mean we don't get results as fast as we're used to.
David Becker: [00:09:32] Even I fall victim to that and want to know who won right away. And the volunteers who are staffing the polls are being expected to count probably about 150 million ballots. And is it really realistic that we could expect that to happen in just a couple of hours? Probably not, especially in some places where the elections are going to be really close. It's much more important to get the accurate count rather than a fast count.
Pamela Kirkland: [00:09:54] Thanks so much to David Becker for helping us break down, voting by mail.
Bethany Van Delft: [00:09:59] Big [00:10:00] thanks for voting expert, David and correspondent, Pamela. His work is going to be even more important as we get closer to those November elections.
[00:10:14] Remember our trivia question from earlier in the show. What does the word anatidaephobia mean? Well, did you guess it?
Kid voice 1: [00:10:23] Um...
Bethany Van Delft: [00:10:24] Anatidaephobia is the word for the very real fear
that somewhere in the world, a duck, yes a duck, maybe watching you. [00:10:33] {Quack}
[00:10:34] Turns out the word was made up by Gary Larson, the creator of the cartoon, the Far Side, one of my faves, and now is commonly used by people who actually do have a fear of ducks.
[00:10:46] {Quack, man yelling AHH}
[00:10:47] Well, that brings us to the end of The Ten. Thanks for listening to the very first episode of The Ten News. New episodes come out on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Set a reminder. The Ten News is a [00:11:00] co-production of Small, But Mighty Media in collaboration with Next Chapter Podcasts. A big, thank you to our special guests, David Becker.
[00:11:07] And now for a super-sized thanks to all the folks made this first episode of The Ten News possible. Our amazing contributors and writers, Erin Fredman, Pamela Kirkland, Bridget Todd, Steven Tompkins, Anya Schultz and Ryan Nerz. The hardworking production team Jenner Pascua, Jacob Bronstein and Janet Lee. Editorial director, Tracy Crooks and production director, Jeremiah Tittle.
[00:11:34] Executive producers, Donald Albright from Tenderfoot TV and show creator. Tracy Leeds, Kaplan. Our incredible editors and sound design team. Kyle Murdoch, Edgar Comey, and Greg Cortez. Almost there folks. Special thanks to our show advisors, the brilliant Rococo Punch team and all around journalist extraordinaire Soledad O'Brien.
[00:11:57] And lastly, thanks to iHeart radio for [00:12:00] their support and partnership. If you have questions about the show or a fun fact, you want to share it, email us at hello@thetennews.com. And don't forget to subscribe, rate and review on Apple podcasts, iHeart radio, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. That's The Ten News.
[00:12:17] I'm Bethany Van Delft, and I'll see you on Thursday. Check ya laterrrr.
