This week we answer three questions from Orla, Reuben and Gil with the help of expert Charlie Luxton. Charlie is an architect who specialises in environmentally friendly homes. We find out how spiders manage to trap flies in their webs but don't get stuck in them themselves. To give you a clue it is thanks to the way they use their legs, keep clean and a special way they design their webs. Charlie Luxton tells us all about bricks, how to make them, who invented them and how long we in the UK for...
Jan 15, 2021•14 min•Season 2Ep. 7
In this week's show we answer three questions from Tasso, Lily and Mia with help from special guest expert Dan Stevens. Dan Stevens is an English actor who now lives in America, he shot to fame in Downton Abbey and has since been in The Man Who Invented Christmas, Night at the Museum and Eurovision. Dan tells us all about why actors love a stage to perform on as well as why they wear make up and costumes plus we find out about the history of make up including how our cousins, the Neanderthals wo...
Jan 08, 2021•14 min•Season 2Ep. 6
In this week's show we answer three questions from Goldie, Tasso and Sophia with help from special guest expert Zephyr Wildman. Zephyr is a wonderful yoga teacher who teaches in London as well as on retreats around the world and knows all about yoga. We find out how yoga helps us with focus, memory and resilience and how practicing can help us feel more peaceful. We discover the history of yoga – how it began in Northern India, how priests started it and when it came over to the west. Also it’s ...
Jan 01, 2021•14 min•Season 2Ep. 5
In this week's show we answer lots of questions from Tabitha, Jensen, Eleanor, Alice, Ollie, Jack, Chessie and Eleanor with help from the wonderful writer Neil Gaiman. Neil is the author of lots of books for children and adults including Coraline, Stardust, Fortunately The Milk, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, picture books about a sneezing panda called Chu, American Gods and much more. He knows a lot about magic and mystery and helps us uncover the secrets of Christmas Eve. Neil answers lots ...
Dec 24, 2020•19 min•Season 2Ep. 4
In this week's show we answer questions from Orla, Emilia, Zac, Ambrose and Portia with help from special guest expert Lee Davies from Kew Gardens in London. Lee is curator of fungi at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Lee tells us all about mushrooms and toadstools and why they like the dark. Plus we uncover the biggest living thing in the world, which happens to be an enormous mushroom! We find out about how the movement of the earth and the sun creates different seasons around the world as well as ...
Dec 18, 2020•13 min•Season 2Ep. 3
In this week's show we answer three questions from Evangeline, Roman and Clara with help from special guest expert the artist Grayson Perry. Grayson is a world-renowned artist, writer and TV presenter and works a lot with clay to make incredible pots so he is the perfect person to answer Clara’s question. We discover how to make clay last forever and what temperature it needs to go in the oven at in a great answer recorded in Grayson’s art studio. We also find out ways to make fire and how human...
Dec 11, 2020•17 min•Season 2Ep. 2
Welcome back to the second series of Everything Under The Sun! Thanks for sending in your questions. In this week's show we answer three questions from Ithaca, Benji and Elijah with help from special guest expert Sir Richard Branson. Richard Branson founded Virgin Records, Virgin airways and now Virgin Galactic which is working hard to make it easier for people to go into space. One day flying to space might be as easy as flying from London to Paris. Richard knows all about why rockets fly to pl...
Dec 04, 2020•15 min•Season 2Ep. 1
This week we answer three questions, how are dictionaries made? How are Blue Plaques decided and how is earwax made? Our guest expert is Catherine Sangster from the Oxford English Dictionary! Find out who the first blue plaque ever was for and how they are made in Cornwall. Do subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen to it and tell all your friends! For more info go to www.everythingunderthesun.co.uk Thank you! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. See omnystudio.com/l...
May 19, 2020•10 min•Season 1Ep. 61
Today we answer four spring like questions, they are from Seraphina, Alex, Elizabeth and Anurada they are: how do buds appear on trees? how do trees make their leaves? what the husks of seeds are made out of? Why are blueberries skin blue? A big thank you to Seraphina, Elizabeth, Anurada and Alex for this week’s questions and to Jess Evans at the National Trust and Alys Fowler for this week’s excellent answers about buds, leaves and the husks of seeds! Remember to send everyone who doesn’t know ...
May 08, 2020•10 min•Season 1Ep. 60
Hello and welcome to episode 58 of Everything Under The Sun – I hope everyone is doing okay at home! This week we're talking about sleepy sloths, dreams and camels. Our first question is about a sleepy animal, called a sloth and it comes from Alice, 5, she would like to know why do sloths sleep so much? We also discuss Catrin's question, which is why do we dream? I have David Eagleman who is a neuroscientist - that’s someone who studies the brain - and a best selling author. He has written books...
Apr 24, 2020•11 min•Season 1Ep. 59
Hello and welcome to episode 57 of Everything Under The Sun – a weekly podcast answering all the most pressing questions children around the world have about life on earth! Even though we can’t visit any at the moment there are still lots of countries out there filled with children doing the same thing as you – staying at home! I thought we’d have an episode with questions about different things in other countries this week so we can imagine places we might go in the world in the future. Our fir...
Apr 17, 2020•11 min•Season 1Ep. 58
Hello and welcome to episode 56 of Everything Under The Sun – a weekly podcast answering all the most pressing questions children around the world have about life on earth! My name is Molly and today I have three questions for you: The first is who was the first comedian? We find out all about the history of comedy and funny people of the past from Dan Schreiber from No Such Thing as A Fish and QI. The second question is from Martha and Heidi who sent me a photo of something they saw out on a ru...
Apr 10, 2020•17 min•Season 1Ep. 57
Hello and welcome to episode 55 of Everything Under The Sun! I know a lot of you children listening might be at home at the moment, hopefully with lots of people around you having fun but still you might be missing your friends a bit as lots of schools have closed for a while - if so this is for you! I hope you enjoy the show and remember, do send in a question and I can answer it for you! To help all the other children around the world who are home from school please do send the link to the pod...
Apr 03, 2020•10 min•Season 1Ep. 56
Hello and welcome to 54th episode of Everything Under the Sun, a weekly podcast answering all the most pressing questions children around the world have about life on earth. My name is Molly and today I have three questions! They’re about armadillos, music and mermaids! Our first question comes from Wolf, who lives in Paraguay! He sent me a photo of an armadillo he saw on holiday in Uruguay and asked me a question about these curious creatures! It is... Why do armadillos have little heads and bi...
Mar 27, 2020•13 min•Season 1Ep. 55
Bumblebees! Baboons! Saguaros! This episode is for all the children who are going to be at home for a while, this is so you can all hear each other's voices and learn new things! Please do send your favourite episode of Everything Under The Sun to your friends so they can listen and learn new things! Remember if you'd like to send in a question you record it using an adult's smartphone, using a voice recording app and send it into me at [email protected] This week's questions are...
Mar 20, 2020•14 min•Season 1Ep. 54
Hello and Welcome to a very special episode of Everything Under The Sun. Today is the 52nd episode of the podcast, which means this beloved podcast has taken a full trip around the sun! It has been such a lovely year of making Everything Under The Sun, because I’ve had such fun creating it. I love waking up to find your questions waiting for me each morning in my inbox, I love pressing play on the audio recordings you send me and hearing your clever, curious voices. I like the letters and emails...
Mar 13, 2020•14 min•Season 1Ep. 53
Today’s questions are about DEW, BUBBLES and HICCUPS. First up is Maggie who would like to know - what is dew? Find out how water can be three things, and how it turns into dew. Our next question is why do bubbles pop? To answer it I have writer, physicist, oceanographer Helen Czerski, who knows all about bubbles! She’s written a book called Bubbles: A Ladybird Expert Book all about bubbles and she’s here to answer the question and even tell us about how dolphins use bubbles as toys! Our third q...
Mar 06, 2020•10 min•Season 1Ep. 52
Today we’re answering three questions about LONG things! One’s about long hair, the next about long necks and the last about long breaths! Our first question comes from Sophie, she would like to know: how long would it take for my hair to be like Rapunzel? Hear from top hairdresser Lino Carbosiero MBE about how long it would take as well as some tips on how to grow your hair long! Next up is a question from Livia who would like to know: how long is a giraffe’s neck? We discover giraffe’s necks a...
Feb 28, 2020•9 min•Season 1Ep. 51
This week on the podcast we find out about horses and their shoes, zebras and their noises and sneezing animals! Our first question is from Isabel, she would like to know, what noise does a zebra make? Have a listen to zebras bark, bray, nicker and snort, all the sounds they make depending on what they're up to. Next we hear from Ted who would like to know Why do horses wear shoes? Hear the answer from Clover Stroud, a brilliant writer who loves horses and horse riding and knows all about horses...
Feb 20, 2020•10 min•Season 1Ep. 50
Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! Today is a day people send cards, roses and chocolate to the ones they love. So our first two questions are about those two lovely things! Find out why roses have thorns to protect themselves, as well as what primrose means and what flowers to look out for right now in Europe - if that’s where you live - as signs of Spring! Discover who invented chocolate long ago in Mexico! We talk about the cocoa beans chocolate is made of and how chocolate and hot chocolate got...
Feb 14, 2020•10 min•Season 1Ep. 49
Merry Christmas Everyone! This week we tackle four questions. They are: Mrs Christmas help Father Christmas to see who is naughty and who is nice? Neil Gaiman, author of Coraline, Stardust, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, the picture books about a sneezing panda called Chu and wonderful books is here to answer that one for us with a tale of Mrs Christmas. Next up is Tommi who asks has an astronaut ever seen Father Christmas? Find out about NASA's encounter with Santa as well as how Jingle Bell...
Dec 20, 2019•15 min•Season 1Ep. 48
Hello and welcome to 47th episode of Everything Under the Sun. This week’s show is made with support from the Natural History Museum in London. They have a magazine called Wild World for children who are members of the museum. In this magazine they recently ran a competition for two readers to win the chance to have their question answered on Everything Under The Sun and to be part of the Everything Under The Sun book, which will be out in shops in September 2020. The winners are on this week’s ...
Dec 13, 2019•10 min•Season 1Ep. 47
This week’s questions are about politics, plastic and how climate change affects polar bears. Poet Benjamin Zephaniah talks us through what it might be like to have no Prime Minister, and we find out about the plastic problem in our oceans as well as all about the perils facing polar bears. Subscribe to the show to never miss an episode and do send in your questions! Wishing you a lovely week! Check out the shows website www.everythingunderthesun.co.uk Insta: @mollyoldfieldwrites Twitter: @molly...
Dec 06, 2019•13 min•Season 1Ep. 46
Everything Under the Sun is back! This week we're answering questions about autumn leaves, birds nests and football! To answer the question about leaves we have Karen from The Woodland Trust in England. Join us to discover how trees hibernate a bit like hedgehogs and why they make beautiful coloured leaves that fall in Autumn. Find out all about birds and their nests, the biggest nest and the smallest nest in the world as well as birds that build nests out of pebbles, borrow other birds nests or...
Nov 29, 2019•18 min•Season 1Ep. 45
Today is the 44th episode of Everything Under the Sun, a weekly podcast answering all the most pressing questions children around the world have about life on earth. Our first question comes from Violet and Tabitha who are twins! They would like to know where identical twins come from? To answer their question we have Dr. Chris van Tulleken who is a doctor AND an identical twin! So find out everything about how baby identical twins are made. It’s amazing that if you’re an identical twin there is...
Sep 27, 2019•14 min•Season 1Ep. 44
Art Under The Sun! This week our first question is why do people make art? To answer it we have Oliver Jeffers who is a brilliant artist who paints, illustrates, makes sculptures and creates books including The Heart and the Bottle, Here We Are, The Day the Crayons Quit, Stuck, Lost and Found and his new book The Fate of Fausto. So he’s the perfect person to answer Tara’s question! Have a listen to what Oliver has to say about why humans make art. PLUS how you can win a copy of his new book The ...
Sep 20, 2019•12 min•Season 1Ep. 43
How does Yoga help you Relax?How do Springs on a Trampoline help you Bounce so High? Why do Roller Coasters make your Tummy Tickle? Hello and welcome to 42nd episode of Everything Under the Sun, a weekly podcast answering all the most pressing questions children around the world have about life on earth. Today our first question comes from Sophia, who would like to know about something I LOVE, which is yoga! She asks how does yoga help you relax? To answer her question I have one of my favourite...
Sep 13, 2019•11 min•Season 1Ep. 42
Today we’re talking about FRUIT! Our first fruity question comes from Tessa, she would like to know, where do fruits come from? To answer Tessa’s fab question we have Sir Tim Smit who built the amazing Eden Project and restored an incredible, wild, botanical garden called The Lost Gardens of Heligan. They are both in Cornwall and incredible places to visit so make sure you go one day! Tim knows all about trees, plants, nature and fruit, so he’s the perfect person to tell us all about where fruit...
Sep 06, 2019•11 min•Season 1Ep. 41
Today we’re talking TREES and the Amazon Rainforest. Our first question comes from Jude, he would like to know how many trees there in the world, find out how many trillion trees grow on earth and how they were counted. Next up is Luca, who asks why are trees important? To answer him we have Bella Lack who is only 16 but has been campaigning for the environment for five years already. She loves wildlife and animals and talks to young people about our beautiful planet so Bella is the perfect pers...
Aug 30, 2019•13 min•Season 1Ep. 40
Hello! It’s episode 39 of Everything Under the Sun and were talking about FIRSTS! The First Artists, the First Sports and the First musical instruments! The first question is from Emily, who lives in South Africa, she would like to know who was the first artist? To answer Emily’s question I have a one of my favourite artists, the whimsical wonderful Rob Ryan, whose work you have to check out at robryanstudio.com. He has a lovely answer, which I hope will inspire you all to make some art! Next Sc...
Aug 23, 2019•12 min•Season 1Ep. 39