Already, and this is the Daily This is the Daily OS. Oh, now it makes sense.
Hello, and welcome to the good news edition of the Daily OS. It's Saturday, the eighteenth of February, and I am your good news reporter for this week, Sam stepping in for Zara.
And I'm Billy, still Billy. I was going to say, how do I go from that? I'm still Billy.
I'm so excited to have you a Billy. We have a big episode. We have some incredible good news stories from all around the world, from poetry heading to the moon, to some groundbreaking science that sounds straight out of Jurassic Park, a rare heartwarming moment in American politics, which I think we all need, and some huge achievements in music and television.
Let's start with poetry. You and I love words. It's pretty incredible. Poetry is literally heading to the moon.
Haiku Fitzsimon's they call You. So this is a really cool story. A collection of traditional Korean poems is currently on its way to the Moon on a SpaceX rocket. Now these aren't just any poems. They're part of a massive archive project called the Lunar Codex, and the aim of the project is basically to create a cultural time capsule on the Moon. And the poems are in a traditional Korean style, and it's these beautiful, really short three
line poems that go back over one thousand years. And there's all these artworks that are now being preserved at a capsule on the moon near the South Pole. I really love the idea of creating a global cultural snapshot on the Moon. And the aim of it, according to the project, is that future lunar visitors. So when you and I go on a holiday to the Moon in forty years time with our moon kids, as in not together, but our families, like a family friend holiday.
Not sure how her holiday with you would go to the moon.
You got nowhere to run. It's going to be really cool because we can show them this lunar capsule with a little bit of humanity's creativity sitting up there.
But I think that they should test sending poetry into space by going and sending some books or something to the astronauts who are stuck in space.
That would be good. They need something to read that's perhaps longer than three lines, but yes.
If they need something to do they've been sucked there for so.
Long, well maybe they can invest in this next startup.
Love it. So we are turning to great segue. We are turning to a startup that has raised a whopping two hundred million dollars this week to bring back extinct species.
Yeah. I love a good startup story. This startup, I think was valued at twenty billion US dollars, so there's some serious bets being placed on this technology. They say that they can bring back extinct species through gene editing. Now the company is called Colossal Biosciences, and their first projects are to revive the wooly mammoth, the dodo, and the Tasmanian tiger. And if you look at who's invested
in the company, there are some big names. You've got the CIA's Investment arm, You've got Paris Hilton, and you've got some really high profiles members of the scientific community as well. And the exciting part for me is that the technology that sits behind this isn't just about reviving extinct animals. It's actually the same technology that can be
used to develop treatments for serious genetic conditions. And we're talking about hereditary diseases here, like sickle cell or cystic fibrosis and it could, they say, eventually be eradicated from the human gene pool, alongside the revival of a wooly mammoth. There are some ethical issues that always come into this discussion with gene editing, from worries of designer babies to illegal experimentation on humans. But I want to keep the faith here that this emerging technology is going to be
used for good. And at the very least, how cool would it be for Tasmania to get back the Tazzy tiger.
I would love to bring back the Tazzy tiger. But this might be stupid.
But no such thing as a stupid or silly question.
But we're not bringing back like dinosaurs, are we?
Well it's open, right, I mean this is about I mean, there's a comment from one of the founders about a real life Jurassic Park exhibition, so there is I mean, they say there's potential to bring back any extinct animal as long as you've got DNA strands from it. So I'm going to have to go back and check whether they actually have DNA from dinosaurs. I feel like they do. This is not our strong suit either of us, so let's keep going.
Okay, Well, what is our strong suit is US politics.
Now.
It's unusual for us to be talking about US politics in a good News podcast, but there was one moment from this week's confirmation hearings that had an uncharacteristically good news vibe.
Tell us about that, Well, this is all about bipartisanship. So bipartisanship is the idea of both sides of politics. So in Australia it would be a liberal minister and the labor minister working together. In the US, it's about a Republican and a Democrat, and it's rare. It's getting more and more rare in most political systems, especially in the last time of twelve eighteen months. But at the beginning of Marco Rubio's confirmation hearing for his appointment as
Donald Trump's Secretary of Stage, he's a Republican Democrat. Tammy Duckworth opened with a good News moment. I do I say I'm parking politics here. I'm not making commentary on either Tammy Duckworth or Maco Rebio as politicians, but let's focus on them as humans.
Senator Rubio, I want to start off by noting for the record that when I first got to the Senate and I was in my first year and you just run for president, and I didn't think you would know who I was. I was pregnant with my daughter and trying to change Senate rules so that I could bring her onto the floor so I could do my job and vote because I can't come through the normal back door to vote because there's stairs there and it's not
accessible for wheelchairs. And I remember in the middle of that battle rolling through the Senate floor to vote, and I heard Tammy Duckworth from across the Senate chambers, and you came running down from the top back of the Senate chambers to tell me I'm with you. You have the right to vote. And I was supported to being able to bring your daughter or your child onto the floor when she's born. And as someone who was new to the Senate, I was extremely grateful to you for that kindness.
Big What I exactly said is what's the big deal?
This place is already for babies.
Exactly exactly, So some quick context for you. Senator Duckworth has been a representative from Illinois since twenty seventeen. Before her career in politics, she served in Iraq with the US military as a helicopter pilot, and she was involved in a serious battle incident in two thousand and four and lost both her legs. She was actually the first female double amputee from the Iraq War. She's also then the first woman with a disability to be elected to
the House and the Senate. And in twenty eighteen, Duckworth became the first US Senator to give birth while in office. In that grab, you heard them talk about a law that had been in place. Now a few months after becoming a mother, the law did change, and it's in part because of Rubio's advocacy in the Republican Party. And now children under one are allowed to be brought onto the Senate floor during votes.
Wow, very feel good story and like you said, an amazing moment of bipartisanship.
Let's have more of that.
Let's have more of that now. From politics to music, there is a new record set by Bad Bunny.
We love Bad Bunny here in the Latin music community, and I do count myself.
As that's kind to say, are you part of that community?
I love listening to Latino music on Spotify. I'm not alone. The entire genre is taking off. It's the fastest growing genre of music in the US and Bad Bunny is probably the king of Latin pop for the last couple of years. And now he's become the first Latin artist to have one hundred songs on the Billboard Hot one
hundred chart. He released an album this week and he went from high nineties I think he had ninety seven songs all the way to one hundred and thirteen songs now and all seventeen tracks of his new album entered the Top one hundred. He was the most streamed artist in the world in twenty twenty, twenty twenty one, and twenty twenty two. He was beaten by this up and coming artist called Taylor Swift in twenty twenty three and twenty twenty four, but I'm picking him to take back
that title this year. But it's amazing to see real diversity in the music landscape and first Latin artists with one hundred songs in the top one hundred.
And I think we're time for one more because we have to talk about Sesame Street.
We do. I think it has a special place in everyone's hearts who watched it as a kid. I remember getting up and watching it on ABC early in the morning, and the fifty fifth season of Sesame Street is debuting this week, and to mark the launch, Elmo sat down last week for what was described as a tell all interview with one of the most serious news outlets in the world, the Associated Press. I want to end this pod with my favorite line of that interview, and it's
how important music is. It's a show about music, Elmo said. Elmo thinks that music brings people together, and some people who like some things and some people who like other things can kind of come together because they like the same kind of music. And that's kind of cool.
Now.
If that isn't the beautiful, vague, all encompassing language of Elmo that makes us feel good, I don't know what it is.
I love it. I feel like this podcast has been a lot about unity, bringing sides together.
There's a nice thing there from Elmo to Marco Rubio. Bit of unity for your Saturday.
And that is our good news round up for this week. Thank you for listening to Tida. This week. Will be back on Monday with a deep dive. It's going to be a busy news week. Next week. We have the potential TikTok band, and we also have Donald Trump being inaugurated to become president for the second time. Until then, have a beautiful weekend. My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda Bungelung Kalkatin woman from Gadighl country.
The Daily oz acknowledges that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island and nations. We pay our respects to the first peoples of these countries, both past and present.