Autorickshaws have funny and interesting names across the world. They go by tuk-tuk, baby taxi and lapa in different countries. While Tesla, BMW, Audi, Ola, Mahindra & Mahindra, Hyundai and many more companies are making electric cars that keep our air cleaner, their gentler autorickshaw cousins haven't made much headway. But that will soon change as they get an e-lift. Nunam, an NGO has tied with Audi to take their used car batteries to power smaller auto-rickshaws. This extends the batt...
Jul 22, 2022•21 min
The Famous Five go on adventure trips in bicycles and camp in the moors. The Secret Seven go on picnics carrying food and a dog along for adventure in the summer. In current times, we book a pretty villa somewhere in the hills and book a flight to our holiday destination. But, the Mongol Rally is a car adventure trip that might just be more adventurous than any of these. Three Indians have just left from Prague, as part of this rally, across 15 countries in Europe and Asia. There is no fixed ...
Jul 18, 2022•19 min
Scar in Lion King, Thanos in the Marvel universe, or Zeus the Greek God got very powerful in their kingdoms. The people in their lands were upset with the decisions of the rulers. Simba came back and fought Scar off his Pride Lands. Thanos was defeated by the Avengers. Zeus was put inside a golden cage by the other Gods. A similar story is unfolding in Sri Lanka. People of the country have been left with little or no money. All thanks to the poor decisions taken by the rulers of their co...
Jul 15, 2022•14 min
Black Panther, Shang Chi, Miles Morales, Miss Marvel and America Chavez are new age superheroes. They are new age, not because their super powers are starkly different from that of others, but because they don't look, or speak or perhaps even behave like other superheroes. They are not strictly male or white. Why are superheroes looking more different? What helps the studios create characters who hail from different ethnicities? Why is it important to create superheroes who are diverse?L...
Jul 11, 2022•18 min
Crash tests for cars sold in India are not common. Many people who buy cars may not even know if the car they are buying gets 0 out of 5 points for its safety features. But now, all that is set to change. Beginning 2023, the government will provide for every car produced and sold in India to be tested within the country. So, if you happen to want to buy a car, you can get a fitness certificate, very soon. If you know the answer to the riddle at the end of the episode, please email them t...
Jul 08, 2022•19 min
A few curious scientists got together to answer the question whether we might find a giant gorilla like the King Kong, in an island somewhere in the world. The answer to this question was published in a science journal recently, which 12-year old Eesha discusses in this episode. Giants in movies like Mei from Turning Red, or the Hulk from the Avengers have kindled the imagination of many viewers. Scientists attempt to explain, in this news journal, if mammals like pandas or humans or gorillas...
Jul 03, 2022•16 min
Japan, after 2 long years during this pandemic, has finally opened itself to tourists who can now visit the Land of the Rising Sun. In this episode, 9-year old Shravan speaks about his summer vacations in Europe and how this differs from life in Asia. While Japan has announced opening itself to the world, they still remain very careful about how people can move around in their country. For instance, you cannot wake up one morning in a hotel in Tokyo and decide to take a stroll down a ma...
Jun 30, 2022•18 min
An old old ship is lying in the Red sea, all alone. It hasn't been cleaned, dusted or maintained for many years. 14-year Keshav (who co-hosts this episode) thinks the ship must have gone rusted and mouldy by now. The world would not be too worried about a ship gone mouldy, except that it also contains a whole lot of crude oil. The fishes and the coral reefs have been scared of the oil spilling into the sea and frantically sounding alarm bells (just kidding, it's the whales and the dolph...
Jun 28, 2022•14 min
The country Turkey got tired of being confused with the names of birds which are also the symbol of a national holiday in the US. Turkey's leaders were also not too keen on the meaning of the word Turkey in English (google says it refers to someone rather silly). Tired of these unflattering associations, the country has decided that the time has come for it to change its name! In this conversation with an almost 9-year old Abir from Singapore, we discuss answers to questions like 'When ...
Jun 23, 2022•15 min
The new Jurassic world dominion movie makes a departure from the previous movies in how the dinosaurs look. Taking help of paleontologists - Stephen Bassett in this movie and Jack Horner in some of the previous movies, the scenes and sets of each of these movies are getting closer and closer to how the science world thinks. Especially, about how dinosaurs looked like, millions of years ago.Listen to the full episode, where 8-year old Advik discusses with the host, the world of dinosaurs, foss...
Jun 19, 2022•14 min
Kids who love video games should be able to find male and female characters / avatars with equal ease today. This was not so, just a few years ago. In this episode with an 'almost' 11-year old Trayee, we talk about how girl characters have become increasingly common (thanks in part to the efforts of a 12-yr old girl Maddie who wrote about it in 2015)Listen to this episode to also hear the personal opinions of video game developer Anish George about the changes he has seen. There's a riddle at...
Jun 15, 2022•16 min
Recently, the queen of England - Queen Elizabeth II celebrated her 70 years of rule as the head of state. A 9-yr old is curious to know why celebrating this milestone is a big deal. Listen to this episode to also get a hang of the what monarchs do, now that many countries are democracies. If you have any questions or comments, please email us at hello@wsnt.inFollow us on twitter hereFollow us on instagram hereDo you like to read stories? Read our newsletters hereGet Whatsapp alerts here Follo...
Jun 12, 2022•13 min
Recently, a volcanic eruption in the Kavachi volcano (in Solomon islands near Australia) was recorded by NASA. The fascinating part about this submarine volcano is the presence of sharks in the warm waters surrounding the hot crater. Since sharks are otherwise associated with the clean and cold waters deep in our oceans, the presence of sharks here has been a source of puzzlement for many scientists.Listen to this conversation with almost 8-yr old Aniket to hear more about stories about ancie...
Jun 09, 2022•14 min
A 16-yr old, with a rather unpronounceable name Praggnanandhaa recently won against Magnus Carlsen, the reining chess champion. In this episode, 8-yr old Adeep discusses the game, and many stories about computers that play against grandmasters. Listen to this to hear more childhood stories of Praggnanandhaa and his sister Vaishali. Follow us on Instagram hereFollow us on Twitter hereShoot us an email at hello@wsnt.in if you would like to co-host an episode with Sangeetha, or if you have ...
Jun 07, 2022•14 min
In this episode, we surveyed a whole bunch of tweens and teens. We asked them about what they'd like to save on planet earth. Some even had ideas on whether they'd like to live in space vs oceans. Listen to this episode with more than 7 of our young co-hosts - Ayaansh, Reyaan, Yoshika, Vihaan, Vedant, Meher and Shravan, each speaking their minds:)Listen to the full episode with Vedant on old phones hereListen to the full episode with Meher on floating cities hereFollow us on Instagram hereWe'...
Jun 06, 2022•11 min
Women soccer players in the US, who were otherwise paid lower than the male players, won a landmark ruling. The court has judged that men and women should get paid at an equal rate for the matches they play within the US. Listen to this conversation with 9-yr old Vihaan to find a lot of interesting trivia about the game of soccer, the players and how to make the world a happier place. Follow us on Twitter hereFollow us on Instagram hereIf you have any thoughts or comments, please share them a...
Jun 02, 2022•12 min
Geetanjali Shree has the distinction of being the first ever Indian author to win the International Booker for her Hindi work 'Ret Samadhi' which was translated as Tomb of Sand in English. Listen to this 'almost' 10-year old's perspective on what books mean to children, and what books written in non-English languages also mean to them.Follow us on Twitter hereFollow us on Instagram hereIf you have any thoughts or comments, please share them as an audio file via email to hello@wsnt.inDo you li...
May 31, 2022•12 min
A scientist called Einstein scribbled many notes on papers more than 100 years ago. These included his imaginations and calculations about objects in space. He predicted that there were powerful objects called black holes that could suck everything that came their way, included light. It was in 2019 when astronomers pieced together photos from radio telescopes across the world and released the first ever image of a black hole. More recently, for the second time ever, a direct image of a...
May 28, 2022•13 min
When Europe was recovering from the after-effects of the second world war, an Italian at the European Broadcasting Union wanted to test if live broadcasting on radio would work seamlessly. He hit upon an idea of launching a song contest across Europe which would be played live on radio. The Eurovision song contest was thus born - an event rivaled only by football in terms of live viewership in Europe. More than 200m people listen to the live performances. In 2022, a band from Ukraine - called...
May 25, 2022•17 min
Russia is the largest country in the world and has got its neighbours all rattled. If you shared a border with Russia, I guess you'd be thinking of protection more than building schools and roads. In this conversation with a 10-year old, we explore answers to questions such as 'For how long will this spending go on? Or is this like the Jan 1 resolution that adults make when they THINK there is a threat of weight gain and will fizzle away?'War has also meant we have made many new inventi...
May 24, 2022•13 min
When we think of animals that went extinct, dinosaurs and giant elephants and huge marsupials often come to mind. Meteors crashing the earth and people hunting these creatures for their skin and horns are often cited as reasons. Most recently, researchers at Tel Aviv University, and the University of Naples, examined the mass extinction of large animals. They found that extinct species had, much smaller brains than species that survived. Listen to this conversation with a 6-year old to find a...
May 23, 2022•15 min
S.Korea, alongwith the UN, has created a plan for a new floating city near Busan. If you are reminded of boats and canals near Venice, you are like million others who think the same! Ancient Venice was built when people fled enemies to live in these swamplands. Today, we are building these floating cities to flee from the risks of flooding near coastal cities and islands. 'How will these cities get electricity? Can children go to schools? Can people go to work? How are these places going to g...
May 17, 2022•15 min
Running in parks, on football grounds or trying to catch that elusive ball before it crosses a boundary in cricket - such fun associated with all of them. But for Jacky Hunt Broersma - there was fun in running 104 marathons in 104 days. She did not pack her bags and decide to run from one of the US, where she lives, to another. Instead she stayed right at home, drop her kids off at school, go run a marathon, get to her day job (a coach), come back home, cook dinner and help her kids with thei...
May 16, 2022•11 min
Recently the French elected a new President - Emmanuel Macron, for a second term. While elections are more common today than they were in ancient Greece, the French do something that the Brits or the Americans or the Indians do. They elect the person they want to become the President directly. They don't wait around to patiently choose representatives in parliament and hope to God that the representatives would choose their preferred leader. In this conversation with a 12-year old, we e...
May 15, 2022•19 min
In this second episode of the James Webb telescope series - we look at what infrared light coming from ancient stars is likely to contain. How do we distinguish between light coming from super ancient stars versus relatively new stars? Will the ancient galaxies look like pretty little spirals that we see in our encyclopedias? Listen to this conversation with a 10-year old to find answers to these and more.Please email us at hello@wsnt.in with your thoughts, comments and questions.Do you like ...
May 06, 2022•13 min
After nearly 3 decades of effort and testing, the James Webb telescope was successfully launched into space in Dec 2021. This telescope has been designed to help us see how the universe looked when the early stars were created. Why do we need a telescope in space, when we already have a Hubble telescope out there? Why did it take someone more than 25 years to develop this one? If this telescope is farther than the moon, how do we fix a problem if it has one? Listen to this conversa...
May 05, 2022•14 min
How many things can we generate electricity from? Solar, wind, coal, nuclear, biogas and a few more, says a 10-year old. Do we use all of these to make electricity from, in India? Why did the rains last year lead to lesser coal this year? I know summer is scorching hot, then why don't we just use solar energy in places that are close to the equator? Listen to this conversation with a 10-year old to find out more about these.If you have any thoughts or comments, please email them to us at hell...
May 02, 2022•8 min
It is not uncommon to think of dwarves with hammers working in tunnels, and filling baskets with gold bars, when we think of mining. But did you know that you can mine some gold, silver, platinum and rhodium from your own backyard? Or should we say cupboards? Listen to this conversation with a 10-year old, to find out about how we should be disposing our old bulbs, microwaves and computers, to make the world go round and clean.Please send your thoughts and comments to hello@wsnt.inDo you like...
Apr 28, 2022•16 min
When we connect our phones or laptops to the internet, we connect using wi-fi or mobile data. Both of these need big fat wires to be laid all over the land and under oceans. What can people living in faraway places or on mountains do, to get internet connectivity? What are companies like SpaceX and Amazon trying to do, to get more people on earth get connected?Listen to this conversation with a 9-year old to understand where we might all be headed in future.Please email your thoughts or comme...
Apr 25, 2022•14 min
At the tip of the Arabian Peninsula, lies a country called Yemen. Lots of groups of people have been angry at each other and have been fighting a nasty war for over 7 years. Children haven't been able to go to school, people don't have work and food is hard to come by. Finally, last week, a truce (or some quiet time) was announced. 'If so many groups of people want to sit down and negotiate peace, I am not sure if that is easy' - says 9-year old Yoanna, in this episode. Listen to the con...
Apr 24, 2022•12 min
