A world where cameras do not just take pictures, but also tell you when and how to smile - is no longer the stuff of science fiction. For now, artificially intelligent cameras are already helping save the lives (and possibly the smiles) of people and endangered wildlife. These AI cameras placed in multiple points throughout forests can alert forest rangers if any wild animals stray from their regular paths. Often times, these wild animals enter the habitats of humans, when they change their f...
Mar 01, 2023•12 min
Long long ago, so long ago, that most people do know how long ago (because some people have read history textbooks), Venice was nothing more than a collection of marshlands. A few fishermen eeked their living by selling fish and making salt. In time, this group of islands became a place of refuge and grew into a large town.10-year old Pragnya and 11-year old Trayee describe the history of Venice in a short story at the beginning of this episode. For those of us, the word Venice conjures...
Feb 27, 2023•11 min
Three days of festivities surround the lives of thousands of the Tibetan diaspora, as they welcome their new year - Losar. About the time when the winter chills dissipate and fresh harvest yields fill their granaries, the Tibetans (much like their Venetian friends) don masks and dance to ring in their new year.In this episode, Puranjoy Bhattacharya, a student at the Sikkim Manipal Institute of Technology, shares his first-hand experiences of what it is like for an outsider to witness some of ...
Feb 23, 2023•15 min
EA sports is parting ways with FIFA. The video game that millions of players are used to calling FIFA, will soon be renamed EA Sports FC. Getting used to that?In this episode, which is the second part of a review of this video game (one of the highest downloaded games of all times), we are joined by 3 football fans. Archisman Mandal and Aarush Jaiswal - both sixth graders from Emerald Heights International School share their experiences of playing the game. Vinith Muralidharan who spends...
Feb 20, 2023•14 min
What do you do when older kids in your school don't let you play striker and relegate you to defence?You fight your way in the ground or pick up the FIFA video game and play whichever position you want to your heart's content.In this episode with Archisman and Aarush from Emerald Heights International school, Indore (both sixth graders), we are joined by Vinith Muralidharan - a child at heart, a diehard football fan who also visits the offices of Britannia to help them with their marketing ef...
Feb 17, 2023•16 min
Radio was this device in many homes that held a place of awe and respect for decades. It brought into many households the first pieces of information of what was going on in the real world. It also made entertainment commonplace. Be it classical or popular music, families clustered around the radio, for wholesome entertainment a few decades ago.Today is the World Radio Day and we trace some interesting stories along the way of radio's evolution. Do you like to read stories? Read our news...
Feb 13, 2023•17 min
Did you know that Asian lions lead their pride whereas African lionesses often defend their pride and territory? A recent newspaper headlining 'Capt. Shiva Chauhan is the first women army officer to be posted in the Siachen Glacier' caught the attention of two super enthusiastic children from Delhi, who join us in this episode. They explore the news story, alongside their observations on how this moulds with what we see in the wildlife.12 yr old Riya Mishra and 14 yr old Madhu Kumari, f...
Feb 10, 2023•15 min
Comets come and go about a dozen times in a year without much fanfare. But a green comet that's flashing its pretty smile at us, is causing much celebration around the world. There are excellent reasons why each one of us should look into our night skies to say hello to this comet. To begin with, how often do you get to meet something that's last met Neanderthals roaming the face of this earth. In this episode with fifth grader Luptha from Ohio and seventh grader Aadya from Kolkata, we e...
Feb 05, 2023•18 min
In part 1 of this series (Epi 89), we discussed what the Great Backyard Bird Count was all about. In this episode, we answer questions on how to participate in it. There are lots of curious questions about birds too, that we have tried to answer in this episode.One of the three organisations that puts together the GBBC is the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. The Project Leader of GBBC - Becca Rodomsky Bish joins us in this episode to chat about birds and this event. Also on this episode are 3 curi...
Feb 02, 2023•21 min
The Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) doesn't come our way everyday. But birds do. If you love observing birds, or are curious about them, or even just love to paint or draw pictures of birds - here's an event that you can be a part of. An event where the input of each one of us from around the world can help conserve bird species and populations.One of the three organisations that puts together the GBBC is the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. The Project Leader of GBBC - Becca Rodomsky Bish joins ...
Jan 30, 2023•17 min
The UK loses 3 billion litres of water every day through leaks in its underground water pipes. That's a LOT of water. Enough to fill a few hundred Olympic size swimming pools. Imagine all the fun kids can have splashing in these pools? But no, all that water is lost!But now, the UK plans to use tiny robots to keep crawling through these pipes all year round. These robots will fix leaks faster than any humans can. 11-year Trayee from India tells us a lot more about this news story that s...
Jan 26, 2023•11 min
The world has been abuzz with a secret new weapon that can turn every student's essay into a worthy A+ piece of paper. This weapon can also turn every worst programmer's nightmare into a dream. By generating lines of code with no bugs. It is also a weapon that has turned every teacher's dream into a nightmare. Having to figure out if the essay was really written by their student of this secret weapon.This is an episode on ChatGPT. The language processing AI tool that has taken the world by st...
Jan 20, 2023•14 min
The word Dead sea conjures images of people relaxing in the sea, floating with books in hand or just enjoying the starry images of the sky and the beaches around. But, if you plan on enjoying this anytime, you might need to make it there sooner rather than later.In this episode, 13-year old Inaaya Ijaz, a climate activist from London, UK, talks about the Dead Sea and why it might be dying. There's also trivia about Cleopatra, Egyptian mummies and ghosts from the Harry Potter books to ke...
Jan 12, 2023•16 min
It has taken us a short 11 years from 2011 to 2022 to touch 8 billion people on this world. Babies are born all over the world. But if you did take a time machine into the future, you are most likely to see those babies born in Africa and Asia and emptier maternity hospitals in the western countries.In this episode with 8-year old Jairam from Redwood Montessori School, Chennai, you will be fascinated by what a young curious child thinks of having more kids in his neighbourhood, of how w...
Jan 09, 2023•10 min
What does the grass lying on the bottom of the ocean have to do with the cars we drive? Here's a trivia that will help you make the connection. The seagrass absorbs way more carbon than the tall trees on land. So, weep not, if you have been worried about the Amazon rainforests getting the axe. Help is at hand. In this episode with 9-year old Ahalya Niranjan from Redwood Montessori School, Chennai, you can listen to the story about how some ingenious scientists use tiger sharks to help us...
Jan 05, 2023•15 min
Please click here to fill our survey and tell us what you think we can do to make the episodes better2022 was a year like none other. The FIFA final in 2022 was perhaps the greatest nail-biter in all FIFA finals. A year where Messi fulfilled his life-long dream. Also, a year where a team from Africa reached the semi-finals for the first time (that would be Morocco, if you were wondering). 2022 was another year when India did NOT win the T20 world cup. The sub-continent was less affected ...
Dec 24, 2022•24 min
If you are feeling jolly good about Christmas, please gift us 2 mins of your time and fill this survey to tell us what more we can do, to make this podcast channel fun and interesting (https://s.surveyplanet.com/d79mitsl)After a few decades of lull, space exploration saw a lot of action in 2022.Visiting the moon is back on our plate. Asteroids crashing into earth is no longer a worry. Hold your questions about how earth was really formed, for JWST may have answers to this and more.In this epi...
Dec 22, 2022•16 min
Please be our Santa Claus and gift us 2 mins of your time by filling this survey https://s.surveyplanet.com/d79mitslVirtual reality is no more just a fantasy place where gamers like to go. Doctors are beginning to use VR goggles to help people become calm and even forget pain. Electric batteries now don't need to be discarded. Old ones can be used to power smaller autos - as one company Nunam showed us this year. Video game characters are becoming more diverse - no l...
Dec 18, 2022•18 min
If you are feeling jolly good about Christmas being around, please gift us 2 mins of your time and fill this survey (https://s.surveyplanet.com/d79mitsl)2022 brought interesting science to movies - all dinosaurs had feathers!2022 also brought a temporary halt to the works of the much beloved BTS - no one is exempted from military service!The first time ever an Indian won the international booker this year and Barbie dolls are not just pretty faces anymore.Steven Spielberg ...
Dec 16, 2022•21 min
Feeling festive? Please gift us 1 min of your time and fill this survey (https://s.surveyplanet.com/d79mitsl) Thanks in advance :) The year 2022 had a lot of interesting science discoveries, that had many young and curious minds really hooked. No, we are not claiming idly that kids were hooked to these news updates. You'll find this episode where an 8-yr old Dhruv, a 9-yr old Keshav and a 10-yr old Vihaan, delve into the depths of the wildlife discoveries - proof that curious kids a...
Dec 12, 2022•22 min
If you are feeling jolly good about Christmas, please click here and gift us 2 mins of your time and share your ideas in this survey (https://s.surveyplanet.com/d79mitsl The year 2022 was a mixed bag when it comes to climate change. While news about heatwaves, floods, droughts and melting glaciers brought some angst, innovative ideas by local fishermen in Italy, pro-active efforts by political leaders at COP27 and conservation groups in Australia brought some smiles to our faces.Meher (Grade ...
Dec 08, 2022•26 min
We are always looking for ways to improve our podcast. Please click here to fill this survey questionnaire (2 min.) to help us. (https://s.surveyplanet.com/d79mitslIn this wrap-up about news from countries and events around the world, 4 curious children join the host Sangeetha, to talk about what they found the most interesting this year. Ananya Mathur from DPS Nagpur, Thejas Reddy from VIS, Delhi and Trayee from AAIS Chennai, discuss stories about Taiwan, Ukraine, the UK, the Yemen con...
Dec 05, 2022•15 min
To listen to episodes on space and video games, click here Children and adults love making creations - whether it is building sandcastles on the beach, or houses with cardboard boxes, or creating an Iron Man using Lego blocks. One teenager took up an interesting challenge - depicting the entire universe on a video game Minecraft. This was no frivolous pass-time. It involved making complex mathematical calculations and even sky-diving, to envisage how earth would look like, from space. To...
Dec 01, 2022•14 min
If you have pondered ways of testing your smarts against a computer, a game of chess will likely pop into your head. But some scientists decided to make things fun. They decided to use a 1970s video game called Pong, to test some real smarts. Think black and white screen, a paddle moving up and down, and a ball that bounces off the sides of the screen. Sounds odd? I mean, in this day and age, why not use an Xbox right?Here's the real clincher. The scientists did NOT test a real person's brain...
Nov 27, 2022•17 min
The world's richest man wants to let everyone have an equal say in the world. He wants everyone to share their ideas - no matter if they are Thanos or one of the Avengers. Elon Musk went ahead and bought a company Twitter to allow just that - all for all. No half measures.In this episode, Mitansh from DPS Nagpur discusses the dash of 'spices' that Elon Musk has brought along. Rocked by a lot of loans to be paid off, Musk has begun firing most of the staff. Mitansh describes what he thinks of ...
Nov 24, 2022•15 min
To listen to episode 75 about animatronic dolphins, please click herePlanet Earth is getting warmer. Some leaders meet every year to talk about what they can do to combat climate change. Few countries go home and do something to reduce their emissions. In the midst of all this rather gloomy news is another interesting twist - although poor countries have hardly emitted any greenhouse gases, they are facing storms and floods. Some island nations could be at the brink of being submerged forever...
Nov 21, 2022•14 min
The war in Ukraine took several unexpected turns, first with the Ukrainian defence of its capital Kiev and the united support of several Western countries. 13-year old Neil from G.D.Goenka School, Lucknow, who has taken a keen interest in tracking the events of the Ukraine war, walks us through initial attack by Russia. He also explains the kind of support that the US and other countries lent Ukraine to help it fend off the attacks by Russia.Also joining us in this episode is 11-year old Tray...
Nov 17, 2022•15 min
To listen to episode 45 about Marvel characters, please click hereTo listen to episode 55 about cheetahs coming back to India, please click herePaolo Fanciulli, a fisherman who lives in Italy was always fascinated by shipwrecks and the fish and the algae that grew in them. He noticed also how it was getting harder to get any fish while casting his fishing nets thanks to trawling by large fishing companies. He noticed that nobody really cared about how these trawling nets were destroying the m...
Nov 14, 2022•15 min
Listen to a lively episode on Queen Elizabeth and her heir (Epi 63) by clicking hereThe island of Taiwan which is 100 miles away from China is key for us to create this podcast and for you to listen to it. In case you are wondering, the host of this podcast does not live there. But our recording equipments, our editing tools and the device on which you are now listening to this podcast - are most likely made with one important part called the semi-conductor chip. Taiwan is the single largest ...
Nov 10, 2022•12 min
To listen to Space related episodes, please click hereTo listen to Wildlife related episodes, please click hereIf you remember the tales about why dinosaurs went extinct, one of the common stories is that a meteorite crashed into earth. Some scientists in NASA who were thinking about this story were curious to see if we could avoid such a fate, if a meteorite came crashing into earth. And humans might become extinct. In this episode, 10-year Arav from Emerald Heights school, Indore, describes...
Nov 06, 2022•14 min
