Gone are the times when many people felt that bullying is a rite of passage of childhood or school years. Bullying, big or small, often leaves indelible marks on the minds of victims and the perpetrator. In this episode, we talk about bullying from the perspective of a child and understand how they view these experiences. We also hear from an experienced educator (Ms.Mildred Lobo, Principal and Bunt Sangha's S.M.Shetty International School) about how she thinks these situations are best ...
Jul 17, 2023•10 min
Story of this episode: It was a cold morning in July 2020. A crew manning a 46ft boat saw a group of killer whales swimming towards them. They waved towards the friendly orcas, whom they had met many times before. But the orcas were in no mood for a friendly chat. They rammed the boat in full force, chewed pieces of its rudder and pushed the boat around, nearly 180 degrees.As the crew panicked and radio-ed the Coast Guard for assistance, the Coast Guard were unsure if they heard their cries o...
Jul 13, 2023•14 min
An online platform where children can meet others, interact and make friends, all while playing a video game - that's Roblox in short.This is a platform that has more than 43 million daily active users.What makes this game so popular? Even more popular than Minecraft?To find out more about this game, I chat with 9-year old Rishaan Das from Bengaluru, to look at this game from the perspective of a child.Also discussed in this episode are thoughts on what parents can do to make this platform sa...
Jul 09, 2023•20 min
If you are like me, you might catch yourself wondering how to avert a disaster that hurtled the way of dinosaurs (a meteorite crashing into earth). If you are like a scientist at NASA, you'd have found a way to avert that disaster. If you are like any space scientist around the world, you'd be onto greater things - such as finding out how the solar system looked like, a few billion years ago.NASA's recent mission to the Bennu asteroid combines all of these elements. An answer to the mysteries...
Jul 06, 2023•18 min
A couple of years ago, a group of people in nice long white lab coats (some call them scientists) set about solving a mystery about animals on islands. They had 2 interesting clues to get on about(a) a rodent the size of a 2-year old child. It was scurrying around eating up large chunks of your cake in one go.(b) a hippo similar in size to young children.A biologist called Foster first suggested this strange and funny phenomenon he noticed in islands, which he called 'an island effect'. ...
Jun 24, 2023•14 min
Did you know that 'Face with tears of joy' is the most popular emoji of 2023?Did you know that Gen-Z things pagers are bookmarks?Join a 10-year old Isabelle Abraham to listen to a scintillating description of the Emoji movie. Isabelle attended What's new today's podcasting workshop and was thrilled to present her views 'based entirely on her original research', as she puts it:)Do you like to read stories? Read our newsletters hereGet Whatsapp alerts here Follow us on Instagram Email your com...
Jun 22, 2023•18 min
Ever wondered what would happen if you took a big black rectangular solar panel from your rooftops, and place them on a lake?Can the solar panel float? Will the water below damage the panel? Will the solar panel be efficient? generate electricity?Middle schooler Medhansh and primary schooler Pranshi, both from Aspee Nutan Academy, Mumbai, dig deep into these questions. In this episode, they share stories surrounding these questions and much more.Do you like to read stories? Read our newslette...
Jun 18, 2023•18 min
The Harry Potter book series took the world by storm. Many a child today owes his / her love for reading from J.K.Rowling's creations. The thick, fat pages of Goblet of Fire or the Deathly Hallows hardly deterred 7 and 8 year olds around the world. For some children, it is hard to believe a world where there were no Harry Potter books. It was only 25 years ago that the first Harry Potter book - Philosopher's stone (or Sorcerer's stone in the US) was published. Commemorating this, the Roy...
Jun 17, 2023•13 min
Ink and paper was all that we think of, when the printer comes to our mind.But if we told you that you could order a cheesecake at the printer. Scientists at Columbia University recently introduced a 3D printing machine for children to choose which toppings and what flavours they would like on each cheesecakeWith this, we sign off our 120th episode of Season 1. We will be taking a short break this summer and will come back with more stories about the real world around us, in season 2.Do you l...
May 22, 2023•8 min
In this podcast episode, we dive into the fascinating world of artificial intelligence, exploring the distinctions between two powerful tools: ChatGPT and Google, and pondering the question of whether ChatGPT is poised to dominate the future.Drawing from personal experiences, 11-year-old Vidyut and 12-year-old Rohan explore how from using YouTube to expand our understanding of art to leveraging Google Translate for help with Tamil homework, technology has seamlessly integrated into our lives....
May 18, 2023•16 min
Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy won the men's doubles finals at Badminton Asia - the first pair from India to have won this in 58 years. We are familiar with Saina Nehwal and P.V.Sindhu - two Indians who made India proud by winning Olympic medals. Now Chirag and Satwiksairaj bring badminton once again into centrestage.In this episode, 13-year old Eesha Vijay shares her thoughts on -'how does it feel when you watch professionals playing badminton on TV''where did this game originate?...
May 11, 2023•15 min
Walt Disney used to take his children to neighbourhood parks. He felt disappointed with the kind of experiences these parks had to offer. He had grand ideas of building something more interesting. That's how Disney theme parks came to be about. About this time, he had already started making animation movies. So combining the fairy tale characters he was showing in his movies with the fabulous theme parks he built, we get the logo of Disney - castle plus the words DISNEY.Every logo has an inte...
May 11, 2023•18 min
5 rings bring images of sports and victories in the Olympic. 4 rings shift our minds towards cars and the company Audi. A tick mark takes us to shoes and the company Nike. The letter G now represents the all-important Gmail. Brands and logos are in front of us wherever we go. But why do companies change these, from time to time? Why does the company Pepsi keep changing the way its logo looks?Listen to two teenagers Mitansh Rajkotia and Anya Chaturvedi and Vibin from Headless Hippies shar...
May 08, 2023•17 min
Project Re-shark is an initiative to bring more sharks into our oceans. While some people have been busy over-fishing sharks, a few others have taken it upon themselves to grow baby sharks in aquariums and then releasing them back into the wild. To talk about this interesting real life story, 7-year old Owen from New York (USA) joins us. While sharks are quite the thing that 7-year olds love to talk about, Owen also shares his opinions and ideas on -a) Are sharks really dangerous to huma...
May 04, 2023•13 min
No longer do you need to worry if your mobile phones are near or far from telecom towers. No longer do you need to think about whether you'll get internet access when you are vacationing in some far off place, away from civilization, or up on a mountain or on a cruise ship far away from land.In this episode, Syed Ayan, a fourth grader from Kuala Lampur, Malaysia, explains how all of this will soon come true. He will also explain the story of OneWeb - the company that has launched satellites i...
May 01, 2023•14 min
If there were a genie that said - name your wish and I'll show you a picture of how your wishes or dreams would look, we seem to have found it.It goes by the name 'artificial intelligence for art'. In the past few months, many such engines generate art after you give them a prompt. You could go wild with your imagination and even ask for - 'show me a picture of a lion sitting in an office typing out an email, with a unicorn munching a cracker next to it'.How do these engines create such works...
Apr 24, 2023•19 min
From email IDs to opening youtube accounts, passwords are some of the most common things we type, day in and day out.In this episode, ninth-graders Shambhavi Nautiyal and Advaith Nair from Ahlcon Public School, Delhi, share their thoughts on how we can make passwords safer.They also speaking of impending risks to our passwords from quantum computers.To answer the quiz at the end, the two passwords mentioned are(a) sharksnearvolcanoes123456$$(b) coffee45olympics#cardboard#cubDo you like to rea...
Apr 21, 2023•14 min
If the word countryside and summer vacations reminds you of adventures of the Famous Five, children in Japan are being enticed to have just that - a lot of adventures by the village-side all year round!Japan is facing extreme pressure in its tightly congested cities such as Tokyo. The government is encouraging families to move to smaller towns by the city. They hope that the monetary incentive will prove strong enough a motive for counter-urbanisation.Will this really help?Has any other count...
Apr 17, 2023•13 min
Roald Dahl used to visit the chocolate factories near his school, as a boy. The multiple machinations and the workers in the factory all appeared to be a part of a magical world. Years later, these experiences would inspire the popular work of 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'.In this episode, you can listen to Ms. Geetanjali Shetty Kaul, a professional storyteller who chats with primary schoolers Avni Prasad and Ambika Gupta from Ahlcon Public School, Delhi, about how to write creati...
Apr 14, 2023•18 min
Ever wondered how Mufasa's road appears majestic? or how Rapunzel's hair flows all around? or how Olaf jumps and hops around singing in the snow?You can find answers to a ton of such questions in this episode. Chatrasal Singh, an animator with Disney Studios at Burbank, California, joins us. 10-year old Shriya from Bengaluru and 12-year old Ananya Harish from Mumbai quiz him on how he helps create Elsa or Mirabel on screen.To participate in the quiz, please click hereDo you like to read stori...
Apr 09, 2023•17 min
This is a 3-part podcast series, as Disney celebrates its 100 years of existence in 2023. This episode (which is part 2 of this series) covers the last couple of decades of Disney's existence. 12-year old Ananya Harish from Bunt Sangha's S.M.Shetty International School, Mumbai, India joins as the guest speaker in this episode.After much reading about Disney characters (esp. Disney princesses), Ananya says she is pleasantly surprised by the personality trait changes in recent years.'How differ...
Apr 06, 2023•15 min
Disney studio was established in 1923. Rabbits, mice, ducks, cats and many more characters came alive on screen, thanks to Walt Disney and his team. Not happy with just showing his audience fairy tales on screen, Disney also expanded to develop theme parks. Now you could meet some of these characters in person and on rides, in these theme parks. As time went on, Disney studios brought bigger and richer folk tales from across the world (including stories such as Raya, the last Dragon).In this ...
Apr 02, 2023•21 min
What's flaxseed got to do with Lenovo?What's peanut shells got to do with food delivery?What's a pencil got to do with our terrace gardens?The short answer is - packaging that is sustainable. In this episode, 9-year old Shanaya, 8-year old Dhanush and 9-year old Isabelle from the Children's Academy Group of schools, talk about these stories. While we often talk about moving away from single-use plastics, this episode covers stories about companies that are making an effort to make this easier...
Mar 30, 2023•18 min
Superheroes have captivated our imagination for eons. The Marvel Cinematic Universe - Spiderman, Doctor Strange and many more, has been one of the most successful superhero franchises. But a void has now arisen. With Iron Man and Black Widow dead, Steve Rogers retired and Captain Marvel busy protecting other galaxies, the case for a new band of Young Avengers is high. In this episode, 7-year old Adwitya Goyal and 10-year old Rudransh Das from Children's Academy group of schools, Mu...
Mar 26, 2023•18 min
In the story 'Finding Nemo', the journey undertaken by Marlin and Dory kept us all on the edge of our seats. Some of us may have also heaved a sigh of relief when the clownfish Nemo is saved and is back home. What if we told you that a band of humans have come together to save many more creatures of the sea, the ocean floor and much more. Yayy! It's true.Listen to 8-yr old Tweesha, 9-year old Saatvik and 9-year old Rachita - all of whom go to the Children's Academy Group of Schools in Mumbai,...
Mar 23, 2023•15 min
In 64 years, for the first time, Dr.Nicola Fox, a British-origin scientist has been appointed to head science projects at NASA. Her dad loved science and especially space, and some of that seemed to have rubbed off on her. She also went to a girls' school and felt fully at home in science laboratories. There were no boys around, so no one told her that science may be for boys (mainly). In this episode, discussing lots of stories about her childhood and school years, is a vivacious 1...
Mar 20, 2023•14 min
Imagine going on a holiday, where you can get around in only one of three ways - walking, riding a donkey or riding a bicycle. You would also have to carry your suitcases and bags around with no taxi to transport it around. This would be true if you went to places like the island Hydra in Greece, the city of Ghent in Belgium and many islands in Maldives. To talk about how interesting or difficult life would be in such islands, we are joined by Renee Agarwal from Emerald Heights Internat...
Mar 16, 2023•17 min
Man will soon begin to build houses on moon. Check.The James Webb Telescope might soon tell us how the universe began its journey. Check.Bacteria can help us make new smartphones and laptop. Err...Not sure if we have lost our mind here?Pinch yourself. This is reality. In this episode with 10-year old Agastya Deshpande from Nahar International School, Mumbai, you will hear all about scientists who have discovered new uses for bacteria. They have the ability to accelerate the process of extract...
Mar 12, 2023•14 min
Our excitement at the prospect of having reached the 100th episode milestone must be palpable - in our voices, the podcast cover and even in our sound tracks :)In this episode, 8-year old Devansh from Kolkata and 12-year old Eesha from Chennai (who have both appeared in previous episodes on science & wildlife stories) talk about their experiences. We answer questions such as -'Is there a script for each episode?''How do the children prepare for each episode?''How does the podcast channel ...
Mar 09, 2023•20 min
Love solving puzzles? Enjoy listening to mythological stories? You're very likely to enjoy the two book series that our child co-host in this episode recommends.11-year old Saathvika who goes to New Albany Elementary School from Columbus , Ohio (USA) shares her thoughts on two book series - the Aru Shah series and the Greystone Secrets series. Listen to her to find out what these two book series are about. She also has plenty of reflection questions - both for the host Sangeetha and our liste...
Mar 05, 2023•19 min
