Everything Under The Sun

Squeak, squeak, whistle, whistle! Welcome to a noisy 18th episode of Everything Under the Sun.

This week we answer three questions from Alyssa, Walter and Matilda. They are:

How do Dolphins Squeak? How does a Football Referee’s Whistle Work? And Why do Giraffes have Such Long Necks?

Find out all about how dolphins use their foreheads to squeak with Travis, who studies dolphins at the Natural History Museum, in London and so knows all about dolphins! Discover how dolphins can do impressions of each other, how they use sea sponges on their noses when they’re out looking for food and why their skin is so smooth. 

Work out how referee’s whistles work with Alex Bellos, co-author of Football School, a series of books that explain the world through football. Find out how you can win a signed copy of Alex’s book on this week’s show. A clue is, what do people do when they score a GOAL?!

Finally hear all about giraffes necks, how they use them to fight with and why they’re so long, plus the horns on their head and why they have really thick skin on their legs, like tights! Oh and why is a giraffes tongue so long, and black, and what special substance covers it to protect it from thorns?

A huge thank you to Travis from the Natural History Museum, to Alex Bellos for his answer about football referee’s whistles and the copy of his book The Football School and to Alyssa, Walter and Matilda for this week’s questions.

If you and your family enjoy this podcast please do subscribe, rate it and give it a lovely review. It really helps!

Do send in your questions, there’s info about how to do that on the show’s website, everythingunderthesun.co.uk.

All you have to do is ask an adult to record you asking your question, say your name, a bit about yourself and your age and then ask your question, then send the recording into me at [email protected]

There’s more info on my website www.mollyoldfield.com/podcasts

 For more information about my book check out:

www.mollyoldfield.com/naturalwonders

Instagram: @mollyoldfieldwrites

Twitter: @mollyoldfield

Website: www.mollyoldfield.com

Show website: www.everythingunderthesun.co.uk

Travis on twitter: @Blogozoic

Alex Bellos’ on twitter: @alexbellos

The Natural History Museum: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/

Thank you! Have a lovely week!

Goodbye!

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Hello and welcome to the 17th 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 we have three questions about sleeping and dreaming! 

Our first question is from Millen - he wants to know about dreams!

His question is “Why on some days do we remember dreams but not on other days?”

To answer the question I asked the help of Philippa Perry, she’s a psychotherapist who spends lots of time listening to people’s dreams – she tells us about why we remember some dreams and not others and why we might dream the same dream over and over again. 

Next up is Tommi, he wants to know “Where do Gorillas Sleep At Night?” We talk all about gorilla nests, how gorillas build them out of leaves and branches, gorilla ‘bunk beds’ up high in the trees and the patterns in which they sleep! 

Then it’s time for Daisy who would like to know “How do we Sleep Walk?” We talk about how sleepwalking happens and the kinds of things that might cause it, and we reassure children that it’s quite normal and children usually grow out of it. 

Big thanks to Millen, Tommi and Daisy for this week’s questions and Philippa Perry for her answer about dreams. 

If you and your family enjoy this podcast please do subscribe, rate it and give it a lovely review. It really helps! Thanks SO much to everyone who has reviewed it so far.

I’ll be back next week answering more questions from children around the world in another episode of EUTS.

Do send in your questions, there’s info about how to do that on the show’s website:

everythingunderthesun.co.uk

My twitter is @mollyoldfield

Instagram @mollyoldfieldwrites

My website www.mollyoldfield.com

Have a lovely week! Thank you and goodbye!

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It’s World Book Day! To celebrate, this week we've got three answers to a great question, from Bonnie, which is...

‘Where do Ideas Come From?’

Our first answer is from children’s book writer Abi Elphinstone. Abi is a 2019 World Book Day author and you can get her new book, Everdark on World Book Day with your WBD tokens! She talks about how adventures, daydreaming and looking at the sky out of her writing shed inspired her big ideas and tells us about how she came up with the stories and characters in Everdark.

There's also a chance to win a very special copy of Everdark, signed by Abi and with a message in it just for you! To find out how to WIN this fab copy of the brilliant book with a note from Abi have a listen to the show.

Next up is Rob Biddulph, a writer and the official World Book Day illustrator. If you look at your World Book Day tokens, or posters at school, or in the library and local bookshops you’ll see Rob’s colourful drawings of bookmarks all over them. Rob answers Bonnie’s question too, but because everyone creates differently he has other ways that ideas come to him. Rob says ideas come to him all the time in all kinds of different places, so he thinks its really important to but make a note of ideas, as soon as they arrive so they don’t disappear and get forgotten! Rob tells us the story of how his daughter Kitty's imaginary friend Kevin gave him the idea for one of his first picture books!

Find out how Roald Dahl wrote ideas in his ‘Masterpiece’ notebooks and where those notebooks are now, how his wonderful children’s book The BFG began as well as how Matilda started.

You’ll also find out where the idea to start this very podcast came from, and how it took lots of friends to help make it a real. Friends, lots of hard work, and a sprinkling of magic! 

Happy World Book Day everyone! 

If you would like to find out more:

Abi Elphinstone is @moonrug on twitter

Rob Biddulph is @RobBiddulph

I am @mollyoldfield 

Instagram @mollyoldfieldwrites

World Book Day’s website is here: https://www.worldbookday.com

My website, which has information about The Secret Museum, which has the story of Roald Dahl’s notebooks in it is www.mollyoldfield.com

The podcast website is www.everythingunderthesun.co.uk

With thanks to Tyler Simmons Dale, Ash Gardner @houseofstrange

and Billy Colours. 

If you like the show please do rate and review and tell all your friends. 

Of course, if you have a question you would like answered on the show do record yourself asking it on an adult’s smartphone and email it into me at [email protected]

Thank you and enjoy this book filled week!

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This week we have three questions from Rob, Alex and Violet. They would like to know: what the biggest tree in the world? How much water is in an apple? How many bunnies are there in the world? 

Find out about the biggest tree in the world, called General Sherman, which I wrote about in my book, Natural Wonders of the World. I read an extract from the book about the ancient, giant trees in this week’s show. The trees grew on earth at the same time as dinosaurs roamed the earth. Find out how many people would have to join arms around the tree to circle the tree and how the giant forest in which the tree grows is affected by climate change.

Discover how much water is in an apple, an orange and a cucumber. Find out about an experiment you can do to work out how much water is in an apple. Plus how much water do you think it takes to power Apple’s computers, iphones, shops and data centres? Find out how many apples you could grow by using the water that Apple devices and shops use in a year. Plus where apples first came from and how apple trees grow.

To answer Violet’s question about bunnies I have Roberto, a curator of mammals at the Natural History Museum in London. He’s one of the top experts in the world about mammals and so is the best person to tell us all about bunnies – the numbers of bunnies and the number of species in the world! Plus discover the species of bunny that is so shy there is no language for it in the local language because no one has ever seen it.

Enjoy the show!

If you have a question you would like answered on the show just ask an adult to record you asking it and send it in to me at [email protected]

There’s more info on my website www.mollyoldfield.com/podcasts

To find out more about Roberto from the Natural History Museum look here: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/our-science/departments-and-staff/staff-directory/roberto-portela%20miguez.html

For more information about my book check out:

www.mollyoldfield.com/naturalwonders

Big thanks to Roberto, The Natural History Museum, Ash Gardner, Tyler Simmons Dale, Billy Colours, Audio Networks, Rob, Alex, Violet and their parents and Lily!

Instagram: @mollyoldfieldwrites

Twitter: @mollyoldfield

Website: www.mollyoldfield.com

Show website: www.everythingunderthesun.co.uk

If you like the show please do rate, review, subscribe and tell all your friends.

Thank you! Have a lovely week! Goodbye!

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Welcome to this week’s episode of Everything Under The Sun! 

This week we have four questions, the first is from Evey who lives in Australia, she would like to know why some animals are warm-blooded and some are cold-blooded? 

To answer her we have Katie Thomas, a biologist from The Natural History Museum in London!  She is studying how frogs see the word, so tells us all about frogs and other cold-blooded animals that get warmer when the sun is out, or cooler when it’s not sunny and sea creatures with anti-freeze in their bodies. 

Compare how their bodies work with how warm-blooded animals like your dog, a whale and us humans work! How to we keep our bodies at a constant temperature even when it’s boiling hot or freezing cold? What is the benefit to animals of being warm or cold-blooded? Have a listen to find out as well as the strange creatures that break the rules, like Opah fish who are as big as car tyres!

Our second and third questions are about queen bees! Arya would like to know why there is a queen bee? And Arthur would like to know if the queen bee is bigger than the other bees? Find out all about buzzing bees and their queen, from how bees make a queen bee by feeding her special food to what they do in the beehive. 

Our fourth question is from Ithaca, she would like to know why elephants stomp their feet and walk and stomp? Find out how elephants can hear through their feet and send messages through the ground from miles away. Imagine if you could do that - stomp your feet and send a message to your friend in her house miles away!

Plus hear who won this week’s copy of my new book Natural Wonders of the World with their buzzing bee impressions. For more info about the book, see here: www.mollyoldfield.com/naturalwonders

If you have a question you would like answered on the show just find an adult with a smartphone and ask them to record you using the voice memos app on an iphone or recording app that comes with other phones. Then tell me your name, your age, a bit about yourself, and ask me your question, and send it into me at [email protected]

More info about sending in questions can be found here! https://www.mollyoldfield.com/podcast

Thank you! Have a lovely week and enjoy the show! 

With thanks to the Natural History Museum in London, Audio Networks, Tyler Simmons Dale, Ash Gardner and Billy Colours.

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Talking and writing! We all do it every day, and its one of the most important things we do! Today on Everything Under The Sun we explore who came up with the idea of writing with a brilliant guest from the British Museum, Irving Finkel who looks after the oldest writing in the world – so old it is written on clay! Plus why we talk different languages.

Our first question, from Benjamin is “Why do people speak different languages?” We explore why we speak different languages as well as how many people speak the Ainu language in the world, how languages change and evolve and sometimes disappear. Find out how the English language has been changing, and about the book Lost Words, full of poems about words of nature - like acorn, dandelion and otter - that have been sadly taken out of the Junior Oxford English Dictionary but why it's so important they come back and are used by kids every day! Plus learn about the special parrots who were the last speakers of the Maypore language of the Amazon.

Our second question, from Shiva, who loves cheetahs and leopards is, “who invented writing and what did they write about?” To answer this great question we have Irving Finkel, curator of ancient writing at the British Museum. Irving works with the world’s oldest writing so he is in a good position to know! Find out who invented writing about 5,000 years ago, how they wrote, what their writing was called and what they wrote about. It turns out they wrote about the same kinds of things that we do – anything you can imagine! Find out how you could take part in one of the biggest jigsaw puzzles in the world, by learning cuneiform and helping the British Museum piece together ancient spells, myths and stories.

Our third question is about the animal Shiva loves – cheetahs! It comes from Martha and Heidi and it is, “how can cheetah’s run So fast?” Find out how these incredible animals have bodies that are adapted for speed and how they run faster than Usain Bolt.

Who won a copy of my new book, NATURAL WONDERS OF THE WORLD with their pirate impressions? Have a listen and find out, plus discover how you could how to win a copy THIS week!

Find out about my brand new book, Natural Wonders of the World on my website: www.mollyoldfield.com/naturalwonders

Or the amazon link is here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Natural-Wonders-World-Discover-marvels/dp/1526360667

For more information about the Ashurbanipal exhibition on at the British Museum until the 24th February see here: https://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/exhibitions/ashurbanipal.aspx

To see more about The Secret Museum, which includes a clay tablet written on by Ashurbanipal and more stories from Irving Finkel see here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Secret-Museum-Molly-Oldfield/dp/0007455283

See a cheetah running in slow motion here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4nd9GF1dRg

I hope you enjoy the show! If you like Everything Under The Sun please do rate, review and subscribe!

If you would like to send in a question or enter a competition just record your entry on an adult's smartphone and ask them to email the recording to me at [email protected].

There's more info on my website www.mollyoldfield.com and the show's website www.everythingunderthesun.co.uk

For more info check out:

My instagram: @mollyoldfieldwrites

My facebook: Molly Oldfield

My twitter: @mollyoldfield

www.everythingunderthesun.co.uk

With thanks to Irving, the questions askers, the pirates, Ash Gardner, Tyler Simmons Dale, Audio Networks and Billy Colours.

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Ahoy Me Hearties! Shiver Me Timbers! Yo Ho Ho and a bottle of rum! This week's Pirates episode comes from The Victoria & Albert Museum of Childhood and Globe Primary School in London. The V & A Museum of Childhood have a free show on at the moment called A Pirates Life For Me! So I've made a special show with them all about pirates, with questions from the local school children who helped create the show and answers from Will Newton who is a curator at the museum and made the pirates exhibition!

Our first question is from Adam who likes mind boggling things involving maths - he would like to know whether pirates would make good politicians? Next Maryama and Torbin would like to know why pirates drank rum? Jayana would like to know how pirates got their own language? And finally Shiva asks whether pirates wore pants?

Find out about how pirates ran a ship and elected a captain, discover Sir Walter Raleigh, one of the most famous pirates ever who was in the group called The Sea Dogs - he had lot of power during Queen Elizabeth I's reign and would have made a good politician. Until he was executed! You'll discover rum was a kind of treasure for pirates, as was food, clothes and spices - anything valuable really. Found out whether pirates really had treasure maps. Did X really mark the spot? Did they really make people walk the plank? How did pirates talk? Did they really say 'Arrrrrr.....', 'Shiver Me Timbers' and 'Yo Ho Ho!'? When is International Talk Like Pirates day? Come sail the seas with us and enjoy this jolly pirates special!

You'll hear who won a special copy of my new book NATURAL WONDERS OF THE WORLD, out THIS WEEK! So exciting! I hope you will all love the book. It is filled with the most wonderful places on our planet earth, you'll find caves filled with crystals and glow worms, monarch butterflies, birds of paradise, ancient rainforests, giant trees, strange animals called tenrecs, lemurs, aye-ayes, cherry blossom in Japan, and the most electric place on earth! Listen to children's baby dinosaur impressions sent into the show to enter the competition, plus find out what THIS WEEK'S COMPETITION is for another chance to win a copy of Natural Wonders of the World.

I hope you enjoy the show! If you like Everything Under The Sun please do rate, review and subscribe!

If you would like to send in a question or enter a competition just record your entry on an adult's smartphone and ask them to email the recording to me at [email protected].

There's more info on my website www.mollyoldfield.com and the show's website www.everythingunderthesun.co.uk

For more info check out:

My brand new book, Natural Wonders of the World on my website: www.mollyoldfield.com/naturalwonders

Or the amazon link is here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Natural-Wonders-World-Discover-marvels/dp/1526360667

My instagram: @mollyoldfieldwrites

My facebook: Molly Oldfield

My twitter: @mollyoldfield

www.everythingunderthesun.co.uk

The V & A Museum of Childhood's show A Pirate's Life for Me - https://www.vam.ac.uk/moc/exhibitions/a-pirates-life-for-me/

With thanks to Will Newton, Catie Poust at The V and A, Gill and Globe Primary School, Wren & Rook, Tyler Simmons Dale, Ash Gardner, Audio Networks, Billy Colours, all the children who sent in questions and all the baby dinosaurs! : )

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Yum, yum, yum! This tasty episode of Everything Under The Sun has three delicious questions.

Why do we taste differently when we have a cold? This is our first question, from Sanem, and it is brilliantly answered by top chef Heston Blumenthal who knows everything there is to know about how our sense of smell affects our sense of taste. He tells us about an experiment to do with a piece of apple to find out how having a cold affects the way we taste our food.

Secondly Charlie would like to know why we get garlic breath not noodle breath or apple breath? Find out how garlic goes into our bloodstream and make our whole body smell as well as how we can get rid of it and what things to eat to combat bad breath and eat healthily.

Our third question comes from Leo and he would like to know how falcons catch their prey? Find out all about these incredible hunters, the fastest bird in the world and how falcons have influenced jet engine design thanks to special things in their noses called baffles!

You'll also hear lots of brilliant squawking parrots who entered the competition to win a copy of my new book, Natural Wonders of The World, out on 7th February in all good bookshops, and available online too!

Here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Natural-Wonders-World-Discover-marvels/dp/1526360667

Plus there's another chance to win a copy of Natural Wonders of the World this week, - just tune into the podcast to find out what the competition is! Here's a clue - it involves baby dinosaurs.

I hope you enjoy the show and have fun trying out Heston's experiment this weekend.

Please do rate, review and subscribe to the show on apple podcasts, Acast, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

If you would like to send a question or a baby dinosaur impression into the show just use your phone to record the child who would like to enter, record them saying their name, age, a bit about themselves and then say the question or do the impression and send it into me at [email protected]

There's lots of info on my website www.mollyoldfield.com

and the show's website www.everythingunderthesun.co.uk

To find more info on social media go to:

twitter @mollyoldfield

instagram @mollyoldfieldwrites

Facebook Molly Oldfield

www.everythingunderthesun.co.uk

With thanks to Tyler Simmons Dale, Audio Networks, Ash Gardner, Wren Rook and Billy Colours.

Thank you!

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In this week's show we answer three questions from Alessandra, Sophia and Isaac, with help from special guest expert Marina Fogle.

Alessandra would like to know the answer to a question we all ask at some point in our lives, which is, "Where do Babies Come from?" Parental Warning! In case you don't want your children to listen to this answer. As this can be quite a tricky one to know how to answer well for children I asked Marina Fogle, host of the top parenting podcast The Parent Hood and creator of The Bump Class, an antenatal class she runs with her sister Chiara Hunt, who is a top doctor who knows all about children. Marina knows everything about babies and is the perfect person to explain the answer to this question all children ask. If you feel your child isn't ready to listen to this one, do skip over and carry on from question two, but if they're asking you about babies or you have already had a conversation about it then this could be perfect! Much better than finding out from a book like so many parents did!

Our second question comes from Sophia, she would like to know how deep the River Thames is, find out about the different depths of the river, about the times when the Thames froze over and Frost Fairs were held on the ice and also about some islands in the Thames, home to sheep and scorpions!

The third question this week is from Isaac who would like to know why ladybirds have spots, so listen in to find out all about these beetles - where they got their name, their special wings, why they have spots and about the yellow liquid called reflex blood they make on their legs to scare away birds and other creatures that might want to gobble them up!

You can also find out who won tickets to The Science Museum's show, The Sun, Living with Our Star.

PLUS I have a new book coming out called Natural Wonders of the World filled with the most wonderful places on planet earth. If you would like to be the first kid in the world to read the book, there's a competition to win a copy in this week's show! It's very easy and fun to enter, you just have to do a great impression of a bird - find out which one in this week's show - and send it into me. The book doesn't come out until Feb 7th so you really will be the first child in the world to read it, if you win! So do enter the competition.

If you'd like to send in a bird impression, a question or a message to the show just ask an adult to record you talking and send it into me at [email protected], or there is more info on the show's website about how to do that.

Social media:

Instagram: @everythingunderthesunpod

Twitter: @everythinguts

Facebook: @everythingunderthesunbyMollyOldfield

Website: www.everythingunderthesun.co.uk

Find out how to submit an answer on our website.

Marina Fogle's podcast is called The Parent Hood and her ante natal classes are The Bump Class.

Her instagram is @marinafogle

Podcast website is here: https://www.thebumpclass.com/the-parent-hood-podcasts/

With thanks to Wren & Rook for the copy of Natural Wonders of the World competition prize, Science Museum for the Sun tickets prize, Marina Fogle, Ash at House of Strange for the theme music, Billy Colours for the logo, Audio Networks for music and Tyler Simmons Dale for editing!

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In this week's show we answer three questions from Sophia, Romilly and Alice, with help from special guest experts Harry Cliff and Amy Davey, from London's Science Museum.

This week I'm at the Science Museum in London to answer your questions about The Sun, with the help of Harry and Amy, both curators at the museum involved with their current exhibition The Sun - Living with Our Closest Star. This week's questions are from Sophia, Romilly and Alice and they are:

Why is the Sun so Bright? Why will the Sun turn into a Big Red Giant? And Why is the Sun Orange?

Tune in to find out what the sun is made of, how big and far away the sun is, and how it creates light that travels to us on earth to help plants to grow, keep us warm and create solar energy. You will learn about Cecelia Payne who discovered the sun is made of different elements to the earth, what will happen to the sun in billions of years time and what colour the sun really is.

Also find out how you can win tickets to go to see The Sun exhibition at the Science Museum for all your family!

Plus find out about my new book coming out on 7th Feb called Natural Wonders of the World.

With thanks to Science Museum, Tyler Simmons Dale, Sophia, Romilly and Alice.

Sophia, Romilly and Alice

Social media:

Instagram: @everythingunderthesunpod

Twitter: @everythinguts

Facebook: @everythingunderthesunbyMollyOldfield

Website: www.everythingunderthesun.co.uk

Find out how to submit an answer on our website.

Thank you! Enjoy the episode all about our closest star! The Sun!

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