Newslings

Sunday, Nov. 1. A shipwreck near Kekova, Turkey, that may be the oldest ever found, where the wooden ship is gone but its clay jars are still there; Cyclone Arnab reaches India, and how people got ready; and new U.S. coins all about kids' sports. Plus Wileidy Feliciano-Rivera and her plantain-peel mulch, our first Ask the Scientist with Stephen Palumbi of Stanford University, a poem, the answer to our Mystery Sound and a brand-new one.

Grown-ups: today's episode includes a big storm in India, Cyclone Arnab, told through how people got ready. No upsetting details or pictures.

Ask the Scientist: Stephen Palumbi (Stanford University).

Poem: "Boats sail on the rivers" by Christina Rossetti, read by Maggie Travers for LibriVox (public domain).

Music: "Carefree" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Mystery Sounds: "velcro tearing sound" by satanicupsman and "zipper-01-05.flac" by pbimal on Freesound (CC0).

Today's Big Question: "If you could leave something in a jar for people to find thousands of years from now, what would you put in it?"

Pictures, quiz and read-along for this episode

Friday, Oct. 30. The Milwaukee Brewers win the World Series for the very first time; a pause in the fighting in one town in Ukraine, so people can get help; and a tiny Scottish island that made a giant discovery. Plus Kim Ji-on and her phone-grip smoke filter, a town in Australia that turns purple in spring, a spider that might be dreaming, a poem, the answer to our Mystery Sound and a brand-new one, and six baby dolphins in the Mekong River.

Grown-ups: today's episode looks back at a short ceasefire in one town in Ukraine, Oleshky, set up so food and medicine can get in. No upsetting details.

Poem: "Hurt No Living Thing" by Christina Rossetti, read by Maggie Travers for LibriVox (public domain).

Music: "Carefree" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Mystery Sounds: by Kat466 and satanicupsman on Freesound (CC0).

Today's Sound It Out word: invention (in · ven · tion).

Today's Big Question: "If a spider could dream, what do you think it would dream about?"

Pictures, quiz and read-along for this episode

Tuesday, Oct. 27. The real stars hiding in Van Gogh's The Starry Night; Ebola, and the doctors, nurses and scientists working to stop it; and why the clocks went back this weekend. Plus Payton Obert and her lemonade stand that became a charity, marigolds for the Day of the Dead in Mexico, a snake that rolls like a wheel, a joke from our listener Lucile, a poem, our very first Mystery Sound, and a baby walrus who found a new home.

Grown-ups: today's episode explains the Ebola outbreak in Central Africa calmly, without numbers or upsetting details. The main ideas: it spreads only through close contact with someone who is very sick, helpers are working hard, and the risk far away is low.

Poem: "Escape at Bedtime" by Robert Louis Stevenson, read by Willy for LibriVox (public domain).

Music: "Carefree" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Mystery Sound: by Kat466 on Freesound (CC0).

Today's Sound It Out word: constellation (con · stel · la · tion).

Today's Big Question: "If you could invent a new way to move, like rolling instead of slithering, what would it be?"

Pictures, quiz and read-along for this episode

Sunday, Oct. 25. Today on Newslings, the first Sunday Edition: why kids' phones are in the news, from Pennsylvania's new school phone rule to Australia and France; a cucumber farmer in Egypt whose land was hiding a giant stone head of the pharaoh Ramses the Second; and why Lisbon is saying goodbye to rental scooters. Plus Jonathan Thai, 17, and his Pedal Forward Foundation, a pepper party in Espelette, France, a game board carved on a 1,000-year-old bread shovel, This Day in History (the first home microwave, 1955), a poem, two goats with a job in Tokyo, and Hoad's Wood in England, cleaned up at last.

See the Pedal Forward Foundation: https://pedalforwardfoundation.com

Poem: "Windy Nights" by Robert Louis Stevenson, read by Willy for LibriVox (public domain).

Today's Sound It Out word: exception (ex · cep · tion).

Grown-ups: today's Big Question is "If you found something really old in your garden, what would you hope it was?"

Pictures, quiz and read-along for this episode

Friday, Oct. 23. America gets a brand-new national park, Chiricahua in Arizona, full of stone towers made by a volcano; Shanghai's new opera house has a roof you can walk on; and Thailand helps rice farmers wait for a better price. Plus Oscar Whitfield, 14, Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year for his dung beetle photo, pumpkin boat races in Oregon, corals that help each other heal, a poem, and giant tortoises bouncing back.

See Oscar's photo: https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/photography/awards-and-competitions/14-year-old-photographer-wins-one-of-wildlife-photographys-biggest-awards-with-image-of-a-dung-beetle-on-a-mission-to-roll-its-precious-cargo-up-a-sandy-slope-captured-on-a-family-game-drive-in-zimbabwe

Poem: "October's Party" by George Cooper, read by Roger Smith for LibriVox (public domain).

Today's Sound It Out word: volcano (vol · ca · no).

Grown-ups: today's Big Question is "If you could design a building that everyone was allowed to climb on, what would it look like?"

Pictures, quiz and read-along for this episode

Wednesday, Oct. 21. Georgia sets a record for early voting on the first day of a midterm election, a super El Niño changes the weather around the world (and sends six times the usual water over Iguazú Falls), and judge Navi Pillay wins the Nobel Peace Prize. Plus Raji Doshi, 13, whose seaweed invention won America's Top Young Scientist, our first Brain Builder, the olive harvest in Tuscany, a Whoa Fact about the European nightjar, and why walking is good for you.

Today's Sound It Out word: election (e · lec · tion).

Grown-ups: today's Big Question is "If you could give a prize to someone you know, for making things fairer or kinder, who would it be, and why?"

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Monday, Oct. 19. A rover on Mars breaks the record for driving farther than any vehicle on another world, scientists finally see how a honey bee's tiny stinger pumps, and Brazil changes its constitution to give workers a second day off each week. Plus Max Ku, 12, wins skateboarding silver at the Asian Games, a Whoa Fact about the shrinking Moon, and London's new super sewer cleaning up the River Thames.

Today's Sound It Out word: rover (ro · ver).

Grown-ups: today's breakfast question is "If you got one extra day off, every single week, what would you do with it?"

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Friday, Oct. 16. A brand-new dinosaur from Zimbabwe, a Labrador who sniffs out "sea vomit" to protect Scotland's sea, why the seas are rising and how the world agreed that island countries will always stay countries, a 13-year-old's water-saving app, the giant stone jars of Laos, two silly limericks by Edward Lear, and a big piece of sea Norway is protecting.

Today's Sound It Out word: dinosaur (di · no · saur).

Grown-ups: today's breakfast question is "If you could protect one special place in nature, forever, which would it be?"

The limericks are read by Phil Chenevert for LibriVox (public domain).

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Wednesday, Oct. 14. Sophie Adenot comes home; Loki, and 56 more new creatures; Students in France speak up; Kids Who Rock: Bodhana Sivanandan; Whoa Fact: Sharks have hidden ears; Poem Pocket: Who Has Seen the Wind?; Solar power under the sea.

Sound It Out word: astronaut (as · tro · naut).

Today's Big Question: If you lived in space for eight months, what would you miss most?

See the pictures, take the quiz and read along at newslings.xyz.

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Monday, Oct. 12. Juice, the space slingshot; Lions with a giant dinner; Brazil's big election; The pelican who knocked; Kids Who Rock: Lian Yunzhi; Whoa Fact: Earth's balance point moves; Paid to photograph wildlife.

Sound It Out word: gravity (gra · vi · ty).

Today's Big Question: If you rode along to Jupiter, what would you pack?

See the pictures, take the quiz and read along at newslings.xyz.

Pictures, quiz and read-along for this episode