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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 i...

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 scientis...

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 em...

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 phone...

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...

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 hav...

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 fir...

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 Eur...

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 t...

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 s...

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 ge...

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...

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 represe...

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...

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...

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 t...

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 mak...

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...

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,...

Food prices all over the world are sky rocketing. Temperatures are soaring high. 'How come a war fought by Russia in a far away country seems to affect us in India, so badly? Why are poor countries like India affected more than rich countries, by food price increases?'Listen to this conversation with a 9-year old to explore how high food prices are, and what to expect next. If you have any thought...

Only a thin strip of water near the coastline is governed by countries. The rest of the oceans, called High Seas, is left largely ungoverned. A high seas treaty was to have helped safeguard the lives of marine creatures, reduce pollution of the seas through deep-sea mining and set up a framework by which the rich and poor countries can share genetic resources well. Listen to this conversation with...

Recently, a few thousand workers in a warehouse of Amazon in New York voted to be a part of a union. Why workers need to be part of unions? Won't this give them a lot of power over their bosses? Will more companies in other parts of the world also start unions? Listen to this conversation with a 9-year old to understand her world view of profit-focused companies vs. unions. If you have any thought...

Recently a few giant stone jars were discovered in North Eastern India (Assam). We are guessing that these jars were used to keep the ashes of the dead. Sometimes, they also contained some pretty beads and ancient bracelets. These stone jars are similar to the jars found in Laos."How does someone carry or lift a giant 3m high stone jar? Ancient humans must have been really strong, is it? How do we...

"Russia has attacked Ukraine. So do people avoid the bully? Like not talk to them or sit next to them at lunch? But wait....do we really have a problem with the people of Russia or only the Russian government?""Why is Turkey happy to welcome some Russians into their country?"Listen to this conversation between a 10-year old and a curious adult, who try to find answers to these questions together....

'Did you know that most of us eat plastic, just like we eat rice or pasta?' None of us willingly orders a plate of plastic at a restaurant. But those little plastic straws and juice containers that we throw into the garbage bins at home can land up in our food plates. 'How does a plastic straw come back with our rice? Doesn't our body just send it all out?' Listen to the podcast to get answers to...