The Week Junior Show

Navi Pillay’s Nobel Peace Prize journey takes centre stage, alongside the animals chosen for Britain’s future banknotes. There’s a real-or-rubbish puppy pool-party mystery, a prehistoric adventure in Book of the Week, spooky creatures, and a lively debate about data centres. Plus, a heroic tree, joyful Christmas memories, and curious listener questions.

Wildlife is bouncing back, with tiger numbers and green turtles on the rise. Meet a porridge champion, a heroic rescue chihuahua and a historic guard cat. Plus, Britain’s Eurovision troubles face investigation, the debate over booing sports stars gets heated, and listeners share bizarre carrots, handmade bowls and ideas for a Word of the Year.

A celebration of the Week Junior Book Awards features spooky double-winner Gloam and some tough judging choices. New shoots bring hope for the felled Sycamore Gap tree, while a real-life Poké Ball hotel sparks a “real or rubbish” debate. Plus, future car designs, a creative ideas book, tiny tiger cats, seasonal crafts, and a lively debate over birthday parties for pets.

Kalpana Arias is a guerrilla gardener, nature-rights campaigner and organiser of London’s Right to Grow. She explains how community gardens can transform cities, strengthen food security and reconnect people with nature. She also explores technology’s role in inspiring action and why local projects can turn hope into change. Plus, EU online safety rules, Singapore’s reading rewards and the e-scooter debate.

Why are politicians calling for slower, safer AI development? Swiss scientists are wrapping melting glaciers in sheep’s wool, while a Canadian marathon turns out to be seriously over the mark. There’s also a lively debate over dogs on beaches, surprising Shaun the Sheep facts, wind-powered ships, healing penguins, and baking mysteries in Marzipan.

France targets ultra-fast fashion with new fees as the team explores clothing waste and creative recycling. Discover fossil hunter Dorothea Bate’s scientific legacy, test a bizarre Downing Street holiday-rental claim, and debate alligator hunting in Louisiana. Plus, all-female spacewalk heroes, megalodon mysteries, a winning wildlife photo, and Freddie Kölsch’s spooky book Spindlewood.

Flash floods hit communities along the border between Nepal and Tibet on 26 August after a glacier collapsed high in the mountains, and Bex, Eve and Joe talk through the rescue effort and the aid arriving from around the world, including a £5 million package from the UK and 68 tonnes of supplies from India. There’s also the 360-tonne castle tower in Hirosaki, Japan, hauled back to its original position by 1,800 volunteers pulling on ropes and rollers, a giant hairball loose in New York for Real or Rubbish, Barnsley Youth Choir as heroes of the week after being crowned double world champions in Sweden, and a big debate on whether humans will ever find alien life. Plus the Bayeux Tapestry going on display in London, Catherine Rundell’s The Neverfear as Book of the Week, and your chance to win a copy.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Food Standards Agency has warned young children, older people and pregnant women to avoid runny eggs in cafes and restaurants after an outbreak of salmonella, and Bex, Eve and Joe talk through the advice. There’s also a queue forming at the summit of Snowdon, a Spider-Man screening in Colombia emptied by a foul smell, 11-year-old museum curator Anderson Taylor as hero of the week, and a big debate on whether UK airports should get bigger. Plus the breakthrough shortlist for The Week Junior Book Awards, Isaac Hamilton-McKenzie on this week’s Book of the Week, Jamaal Target: Phantom Agent, and your chance to win a copy.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A total solar eclipse passed over Greenland, Iceland and northern Spain, and Bex, Eve and Martha talk through what happened, including Eve’s trip to Spain to see it. There’s also an 18-year-old in Belgium who uncovered £7.5 million of gold while doing a summer job on a building site, robot cleaners for hire in San Francisco, trainee volunteer firefighter Talara as hero of the week, and a big debate on whether there’s too much football. Plus the audiobook shortlist for The Week Junior Book Awards, Catherine Doyle on this week’s Book of the Week, Believe, and your chance to win a copy.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A new defence agreement has been signed by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, and Bex, Joe and Dan talk through what it means. There’s also a woman in Italy whose winning lottery ticket was rescued from a bin lorry, pufflings being saved in Iceland, Parkrun founder Paul Sinton-Hewitt as hero of the week, and a big debate on whether cars have got too big. Plus the picture book shortlist for The Week Junior Book Awards, Rashmi Sirdeshpande on this week’s Book of the Week, and your chance to win a copy.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.