Silent room and quirky kakapo

0:00A, B, C, listen. Hello there, my name's Emily and you're listening to Newstime, the best news podcast for kids. Hello Emily, hey Emily. Remember to follow a like Newstime wherever you listen so you never miss out on our weird and our wonderful stories. We ask and answer some big questions on today's episode. We're encouraged to reach out to the people around us and ask how they're going for RUOK Day. We also ask why is it that famous authors are writing books that might never be read by anyone alive today? And how can we save a weird, wadly, owl parrot from extinction? You'll have to listen to find out. Let's hear news. This is Newstime. This week it's RUOK Day. RUOK is a charity that aims to get Aussies chatting together and looking out for each other.

1:01The idea is pretty simple. If you have a friend or someone you care about that seems a little low, sad or likely having a tough time, RUOK Day is a day to ask them how they're going. To make people feel good about themselves. To make them feel happy. You want everyone to feel better and everyone wants to feel good, not left out. Maybe if they look really sad, like really sad, you've asked a for RUOK. But what's more important than just asking someone if they're OK is listening to the answer. You can listen and maybe ask some follow-up questions like how are you feeling about that? There are lots of ways to be a good friend and asking these sorts of questions is just one of them. You can also show you care by spending time with your friends, doing things together that you both like, sharing kind words and looking out for each other. How do you share your friendship with those around you? I'm being kind to them, including them games you play.

2:03If someone isn't liking something about a game, I will adjust it to make them feel included. And here's the thing. You don't really need to wait for a special day to ask your friend how they're doing. If you know someone's having a tough time, you can check on them whenever feels right. Or if you're having a tough time yourself and dealing with some big feelings, tell a trusted grown-up. When we share big problems with other people, they become smaller and easier to deal with. Can we please have another story? Please? There's a silent room shitting in the depths of a library in Oslo, in the country Norway. The door to this room isn't opened very often. People rarely put things in and never take them out. It's part of something called the Future Library Project. Artists and authors are creating works, paintings or new books.

3:04And instead of sharing them with the world today, they're locking them away in this room in Oslo until the year 2114. They might want to have, like, it as a treasure or make it ancient. They might want to, like, make it so it's, like, limited and it's very hard to get to that it's high chances that people actually want it. When it's, like, older, you can sell it for money. It's not really about money. Many of the authors giving their work to the project won't be alive when they finally unlock the doors, so they can't make any money from it. Get this! Another cool part of the project is the Future Library Forest. In the north of the city, there's a grove of trees that have been planted specially so that in the year 2114, when it's finally time to open the silent room, they'll use those trees to make paper and print copies of all the hidden books to share with the world. But what if in a hundred years no one reads books anymore?

4:06That is a risk, I suppose. But the authors hope that reading will still be popular in the future. The latest author to add to the project is a writer named Laurie Anderson. Your grown-ups might have heard of Laurie. She's a writer and a musician, and her creations often break the rules of what we think art and music should be. Laurie is the 13th person to work hard on something for hours, weeks and months, and then lock it away rather than sharing it with the world. I would put a soccer ball in there, see how long it lasts. I'm going to fall myself in there. Not anyone can just add something to the future library project. Laurie was chosen specially because she writes books that are very imaginative and remind the reader about what it's like to be human. But, cos, won't I die? No one will forget about them? Look, if I'm hosting newstime 88 years from now, I'll certainly be sure to let you know how the project goes. What's next? The world's heaviest parrot is the nocturnal carcapot.

5:09They're native to New Zealand and critically endangered. There are only a few hundred of them left in the wild. Carcapot, and it looks like a green chicken. Carcapos are funny birds. They're big, round and bright green. Sometimes weighing as much as a big watermelon. They can't fly, so when they waddle and hop around, they do sort of look like chickens. They often call our parrots and they live on forest floors in New Zealand and nowhere else in the world. Carcapos only breed once every three to five years when the native re-moot trees produce lots of very steep. And that's not very often. If you think about other animals like humans or cats or monkeys, they can have babies every year. But for the endangered carcapot, it's a long time between eggs. And then after they breed, then they're going to have to wait another four or three years to breed again. Yeah, that's part of it. Carcapos don't have baby chicks very often, but also their habitats on the mainland of New

6:13Zealand have become overrun within invasive species that can threaten the carcapot. Now the birds mostly live on tiny predator-free islands. It's not very likely for them to come back from extinction. Scientists and conservationists have been working to save the carcapot for more than 30 years. After decades of tracking populations, keeping the birds safe and learning as much as we can about them, this year there's been some great news. Ninety chicks were officially added to the population of Carcapo, bringing the total number of green alparets to 325. That's the most carcapos we've ever counted since conservationists started to look after them. That's good because then the chances of extinction are much lower. Yep, it'll be another few years until the re-mootries are full enough to trigger another breeding season for the carcapot. We'll have to wait and see how that one goes.

7:16Alrighty, I hope you've been listening very carefully because it's time for today's quiz. Question 1 Do you have to wait until are you okay, Dave, to check on someone? Nope, you can reach out to your friends whenever you think is right. Question 2 Where will they get the paper to print these books in 100 years? From special trees planted nearby. Question 3 How often does a carcapot have baby chicks? But once every 3 to 5 years. And your news, Nudler, a question to chat about with the people around you. Why do you think artists and authors are making things that they can't share with anyone alive today? And that's it. Today's countdown is in the bag. Thank you, Emily. See ya. You're welcome. Catch you next time.

8:17Newstime is an ABC Kids Listen podcast. For other awesome podcasts to play, music to move to and stories and soundtracks for sleep, head to the Kids tab on the ABC Listen app. It's free from your app store. From our burger-saurus to archaeopteryx and some moxies to Zingonga-saurus, you'll find all your favourite prehistoric pals and predators in the greatest podcast of all time. Welcome to the Tooth. Dino Dino! I'm sports reporter Amanda Shalala. And I'm paleontologist aka Mesozoic Master Tim Richards. And every week we commentate as dinosaurs compete across ever-changing terrains in a race for the coveted Dino Dome Cup. There are carnivores, herbivores, omnivores, flyers, swimmers, slow pokes and speedsters.

9:19There are anything goes in the Dino Dome. Join us for the Mesozoic Mayhem on the Kids tab of the ABC Listen app. Let's get ready to roll! Never know if the Dino Dome...