Speaker 1: Already, and this is the Daily This is the Daily OS. Oh,
Speaker 1: now it makes sense.
Speaker 2: Hello, and welcome to the good news edition of the
Speaker 2: Daily OS. It's Saturday, the eighteenth of February, and I
Speaker 2: am your good news reporter for this week, Sam stepping
Speaker 2: in for Zara.
Speaker 1: And I'm Billy, still Billy. I was going to say,
Speaker 1: how do I go from that? I'm still Billy.
Speaker 2: I'm so excited to have you a Billy. We have
Speaker 2: a big episode. We have some incredible good news stories
Speaker 2: from all around the world, from poetry heading to the moon,
Speaker 2: to some groundbreaking science that sounds straight out of Jurassic Park,
Speaker 2: a rare heartwarming moment in American politics, which I think
Speaker 2: we all need, and some huge achievements in music and television.
Speaker 1: Let's start with poetry. You and I love words. It's
Speaker 1: pretty incredible. Poetry is literally heading to the moon.
Speaker 2: Haiku Fitzsimon's they call You. So this is a really
Speaker 2: cool story. A collection of traditional Korean poems is currently
Speaker 2: on its way to the Moon on a SpaceX rocket.
Speaker 2: Now these aren't just any poems. They're part of a
Speaker 2: massive archive project called the Lunar Codex, and the aim
Speaker 2: of the project is basically to create a cultural time
Speaker 2: capsule on the Moon. And the poems are in a
Speaker 2: traditional Korean style, and it's these beautiful, really short three
Speaker 2: line poems that go back over one thousand years. And
Speaker 2: there's all these artworks that are now being preserved at
Speaker 2: a capsule on the moon near the South Pole. I
Speaker 2: really love the idea of creating a global cultural snapshot
Speaker 2: on the Moon. And the aim of it, according to
Speaker 2: the project, is that future lunar visitors. So when you
Speaker 2: and I go on a holiday to the Moon in
Speaker 2: forty years time with our moon kids, as in not together,
Speaker 2: but our families, like a family friend holiday.
Speaker 1: Not sure how her holiday with you would go to
Speaker 1: the moon.
Speaker 2: You got nowhere to run. It's going to be really
Speaker 2: cool because we can show them this lunar capsule with
Speaker 2: a little bit of humanity's creativity sitting up there.
Speaker 1: But I think that they should test sending poetry into
Speaker 1: space by going and sending some books or something to
Speaker 1: the astronauts who are stuck in space.
Speaker 2: That would be good. They need something to read that's
Speaker 2: perhaps longer than three lines, but yes.
Speaker 1: If they need something to do they've been sucked there
Speaker 1: for so.
Speaker 2: Long, well maybe they can invest in this next startup.
Speaker 1: Love it. So we are turning to great segue. We
Speaker 1: are turning to a startup that has raised a whopping
Speaker 1: two hundred million dollars this week to bring back extinct species.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I love a good startup story. This startup, I
Speaker 2: think was valued at twenty billion US dollars, so there's
Speaker 2: some serious bets being placed on this technology. They say
Speaker 2: that they can bring back extinct species through gene editing.
Speaker 2: Now the company is called Colossal Biosciences, and their first
Speaker 2: projects are to revive the wooly mammoth, the dodo, and
Speaker 2: the Tasmanian tiger. And if you look at who's invested
Speaker 2: in the company, there are some big names. You've got
Speaker 2: the CIA's Investment arm, You've got Paris Hilton, and you've
Speaker 2: got some really high profiles members of the scientific community
Speaker 2: as well. And the exciting part for me is that
Speaker 2: the technology that sits behind this isn't just about reviving
Speaker 2: extinct animals. It's actually the same technology that can be
Speaker 2: used to develop treatments for serious genetic conditions. And we're
Speaker 2: talking about hereditary diseases here, like sickle cell or cystic
Speaker 2: fibrosis and it could, they say, eventually be eradicated from
Speaker 2: the human gene pool, alongside the revival of a wooly mammoth.
Speaker 2: There are some ethical issues that always come into this
Speaker 2: discussion with gene editing, from worries of designer babies to
Speaker 2: illegal experimentation on humans. But I want to keep the
Speaker 2: faith here that this emerging technology is going to be
Speaker 2: used for good. And at the very least, how cool
Speaker 2: would it be for Tasmania to get back the Tazzy tiger.
Speaker 1: I would love to bring back the Tazzy tiger. But
Speaker 1: this might be stupid.
Speaker 2: But no such thing as a stupid or silly question.
Speaker 1: But we're not bringing back like dinosaurs, are we?
Speaker 2: Well it's open, right, I mean this is about I mean,
Speaker 2: there's a comment from one of the founders about a
Speaker 2: real life Jurassic Park exhibition, so there is I mean,
Speaker 2: they say there's potential to bring back any extinct animal
Speaker 2: as long as you've got DNA strands from it. So
Speaker 2: I'm going to have to go back and check whether
Speaker 2: they actually have DNA from dinosaurs. I feel like they do.
Speaker 2: This is not our strong suit either of us, so
Speaker 2: let's keep going.
Speaker 1: Okay, Well, what is our strong suit is US politics.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: It's unusual for us to be talking about US politics
Speaker 1: in a good News podcast, but there was one moment
Speaker 1: from this week's confirmation hearings that had an uncharacteristically good
Speaker 1: news vibe.
Speaker 2: Tell us about that, Well, this is all about bipartisanship.
Speaker 2: So bipartisanship is the idea of both sides of politics.
Speaker 2: So in Australia it would be a liberal minister and
Speaker 2: the labor minister working together. In the US, it's about
Speaker 2: a Republican and a Democrat, and it's rare. It's getting
Speaker 2: more and more rare in most political systems, especially in
Speaker 2: the last time of twelve eighteen months. But at the
Speaker 2: beginning of Marco Rubio's confirmation hearing for his appointment as
Speaker 2: Donald Trump's Secretary of Stage, he's a Republican Democrat. Tammy
Speaker 2: Duckworth opened with a good News moment. I do I
Speaker 2: say I'm parking politics here. I'm not making commentary on
Speaker 2: either Tammy Duckworth or Maco Rebio as politicians, but let's
Speaker 2: focus on them as humans.
Speaker 3: Senator Rubio, I want to start off by noting for
Speaker 3: the record that when I first got to the Senate
Speaker 3: and I was in my first year and you just
Speaker 3: run for president, and I didn't think you would know
Speaker 3: who I was. I was pregnant with my daughter and
Speaker 3: trying to change Senate rules so that I could bring
Speaker 3: her onto the floor so I could do my job
Speaker 3: and vote because I can't come through the normal back
Speaker 3: door to vote because there's stairs there and it's not
Speaker 3: accessible for wheelchairs. And I remember in the middle of
Speaker 3: that battle rolling through the Senate floor to vote, and
Speaker 3: I heard Tammy Duckworth from across the Senate chambers, and
Speaker 3: you came running down from the top back of the
Speaker 3: Senate chambers to tell me I'm with you. You have
Speaker 3: the right to vote. And I was supported to being
Speaker 3: able to bring your daughter or your child onto the
Speaker 3: floor when she's born. And as someone who was new
Speaker 3: to the Senate, I was extremely grateful to you for
Speaker 3: that kindness.
Speaker 1: Big What I exactly said is what's the big deal?
Speaker 3: This place is already for babies.
Speaker 2: Exactly exactly, So some quick context for you. Senator Duckworth
Speaker 2: has been a representative from Illinois since twenty seventeen. Before
Speaker 2: her career in politics, she served in Iraq with the
Speaker 2: US military as a helicopter pilot, and she was involved
Speaker 2: in a serious battle incident in two thousand and four
Speaker 2: and lost both her legs. She was actually the first
Speaker 2: female double amputee from the Iraq War. She's also then
Speaker 2: the first woman with a disability to be elected to
Speaker 2: the House and the Senate. And in twenty eighteen, Duckworth
Speaker 2: became the first US Senator to give birth while in office.
Speaker 2: In that grab, you heard them talk about a law
Speaker 2: that had been in place. Now a few months after
Speaker 2: becoming a mother, the law did change, and it's in
Speaker 2: part because of Rubio's advocacy in the Republican Party. And
Speaker 2: now children under one are allowed to be brought onto
Speaker 2: the Senate floor during votes.
Speaker 1: Wow, very feel good story and like you said, an
Speaker 1: amazing moment of bipartisanship.
Speaker 2: Let's have more of that.
Speaker 1: Let's have more of that now. From politics to music,
Speaker 1: there is a new record set by Bad Bunny.
Speaker 2: We love Bad Bunny here in the Latin music community,
Speaker 2: and I do count myself.
Speaker 1: As that's kind to say, are you part of that community?
Speaker 2: I love listening to Latino music on Spotify. I'm not alone.
Speaker 2: The entire genre is taking off. It's the fastest growing
Speaker 2: genre of music in the US and Bad Bunny is
Speaker 2: probably the king of Latin pop for the last couple
Speaker 2: of years. And now he's become the first Latin artist
Speaker 2: to have one hundred songs on the Billboard Hot one
Speaker 2: hundred chart. He released an album this week and he
Speaker 2: went from high nineties I think he had ninety seven
Speaker 2: songs all the way to one hundred and thirteen songs
Speaker 2: now and all seventeen tracks of his new album entered
Speaker 2: the Top one hundred. He was the most streamed artist
Speaker 2: in the world in twenty twenty, twenty twenty one, and
Speaker 2: twenty twenty two. He was beaten by this up and
Speaker 2: coming artist called Taylor Swift in twenty twenty three and
Speaker 2: twenty twenty four, but I'm picking him to take back
Speaker 2: that title this year. But it's amazing to see real
Speaker 2: diversity in the music landscape and first Latin artists with
Speaker 2: one hundred songs in the top one hundred.
Speaker 1: And I think we're time for one more because we
Speaker 1: have to talk about Sesame Street.
Speaker 2: We do. I think it has a special place in
Speaker 2: everyone's hearts who watched it as a kid. I remember
Speaker 2: getting up and watching it on ABC early in the morning,
Speaker 2: and the fifty fifth season of Sesame Street is debuting
Speaker 2: this week, and to mark the launch, Elmo sat down
Speaker 2: last week for what was described as a tell all
Speaker 2: interview with one of the most serious news outlets in
Speaker 2: the world, the Associated Press. I want to end this
Speaker 2: pod with my favorite line of that interview, and it's
Speaker 2: how important music is. It's a show about music, Elmo said.
Speaker 2: Elmo thinks that music brings people together, and some people
Speaker 2: who like some things and some people who like other
Speaker 2: things can kind of come together because they like the
Speaker 2: same kind of music. And that's kind of cool.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 2: If that isn't the beautiful, vague, all encompassing language of
Speaker 2: Elmo that makes us feel good, I don't know what
Speaker 2: it is.
Speaker 1: I love it. I feel like this podcast has been
Speaker 1: a lot about unity, bringing sides together.
Speaker 2: There's a nice thing there from Elmo to Marco Rubio.
Speaker 2: Bit of unity for your Saturday.
Speaker 1: And that is our good news round up for this week.
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to Tida. This week. Will be
Speaker 1: back on Monday with a deep dive. It's going to
Speaker 1: be a busy news week. Next week. We have the
Speaker 1: potential TikTok band, and we also have Donald Trump being
Speaker 1: inaugurated to become president for the second time. Until then,
Speaker 1: have a beautiful weekend. My name is Lily Maddon and
Speaker 1: I'm a proud Arunda Bungelung Kalkatin woman from Gadighl country.
Speaker 1: The Daily oz acknowledges that this podcast is recorded on
Speaker 1: the lands of the Gadighl people and pays respect to
Speaker 1: all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island and nations. We pay
Speaker 1: our respects to the first peoples of these countries, both
Speaker 1: past and present.