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Captain Underpants is a super popular book series that has sold more than 80 million copies all around the world. Kids love its funny jokes and surprising story twists. The author, Dav Pilkey, wasn’t always great at reading or sitting still—he had something called dyslexia (a reading disorder) and ADHD (which makes it hard to focus). But as a kid, he used his time while he was sent out of class to draw funny pictures and tell stories to his friends. Instead of letting challenges stop him, he turned them into something awesome!

Young guests: Agastya (12 yrs), Darsh (10 yrs), Dhruv Agarwal (11 yrs), Dhruv Gandhi (11 yrs), Dhyan (11 yrs), Nayra (10 yrs), Satwik (12 yrs)

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Project Tiger was launched in the 1970s in India. There was much fanfare, wildlife reserves were created and tiger protection became important to the Indian government. While Project Tiger stopped the killing of tigers, these big cats did not grow in numbers that much. But that trend changed in 2010. For the first time, between 2010 and 2022, tiger numbers nearly doubled, from ~1700 to over 3600. This has happened despite a rise in India's human population and a decline in forest area. How did India achieve this? What lessons can other countries learn from India's practices?

Co-hosts: Devansh (10 yr old), Eesha (14 yr old)

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What does it take to write well? Is it about acquiring better language skills or is there a secret recipe for developing intriguing plots, or does it come from consistent writing practice? Sonia Mehta, a children's author with more than 170 published titles to her credit, shares stories from her writing journey.

She has authored both fiction and non-fiction books for children as young as five, and for young adults as well.

More about our guest in this episode

There are startups that solve problems for people - like the ones that help people rent a pet for their Instagram photos. And then, there are startups that solvereal problems - like bringing light into people's homes. Soma Bags is doing just that. This episode carries the story of how its founder Innocent James got the spark of an idea from one of his professors in university. He had seen him sew a small solar panel onto the pocket of his jacket and this had help him keep his smartphone charged through the day.

This episode narrates the story of how James used this idea to bring electricity into the homes of Africans in an affordable manner. This is no charitable venture - it makes profits for his company as villagers are willing to pay for a dependable solution priced at $4-$8 a month.

While rejoicing at these solutions, one should also wonder, if we are exchanging one problem for another?

Story narrators are the voices that brings stories and characters to life on stage. Both children and adults often stay mesmerised and get a very different perspective to both the plot and the characters, compared to what they get when they read the story. Story narrations help readers think of different plot twists, story endings and even appreciate characters with grey tones. In this episode, Antara Goswami, a story narrator shares how she goes about putting together her narrations, what props she uses and how she scripts these performances.

Also, in this episode, five young guests (aged 8-13) share their questions on story narration with Antara.