Squiz Kids

The United Nations General Assembly is underway in New York, with world leaders, heads of state and diplomats gathering to discuss some of the biggest issues facing our planet.

But what exactly is the United Nations? Why was it created? How does it get almost 200 countries to work together—and what does any of that have to do with kids?

In this week’s From the Vault, we’re dusting off our Shortcut to the United Nations. Christie and Bryce discover how the UN began, what happens inside its very long General Assembly, why five countr...

It’s the world’s slowest race: fingernails versus toenails.

They’re made from the same tough stuff and grow in much the same way, so why do our fingernails race ahead while our toenails trail behind? Christie investigates the tiny nail factories hidden beneath our skin, discovers just how slowly nails really grow, and finds out how blood flow, warmth and all the work done by our busy fingers might give fingernails an unfair advantage.

If you have a science question you'd like Christie to investigate, email us at squizkids@thesquiz.com.au

A fun kids vs adults news quiz to test who’s been paying the most attention to the week in news.

For the full episode transcript, click here.

Your daily kids news podcast.

Celebrating Aussie Citizenship Day; Japan’s record-breaking 100-year-olds; big weekend for AFL and NRL; and taming the AI robots.

It’s Australian Citizenship Day! A chance to think about what unites Australians, from democracy and equality to freedom and the famous fair go.

Japan has reached one seriously impressive milestone: more than 100,000 people are now aged 100 or older!

It’s crunch time! Sydney faces Fremantle and Hawthorn takes on Brisbane, with two precious AFL Grand Final spots up for grabs. Add massive NRL elimination clashes into the mi...

Your daily kids news podcast.

Bringing back the Tassie Tiger; keeping Venice afloat; dinosaur poo delivers a clue; and the Big Peg is up for sale.

Could the Tasmanian tiger be about to claw its way back from extinction?

Venice’s incredible flood barriers have already saved the floating city more than 150 times. But rising seas mean they’re being used more and more, creating a tricky new problem.

Scientists peering inside 66-million-year-old fossilised dung discovered amazingly preserved feathers, bird bones and fish scales.

Forget the pool and renovated kitc...

Each fortnight, we give the world globe a spin and see where we land. Then we take the kids of Australia on an audio excursion to visit that country and its people.

Join your captain, Christie Kijurina, on an audio adventure to Panama, a skinny, S-shaped country known as the “Bridge of the World, Heart of the Universe”. Discover how giant ships climb a watery staircase through the rainforest, meet golden frogs that wave to one another, and learn why the famous Panama hat isn’t actually Panamanian. Buckle up... we’re taking off for Panama!

Want t...

Your daily kids news podcast.

Screen time limits in classrooms; England’s planet-saving zoo; Footy semi-finals bring the action; and celebrating International Democracy Day.

NSW classrooms are heading for a digital detox, with screen time set to shrink and good old pen-and-paper making a comeback.

Bristol Zoo is giving its animal collection a conservation makeover, focusing on species threatened with extinction.

September footy is getting serious! AFL and NRL teams battled through a massive weekend of finals, the NRLW locked in its contenders, and the NFL took over the MCG.

...

Celebrate Roald Dahl Day with a scrumdiddlyumptious trip into the Squiz Kids Vault.

Roald Dahl gave us chocolate factories, giant peaches, marvellous medicines and some of the nastiest grown-ups ever committed to paper. But did you know he was also a fighter pilot, a spy and a schoolboy chocolate tester?

In this Shortcut, we explore the real-life experiences that inspired Dahl’s much-loved stories, discover why children adore his revolting characters and phizz-whizzing invented words, and pick up some tricks for creating wonderfully Dahl-esque characters and stories of our own.

Links: ⁠⁠A toxicological analys...

Where does wind begin?

It can mess up your hair, slam doors shut and send umbrellas tumbling down the street, but what gets all that invisible air moving? Inspired by an excellent question from Judah in Wollongong, Christie discovers how the Sun and differences in air pressure create everything from refreshing sea breezes to wild gusts. Plus, why buildings can create wind tunnels... and the special weather ingredients needed to form cyclones and tornadoes.

Do you have a science question you'd like Christie to investigate? Email it to us at squizkids@thesquiz.com.au, and...

A fun kids vs adults news quiz to test who’s been paying the most attention to the week in news.

For the full episode transcript, click here.

Your daily kids news podcast.

Digital devices out of classrooms?; France’s famous painting heist; Bird flu conspiracy debunked; and bandicoots and bilbies bounce back.

Could laptops and tablets be making it harder to concentrate? A major international study found Aussie students report more digital distractions than the global average.

It sounds like a movie plot! Thieves broke into France’s Renoir Museum and grabbed four paintings before police arrived, forcing them to flee.

Bilbies, bandicoots, bettongs and quolls are making a comeback inside enormous fenced areas designed to keep feral cats...

Your daily kids news podcast.

Footy gets a theme park; Rwanda’s school-meal mission; Australia’s wild house guests; and the Pope farms aura.

NRL fans could soon step inside the game at a new Sydney attraction packed with augmented reality, coaching clinics, video games and giant match parties.

Rwanda wants to put even more healthy, locally grown food onto school lunch plates.

Possums in roofs, bats in curtains and an echidna rearranging the pantry! Aussie wildlife is increasingly turning up inside homes as natural habitats disappear.

Is the Pope...

From lost socks to millions of followers, the Macfarlane brothers know where a homemade movie can lead.

Filmmakers and content creators Lachlan and Austin Macfarlane join Bryce under the Squiz Kids Spotlight to talk about making movies as kids, building an audience of millions and the hard work behind their wildly creative videos.

Their best advice for young creators? Don’t wait! Just start making stuff.

Plus, find out how budding filmmakers aged 15 and under can enter this year’s Trop Jr short-film competition. If you’ve got a movie idea bubbling away, now’s...

Your daily kids news podcast.

New world map unveiled; Korea’s robot theme park; the Star Wars museum of storytelling; and soiled undies and kissing bears win science prize.

The familiar world map set to get a serious resize!

K-pop dancers, pianists and kickboxers... South Korea’s new theme park has robots doing the entertaining.

Buried undies, kissing polar bears and stolen baby lollies. Welcome to the wonderfully weird Ig Nobel Awards!

Star Wars creator George Lucas has turned his love of storytelling into a spectacular new museum in Los...

In this Squiz Kids Shortcut for Fathers' Day, Christie and Bryce explore the wild world of animal dads. From devoted emperor penguins and pregnant seahorses to fathers whose parenting methods are a little more questionable.

They also travel through history to discover how the role of dads has changed and meet the many different people who can do the dadding in our lives.

So grab your dad, stepdad, grandad or another special father figure and listen together.

There’s a S’Quiz at the end!

Eight-year-old Ethan from Casula in Sydney wants to know how 3D printers work. Christie discovers how computer designs are sliced into thousands of incredibly thin layers, then built into real objects using everything from melted plastic and powdered metal to concrete and chocolate.

Along the way, we find out how 3D printing could help astronauts, hospitals and people living in remote communities.

Do you have a science question you'd like Christie to answer? Send it in to squizkids@thesquiz.com.au, and you might hear your answer in an upcoming episode.

A fun kids vs adults news quiz to test who’s been paying the most attention to the week in news.

For the full episode transcript, click here.

Your daily kids news podcast.

The algorithm robot in the spotlight; Canada’s mysterious moving island; Footy finals fever is here; and where have all the dugongs gone?

The algorithm knows what you watch, click and like, and keeps serving up more to keep you scrolling. Now Australian politicians are debating whether we should get to choose if it tracks us at all.

Is it an island or an enormous raft? A football-field-sized chunk of trees and plants has been spotted floating across a Canadian lake.

Grab the snacks and claim th...

Your daily kids news podcast.

Big ticks for bush schooling; a backyard Viking Treasure find; gamers get a glimpse of the future; and a phone survives a fall from space!

Could climbing trees help your times tables? Sydney students swapped the classroom for the bush and returned more confident, engaged and connected to nature.

Forget finding worms while gardening — one Danish homeowner uncovered a Viking fortune!

Hundreds of thousands of gamers descended on Germany for Gamescom, getting an early look at the games heading our way.

Talk about a dr...

Some dads brave the Antarctic winter to protect a single egg… others give birth to hundreds of babies… and almost all of them believe their jokes are hilarious.

In this Squiz Kids Shortcut for Father’s Day, Christie and Bryce meet some of the animal kingdom’s most extraordinary fathers. From egg-balancing emperor penguins and pregnant seahorses to fish dads that occasionally eat their own offspring.

They also discover how dadding has changed throughout human history, explore the origins of Father’s Day, and celebrate the dads, grandads, stepdads and other special people who do the daddin...

Your daily kids news podcast.

Nepal’s glacier landslide explained; Roger the working seagull; Media literacy in the spotlight; and Fat Marmot Week crowns a winner.

Rescuers are working around the clock after catastrophic flooding devastated communities in Nepal and Tibet.

All hail Dawn, the newly crowned champion of Fat Marmot Week!

More Aussie kids are turning to AI for their news, but research shows plenty are also accidentally sharing fake stories.

Meet Roger, possibly Britain’s first seagull security guard.

For the full episode transcript, click here...

To celebrate World Lake Day, we went searching through the Squiz Kids Vault for an episode all about water. Which was lucky, really, because we’d sprung a leak and were well on the way to creating an underground lake of our own.

Thankfully, we found this Shortcut sitting safe and dry on a high shelf.

Join us as we discover where Earth’s water came from, why it’s essential to life and how the same water has been travelling around our planet for billions of years.

Look up on a clear night and you might see hundreds, or even thousands, of stars. But where did they all come from, and what makes a new star begin to shine?

This week, Isabella from Cammeray asks: How are stars formed? Christie travels into a stellar nursery to discover how gravity gathers enormous clouds of gas and dust, why a growing protostar becomes incredibly hot, and how nuclear fusion turns it into a shining star.

Plus, if stars aren’t really on fire, what produces all that heat and light?

If you ha...

A fun kids vs adults news quiz to test who’s been paying the most attention to the week in news.

For the full episode transcript, click here.

Your daily kids news podcast.

The world remembers Dolly; Spain’s food fight festival; Sniffing out voice clones online; and Game of Thrones meets Harry Potter.

The world is remembering country music superstar Dolly Parton, not just for thousands of songs, but for her enormous generosity.

More than 20,000 people have turned a Spanish town into the world’s messiest salad, hurling squishy tomatoes at each other for La Tomatina.

From battling dragons to teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts! Game of Thrones star Kit Harington is reportedly swapping Westeros for Hogwarts.

Your daily kids news podcast.

A billion-galaxy telescope prepares for launch; 10,000 animals step onto the scales ; robot-made records get the boot; and a googly-eyed gamble pays off. 

NASA is preparing to launch a telescope with some seriously gigantic ambitions. Click here for the NASA livestream link.

From teeny snails to hefty capybaras, London Zoo’s residents are hopping, waddling and slithering onto the scales for their annual weigh-in.

Robots can write songs, but they won’t be topping Australia’s official music charts by themselves.

Those googly eyes weren’t fooling...

Each fortnight, we give the world globe a spin and see where we land. Then we take the kids of Australia on an audio excursion to visit that country and its people.

Join your captain, Christie Kijurina, on an audio adventure to Scotland, a country of rugged Highlands, ancient castles and deep, mysterious lochs. We’ll discover why Scotland’s national animal is a unicorn, meet the legendary creatures hiding in its folklore, find out why people toss giant wooden poles at the Highland Games, and explore the Scottish inventions that helped change the world.

Stra...

Your daily kids news podcast.

The infinite scroll goes on trial; Raccoon racket rocks Germany; Saving Aussie sea lions; and the robot that runs faster than Usain Bolt.

Social media’s addictive scroll is getting its day in court. US states are taking on Meta over claims its platforms were deliberately designed to keep young people hooked.

Usain Bolt, meet your robotic competition! A humanoid robot has zipped through 100 metres in 9.39 seconds, before spectacularly crashing into a foam barrier.

Australia’s adorable sea lion pups could be next in line for bird...

Book Week is here, so we’re dusting off a favourite Shortcut from the Squiz Kids Vault. Travel back thousands of years to discover how books developed from clay tablets and handmade paper to the invention of the printing press. Then, meet the author behind the first book written especially for children and count down some of the bestselling children’s books of all time... from much-loved animal adventures to magical worlds, hungry caterpillars and young wizards.

Every night, your sleeping brain creates strange new worlds filled with familiar people, powerful emotions and events that make absolutely no sense. But how does it build a dream—and why do we dream at all?

Inspired by a question from Will, Christie explores what happens inside our brains while we sleep and whether animals dream too.

A fun kids vs adults news quiz to test who’s been paying the most attention to the week in news.

For the full episode transcript, click here.

Your daily kids news podcast.

Spaceship splashdown near Christmas Island; baby whale shark nursery revealed; a zero-gravity fake; and why otters love to watch.

A SpaceX rocket booster the size of an Olympic swimming pool has splashed back to Earth and is being towed toward Christmas Island.

Scientists think they may have found a nursery for baby whale sharks off Indonesia after tiny youngsters were spotted in a protected cove.

Turns out zoo visitors may be entertaining the otters just as much as the otters entertain us.

Social media...

Your daily kids news podcast.

Parliament takes on betting ads; monkey business in the Scottish Highlands; some picture-perfect animals; and the Milky Way’s ancient feeding frenzy 

Australia is moving to put more distance between sport and gambling.

Luka the macaque fancied a Scottish adventure, escaping his wildlife park and wandering kilometres into the Highlands.

Smile for the camera! More than 800 photos have captured the beautiful, bizarre and downright photogenic residents of British and Irish zoos and aquariums.

Our Milky Way has quite the appetite! Astronomers have uncovered evidence of...

Dinosaurs ruled the Earth for more than 160 million years… then, 66 million years ago, almost all of them disappeared.

In this Shortcut, Christie and Bryce fire up a time machine to visit the final days of the dinosaurs, discover how a thin layer of rock helped scientists work out what happened, and follow the chain of events after a giant asteroid struck Earth.

Then they meet the survivors, including the dinosaur descendants still all around us today.

Listen carefully. There’s a S’Quiz at the end!

For the full episode transcript, click...

Your daily kids news podcast.

Operation Fairy Penguin; Earthquake in Indonesia; Socceroo’s Michael Jackson moment; and the world’s ugliest dog.

Roll up those tiny sleeves! Victoria is launching an enormous operation to vaccinate thousands of fairy penguins against bird flu.

The ground is rumbling again, with powerful earthquakes striking parts of Indonesia following other major quakes and volcanic eruptions around the world.

Nestory Irankunda is taking his fancy footwork to Portugal!

Who is the World's Ugliest Dog for 2026?

For the full episode transcript, click here

It’s National Science Week, and what better time to celebrate one of the most important things about science: sometimes, it gets things wrong.

People once believed the Earth was at the centre of the universe, illness was caused by an imbalance of blood, phlegm and bile, and maggots simply appeared from rotting meat. So how did we go from those ideas to the science we know today?

This week, we’re heading back into the Squiz Kids Vault for our Shortcut to Science That Was Wrong, where Christie and Bryce discover why changing your mind...

Felix, from Hunters Hill, wants to know why slicing into an onion can leave our eyes stinging and tears streaming down our faces.

In this week’s Squiz Kids Science Short, Christie breaks into the onion’s tiny chemical security system, discovers how cutting it releases an irritating mist into the air, and reveals why a blunt knife may make things even worse.

Plus, do any of those strange onion-chopping tricks actually stop the tears?

A fun kids vs adults news quiz to test who’s been paying the most attention to the week in news.

For the full episode transcript, click here.

Your daily kids news podcast.

The President, the plane and secret escape; Wallaby on the run in Netherlands; a Bunnings sausage saga; and shark scientists on hurricane watch.

It sounds like a spy thriller: a president, a super-secure jumbo jet and a secret escape involving a catering container!

Catch me if you can! A runaway wallaby has spent six months hopping around the Netherlands.

Forget weather balloons — scientists are recruiting sharks!

No, the Bunnings sausage sizzle hasn’t been replaced by Indian food stalls. AI-generated images are being used to s...

Your daily kids news podcast.

A total eclipse over Europe; Colombia’s earthquake emergency; Aussie teens make their mark; and Brisbane’s underwater light show.

The Northern Hemisphere is getting a cosmic double feature! A total solar eclipse will briefly turn day to darkness before the Perseid meteor shower lights up the night.

Rescuers and volunteers are working through rubble after Colombia’s strongest earthquake this century.

World records, gold medals… and an election campaign! Young Australians Isaac Beacroft, Izobelle Louison-Roe and Hera Sheppard are proving teenagers can achieve seriously big things.<...