Short Wave - A Holiday Fact Exchange!

Episode Date: December 26, 2022

Host Emily Kwong and editor Gisele Grayson exchange the gift of facts - in this quick hello from us to you, our wonderful listeners!See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Hey, everyone. Emily Kwong here with the spoke that keeps the shortwave wheel turning, none other than our supervising senior editor, Gisle Grayson. What's up, Gigi? Hello, Emily Kwong, you wonderful human. How's it going? It's good. Our team is taking time off this holiday season, including today in observance of Christmas. So we're taping this a few days before. It's a time for celebration and change. We have news. After two years of leading the show, Giselle, our empress, is going on to new projects at NPR. Yeah, this is my last holiday season as your boss and editor of the show. But as you say, I'm staying close, though. I am just ratcheting down my hours so I can spend, like, legit, spend more time with my family. I really like them.

My teens are growing up too fast. All those things. So I just wanted to take this chance to tell our listeners a sincere thank you for listening to this show. And little behind the curtain here, it's got the best. people working on it. Like Rebecca Ramirez behind the Zoom window and Emily Kwong behind the microphone, y'all. It's a wonderful team. So happy holidays to all our listeners and whatever you're celebrating. If you're celebrating, we hope you're having a good day. We do. And, and Giselle, you are such an incredible advocate of this show. I'm so glad you're going to be still around. And we've

really made some audio magic over the years. And we are about to make just one more with a shortwave tradition, a good old-fashioned fact exchange, swapping some sciencey ooze and Oz. Like, we're at a cocktail party. And I'm like, did you know? So I'm going to go first. Are you ready? I am so ready, Emily. You got your gift prepared. Okay. All right. So Gigi, holiday tunes are everywhere this time of year. You can't escape them. Even in space. Giselle, what do you think was the first song ever broadcast in space? Oh, I'm going to go with silent night. It's got to be silent night, right? Close, but here, let me tell you the story. So in 1965, astronauts Walter or Wally Shira Jr. and Thomas Stafford orbiting aboard Gemini 6,

rendezvoused with Gemini 7 piloted by Frank Borman and Jim Lovell. And when it was time to reenter Earth's atmosphere on December 16th, Stafford reported to mission control some sort of UFO. He said, We have an object. Looks like a satellite going from north to south, probably in polar orbit. Okay. Ground controllers then heard the sound of a tiny harmonica played by Shira and sleigh bells jingled by Stafford to the tune of... Amazing. It was the first musical moment in space!

These instruments, they were later donated to the National Iron Space Museum. You're two, my six. That is a wonderful story. I totally guessed wrong, but of jingle bells. It makes so much sense, and it's so joyful. Okay, well, I have a fact, but I'm not going to put you through a guessing game. So you're sledding out in a field of snow. That sled technically doesn't touch the snow.

What? I don't understand. I know. Dr. Jack Sanders of Marquette told NPR member station WWM to think about, So think about how rubbing your hands together generates an eity little bit of heat, that friction. Yeah. When you're sliding on snow or ice,

that kind of friction causes just enough heat that you're melting that top layer of snow ever so slightly. And so you've got a little bit of water for the sled to float on. So it's going over the water? Yeah. Isn't that cool? And sometimes your sister builds bumps in the snow to send you flying, and that's a different kind of science.

That involves medical treatment. Anyway. Anyway, so Sanders points out that some snow is better for sledding than others, snow that's been on the ground for a little while is a bit better. And the ideal temperature to sled is about 14 to 32 degrees Fahrenheit. I feel very gifted with this knowledge. And I feel grateful for every day I got to work with you, Giselle. It's actually very hard to put into words.

So, going to ignore those? feelings and just say we are really going to miss you. And we're super glad you're sticking close by at NPR. I am going to miss you too. This is a phenomenal job and a phenomenal team. And I am incredibly lucky to have had the past few years with you guys. But you can't get rid of you. I've been around NPR for 21 years. I'm not over yet. You're going to morph into the final boss. Sorry, I've been playing too much before game. Okay. Anyway. Well, Jezell and I, and the whole team are back tomorrow with four days of feel-good episodes from this year, ones that feel like, you know, hot chocolate by the fireplace in pajamas. Until then, I'm Emily Kwong.

And I'm Jaselle Grayson. Happy holidays, everyone.