Short Wave - Happy Holidays from Short Wave!

Episode Date: December 25, 2020

Maddie and Emily play a quick game of "Fact or Fiction?" with help from Ariela Zebede, our resident fact-checker. Plus, a little reminder that you can support the show by donating to your local public radio station at donate.npr.org/short. (If you're outside of the U.S., choose a lucky member station!)Follow Maddie and Emily on Twitter, @maddie_sofia and @emilykwong1234. Email the show at [e-mail]. 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

You're listening to Shortwave from NPR. Hey, Maddie Safaya. Hey, Emily Kwong. Merry Christmas. And happy holidays. We are off today and we hope that you are relaxing to maybe cozy in your little pajamas somewhere. If you celebrate Christmas, maybe you're out there opening up some prezies. On Shortwave, there is one gift our show considers priceless.

And that, of course, is the gift of facts. The last script we recorded together, I'm not kidding. you had 84 footnotes. Yeah, and honestly, we weren't even stretching our legs. You know, it's a little light. I'll say it. It's a little light. My goal one day is to have 200 hundo footnotes. Yeah, you want to make long wave. I know you. So today we are hosting a little shortwave fact exchange. That's right. That's a gift exchange, but with facts. We did this last year. It involved reindeer hooves and mistletoe being a parasite, but this year we've got a, a way better idea. We've invited our colleague and fact-checking queen, Ariel Elizabeth. Hi-ah. Whoop, whoop. Hi, Ariel.

Is going to play holiday fact or fiction with us. Yeah, so here's how it's going to go. I'm going to read you both some statements and you have to ID as many as possible as fact or fiction. Are you ready? Ready, Kwong? I bet you're not ready.

I'm ready. Okay, we'll see who wins. We'll see who wins. We're working together. What is wrong with you? Okay, I'm setting the timer now. Number one, eggnog has a higher fat content than ice cream. I think it might be true. True.

I'll say it. Okay. Yeah, true. False. This is not true. There is fat in eggnog, but ice cream, come on guys. I mean, it depends on the type of ice cream, but there's lots of fat. But they're both delicious, what did you say?

Both very important. Okay. Number two. Some reindeer really do have red noses. I mean, I'm thinking about parasites, Maddie, right? Maybe your noses turn red. I don't know, man. A lot of reindeer crazy world.

I'm like, yeah, let's go with true. Let's go with true. Emily? Yes, true. It's a fact, but y'all were wrong. Explain yourself to be eating. Sounds right. Okay, it turns out reindeer have 25% more blood vessels in their noses than humans do,

which can sometimes make their noses look red. I mean, I'm going to count it as right. It's true. Not right, kind of. Okay. Yeah, no, we got it right. Number three, number three, Santa is real. What?

What? I will not wait. I will not go on the record on this one. No, no. I'm not different. Oh, come on. I don't want to get the lawyers involved. I don't want to get the lawyers involved.

Children listen to this show, Arellella. You know, but we're just delivering truth here. That's all. Yeah. You know what? True. Reality is a construct. True.

Dance is real. So real. I'm not going to contest that. And you know, Maddie, that's the correct answer. And I'm Jewish. You heard it here first, folks. You heard it here. Oh, my God.

Oh, you're amazing. All right, Zabidi, as always, we appreciate you and all your facts. I appreciate you both. Can't make this show without Ariel Zabidi. It's true. She's the MVP of a lot of the episodes you've heard this year. Truth, true. Our show is heavily.

fact checked. Okay. We have a bonus fact, by the way, we are in the final week of NPR's end of year fundraising campaign to support your local member station and podcast like ours. And we're grateful to all of you who have given so far. And if you haven't, this is your moment. Go to donate.npr.org slash short. Thanks so much. Bye.