Short Wave - Happy New Year from Short Wave!

Episode Date: January 1, 2021

To kick off the new year right, Maddie fills out a Short Wave mad lib crafted by Emily. It's a little tribute to you, our awesome listeners. We're back with new episodes next week. Hope you had a safe and happy orbit around the sun! 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. Happy New Year, everyone. This is Maddie Safaya with Emily Kwong on the kazoo. 2021 is here. It's a fresh start for all of us. We, the shortwave team, are off today, but we're looking forward to bringing you the science behind the headlines, stories of discovery, and laughs.

eye rolls at our efforts to put a little science joy in your life. We're going to continue to bring you all of this and more and to start the year off right. I want to begin with a shortwave Madlib with Maddie filling in the blanks. This time it is a love letter to our listeners. Okay, Kwong, you did this to me once already last year. And like last time, I have no idea what you are about to say, which honestly is a driving theme in our relationship. And I'm comfortable here. You can't have creativity without chaos. Okay, Maddie. Yes.

Give me a term of endearment. A little rat baby. I stand by it. I accept it. I accepted. It's in. It's in. Okay, give me a number.

Three. How about a verb? Bite. Hashtag bite fight fight. Bite, bite, bite, bite, bite, bite. If I'm going to fight, I'm going to bite. I'll say it. How about an adjective?

Adjective, adjective, adjective. Gassie. It's normal. Okay. Have you, have you, just don't worry about it. Keep going.

And another adjective. Another one, huh? Okay. Charming. This is great. I want you miss microbio to also give me part of a cell. What type of cell? Oh, gosh.

I didn't plan what type of cell? Okay, I'll do a human cell. Okay, yeah, a human cell, a eukaryotic cell. favorite part of the cell. Well, favorite. Now we're talking. It's a whole different. Let's just go with Golgi apparatus. Oh. I haven't thought about the Golgi apparatus since I was like 17 years old. Somebody's got to send those packages. Amazing. And then a noun that is something repulsive to you. Sweet potato. What? I'll say it. You don't like sweet potatoes? You asked me, I answered you. You're right. You're right. I should have just accepted that. And then finally a noun.

Shark. Okay. Are you ready to hear the letter we are sending out to hundreds of thousands of listeners of Shortwave? Yeah, I'm very sweaty right now. Good. Dear listener, or should I say Lil Rat Baby, from the moment this podcast began three days ago, you have bitten your way into our lives. Some people think science is gassy.

You remind us that science. You remind us that science is charming. It warms our hearts and tickles our Golgy apparatus to read your emails. Most of the good parts of last year involved you. And this year, we promise to seriously consider all of your story ideas unless they're about sweet potatoes. Honestly, true. That we are staying far away from. With sharks, shorewave.

I feel like that could have been worse. I feel like that was the best version it could have been. You know, a little half intentional, half improvisational. This is Shortwave from NPR. We will be with you no matter what this new year brings. And thanks so much for listening. I'm Emily Kwong. And I'm Maddie Safaya.

See you next week.