International LEGO Day, TikTok Update, and a Clever Cow

Episode
Written By Tracy Kaplan

10 Things You Need to Know: Episode 624

10 Things You Need to Know

1. International LEGO Day 🧱

2. Swift 🤝 Songwriters Hall of Fame

3. Fry Tide 🌊🍟

4. Free Smoothies for Life!? 🥤

5. Cows Can Use Tools, Too 🧹🐮

6. Minneapolis Update 🗞️

7. The Latest on TikTok 📱

8. Winter Storm Fern ❄️

9. World's Oldest Cave Art 🖼️

10. Hot Dog! It's Trivia Time 🌭

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TRANSCRIPT

INT. TEN NEWS STUDIO

<SFX Lego Bricks Clicking together, being shuffled around> 

RYAN: Okay and this one goes…here? Yup that feels right. 

<SFX door open> 

PAM: Hi Ry, wow. You’re here incredibly early… Wait. What in the Lego bricks is going on here?

RYAN: You know, it was my favorite holiday yesterday, and once I start building Lego sets, I can’t stop…I built the Delorean from Back to the Future and a Maclaren F1 Car and and and–

PAM: Did you go home last night? 

RYAN: I mean, technically, the Ten News Studio is my second home…so, yes? I was at my second home. Look, I’m building a Mario Kart set that’s 1,972 pieces!

PAM: That is impressive and I definitely want to build something…but we gotta start the show first. I’m Pamela Kirkland.

RYAN: And I’m Ryan Willard, it’s Thursday, January 29th.

PAM: This is Ten Things You Need to Know. 

RYAN: First and foremost… one of my favorite days was yesterday, January 28th aka International LEGO Day, which is the anniversary when the iconic LEGO brick was patented in 1958. LEGO, named after the Danish phrase “leg godt,” meaning “play well,” has been inspiring creativity for over 90 years. The LEGO Group was founded in 1932 by Ole Kirk Kristiansen and has been passed down through generations of the Kristiansen family, who still own the company today. For our Ten’ers, playing with LEGO builds problem-solving skills, fine motor development, creativity, storytelling, and encourages collaboration. For grown-ups, LEGO offers artistic expression, relaxation, nostalgia and has even become a tool for design and engineering. So yes, I will be celebrating all year long and I will not apologize for it. If you want to see some of my builds, check the link in the show notes! 

PAM: Now for more news worth celebrating! Taylor Swift has been inducted into the Class of 2026 Songwriters Hall of Fame, making her the second-youngest living inductee in the organization’s history, just behind Stevie Wonder, who remains the youngest after being inducted at age 32 in 1983. At 36 years old, Swift earned this honor after meeting the Hall of Fame’s requirement that a songwriter’s first commercially released song be at least 20 years old. That milestone dates back to June 2006, when her debut hit, Tim McGraw, first hit radio stations, marking the beginning of an era-defining career. 

RYAN: Have you ever had french fries on the beach? Well, I guess in the U.K. they’d call them chips. The coastline of East Sussex, located in southeast England, was littered with thousands of bags from containers lost overboard during storms washed ashore, covering the coastline with onions and uncooked French fries. Large-scale cleanup efforts are underway, and volunteers have already removed most of the plastic wrapping from the fries, an important step in protecting local wildlife. The coastline is considered a vulnerable stretch of land, and much of the debris was found near a seal colony. <SFX Seal sound!>

PAM: Back here in the states, Smoothie King recently made a big announcement that one lucky customer could win free smoothies for life! 

RYAN: OOOOOH! I LOVE SMOOTHIES!

PAM: Smoothie King has found that 64% of consumers are interested in smoothies as a way to get the nutrients that they need, so the beverage chain is offering a new and fun way for its Healthy Rewards Members to try and do so. Now through February 13, Healthy Rewards members can play Blend to Win for chances to snag free smoothies, loaded toasts, add-ins, and enhancers, with the ultimate prize going to one true smoothie superfan. Grown-ups can enter by joining Smoothie King’s Healthy Rewards and making an online or in-store purchase with their rewards code to earn a one-time spin of the Blend to Win wheel in the app.

RYAN: Alright for 10 points, what animal makes this sound: <SFX Moo> <SFX tik tik tik DING!> If you guessed, Ryan when’s hungry, that is incorrect.  Veronika the cow, has left scientists stunned. She is a pet cow to an organic farmer and baker in the small town of Carinthia near the Italian border, and is known to play with sticks and use them to scratch herself from time to time. In addition, Veronika even recognizes familiar voices and runs to meet family members when they call for her. It wasn’t long before this behavior reached the attention of Vienna biologists specializing in animal intelligence, which is my preferred AI. So, they set out to the brown Swiss cow’s hometown and set up a series of field trials, during which they found that Veronika not only could pick up a broom, but could maneuver it however she needed by using her tongue to reposition the handle before clamping it with her teeth. She’d use the bristled end of the broom to scratch her back, and the smooth handle to scratch more gently. Livestock have never been considered the sharpest tools in the shed, but Veronika may be changing the game. <SFX Mooo!>

PAM: Before we get to our next thing you need to know, let’s take a quick break. 

RYAN: Hey Ten’ers, we asked you to tell us what Lego sets you’ve built, soooo… I gotta shout some out. Patriot#13 said, “I love this podcast, 100/100! I highly recommend this podcast. The coolest Lego I have ever built wa s either a Star Wars AT-AT or the Back to the Future Time Machine. DUDE I JUST DID THAT ONE IT WAS AWESOME!!! Elfinrelda left us a ton of emojis and said ‘spot the difference.’ - which I could not - and then said, “my favorite is a Kirby Lego set that I made myself”. Ooohh, I’ve never seen a Kirby Lego set, that sounds awesome.  A Ten’er named IJBLFCDS said, “I did a Lego build of the millennium falcon! It made noise. It was the only one I ever finished! Your show is awesome! Shout out Mail, Trey, Shirav, Nadia and Caasi!” Which if you did those names backwards would be Liam, Yurt, Varihs, Aidan and Isaac. And ummm, I am jealous of the Millennium Falcon set, that sounds SO EPIC.  Alrighty then. Back to the show!

PAM: Now we have some tough news to cover. On Saturday in Minneapolis, Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old nurse and U.S. citizen, was shot and killed by U.S. Border Patrol during an interaction with agents. Pretti, was filming with his phone and attempted to help a woman that was being assaulted by ICE. During the altercation, Pretti was shot and killed.

RYAN: At first, federal officials said Alex Pretti had approached officers with a weapon. But videos reviewed by journalists show him holding a phone, not a gun, as he filmed the agents.

PAM: This is now the second shooting involving federal agents in Minneapolis this month, a scary situation and one that  raises concerns about how immigration enforcement is being carried out and calls for accountability around ICE operations. On Monday, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz spoke with President Trump, and said he pushed for an investigation that would be handled fairly and independently. The President has sent Tom Homan, the top person in charge of border security, to oversee ICE operations on the ground and report back to him. A federal judge is considering whether to pause the deployment of 3,000 agents in Minnesota. No ruling has been issued yet.

RYAN: The situation in Minnesota has made so  me of us scared and confused about the government’s actions.  Because this story is pretty complex and covers a lot of issues, including immigration, federal authority, and public safety, we’re working on a Ten News Special Report to cover this more fully. Let us know your questions and what you think about the situation by emailing us at hello@thetennews.com or leaving us a voicemail at 877-TEN-NEWS

RYAN: Meanwhile, TikTok’s fate in the United States has been decided after the video-sharing platform faced a potential ban unless it replaced its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, with a new owner. A deal has been struck to create a new American business after TikTok signed agreements with major investors such as MGX, Oracle, and Silver Lake. In a statement from TikTok, this new version will operate under “defined safeguards that protect national security through comprehensive data protections, algorithm security, content moderation, and software assurances for United States users”. This will hopefully make the platform safer overall, and, with an emphasis on data protection, the content recommendation formula will be retrained, tested, and updated using U.S. user data, as it is and will be stored locally. in a system run by Oracle. 

PAM: And now for <SFX Weather…Or Not> Over the weekend, Winter Storm Fern slammed 34 states, affecting 220 million people from Arizona to the Midwest, to the Southeast, and New England. States like New Jersey, Ohio, Indiana, Connecticut, and a handful more saw over a foot of snowfall. 

RYAN: Dude it was bonkers, I had almost 2 feet and had to shovel 3 times!

PAM: Southern states like Georgia, Tennessee, and Louisiana, received more than a half inch of ice. But that wasn’t all. After the snowfall and freezing rain passed, freezing temperatures still lingered, causing school and work cancellations and leaving hundreds of thousands of people without power. Winter Storm Fern was historic for the United States and Canada, too. The city of Toronto ended Sunday with 22 inches of snow, breaking the previous 82-year record of 19 inches! 

RYAN: Newly discovered rock art may be the oldest ever studied, dating back at least 67,800 years! On the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia, Australian and Indonesian researchers analyzed tan-colored handprints made by blowing pigment onto hands placed against cave walls, with some fingertips tweaked to appear more pointed. 

PAM: Researchers dated mineral crusts that formed on top of the art in order to figure out how old the paintings were. And, this prehistoric art form suggests that the island of Sulawesi was home to a thriving artistic culture. While scientists are excited to understand when early humans learned to make art, these cave drawings help establish a clever timeline of when human creativity began.  

RYAN: And for the last thing you need to know, let’s go to our Trivia Master, Owen. 

OWEN: Thanks Ry. Nathan’s hot dogs are famous for many reasons, including the name and the company's long history in the U.S. Do you know when Nathan’s first hot dog stand opened on Coney Island? Was it?

  1. 1950

  2. 1916

  3. 1972, or

  4. 1910?

The answer is… B! Nathan Handwerker opened the iconic hotdog stand on Coney Island in 1916 with just a $300 loan. Soon, more locations opened around New York, and the Handwerker family sold the Nathan’s Famous business to investors in 1987. And, more recently, it was sold to another company, Smithfield Foods, for $450 million. But don’t worry, even with this new deal, the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest will continue on!

PAM: And that was Ten Things You Need to Know. 

RYAN: Alright Pam. Now that we’re done with work…I think it’s time to keep BUILDING. 

PAM: I don’t know, Ry, do you have an extra set to spare…?

RYAN: Obviously. I saved THIS one for you… <SFX Lego bricks shaking in a box>

PAM: Oooooh! The Tuxedo Cat set! Okay, yeah I’m game. But before I start, we should give Ten News Snaps to some of our listeners…

RYAN: And before that, here’s a quick note for the grownups!

<AD BREAK> 

RYAN: It’s time for Ten News Snaps!

PAM: A Ten’er named Monty left us a five star Apple review and said, “I go mining with my dad up in HOllywood batcavs but it was cool and crazy. If you ever been there’s a batcav where Batman the movie actually shot. Crazy right? I love rocks my favorite is sapphire crystal! And I got a crystal growing kit for Christmas from my dad and mom! Please make a crystal episode.” Thanks Monty, I hope you’re growing some cool crystals and we’ll definitely put a segment about crystals on our idea board! 

RYAN: And a Ten’er named Larry Clash Guy said please mention me I listen to you all the time. Thanks for listening Larry, I hope you’re listening right now! And Girly Pop 11 said, “So good, shout out Emmy” HEY EMMY! That was my shoutout to Emmy. 

PAM: And two extra notes for the grown-ups, you can now get ad-free versions of our episodes when you join the Ten’ers Club on our website. 

RYAN: And if you want to help support the Ten News, you can make a tax-deductible donation at the link in our show notes. The whole team thanks you for your support! 

PAM: “The Ten News” is a co-production of Small But Mighty Media and Next Chapter Podcasts, and part of the Airwave Podcast Network. 

RYAN: The Ten News creative team is acting like proper grownups and building Lego sets and includes Tracey Not a Crooks, Adam the Great Bambino Bernard, Brian Not Ryan Douglas, the Duke of Earl Davis, and Carson Not So Harry Potter. Big thanks to Owen, Not Slowin Down for Anybody. 

PAM: Our Production Director is Jeremiah “On Fyaaah” Tittle, and our Executive Producers are Donald “Albright, Albright, Albright!” and show creator Tracy Takes the Leeds Kaplan. I’m Pamela Kirkland.

RYAN: And I’m Ryan Willard, thanks for listening to the Ten News.

Tracy Kaplan
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