A Ten News Deep Dive: Episode 706
Ryan is back and we have lots to cover!
We’re breaking down why diesel is suddenly all over the headlines, checking in on October baseball, meeting a newly recognized penguin species, and celebrating World Octopus Day.
Plus, the unbelievable story behind Coyote vs. Acme and Owen’s very chonky Fat Bear Week trivia!
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Transcript:
[INT. STUDIO]
<SFX door opens>
<SFX PAM is HUMMING a morning tune as she calmly strolls in>
<SFX door kicks open>
PAM: AHHHHH! Sweet spaghetti sauce! Ryan?! Is that you?
RYAN: It is I, said the Ry. I’ve returned with good news and bad news.
PAM: Okay… what’s the bad news?
RYAN: I did not locate the Master Sword and I haven’t yet gotten a sneak preview of the Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time remake.
PAM: Ahh, I know how excited you are…so what’s the good news?
RYAN: I. Have. Returned. And I’m ready to start the show, because I’m Ryan Willard.
PAM: And I’m Pamela Kirkland. It’s Thursday, October 8th. We are the Ten News…
RYAN: And this is Ten Things You Need to Know.
PAM: There is one word that keeps popping up in a lot of headlines lately - Diesel.
RYAN: No. I’m not talking about Vin Diesel, the voice of Groot… <SFX I AM GROOT> It seems like everyone’s talking about diesel FUEL.
PAM: Yes, diesel is also one of those things that works behind the scenes in our everyday lives and impacts us in ways we might not even realize. It powers trucks that deliver food and packages. Farmers use it in tractors and other equipment. Ships, buses and construction equipment use it too. And right now, diesel has gotten really expensive. So today, we are going to kick off with three things you need to know about diesel. First up, U.S. diesel prices recently reached record levels as the amount of fuel available around the world got squeezed. Russian refineries and fuel exports have been disrupted, fighting in the Middle East has affected oil and refinery supplies as conflicts have impacted the amount of diesel moving around the world.
RYAN: So there’s less diesel available while trucks, ships and farms still need plenty of it. And when lots of people need something and there isn’t as much of it available, prices go up, up up.
PAM: Exactly. Which leads us to Thing Two. What countries around the world are doing to try to lower the cost of diesel.
PAM: Many governments keep huge reserves of oil and fuel that they can tap into if there’s a war, natural disaster or some other event that seriously disrupts supplies. And now the G7, a group that includes the United States, Canada, Japan and several European countries has agreed to release 100 million barrels of oil and refined fuels from emergency reserves.
RYAN: One hundred MILLION barrels?
PAM: It sounds enormous, and it is. To put it in perspective, the United States alone uses close to 4 million barrels of diesel-type fuel every day. So 100 million barrels would equal roughly 25 days of U.S. diesel use if it were all diesel. But this emergency release is actually a mix of diesel, crude oil and other fuels, and it’s being spread out over several months. Governments are trying a few other things too - cutting fuel taxes in some places, helping farmers and trucking companies with costs, and making sure countries don’t stop fuel from being exported to one another. Refineries are also being pushed to produce as much diesel as they can.
RYAN: Okay, Pam. For the third thing to know about diesel, why does any of this matter to our listeners unless they are truck drivers or farmers. And Ten’ers, if any of you are truck drivers, that is not allowed unless you are a licensed adult Ten’er!
PAM: Think about your breakfast. Maybe you had cereal.
RYAN: I did in fact have cereal. And waffles. And a LOT of pancakes.
PAM: Okay…back to the point. Before that all got to your kitchen, someone had to grow the grain. A tractor that runs on diesel may have helped harvest it. Then it had to travel to a factory. Then to a warehouse. Then to a grocery store. And a lot of those steps involve machines or trucks that run on diesel.
RYAN: Ahhh. So when diesel gets more expensive, it can cost more to grow things, build things and move things…
PAM: Sometimes companies absorb those extra costs. But sometimes they eventually show up in the price of groceries, deliveries or other products. That’s why economists and governments pay such close attention when diesel prices spike. And it’s also why this isn’t just a story about what people pay at the gas pump.
RYAN: Diesel is kind of hiding everywhere.
PAM: Exactly. You may never buy a gallon of it yourself, but there’s a good chance diesel helped something in your house get there. And that is why suddenly everybody is talking about diesel.
RYAN: Diesel explainer complete!
<SFX: Truck driving away>
RYAN: Take me out to the ball game, take me out to the crowd! October baseball is officially here and the Major League Baseball playoffs are heating up!
PAM: We’re in the Division series now with eight teams battling for a spot in the League Championship Series. The Division Series are the best-of-five so the first team to win three games moves on, putting them just one round away from for the world series.
RYAN: October baseball, where one swing can ruin or make an entire city’s evening.
<SFX: crack of the bat and then crowd noise>
PAM: Now it’s time for a great comeback story. We’re heading to northern England, to the famous Sycamore Gap tree. The tree stood beside the ancient Hadrian’s Wall for well over a century, and was so perfectly placed in a dip between two hills that people came from around the world to photograph it. But in 2023, someone illegally cut the tree down. And people were devastated.
<SFX: gasp>
RYAN: Pam…you know I prefer to have some good news when there’s bad news. So what’ve we got?
PAM: The good news is: three years later, the tree is showing everyone that nature can be pretty determined. New photos show a thick circle of green shoots growing from its stump. The National Trust has been working to protect the tree’s roots by keeping people from walking too close and reducing damage to the soil. And it seems to be helping.
RYAN: So the Sycamore Gap tree basically said, “You thought I was done?” NOPE!
PAM: Pretty much. No one knows exactly what it will look like years from now. Rangers may eventually let several shoots develop or help one become the main new trunk. But for now, the National Trust says the tree is officially in recovery.
RYAN: Let’s do our own recovery and take a quick break.
PAM: Ten’ers, we have a special shout-out today to a classroom in Los Angeles! Mrs. Crames reached out to us on Instagram to tell us about the way she uses The Ten News with her reading group. Before her students listen to an episode, she reads through our transcript and comes up with comprehension questions for them to answer along the way.
RYAN: Okay, that is next-level listening.
PAM: Right? So not only are they keeping up with the news, they’re also practicing things like remembering key details, making connections and explaining what they learned.
RYAN: So, big Ten News Snaps to Mrs. Crames and her reading group in Los Angeles. We love knowing that The Ten News gets to be part of your classroom. Want to shout out one of your teachers? Leave us a voicemail at 1-877-TEN-NEWS or send us a message at hello@thetennews.com. And we might have it on the show…speaking of… Back to it!
PAM: Ten’ers, if the sky is clear where you live tonight, you have a good reason to look up. The Draconid meteor shower peaks tonight into Friday.
RYAN: Draconids sounds like a race of dragons.
PAM: It does! And that’s actually not too far off. The meteor shower gets its name because the meteors appear to come from the direction of the constellation Draco, the dragon. Every October, Earth moves through tiny pieces of dust and debris left behind by a comet. When those little bits of space debris hit Earth’s atmosphere at high speeds, they heat up and make the bright streaks we call shooting stars. Even though they’re not actually stars.
RYAN: I like that this meteor shower respects my bedtime. A lot of meteor showers require you to wake up at some ridiculous hour in the middle of the night. The Draconids are often best viewed in the evening. This year the predicted peak is around 9pm eastern/6pm pacific time on October 8th.
PAM: Grab your family, a blanket, some snacks and find somewhere dark. Then give your eyes some time to adjust, lay down and look up and watch the space show!
<SFX: Space noise>
RYAN: Oh my gosh. PAM! PENGUINS! NEW! WE FOUND THEM!!
PAM: Ry…take a breath…and try again?
<SFX deep breath>
RYAN: Scientists have identified what they say is the first newly recognized penguin species in more than 100 years. And the surprising part is...we already knew these penguins existed.
PAM: Ok, please explain.
RY AN: For years, scientists thought gentoo penguins living around Antarctica and nearby islands all belonged to the same species. But a team of 22 scientists from five continents studied their DNA and discovered that the penguins had actually split into four separate evolutionary groups over hundreds of thousands of years. One group, the southeastern gentoo, had never before been recognized as its own species until now! To us, the southeastern gentoo looks pretty much like other gentoo penguins. The difference is hidden in its DNA.
PAM: Scientists call that a cryptic species, when animals look extremely similar but are genetically different enough to be considered separate species. Which means there could be other animals out there that we think we understand, but could surprise us.
RYAN: Welcome to the penguin family, southeastern gentoo!
PAM: Ten’ers, today, October 8th, is World Octopus Day.
RYAN: Which might have the most perfectly chosen date of any holiday. Octopus. Eight arms. October eighth. Who came up with this glorious idea? Absolutely sensational choice.
PAM: The celebration traces back to TONMO — The Octopus News Magazine Online, a community for people who study, care for or are simply obsessed with cephalopods. TONMO says its community started World Octopus Day as part of Cephalopod Awareness Days, which began around 2007. October 8th was the obvious choice, and it kicks off several days celebrating different members of the cephalopod family. October 10th, for example, celebrates squid and cuttlefish. And October 11th?
RYAN: Please say Kraken Day.
PAM: IT IS KRAKEN DAY.
RYAN: Can I say it?
PAM: You can say it.
RYAN: RELEASE THE KRAKEN!
<SFX
<SFX: Kraken splashing and roaring>
RYAN: Pam, after decades of being flattened, blown up and launched off cliffs by gadgets that did NOT work as advertised, Wile E. Coyote has finally decided to fight back. The movie Coyote vs. Acme is now available to rent or buy at home after one of the strangest journeys in recent movie history. The movie follows Wile E. Coyote, everyone’s favorite coyote, as he hires a lawyer to sue the Acme Corporation.
PAM: Honestly, he may have a case. Considering how many Acme rockets, catapults and giant magnets have backfired on this guy?
RYAN: Yup! But the real-life story behind the movie is even crazier. After Coyote vs. Acme was filmed and completed in 2022, the studio, Warner Bros. announced that it was shelving the movie and did not plan to release it. Because they thought shelving the movie would save more money than the movie could make…Fans and filmmakers raised their voices because they wanted the film. Eventually a company called, Ketchup Entertainment, bought the movie and released it in theaters four years later in 2026.
PAM: And audiences showed up! The movie has made around $100 Million worldwide. You can now rent or buy it digitally at home.
RYAN: So after all those years trying to catch the Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote finally accomplished something. A big movie release.
<SFX: Beep beep>
PAM: From cartoon favorites to an update on fat bears, let’s go to Owen for some trivia.
OWEN: Thanks Pam.
Ten’ers, the votes are in and we officially have the champion of Fat Bear Week 2026! Every year, people around the world vote for the brown bears of Alaska’s Katmai National Park as they pack on the pounds before winter. So which bear was crowned this year’s Fat Bear Week champion?
A. Chunk
B. Backpack
C. Grazer, or
D. Otis
Ten’ers, did you guess it? The answer is...B! BACKPACK! Bear 89, better known as Backpack defeated Bear 910 in the finals, getting more than 100,000 votes. And Backpack has a pretty great backstory. When he was a cub, he suffered a serious leg injury. His mom, Holly, helped care for him as he recovered. And being a chunky champion runs in the family. Holly won Fat Bear Week back in 2019. Backpack even defeated last year’s winner, Chunk, on his way to the championship. And getting fat is serious business for these bears. Adult males at Katmai can weigh more than 1,000 pounds as they prepare for winter, when they may go months without eating. So congratulations to Backpack. Large and in charge, and extremely ready for a nap.
RYAN: And those are Ten Things You Need to Know.
PAM: Ryan, not a bad episode for your first one back.
RYAN: Diesel, playoff baseball, a secret penguin species, Octopus Day, Kraken Day AND Fat Bear Week? What a time to be alive.
PAM: So what exactly did you do when you were gone?
RYAN: If you really want to know I’d be happy to list all the video games I’ve been playing and the Legos I’ve been building–
PAM: Yeah, let’s save that for next week. Because we gotta give Ten News Snaps out!
RYAN: Ahhh of course! But 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 Ertyui left us a five star review on Apple podcasts and said, “Ryan do you have a Playstation 5?”
RYAN: Of course I do. I also have a Switch 2. What about you?
PAM: And Spencer the Goat said, “I have been a fan of the Ten News for a long time and I really love everyone on the show. Could you also do something on F-N-A-F?” Ahhh that’s so nice of you Spencer, thank you! But what is F-N-A-F?
RYAN: Five Nights at Freiddy’s?! You don’t wanna play that game, it’s a freaky game! It is almost as scary as butterflies.
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 dressing like ocotopi 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 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.
