This Week's Recommendations for Younger Listeners
Circle Round: Diamonds in the Sky (2025)
Recommended for Grades PK+
Listen for Free on WBURA pleasant and amusing family podcast,
Circle Round transports listeners back to those early elementary school years when the circle rug metamorphosed into a launchpad of wonder, escape, harmony, and magic. In Diamonds in the Sky, a folktale from the Philippines, young listeners hear a myth describing the genesis of the sun and the moon, two celestial bodies that cultures across the globe have interpreted in myriad legends. In this fable from Southeast Asia, we meet two sisters who could not be more different. Araw is a kind and selfless young girl who maintains a positive outlook even as her cruel and selfish sister, Buwan, bullies and spites her. When they are sent by their mother to the market to fetch groceries, they encounter an old and haggard beggar beseeching them for money. True to their personalities, Araw generously gives the elder all her money, while Buwan laughs, mocking both her sister and the old man. “My goody-two-shoes sister already gave you an entire purse-full. You’re getting nothing from me!”. After the old man reveals their identity, Araw is gifted a beautiful diamond while Buwan receives nothing. Seething with jealousy, Buwan climbs to the heavens to steal a precious stone for herself. Unsatisfied with her own, Buwan tries to seize Araw’s diamond and erupts their sibling rivalry into a cosmic struggle. Flung to the heavens, the sisters become the sun and the moon, a star to light our day and a satellite that at times, at last, is remorseful, ashamed, repentant, like Buwan, able only to reveal a sliver of themself in the night sky.
Listening Questions
- What words would you use to describe Araw?
- What words would you use to describe her sister, Buwan?
- How do Araw and Buwan treat the old man when he asks them for money?
- Who does the old man turn out to be? And what do they do to Araw and Buwan?
- When Buwan becomes upset for not receiving a diamond what does her sister, Araw, offer to do for her? How does Buwan react? And what does she ultimately do?
- How does the story end?
- What is the origin myth that this story is explaining? Do you know origin myths from other cultures? What are they?
Additional Resources
Listen
This Week's Recommendations for Older Listeners
P.S. Weekly: Are NYC Schools Teaching Sex Ed? It’s a Touchy Subject (2025)
Recommended for Grades 9+
Listen for Free
This sharp news podcast—representing “the sounds of the New York City school system from those who know it inside and out: students”—is close to our heart here at the Paley Center. Alumni from our high school internships have continued their bold, confident storytelling by working at P.S. Weekly, producing stories about their school community and highlighting critical issues teenagers face every day. In this episode, Sanaa Stokes, a Paley Teen Transmitter from 2023, works with her reporting partner, Aponi Kafele, to investigate how NYC schools are teaching, or not teaching, sex education. Beginning their story by interviewing their fellow students, the two young journalists explain how harmful non-inclusive sex education can be for their LGBTQ+ peers. Knowledge about sexual health is critical for young people actively exploring their physical, emotional, and social development. When discomfort, ignorance, and avoidance are the preferred ways to address questions of sexuality, young people can make uncertain decisions that seriously impact their lives. Misconceptions spread quickly in our age of online virality. In addition, with sex education required by New York City but not by New York State, confusion and contradiction that begins in Albany, can intensify at City Hall and touch down in local schools and school districts that ultimately decide the type of sex education that is taught. Illustrating a concern our young people face, this report offers incisive analysis and actionable solutions for teenagers entering adulthood and for administrators, teachers, parents, all grown-ups who may need to open their minds, un-learn outdated ways of thinking in order to be an ally and help build the road we need to walk to comprehensive sex education.
Listening Questions • What are some of the activities or lessons students remembered doing in the sex ed classes they took at school? Do you think they were all-inclusive and thorough or more focused on preventing sexually transmitted diseases?
• What were some suggestions students had for information they would add to the sex education curriculum? What are some misconceptions the young reporters found regarding sex education?
• According to Aliyah Ansari, the expert interviewed from the New York Civil Liberties Union, what does comprehensive sexuality education mean?
• What might be some problems teaching sex education as a part of health education?
• When gender identity and sexual orientation is a postscript or addendum to sex or health education, what might that say to youth exploring their gender and sexuality?
• What might be considered a positive outcome for not having a mandate to teach sex education?
Additional ResourcesListen
Read
• How to Tell a Story: The Essential Guide to Memorable Storytelling by The MothLearnTransom, an online training resource administered by Atlantic Public Media, a founder of Public Radio Exchange and The Moth Radio HourEngageAs always, if you have any questions, thoughts, or ideas, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at eduny@paleycenter.org.
Happy listening,
Carlos Pareja
Manager of Education
Rebekah Fisk
Director of Education
Photos—Circle Round: WBUR, P.S. Weekly: Caroline Hidalgo/P.S. Weekly
