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Cover of Knock Knock World | 2025
Knock Knock World | 2025
Explaining fresh global stories with young people
Completed · 150 episodes
Buy for ¥365.00
Audio in Chinese
Knock Knock! A Morning Podcast for Young People Is Here! Even Thieves Are Targeting Eggs! Why Is America Facing a Severe Egg Shortage? There Are Fewer of Them Than Astronauts—How Hard Is It to Become an F1 Driver? Inside the Trading-Card Business: Why Do Tiny Cards Keep People Buying? 1. Singers and Journalists Can Go to Space—What Is Space Tourism Really Like? 2. AI Face Swaps and Cloned Voices: How Much “AI Magic” Is Hidden in Movies? 3. Beavers, Nature's Hydraulic Engineers, Build Dams from Branches and Stones? 4. The Stars of the Spring Festival Gala: How Are Humanoid Robots Evolving So Fast? 5. What Unexpected Design Flaws Hide in Scientists' Workwear and Police Body Armor? 6. The Kiwi's Fantastic Journey from a Wild Chinese Fruit to a Premium New Zealand Product 7. Why Did Mexico City Ban Traditional Bullfighting in One of the World's Largest Arenas? 8. Sled Dogs Lose Jobs and Trump Wants the Island: What Crises Face Greenland? 9. AI “Ghibli-Style” Images Flood the Internet—Why Does Everyone Love Studio Ghibli? 10. A Tariff Storm Is Coming—How Does It Affect Ordinary Life? 11. A “Devastating” Earthquake Struck Neighboring Myanmar—Why Did It Receive So Little Attention? 12. Why Has Boeing, One of the World's Largest Aircraft Makers, Faced Constant Trouble? 13. Adults Want Phones Out of Schools—What Are They Worried About? 14. Electric Cars Hate Cold Weather—So How Did Chilly Norway Become an “EV Kingdom”? 15. With So Many Chinese Destinations, Why Do Korean Tourists Especially Love Zhangjiajie? 16. How Did Tire Maker Michelin Create the World's Most Authoritative Restaurant Guide? 17. Catkins and Pollen: Why Do Cities Plant So Many Trees That Make People Uncomfortable? 18. Naming Sea Turtles after Taylor Swift Songs—Do Aquariums Follow Celebrities Too? 19. Zhao Yiming and Haoxianglai: How Do Ubiquitous Snack Stores Make Money? 20. From “I Don't Want Extra Classes” to “Playing Ball Is Fun”: How the Brain Gets Started 21. The Rise of the Little Genius Smartwatch: How Did It Capture Millions of Young Wrists? 22. Mixue's Business Formula: Who Says Cheap Milk Tea Cannot Make Money? 23. Spicy Chips Need Not Be Red! The Secrets behind Food Color 24. Restless and Distracted in Class? It May Be ADHD, Not a Lack of Effort 25. The Sweet Price: Why Are Cola and Other Sugary Drinks Singled Out for a Sugar Tax? 26. Children's Day Special: What Does Truly Pet-Friendly Mean? 27. With So Many Building Toys, Why Is Lego So Addictive? 28. Nearly Half of China's Cities Are Quietly Sinking—What Is Happening beneath Our Feet? 29. What Is the High-Tech BOA Dial Seen All over Shoes? Bonus | Leave Some Idle Time in Life: A Discussion of Empty Space, Exploration, and Growth 30. Even AI Gets “Thirsty”! Why Does AI Development Use So Much Water? 31. From Fun to Addiction: Why Are Minors More Vulnerable to Video Games? 32. How Far Away Are Cars That Truly Drive Themselves? 33. Stars Are Touring Everywhere—Why Are There So Many Concerts Now? 34. Labubu Is a Global Sensation—Why Is Everyone Obsessed? 35. Foreigners Come to China for Marathons—Don't They Have Jobs? 36. Prepared Meals in Schools Spark Controversy—What Are People Worried About? 37. Seagulls Are “French-Fry Thieves”! Why Do Animals Steal Human Snacks? 38. Twenty-Six of Twenty-Eight Metro Systems Lose Money—Why Is Profit So Difficult? 39. Harvard vs. Trump: Why Would a University Sue the Government? 40. Releasing Hundreds of Millions of Mosquitoes Each Year—to Reduce Mosquitoes? 41. Would You Work until Seventy? How Do Countries Choose a Retirement Age? 42. Why Do More Than 100 Million People Love Members-Only Supermarkets? 43. Venice Residents Tell Tourists to Go Home—Can Tourism Harm a City? 44. Why Would AI Rather “Lie” Than Say “I Don't Know”? 45. Airplanes “Retire” Too—Where Do They Go? 46. Iran Threatens to Close the Strait of Hormuz—Why Might Your Toys Cost More? 47. Your Favorite Snack Has New Clothes—What Secrets Hide in Packaging? 48. More Than 200 Children in Gansu Had Abnormal Blood Lead—How Dangerous Is Lead? 49. Where Does Your Trash Go, and Why Are Incinerators Competing for It? 50. A T. Rex Leather Bag Is Coming—Can a Dinosaur Extinct for 66 Million Years Become a Handbag? 51. The Same Book Costs Three Times More in a Store Than Online—Why? 52. Milk Tea for Free? How Did the Food-Delivery War Begin? 53. Switch 2 Breaks Sales Records—What Is Nintendo's Secret to Staying Competitive? 54. One Liter for Only 9.9 Yuan—Why Is Coconut Water So Varied and Cheap This Year? 55. Volcanic-Ash Wafers and Durian Spicy Strips—Why Are Snack Flavors Getting Stranger? 56. Hotter Summers and Frequent Floods: Why Is the Climate Growing More Extreme? | Global Warming Special 57. Anguilla Has No AI Industry—So How Does This Tiny Island Earn Hundreds of Millions from AI? 58. From Hangzhou's Strange Tap-Water Smell: How Does Water Contamination Happen? 59. What Jobs Are Quietly Emerging to Slow Global Warming? | Global Warming Special 60. Up and Down Again—Why Are Airfares Always Changing? 61. From Wipha to Willow: Why Do We Name Typhoons? 62. If Global Warming Cannot Brake Yet, How Can We Respond? | Global Warming Special 63. From Surprise Bags of Leftovers: What Are Good Ways to Reduce Food Waste? 64. Florida Hunts Pythons—How Should We Control Invasive Species? 65. From Dead to Rights: How Do Historical Films Shape Our Memory of History? 66. Want Want Milk and Red Bull: Why Are Bags Printed with Chinese Popular in Africa? 67. Spending $60 Million on a Cougar Bridge—Why Help Wildlife Cross the Road? 68. Why Is Former World's Richest Man Bill Gates Spending $100 Billion to Stop the Next Pandemic? 69. Kids' Meals with Toys Are Delightful—Why Have Some Places Banned Them? 70. Is Asking Someone to Stop Smoking in Public “None of Your Business”? 71. Why Is the Old Problem of Lines for Women's Restrooms So Hard to Fix? 72. Are the Shared Bikes outside Your Neighborhood a Profitable Business? 73. Mobile Apps “Steal” Personal Information—What Is Really Happening? 74. When Teenagers Feel Body Anxiety, Who Is “Manufacturing Obesity”? 75. Tech Companies Pay to Buy “Carbon”—What Kind of Business Is This? 76. Why Did Arc'teryx's “Fireworks” on the Tibetan Plateau Enrage the Public? 77. Theme Parks Are Packed on Holidays—Why Would No One Invest in Them Seventy Years Ago? 78. How Do Busy Airports Make Money during National Day? 79. A Temporary Gaza Ceasefire—Why Was It Not Brokered by the United Nations? 80. Autumn, Spring, Winter, and Summer Breaks—Where Did School Holidays Come From? 81. Remembering Jane Goodall: What “Extraordinary Legacy” Did She Leave Humanity? 82. Palestine Is Not Even a Full State—Why Has It Long Been at War with Israel? 83. HPV Vaccines Were Once Impossible to Find—Why Are They Free Now? 84. How Did the 125-Year-Old Nobel Prize Begin? 85. What Do Zoos Do besides Let Us See Animals? 86. Why Might Trump's Trade War Put the Brazilian Rainforest in Crisis? 87. The Louvre Theft Shocked the World—Why Is Security Hard for an Elite Old Museum? 88. How Does the Cainiao Pickup Station near Your Home Make Money? 89. More Than 60,000 Spectators: Why Is Amateur Football's “Jiangsu Super League” So Popular? 90. Swallows Froze to Death in Northeast China—Why Is Bird Migration Getting Harder? 91. A School Makes Students Eat Standing Up to Save Time—Does That Really Help Learning? 92. Fruit Tastes Sweeter—Why Is That Not Necessarily Good? 93. How Can Solar Farms Make Grass Grow and Turn Desert Green? 94. How Holidays Changed: Why Are Fewer Festivals Designed for Children to Play? 95. Guinness Records Pay No Prize Money—Why Do So Many People Still Compete? 96. Nobel Laureates Attend in Person—What Makes the Ig Nobel Prize So Appealing? 97. Disabled People Were Once Denied Flights—Can They Fly Freely Now? 98. Are Clothes Put in Community Recycling Bins Really Recycled Sustainably? 99. Why Has a Transit-Card Mascot Stayed Popular in Japan for Twenty-Five Years? 100. Why Did Shenzhou 21 Take Four Mice into Space? Bonus | Live with the Creators of Zootopia 2: Behind the Scenes of Animation! 101. Shenzhou 20's Window Was Hit—Where Does the Likely Culprit, Space Debris, Come From? Scientist Interview | We Met a Physical Astronomer Who Performs Stand-Up Comedy! 102. Hong Kong's Worst Fire in a Century—Why Did It Grow So Large? 103. Building Houses on the Moon: What Are the Lunar Bases Many Countries Want For? 104. Bears Even Enter Cities—Why Is Japan Facing a “Bear Crisis”? Scientist Interview | How Did a Girl Raised without Electricity Become a Leading Scientist? 105. Some Say They Can No Longer Afford to Play—Why Do Badminton Shuttlecocks Keep Getting Pricier? 106. Primary Students Use Them as Meal Tickets—How Did QR Codes Become Ubiquitous? 107. How Did a Dying Japanese Village Grow Rich by Selling Leaves? Scientist Interview in English | We Met a Physical Astronomer Who Performs Stand-Up Comedy! 108. The National Games' “Greater Bay Chicken” Mascot Is a Hit—Why Is Its Model, the Chinese White Dolphin, Disappearing? 109. Why Do So Many Awful Internet Memes Become Popular? 110. “Your Clothes Are Made from Plastic Bottles” Sparks Debate—What Is Really Going On? 111. Sliding a Puzzle CAPTCHA May Be Helping a Website Make Money? 112. The Palace Museum Turns 100—Did Nearly Two Million Artifacts Really Wander for More Than Twenty Years? Annual List | The News Young People Most Wanted the World to Know in 2025! 113. Corn-Seed Infringement Cost More Than 50 Million Yuan—Why Do Tiny Seeds Need “Copyright”? 114. Why Do Ancient, Serious Dictionaries Publish “Words of the Year”? 115. As Tourists Pay to Visit Antarctica, Is the “White Continent” Still All Right? 116. Twenty-Eight Days to the Winter Olympics—How Well Do You Know the Events? | Winter Olympics Special 117. Navigation Failed across Nanjing for Four Hours—Why Is Satellite Interference Increasing? 118. Japan's Giant Pandas Are Returning to China—Why Do “National Treasures” Work Abroad? 119. Why Do Winter Olympics Favor Little-Known Small Cities? 120. Some People Drink Cola Like Water—Why Do Poorer Mexicans Drink More of It? 121. Minion Yellow and Coca-Cola Red: How Did Pantone Turn Color into a Business? 122. The Olympics Brighten Cities—Why Do Citizens in Many Countries Say No? | Winter Olympics Special 123. Can Archaeological Sites Full of Tourists Also Be Safe Houses for Wildlife? 124. Small and Short on Sunlight—How Did the Netherlands Become the Second-Largest Agricultural Exporter? 125. Students Designed the Mascots—Why Is This Winter Olympics Doing Things Differently? | Winter Olympics Special 126. Migratory Birds Were Poisoned at Poyang Lake—Why Did the Wetland Reserve Fail to Protect Them? 127. From Our Editor's Pig-Feast Experience: Why Are Chinese Festival Traditions Disappearing? 128. The Winter Olympics Open Tonight! The Stories Hidden in Athletes' Parade Uniforms | Winter Olympics Special 129. AI Advises Farmers and Diagnoses Disease—Why Is It Growing So Fast in Resource-Poor Africa? 130. Trip.com, Alibaba, Meituan: Why Are These Large Companies under Antitrust Investigation? Bonus | China's Astronauts Train in Caves for the First Time—Why Do Space Travelers Go Underground? Bonus | From Go to Pokémon: Why Do Tech Companies Make AI Play Games? Bonus | Recorded in the Middle East: Why Did the United States Strike Iran? Bonus | Sword-Wielding Humanoid Robots at the Spring Festival Gala—Are They Ready for Daily Life? Bonus | From Return of the Wolves: How Do Documentaries Affect Wildlife's Fate? Bonus | Blind Fans Can “See” the Ball Cross the Field—How Does Technology Make Sports Accessible? Bonus | How Can a Video or Facial Expression Become a Museum “Collectible”? Bonus | How Can Playful Origami and Paper Cutting Solve Problems in Space? Bonus | Darkness at Shenzhen Bay Park Sparks Debate—Why Should Cities Turn Off Lights for Birds? Bonus | Oil Prices Soar and the World Worries—Why Do Experts Say China May Feel Less Impact?