Who are the Nobel Prize winners of 2025

Takaro Kids Podcast: 2025 Nobel Prize Winners & Controversies

Welcome to this week's episode of Takaro Kids, where we dive into the 2025 Nobel Prize winners. We start off by discussing the answer to last week's quiz question about the Nobel Peace Prize and reveal lucky winner Anvi! We then explore the legacy of Alfred Nobel and discuss the significance of the Nobel Prizes in six categories: Peace, Literature, Economics, Chemistry, Physics, and Medicine. We focus on the achievements of this year's laureates, ranging from quantum physics to innovations in economics and the controversies surrounding the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Maria Corina Machado from Venezuela. Tune in for an informative session filled with fascinating facts and thought-provoking discussions!

00:00 Introduction to Takaro Kids Podcast
00:43 Flipping the Script: Quiz Question First!
02:39 Nobel Peace Prize Winner: Maria Corina Machado
05:46 Exploring the Nobel Prize Categories
11:47 Nobel Prize in Economics: Innovation and Growth
14:02 Nobel Prize in Literature: László Krasznahorkai
15:24 Nobel Prize in Medicine: Autoimmune Disease Breakthrough
17:39 Nobel Prize in Chemistry: Metal Organic Frameworks
21:12 Nobel Prize in Physics: Quantum Tunneling
25:13 Conclusion and Next Week's Quiz Question

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Transcript

Kiran Menon 0:00

Mics camera. Action. Welcome to Takaro Kids, a weekly podcast that helps kids and many adults as well. We know kids who are, you know, in their tens, twenties, thirties, forties, all of them who listen to Takaro Kids. We help. Events that the world around plans.

Debkanya 0:26

I mean, a little crazy. Uh, not too, not too much. We are just going to go upside down today, right? So, yeah. Upside down, not that we are gonna be on our hands with our feet up. We are not recording upside down. What we are gonna do is we've just flipped the script. What does that mean? Normally for our regular listeners, they know that the quiz question always comes at the end of the episode, but this time what we did promise is that we were going to talk about the answer of last week's quiz question. So since our topic is connected to the quiz question, we said we start with that simple, not too crazy, right? Kiran Max. Good. Yeah, we should always keep changing it up. Keep it interesting. Right. Great. So our quiz question last week that we asked all our listeners was, who just won the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize?

Kiran Menon 1:28

Yep.

Debkanya 1:28

you have the answer?

Kiran Menon 1:31

We, we had four options. We had four options. It was Maria Resa, it was Maria Corina Machado. It's Malala Yousafzai, and it's Narges Mohammedi. And the right answer is Maria Corina Machado

Debkanya 1:49

Well

Kiran Menon 1:50

and yeah, congrats. And, uh, we also had a lucky winner. We picked one lucky winner. We got lots of entries. Um, some are right, some are not. But outta the ones that were right, we have 9 year old Anvi who got the right answer and was a lucky winner. What does she win? Debbie?

Debkanya 2:15

Congratulations Anvi. You are winning gift voucher from us with all our love, and you also are going to get a special Takaro Kids T-shirt, right?

Kiran Menon 2:27

Woohoo.

Debkanya 2:29

Look out for that. We will be getting in touch and making sure that we know where to send it to. Um, so yeah, once you tell us that you will get your

Kiran Menon 2:36

Very important. Excellent. So now we are gonna be talking about the Nobel Prizes right? In this episode. And, and it was created by Alfred Nobel, uh, Swedish inventor and chemist. Um, it's, it's very interesting. The Nobel Prize are announced in Sweden except for the Peace prize, which is announced in Norway. Yeah. So, so the reason Alfred Nobel was. Actually, so he actually invented the dynamite. I think all of us know the dynamite. Right? It goes boom. And

Debkanya 3:12

goes, boom.

Kiran Menon 3:13

he Yeah, exactly. And he was, he invented it just as, you know as a young inventor scientist. He created that. And unfortunately it was being used in wars and to kill people and so. He really had a lot of guilt building up in him, right as he saw this. His fortunes kept growing and growing because obviously if he invented the dynamite, it was used everywhere. It's used in war, it's used to, um, you know, when you go quarrying, which is mining, you take your, uh, marble and your granite. You need dynamite to go in and break those rocks and hills and everything. So his, his fortune just grew leaps and bounds, but because of his guilt, he said that, he's gonna institute this Nobel Prize where he is going to reward people who make the world better through science, literature, peace. Because so, so.

Debkanya 4:23

Quite a, quite a legacy. Alfred Nobel, right, that he left behind. And what a great way to think as well. Hey, I've done something that, you know, people are using for harm, so how can I make sure that for you. Years and years and years to come, all this wealth can be used to actually create something that's good for the world, uh, to make up for, for what, for what I've done. And I think that's, that's quite incredible. And

Kiran Menon 4:48

Pretty awesome.

Debkanya 4:49

Prize is actually one of the most important prizes that's given out every year. The most coveted, in fact, so coveted. Even the president of the United States really, really wanted one this year,

Kiran Menon 5:02

Mm-hmm.

Debkanya 5:04

He didn't make the cut. But yeah, it's, it's an extremely, extremely, um, uh, important price. there

Kiran Menon 5:11

think it's, um, there are six categories and I think it's only, it's one of the only sort of, uh, globally recognized awards like this, right? Because there are many awards that will happen in India, in the us, in uk, and, you know, wherever else it may be. But this is one of those global awards. It doesn't matter where you are, which country you are in, which city you are in. You always have the chance of being a Nobel winner. So it is that, it's literally the Olympics and the, uh, you know,

Debkanya 5:44

way of putting it. Yeah,

Kiran Menon 5:45

yeah. Of, of, of those six, uh, areas, what are those six areas?

Debkanya 5:52

So there is obviously the first one, which is peace. There is literature, there is economics, um, there is chemistry, there is physics, and there is medicine or physiology. Did I get all of them? Yay. Thank you. Thank you. I did do some studying before this podcast. Great. So let's get into it. As we said. The Nobel Peace Prize has gone to Maria Corina Machado. She's from Venezuela. Um, Trump was quite disappointed that he didn't win, but then Maria, okay, let's talk about why she won this, right? She won this. She's a, she's a political figure, right? She's won it for supposedly her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela. for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy. What does that mean? It means, she said that she wants her people in Venezuela to have the right to choose their government. Right.

Kiran Menon 6:51

Yep.

Debkanya 6:52

is where you have a dictator, a leader who says, I will make all the decisions. fought continues to fight very hard to make sure that people can have elections like we do here in India. Get to choose their own leaders. Right?

Kiran Menon 7:06

Yeah.

Debkanya 7:07

people say that, you know, that's why she deserves this prize. But you know, this, this time around Kiran, I felt like the Nobel Peace Prize had been mired in controversy, right? Somehow.

Kiran Menon 7:17

there are many times, right? The Nobel Peace Prize has always been very often at least been admired in controversy. If you remember, there was a Chinese artist. I forget his name, but, I think it was about eight, 10 years ago who was jailed in China was declared the Nobel Peace Prize winner. And then that resulted in China, actually, um, you know, going against Norway because Norway is where the Nobel Peace is announced. So, so it always had its share of controversy. I think not every year, some years when Mother Teresa. Given the Nobel Peace Prize, no ones that given peace prize.

Debkanya 7:56

Well, except for the, for the people who he fought against, maybe in South Africa who didn't like that he won it. Yeah. But here too, right? Maria Machado, what has happened is that she's been found, you know, there have been stories of how she supported the Israeli government. I think that's been a big part of the controversy because we know what's

Kiran Menon 8:18

Yep.

Debkanya 8:19

in Israel. We know about the human rights violations that have been happening in Gaza, which have been led by the Israeli government, but she has supposedly. Expressed her support for them and her cooperation with the, with the party in Israel. That has actually been the main force behind everything that's gone down in Gaza. There have also been, you know, she's also supposedly been okay with foreign intervention in Venezuela. Now see Venezuela as a country that would like to do things their way. They don't want anyone from the outside coming in and meddling in their internal affairs. But, uh, supposedly Maria has said that, you know, she's okay. She's encouraged for an intervention in matters that, that, that were about Venezuela's internal matters. Also, the other interesting twist was. she got the Nobel Peace Prize, you know, everyone's like, okay, Trump's not Got it. She supposedly actually dedicated part of the Nobel Peace Prize to Trump you know, because of all the work that he's done in Israel. And she actually said that, I would like to, you know, I think you truly deserved it, so I would like to dedicate this prize to you. And that has been controversial as well, because Trump is a

Kiran Menon 9:29

Yep.

Debkanya 9:30

personality himself.

Kiran Menon 9:32

Yeah. And, and you know, I think if you, if you look at her history as well, and not even too, too much in the past, did you know that she was actually blocked from running for president last year in 2024 by the courts of Venezuela. So she actually cannot. Take on public office, which means she cannot become a leader. She cannot become the prime minister. She cannot become a minister for the next 15 years. That's the court ruling. So, you know, there's, there's obviously a lot of controversy over here. Yes. One side is, I think now, you know, if you think about the Nobel Peace Prize, just the prize itself. Give so much visibility into something right now, it's given us visibility about Maria Machado and Venezuela, most importantly, right? Not too many people were thinking about Venezuela. Very, very honestly. No one was thinking about Venezuela, right? And now everyone thinks about Venezuela, even if it is just, hey. Where is this country even if you don't know where this country is right? And how big is it? And you know, how many people and what's its, um, state right now. So, so I think that's also something that you should consider when you think about the Nobel Prizes. It does give, um, some visibility into really, really important. And maybe the committee, I don't know, maybe the committee thought that Venezuela was really important to highlight at this point, the, the economy and the country is, you know, almost teetering on, um, high inflation, very high costs. They're struggling. So, so it is definitely a country that needs some visibility.

Debkanya 11:15

Yeah. Yeah, but that's the thing people are talking about how, you know, peace. Should be defined in a very strict manner or in a certain manner, rather in a world that is so turbulent today, right? There's so much happening. So, you know, when you select someone, it's a, it's, you know, the famous saying, A Spider-Man would say, with great power comes great responsibility. So that's what this situation is as well. Right? Anyway, so we'll move on from that and we will talk because we want to quickly tell you about the other winners of the Nobel Prize this year.

Kiran Menon 11:44

Important.

Debkanya 11:45

Uh, like we said. There are five more. We'll start with economics. It's been split between three winners

Kiran Menon 11:52

Mm-hmm.

Debkanya 11:54

Phillipe, Aon, and Peter Howard. Now

Kiran Menon 11:57

Mm-hmm.

Debkanya 11:58

have one for something that's super interesting. Kiran.

Kiran Menon 12:02

Yeah, it's, it's basically how innovation drives economic growth. And, and, uh, you know, in simpler terms, if you think about it, to grow or to really build a country or a market or an industry, you have to keep building new things, right? You're constantly growing. Think about your Lego toys. You started with Duplo, which are big blocks, then you moved into smaller blocks, then you did sets, then you started building your own things, right? As you grow, you need to kind of keep building new ideas, new technologies come up with new ways to do things. And so the whole study was, um, from an economic perspective, an economic basically means money and uh, you know, trade and those kind of things. How does this innovation. New ideas, new technologies, new ways of doing things, how does it help an economy grow? And, and we've always known, we've always known it for a fact, those who work, those who, you know, have been a part of this, um, ecosystem, have always known that innovation is very, very important. But I think their study really came to the crux of it and gave a very, very simple definition of how it actually impacts it.

Debkanya 13:17

Yeah, I think so. Interesting and important in the times that we live in today because again, you have people who are talking about how scientists should be controlled, how thinkers should be controlled. We need to control how people think, what they talk about, where, what they write. So in an, in a, in a world where. If you are going to be scared to innovate, if you're going to be scared to think differently from everyone around you, innovation is going to suffer. And if innovation

Kiran Menon 13:44

Yep.

Debkanya 13:46

you know, economic suffers, uh, you can't have new inventions, you can't have new discoveries. If you don't have new discoveries or new ways of doing things, you're gonna be stuck in an old way of doing things, right? So there's a

Kiran Menon 13:57

Correct?

Debkanya 13:58

and that's what this study talks about. So super, super important and interesting.

Kiran Menon 14:03

we go to literature. I know you figured out how to pronounce this.

Debkanya 14:10

I was practicing. I was practicing. His name is László Krasznahorkai Okay. I hope I've said it right. László Krasznahorkai He has won the Nobel Prize for literature. He's a writer from Hungary. Again, look that up. We're gonna mention lots of different countries here. We spoke about Venezuela earlier, talking about Hungary. Now find it on the map. Now he is won, um, not for one particular book. He's won for his entire body of work. He's a, he's a writer who's written many, many books and he's always talked about. Things, think themes around human struggle, themes around fear, change, around survival. Again, so important in today's world too. You know, because the world is constantly changing around us. There are so many people who struggle. So he actually writes about these topics. Uh, again, not yet suitable for a lot of our readers here in this age group, but maybe for some of the adults listening. You should look up his work and start, you know, I know I'm going to do that. I'm definitely going to look him up and, you know, see what, what he talks about and how he writes.

Kiran Menon 15:14

I, I never of him before. So yeah, again, the Nobel give visibility.

Debkanya 15:22

Absolutely. Quickly. Next, the next Nobel Prize we're gonna talk about is the one in physiology or medicine. It's shared again between three people, Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell Shimon Sakaguchi. Yeah. So they won four. Finding out how the immune system, now our bodies have an immune system, which is basically what the soldiers in your body who fight germs, right. They found out how to stop your immune system from attacking itself, because that also happens sometimes the soldiers in your body get confused and they start attacking your own body, right? They think, Hey, you look

Kiran Menon 15:58

Yep.

Debkanya 15:59

and they start attacking your own body. That's a, that's a disease actually, which is called an autoimmune disease. Yeah. So these scientists have actually found out a way to stop that from happening.

Kiran Menon 16:09

And you know, it's actually weird. I think over the last 10 years or so, autoimmune diseases have actually increased, at least what we're hearing has kind of constantly kept going up more and more. And very often you cannot explain it. You cannot explain, you know, if someone has a heart attack, you know what that means. If someone's you know, got. A specific disease like maybe cancer, whatever it is, you know those cells that are the cancerous cells in autoimmune diseases, very often you don't know what is attacking what and why or what caused your own cells to attack. Your body, so, so it's always been a mystery a few years, and this will more under.

Debkanya 17:01

Yeah, it's, it's awesome because, I mean, it's basically like, again, you know, we are finding ways in which our body works. We still don't know exactly how our body works, right? There's so many mysteries held just within your little frame, right? Your little body has so many mysteries, uh, that scientists are. Trying to unearth all the time. And they're also teaching your body to do different things with all their, all their discoveries, right? So in this case, they're teaching your body not to attack itself, right? To know the difference between who's a friend and who's an enemy. So I think it's so fascinating, uh, and extremely important, like you said, Kiran,

Kiran Menon 17:36

Mm-hmm.

Debkanya 17:36

future of medicine.

Kiran Menon 17:38

Yep. So the next one is chemistry. And again, we have three winners. I think three is a great number if you want to go win a Nobel Prize, you know, try finding two other people.

Debkanya 17:50

a team

Kiran Menon 17:50

Uh,

Debkanya 17:51

together.

Kiran Menon 17:51

yeah, exactly. So it's Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson Omar M. Yaghi, and they were awarded the Chemistry Nobel Prize for something called Metal Organic Frameworks or you know, all about it. Right. Debbie?

Debkanya 18:10

Yeah, I mean all about it. I mean, it's just, I didn't even have to read up, right? I'm kidding. I had to, I really had to understand what this is. Okay, so this is, this is the way I've understood it, right? So now supposedly, you know, they've invented something called a molecule cage, Molecules are really, really, really tiny, right? Or everything around you is made out of molecules. Now these molecules are like a little cage where the structure. Is made out of metal and the inside is empty. So it's like, you know, like you take a sponge, you have the outside, and you have the inside, which is the pores, which is the empty area. Now these scientists have now figured out how to make this empty space, do things that they wanted to do. So they're controlling this tiny, tiny space inside a molecular cage. Uh, and they're training you to do things like how to absorb water, how to capture carbon dioxide from the air, or how to filter out pollute pollutants. Right? And can you imagine, now just think about these three things, how to capture water. Like how do you get water in a desert, not necessarily from a oasis. But from the air, from the desert egg, is it, is it possible to manipulate the molecules around you to get that water? is it possible to manipulate molecules to actually suck out pollution from the air? Is it possible for these molecules to, you know, suck out all these greenhouse gases and store them safely somewhere so that the earth doesn't become as hot as it is? So there are a lot of, again, really, really useful information that, that we can now have access to because of this, uh, you know, study.

Kiran Menon 19:46

And, and I also found a different way in which it was explained, you know, a different analogy, which was very interesting since we talked about Lego earlier. Um, the way this was explained was imagine there are tiny Lego blocks which are made of metals like zinc or copper or any of those metals. And there are these organic molecules, which are connecting the Lego blocks. So when you actually snap them together, you know when you click Lego blocks together, it basically starts creating that 3D cage. So you have the metals, which are the Lego blocks, and you have the molecules which are snapping these metals together, and they're so tiny that you can't even see them under a microscope. But that's basically what these mos are, which is why it's called metal organic frameworks. Yeah.

Debkanya 20:34

Very cool. I mean, again, another fun fact, supposedly just a few grams of some of these mos are, have so much space in them that if you stretched it all out, it could be as big as a football field, right? I just love it. I mean, your brain can expand. Just thinking about the possibilities, uh, then that are there when you start looking at the world of, you know, the tiny, tiny world of molecules and atoms and all of

Kiran Menon 21:05

Correct.

Debkanya 21:05

things that build us up. Speaking of which, the next one is all about physics

Kiran Menon 21:12

Yep. And this one, it's threes. I'm telling you three is the lucky number. Yeah. So it's John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret John M. Martinis. And this again, is one of Debbie's favorite topics. They, one for the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunneling, and energy quantization in an electric circuit. Say that.

Debkanya 21:44

done. Well done. I can say it fast. Should I try it? Macroscopic quantum mechanical. Tunneling in energy. Ization in an electric circuit. I fumbled. I fumbled. I tried. Almost, almost. Okay. Okay. No, but let's not, let's explain what that is. Okay. So

Kiran Menon 22:04

Yeah.

Debkanya 22:04

is quantum physics? Quantum physics is a study of very, very, very tiny things like we were talking about,

Kiran Menon 22:09

Mm-hmm.

Debkanya 22:10

all the building blocks that make up who

Kiran Menon 22:13

Yeah.

Debkanya 22:14

Not just us humans, but everything around you has atoms and electrons. Right now in

Kiran Menon 22:19

And if you have seen, sorry. And if you've seen a lot of Marvel movies off late and you know, a lot of the DC movies and all of that, they're going into the quantum world a lot. I think it was Antman Antman, which is also in the Yes. In the quantum world. So that's basically what we're talking about. Yeah.

Debkanya 22:36

Correct. Yes. And now the thing about quantum physics or this, this tiny world, is things behave a little differently than they would in the real world. I mean, the

Kiran Menon 22:45

Mm-hmm.

Debkanya 22:46

the world around you, the world that you can see around you, right? So one of the things that happens here, the strange thing that happens here is called tunneling, which is basically when a particle can pass through a wall that it couldn't normally cross. Now imagine it's basically like you walking through a wall. Not possible in our world, but in, in the quantum world, it is made possible. Um, so that's what these scientists have now done. They've actually taken these weird quantum effects that can only happen in these super tiny settings. And they have built it in a slightly bigger format. Right? So they've put it, they've displayed it in real circuits, right?

Kiran Menon 23:24

So, so what is a circuit, right? If you think about a circuit, it's there everywhere. It's a pathway for electricity to travel through, right? So think about a circuit is your switch to turn on a light. Um, think about your car and the moment you hit the. Button to start the car. The battery. Yeah. You make the connection, the battery kicks off and you basically start the car. So it's anything that's kind of like a, a path for electric. Current is a circuit, right?

Debkanya 24:00

But the important thing to note is. All the things that are possible in a quantum world, in a tiny, tiny, tiny world, which were not possible in the physical world around you. this study shows is that it is possible to replicate this, and that's what's happened, right? They've shown it in a visible format, in a physical format, and now they're saying that if we can make things behave like they do in the quantum world, um, then we can build and test so many different things that we couldn't before. And I think that is the fascinating bit about this. Yeah, that is why they won the Nobel Prize for physics.

Kiran Menon 24:34

Yeah.

Debkanya 24:38

Woo. That was a lot of names and a lot.

Kiran Menon 24:43

And a lot of mind blowing work that people are doing all around the world. Right. I think I love science. I love science. Uh, I know you are a big fan of literature, so combined, I think it's, you know, a really good kind of roundup.

Debkanya 24:58

Yeah, and I think that's what's special about the Nobel Prize, right? Because it's not only about science it, he said, I want different categories to be awarded because it's only when everything comes together, that is

Kiran Menon 25:10

Mm-hmm.

Debkanya 25:11

truly make a difference to the. World around us, right? We can do something for humanity, So that is, uh, the Nobel Prize roundup for 2025. Before we go, we did start off with the quiz question from last week. So we've given you the answer. The quiz question for this week's episode is, who are the Indian Nobel Peace Prize winners? Okay. There's a trick question there. I kind of gave it away, but. Here are your options. Option one, Mother Teresa, option two, Dalai Lama, option three and option four Rabindranath Tagore. Okay. And I will repeat, eh, that's exactly what I said. Who is slash are the Indian Nobel Peace Prize winners. Send us your answers. Go to www.takarokids.com, or you can send us your answer on Instagram. Just send us your name, your age, and if you are the lucky winner, you will get a gift voucher and a Takaro kids t-shirt from us.

Kiran Menon 26:25

And until next time, remember that you can win. It is not about who sends it first. It's not about when you send it, it's not about, you know, how many times you've won. It's none of that. It is a lucky draw, so keep trying, keep sending in your answers, and you could be a second time, or even a third time lucky winner, you could be the first time lucky winner, so you never know. It's not about who sent it first, and in fact. Going forward. We also have a YouTube channel where we will have videos of these episodes. So if you, you know, wanna spend a few minutes watching us go through this, uh, podcast with some other visuals in between and, you know, give you a good idea of what's happening, then join and subscribe to.

Debkanya 27:15

All the details are on our website, so yes, do follow us. Do like us to subscribe. Until next time, it's goodbye from both of us. Bye.