First Up. America's Leading Spy Agencyjust Got Its First Female Director

Students: We are the sixth-, seventh-, eighth-grade students at MerrittAcademy in New Haven, Michigan, and Channel One News starts right now!

Emily: Wow, what a group! Sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders from Merritt Academy — thanks for the Friday start, guys.I am Emily Reppert.Here we go.

First up. America's leading spy agencyjust got its first female director.

The United States Senate confirmed Gina Haspel on Thursday afternoon.She will now be calling the shots as the head of the Central Intelligence Agency.And that is historicbecause Haspel is the first woman to run the CIA.

However, her nomination was controversial. Critics sayshe used torture on prisoners when working for the CIA under President George W. Bush, but in the end, several Democrats and Republicans voted her in and gave her the job.

Okay, next up, it is the audio clipdividing America.All right, I heard“laurel.”

Tom: And I heard“yanny.”

Emily: Okay, so clearly, the entire Ch1 team is divided, and now I don't know which is right and which is wrong.

Tom: Well, it turns out that there is science behind that controversy. Check it out.

It is being described as an optical illusionfor your ears,whether you hear “yanny”or “laurel.” And everybody is arguing about it.

Woman: I clearly hear “yanny.”

Man: Not “yanny,”“laurel.”

Man: I'm hearing “yanny.” It's like,“yanny,”and then “laurel.”

Tom: This clip posted on Twitter has social mediablowing up. Celebs Chrissy Teigen and Ellen DeGeneres are firmly on Team Laurel, while Mindy Kaling and Stephen King say “Team Yanny.” Even Washington,D.C., is weighing in.

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan: It is “laurel” and not “yanny.”

Dr. Shahrzad Cohen: We detect with our ears, but we hear with our brain.

Tom: Los Angeles audiologist Shahrzad Cohen says the sound frequency helps the brain interpret what it hears.

Cohen: The bad quality, or the low quality, of the acoustic signal of this recording is what is giving our brain a chance to interpret what it hears.

Tom: Cohen says the clip's low quality forces listeners' brains to fill in the gaps depending on the frequency each person hears.

Drew Patrick: You can hear the higher frequency say “yanny,” but if you try to listen to the lower, you will hear “laurel."

Tom: Now, some can also hear the difference when it is slowed down.And Emily, for the record,you were right! The person is actually saying “laurel.” And get this: It was discovered on Vocabulary.comby a high school studentwho heard “yanny,” got confused. She then posted it, and it went viral.

Emily: Man, I knew I was right. All right, “laurel” — there it is. Thanks,Tom.

All right, now, it is the classic book and a high school must-read for many students — “Fahrenheit 451,” which creates a world without books.And as Arielle Hixson shows us, even though it was written in the 50s, this story is relevant today.

Arielle: So it is the 65th anniversary of the book.

Michael B. Jordan: Sixty-fifth? It is.

Arielle: Right?

That is right. Sixty-five years ago,“Fahrenheit 451”by Ray Bradbury hit the shelves as a sci-fi novel. It is all about a future where books are the enemy, so much so that they are illegal and burned on sight.Over the years, it became controversial, especially since burning books is negatively viewed as a way of erasing culture. Many schools ended up banning it in the classroom.

But now HBO is bringing the book to life, and some say the fictional world onscreen is eerily similar to today.

Sarah Green: There is nothing in this movie that doesn't already exist. That’s terrifying to me.

Arielle: Michael B. Jordan plays Montag, a firefighter whose job is to burn the books. He is the main character in the book and the film.

You are bringing the character Montag to life. Why is it important for young people to see this film?

Jordan: I think it has a lot of important messages to, kind of, the way this generation, young folks right now, live their lives today. There's a lot of distractions out there; there's a lot of propaganda. We're on a slippery slope right now with, you know, media control, anti-intellectualism and lack of free thinking.

Arielle: The fiery flick touches on common controversial topics today, like fake news, censorshipand ever-evolving technology.

Ramin Bahrani: Bradbury's vision seemed relevant today. We're getting our news in social media and the internet; we're willfully going to the same news cycle that we want to hear. We're in a post-truth era — Bradbury predicted that.

Arielle: The main character, Montag, grapples with finding the truth.

Jordan: So I think this movie helps challenge those things, and it helps promote you to kind of be yourself and actually be proactive with your thinking and problem solving and critical thinking and all that other good stuff.

Arielle: Even though it was created decades ago, the book effortlessly connects to a new generation, encouraging young people to stay woke no matter how much the world changes.

Arielle Hixson,Channel One News.

Emily: And today's Words in the News: censorship, which is blocking access to information, ideas or books that are offensive or politically unacceptable.

All right, when we get back, we are diving into this week's Feel-Good Friday.

Emily: All right, in case you missed the memo, it is International Museum Day.Cassie Hudson is at one museum that has a night dedicated to you and your friends.And she is there withsome teens to put you to the test.

Cassie: Hey, guys! I am here with some teens who are taking over a museum for the night. They are going to help us out with a pop quiz.

Teens: What is the largest art museum in the U.S.?

Is it
a. the Museum of Modern Art or
b. the Guggenheim Museum
c. the Getty Museum or
d. the Metropolitan Museum

You have 10 seconds.

Cassie: Time is up! The answer is:

Teens: D, the Metropolitan Museum.

Cassie: That is right. Founded in 1870, the Metropolitan Museum of Art is the largest in the country. Spanning a quarter mile and with more than 2 million square feet, the New York City museum has artwork tracing back 5,000 years.And every season, the Met invites young people to visit the iconic museum for a special night called Teens Take the Met.

Teen: It's just cool because it’s like, you get to be with a lot of people your age that are interested in the same things as you, and you get to, like, explore the museum with them, which is like, it’s like a unique thing that’s, like, can only be done here.

Teen: I'll probably post alot of pictures tonight, you know, like, let people know because it's a really cool place.

Cassie: Besides getting time with the art, there are special activities to do, like silent dancing and arts and crafts.

Teen: Well, there's a lot to see. It’snot just, like, fun and games — there's also, like, a lot of history you can look at, and everything is, like, real, authentic here.

Cassie: And when it comes to the artwork, everyone has their favorite gallery.

Teen: Ireally like the Roman exhibits and, like, the Greek statues. That’s always interesting to me because, like,I'm an artist, and I like to draw figures and stuff like that.

Teen: We saw the mummies and the caskets they were holding in.I was, like,really shocked how I can see it right in front of my eyes.

Teen: I like drawing. I like to come to the museums and stuff. I really like art.

Teen: I think anyone who comes here,they have a very meaningful experience at the Met. They could connect to at least one painting that’s here or a sculpture.

Cassie: Cassie Hudson, Channel One News.

Emily: And, because it is International Museum Day today, tons of museums in the U.S. and around the worldare letting you guys in for free, so make sure to go check one out near you.

And you can start onChannelOne.com, where Azia takes you on a 360 tour of the American Museum of Natural History.

All right, it is time for Feel-Good Friday! And today, we are meeting a teen who floated to the top in a sink-or-swim situation.

Winning hasn't always been the name of the game for the Seguin High School swim team in Arlington,Texas.

Alex Weidemann: Our goal every meet was to finish the race. Really, we measured our success on not getting disqualified.

Emily: And because that was the standard four years ago,when Gerald Hodges made the team — perhaps the only kid to ever make a high school swim teamwithout knowing how to swim.

Weidemann: He couldn't get across five yards, let alone 25 yards.

Emily: Eventually, helearned how tostay afloat and even finished some races, even if it waslong after the other competitors were done and toweled off, which is interesting because on dry land, Gerald is a remarkable athlete but says he had more to prove.

Gerald Hodges: I felt like if I couldn't handle not being good at something, then how could I consider myself, you know. a successful person?

Emily: A quotethat is worthrepeating: "If I couldn't handle not being good at something, then how could I consider myself a successful person?" To Gerald, setting yourself up for failure is actually the key to future success, especially if you can somehow manage to master your weakness.

And by the start of his senior year, Gerald had actually improved — a lot. And when regionals rolled around, it was his time to shine. During the 200-yard medley relay, Seguin was pretty much in last place until Gerald jumped in the water, turning the race around for his team and going fromthe kid who couldn't swimto the kid whojust sent his team to state.

Gerald: Man, we was ecstatic! I could barely contain my energy as I was trying to go get this medal. I'm sitting here just freaking out!I've come so far!

Emily: Talk about making a splash!Such a cool story.

All right,guys, have agreat weekend, and we will see you right back here on Monday.

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