👨‍👧‍👦14 great podcasts that kids won't mind🤸‍♀️ Invisibilia's Hanna Rosin🔍

💌Podcast The Newsletter is your weekly love letter to podcasts and the people who make them.💌

Bonjour!

One of my readers, Carolyn (Hi, Carolyn!) specifically asked me to write about shows that parents can listen to with their kids. AND I AM HERE TO SERVE YOU…so I’ve come up with my own list. Of course you can google podcasts for kids, or read Nick Quah’s interesting write-up in Hot Pod. But this isn’t just a list of kid podcasts. It’s a list of shows that I like that I *think* kids would like, too.* So this list is more for adults with kids in mind, rather than the other way around (with a few exceptions.) Let me know what I’m forgetting.

*WARNING I DO NOT HAVE CHILDREN, I AM ONE. 🤸‍♀️🌈✨

Dr. Gameshow is a show hosted by one of my favorite comedians, Jo Firestone, that I think started out as a gameshow for adults but was so silly, kids started listening and calling in, and now it's feels like it is created FOR kids and silly adults are allowed to hang out, too. It's the most perfect show that kids and adults can like together.

Story Pirates: An absurdist sketch comedy show based on stories written by kids...acted by very funny popular comedians.

Flyest Fables: One of my favorite shows that was totally created for kids. It stars Antoine, a young boy bullied in school. Antoine finds a magical book that transports him into the world of Princess Keisha. Princess Keisha is on a quest to save her mother and the entire Kingdom of Orleans. Antoine uses the stories to help him manage his own difficult real-life situations.

Welcome to Night Vale: Produced in the style of community updates for the small desert town of Night Vale, featuring local weather, news, announcements from the Sheriff's Secret Police, mysterious lights in the night sky, dark hooded figures with unknowable powers, and cultural events.

Richard’s Famous Food Podcast: I wrote about this show last week, and interviewed Richard. This is a totally silly show with beautiful sound. It’s like Pee Wee’s Playhouse for your ears. It makes you feel like you are in a cartoon.

The Truth: In 10-20 minutes, The Truth gives you a little movie for your ears! Fun, dark, intriguing fiction that older kids will like (and that adults will LOVE.)

I know Bill Nye The Science Guy can be problematic, but I have a soft spot for him, anyway. Blame it on nostalgia and Ellen’s Energy Adventure. Science Rules! is his show that makes science fun, diving into one interesting science topic per episode. It’s not geared towards kids but smart kids can keep up. (Sometimes the listener questions are so smart I’m like OKAY, WE GET IT, STOP SHOWING OFF THAT YOU KNOW HOW TO ASK INTELLIGENCE QUESTIONS.)

Planet Money: I hAAAAte talking about money, and I hated it even more when I was a kid. But Planet Money is always about a bigger story, the people and emotions behind money. I never knew money could be so much fun. 

Planet Money : Money :: Brought To You By… : Brands. Adults will be interested in hearing the stories behind names like red M&Ms, Marlboro, and La Croix, and kids will enjoy the lyrical storytelling in each topic. 

Ologies: Alie Ward was one of my favorite funny podcasters before there was Ologies (Slumber Party with Alie and Georgia) and here she brings her sense of humor and wonder to this hysterical, informative science show. Minds will explode! My favorite episode ever was one about Cucurbitology (PUMPKINS!)

On Dear Young Rocker, Chelsea Ursin tells the story of her awkward adolescence and writing letters to her younger self. I wish I had this show when I was a teen (although I love it now.) I can’t tell if it’d be AWESOME to listen to this show with your teenager or AWKWARD to hear about teenage sex and alienation and failure. Someone try it out and let me know how it goes? 

The Kids Are All...Home: Pineapple Street Media is asking kids to create their own audio and send it in, the podcast is basically the podcasts made by all the kids. So kids stuck inside can record their own creative projects, whatever they want, and voila...they are PODCASTERS!

Radiolab has made this incredibly easy, with a feed, Radiolab for Kids, that curates the best Radiolab episodes for families to listen to together. From “What do dogs see when they look at the rainbow?” to “Do animals laugh?” the topics are squeaky clean (mostly) and all about curiosity.

ATTN: Dolly Parton will read children's books in a new online series called Goodnight with Dolly. This is exactly what we need right now.

xoxo lp
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Invisibilia’s Hanna Rosin

Hanna Rosin is a writer and the co-host of the NPR podcast Invisibilia. Follow Hanna on Twitter here. Follow Invisibilia on Twitter here.

Invisibilia has such an interesting premise, and it's not one that's been replicated. How was the idea conceived?
The idea was conceived by the brilliant Alix Spiegel, my co-host. She had been a science reporter at NPR for a long time. And basically what happened is that one day she developed a long zoom lens. That is, she realized a lot of science reporting she was doing wasn’t examining some fundamental assumptions and premises, missing the forest for the trees. So she started to dream up the very first episode of Invisibilia, which was about our evolving relationship with our thoughts. That all sounds very abstract, but maybe you can think of it as the history of emotions? What it’s come to be over time, is that we subject emotions to the same intellectual rigor and historical analysis that people often reserve for ideas!

Can you walk us through how an episode is made? For example, The Confrontation (which was great) started with a broken bowl and ended up being about teens expressing rage and discomfort about racism. Where and how did this story begin?
Some stories begin with an idea or notion we want to explore. Some stories begin with an actual story. In this case, we’d heard about this summer program a long time ago and wanted to explore it. It seemed so unusual to have a summer program that gave teenagers the license to be so brutally honest with each other! Plus it allowed us to report in a way that we had less control over, because we had no idea what would happen over the course of those days. And originally we thought of it unfolding almost like a reality show, but with real consequences. But as with all Invisibilia stories, we wanted it to be about something more than itself. Every episode, we always say, has to be actually practically useful to the people who listen. So this one could give a broader picture of what you gain and lose when you confront a problem directly, to someone’s face. 

What's your favorite episode? Where should people begin?
I think my favorite episode is “The Problem with the Solution.” That one is about a town in Belgium where people house the chronically mentally ill, in their homes. But is also about Lulu Miller’s own family. And about the American addiction to solutions. And about this surprising idea that families are not always the best at taking care of you, because they can kind of poison you with their expectations. It’s a fairly simple episode and like all the others it had many challenges along the way. We didn’t have a central character. And Lulu’s family story, which was so moving, was only added very late. But I find it overall very kind and forgiving. 

As for where to begin? Season 1 is very iconic, and very removed from the news. It’s also very humane. In covid times, that’s where I might start. Also here is our Spotify top ten playlist that we made.

Which episode was the most challenging to make? 
Perhaps the most challenging was our “Emotions” episode. The idea that our basic emotions  - sad, angry, happy - are not automatic, but culturally determined, is a hard one to convey. The science behind the idea is pretty complex, which is tricky to do in radio. But the idea is also life changing so we wanted to get it right. Then on top of that, we had to weave in this fairly complex narrative about a car accident. So we were worried that listeners might not have the patience to digest all that. It’s a very rich meal! But it turned out to be a very popular episode and many people wrote us to say it changed their life!

One of my favorite episodes is The Fifth Vital Sign. I have listened to it so many times and passed it to so many people. How did this episode come about and what can we take from it?
This episode is an example of the beautiful mind meld collaboration we do sometimes. One of our producers, Abby Wendle, knew someone whose child had gone to the program. Alix had long been interested in a cultural history of pain, that is, examining how our pain tolerance as a culture has shifted so radically over a generation. And this program seemed like a perfect place to explore that. It was a mixture of a surprising and moving story with an unusual idea. The final step was getting permission from the program and a family to follow them. 

What people should take from it is an idea that pain, which seems like a fixed biological fact, sometimes has a component which is cultural. We pay more or less attention to pain at different points in history. And as with all Invisibilia episodes, this should give you a little more distance from what you are experiencing and freedom to move. We always like to say that if you don’t know what forces are acting on you, then you can’t change. 

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💎BTW💎

🎙️I have PODCAST recs in this week's Earbuds Podcast Collective newsletter and podcast…all on ❤️pain and suffering!❤️ Recs: Invisibilia’s The Fifth Vital Sign, Bodies’s Sex Hurts, Last Day’s Trauma, Arm and a Leg’s Why Are ER Bills So Crazy?, and Caitlin Durante’s Sludge. Read more and subscribe here.

🎙️I kept seeing promotion for Floodlines, a podcast from The Atlantic and hosted by Vann R. Newkirk II, and finally listened. The show tells the real story of Hurricane Katrina, the things the media overlooked and did a humiliating job reporting. We really hear how poorly the reporting was, how dire the circumstances were at The Louisiana Superdome were, and the show is really about what humans will do when they are completely abandoned and seem to have no hope to survive. One woman is interviewed, who was a teenager when the levees broke, and remembers being aware that the government was going to allow her and her family to die. (People of color are used to this thinking!) The pandemic is our current international disaster, and part of me feels grateful that things in New York City are not as devastating and dangerous that they were in New Orleans. But a teensy part of me is afraid that things in New York City could get that bad. (Though I’m hopeful they won’t.) But we’re already hearing terrible stories of people assaulting Asians and trying to profit off COVID. Are we on the path to seeing how ugly humanity can get?

🎙️On Short Cuts, Josie Long presents short audio documentaries based upon a theme, and Storytellers was a recent stand-out episode. It opens with a documentary maker, Jess, and the subject of Jess’s documentary (Nicola.) Nicola didn’t like how she was portrayed in Jess’s documentary, and the two have an open conversation about storytelling—who owns it, how should stories be translated? It could have been awkward but felt really okay. The last vignette is an interview with Imaginary Advice’s Ross Sutherland, who is a top-notch storyteller.

🎙️If your plans to bet on sports have been shattered by COVID, join the Election Profit Makers community. It’s a podcast about election-related prediction markets, hosted by Jon Kimball, David Rees, and Starlee Kine—yes THAT Starlee Kine. Jon, David, and Starlee put bets on election results (from winnings to how often certain words will be used during debates.) But the show isn’t all politics and numbers, it is a blast. On the last episode, they had an entire conversation about the “hang in there” kitten poster—is the kitten telling us to hang in there? Are we telling the kitten to hang in there? Is the kitten telling herself to hang in there? Whatever the answer is, we all need to be hanging in there right now.

🎙️I know we were all avoiding April Fools’ jokes this year (thank god,) but Twenty Thousand Hertz had an April 1 jokester episode I can get behind: Twenty Parts Per Thousand is an episode about smells, instead of sound. I have a sharp sense of smell, which sometimes feels like a gift (so many smells make me happy and nostalgic) and a curse (I get bothered so easily.) These days every time I smell something bad (sometimes it is me—hayyyy, quarantine!) I praise baby Jesus that I have my smell, and probably not Coronavirus. This episode opens up with the smells at Disney World, and I’m not sure there’s anything that makes me happier than that. I could identify my placement on a map in Disney World, blindfolded, by smell. It’s so smart of the Disney Imagineers, and a wonderful way to explore the magical park.

🎙️I needed a fun, Coronavirus escape and went straight to an old episode of Ologies—Egyptology, with Kara Cooney. Kara is funny and smart, and looks at ancient Egypt through a feminist lens, taking Alie through fun stuff like pyramids, monarchs, dynasties, CATS, corpses (her specialty) and curses. Teaser/spoiler-alert: King Tut was mummified with a (tiny) boner. If that doesn’t get you to listen, I don’t know what will.

🎙️On Poetry Unbound, Pádraig Ó Tuama takes through a poem for a real moment of zen. Listening to it immediately slows me down, and I am not one who loves poetry. (Or I don’t think I do, I don’t know much about it. Maybe the fact that I love this podcast means that I'm capable of loving poetry.) For a recent episode, Pádraig reads “Leaving Early,” a poem that is an ode to healthcare workers. I keep wondering what I can do to support healthcare workers right now. (Other than listening to them and #stayinginside.) Listening to this poem with full attention, I almost felt like I was setting a prayer for them.

🎙️The Nocturnists is a show where doctors share stories of joy, sorrow, and self-discovery. Think The Moth for doctors. It’s always been good but now is especially worth a listen. A recent episode interviews doctors from within the pandemic.

🎙️Somebody is an investigative series from Ashley Flowers of Invisible Institute, hosted by fierce justice warrior/mom Shapearl Wells, whose son Courtney was found outside a Chicago police station with a fatal bullet wound. Shapearl didn’t for a second believe the police’s story, so she launched her own investigation. SOMETHING SMELLS FISHY and I don’t think this podcast is going nowhere. I’ve only listened to the first episode, where we learn about Courtney’s LIFE, since we are about to spend a great deal of time learning about his death. And I’m already frustrated and sad but enjoying the strong storytelling. There’s lots of great audio of Courtney (may he rest in peace) that brought a smile to my face, juxtaposed with angry conversations between the police and Shapearl, audio of the police dispatchers, and damning evidence for the Chicago police. (And music from Chance The Rapper, a friend of Courtney.)

🎙️A lovely episode of The Memory Palace, Stories To Wash Hands By, presents twenty twenty-second stories—because we are all being asked to wash our hands for twenty seconds to protect ourselves from COVID. Each story is a little treat in itself, and could be much longer, but there is certain delight in hearing them shortened to a twenty-second format. I don’t know if anyone will actually listen to these pieces while washing their hands, but I love how The Memory Palace has taken this newly important amount of time, twenty seconds, and explored what you can do with it, artistically.

🎙️I find escapism in Awesome Etiquette. Every time I press play, I am invited to a world of…not even first-world problems. Rich, out-of-touch, old people problems. Problems that have nothing to do with COVID. Problems that I never even knew were problems! Like the first listener letter on this episode where someone writes: “Two weeks ago I asked my friend what they wanted for their birthday and they said they would get back to me. In the meantime I have found a gift I think they’ll like. Should I tell them I already have a gift, so they should not give me a recommendation? Or should I stay silent, and wait for the recommendation, and then say something? Or should I buy a new gift? HELP!” WHAT?! I LOVE THIS AND I LOVE LIZZIE AND DAN. Similarly, my friend has been bingeing old episodes of Happier and recently texted me apropros of nothing, “Today Elizabeth got a gold star for having hard boiled eggs for breakfast.” This is the comfort we all need right now.

🎙️Imaginary Worlds is a show about science fiction and other fantasy genres, and the latest episode was a huge chef’s kiss. It takes us back to 2005, when the multiplayer online game World of Warcraft was taken over by a virus called Corrupted Blood. Although Warcraft is a fantasy world, things played out remarkably like what we’ve seen for COVID-19. What lessons we can learn by studying how players reacted to a virtual virus? I loved how at the end, host Eric Molinsky leads listeners to check out an episode of Hidden Brain, The Cassandra Curse, which is about why we heed some warnings, but ignore others. (Like why it took us so long to heed warnings of COVID.) I wish more podcasted would give recommendations like this, to keep the listening flow going!

🎙️Speaking of heeding warnings, Rough Translation tells a story of a couple who reacted to initial COVID warnings in two very different ways, why, and how this affected their relationship.

🎙️A conversation between Dani Shapiro (Family Secrets) and Stephanie Wittels Wachs (Last Day, Lemonada) about storytelling painful experiences always would have been welcome–both are writers who have created art through their trauma. But their conversation that dropped in the Family Secrets feed is timely. It’s two people, one sitting in her closet, one in her son’s room, reaching out to each other to connect and investigate grief during social distancing. It’s a conversation that reminds us to be gentle with ourselves, and that our own grief and sadness is okay, and how to turn the grief on its head as much as we can. This seems to be what Dani and Steph are experts in, and hearing them talk about it is comforting.

🎙️Sometimes it seems like social distancing is a punishment, but it’s actually a privilege. United States of Anxiety points out that there are people in our country who don’t have the option—those inside immigration detention centers and the homeless inside San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood. A wonderful thing about podcasts is the ability they have to bring you into someone else’s reality, a circumstance that you might not have considered. This episode twists the simple “stay at home” mantra we keep hearing. What if you don’t have a home?

🎙️Culture Call’s Lilah and Griselda interviewed Ira Glass about storytelling. It was conducted at the odd time right before lockdown, and is a strange reminder how quickly everything has changed in New York City. It’s a good interview if you’re interested in podcasts (and if you are not, what are you doing here? Do you just have a crush on me? Thanks!) and the history of radio, This American Life’s impact on what we listen to today, everywhere. My favorite moment of the episode was when Lilah and Griselda remind us to be gentle on ourselves. For goodness sake, for once in our lives, we can stop the fucking hustle. We need to throw ourselves a parade every day, just for making it through. Give everyone a break, let yourself off the hook. Fuck starting your novel or trying to get in shape or completing some dumb DIY project (unless you really want to.) Right now we have to just BE and get to the other side of this pandemic.

🎙️I’m enjoying The Left Right Game partially because of the story. (A journalist follows a group of paranormal explorers obsessed with a the Left/Right Game, a journey takes her into a supernatural world...) but mostly because of the sound. I was listening in the darkness on my run across the Williamsburg bridge and was terrified—I kept having to look behind me and switch my head left and right to be sure the noises were coming from the show. Listen to this show closely, treasure it. It is well-done and I’m hooked.

🎙️Tink Client Kim Potts (author of THE WAY WE ALL BECAME THE BRADY BUNCH) talked to Bobby Finger about Netflix’s The Pharmacist on I’m Obsessed With This. If you love Kim and Bobby like I do, you’ll listen to them talk about anything. But this feels timely because we are all looking for things to watch on Netflix. I advise you watch the Pharmacist FIRST but definitely enjoy both.

🎙️Karina Longworth (You Must Remember This) and Nate DiMeo (The Memory Palace) have come together for It’s The Pictures That Got Small, a new movie podcast that invites a guest to pick a movie they’ve heard is great but never found the time to watch. The three watch it, break it down, and play a trivia game. They’re using their show to raise money for independent movie theaters, film societies, and other places that make us love going out to the movies. Episode one reviewed Castaway, an apt choice, as it depicts Tom Hanks isolated on a desert island, coming out at the end to talk about how he just had to focus on making it through every day, worthy advice for all of us in quarantine. It’s a show that will inspire us to check out random movies while we are on lock down. And I can’t think of anyone who I’d rather hear talk about film than Karina.

🎙️Slow Radio has a beautiful episode that is a collection of rain sounds from all across the world. It’s amazing that something like rain can sound so different and bring out so many emotions—fear, comfort, optimism. Each selection took me to a different place. It’s a truly relaxing escape.

🎙️God I love every single episode of American Hysteria. The latest episode dissects the archetype of American rednecks and hillbillies (otherwise known as white trash.) We often peg these people as Trump supporters—but are they really? (no.) Chelsea digs into the history of Appalachia and the myth of “simple minded” white hillbillies, how “hillbilly horror” movies of the 1970s like Deliverance reinforced and solidified these stereotypes, and how on earth we see these people as American’s racist community, when really they are often the working class rural poor. Endlessly interesting.

🎙️I live in New York City, so if I want to go outside, I can’t escape to my yard or garden. I can go running, which feels like true escapism. The Williamsburg Bridge is my back yard. People used to being outdoors are flocking to hiking trails to get out of their homes. But is it a bit selfish? Are my runs selfish? The trails are overpopulated, and while some risks are manageable, packed hiking trails with people petting each other’s dogs and walking and breathing together seems like a risk not worth taking. An episode of Outside/In talks takes us to these busy trailheads, speaking to rangers about the crowds and the dangers they present. More importantly…what lines are we all drawing? Some of us might be very careful about social distancing, washing hands, and wearing face masks, but will allow ourself to go on a walk or hike, because it seems relatively safe and crucial for our happiness. Does that make it okay?

🎙️I LOVE YOU!