This story was originally published byKids TodayVox’s newsletter about kids, for everyone.Sign up for future editions here.
i was listening chest or faith About a year ago I realized it was supposed to be educational.
The podcast, an older kid favorite of mine, co-hosts Athena Kugbalenu, examines mystical phenomena like alien abductions, haunted houses and spontaneous human combustion through the eyes of a skeptic and believing Tirnan duo. It basically is The X-Files For kids ages 6 to 11 (or, as I explained to my kid the other day, The X-Files is chest or faith for adults).
My kids and I love the show because we enjoy hearing about scary discoveries like this Satan’s footprintsA set of cloven hoofmarks that appeared in England in 1855, appearing to travel over houses and high walls. My kid also appreciates that the hosts make occasional fart jokes.
But its creators chest or faithCarla Herbertson and David Smith had something more sophisticated in mind when they launched the podcast in 2023.
“I was really worried that kids were getting their news from sites like TikTok and Snapchat and YouTube,” said Herbertson, Smith’s co-founder of UK-based children’s audio company Small Wardour. “I really wanted to do something about fact-checking and critical thinking.”
This is why each episode contains several pieces of “evidence” supporting the existence of its ghostly subject, e.g. A doctor who was found burnt to death Without reason, when Kugbalenu offers criticism (the doctor may have fallen asleep smoking his pipe). Audiences — the show’s “chief detectives” — are invited to evaluate the evidence themselves and send voicemails with their conclusions, which are featured on the show.
chest or faith A wave of podcasts is quietly reinventing children’s entertainment right now, drawing kids in with immersive storytelling at a time when fewer children are reading for pleasure and youngsters worry about their media diet.
According to a 2023 survey According to entertainment consulting firm UTA, 48 percent of US kids listen to podcasts at least weekly, and 93 percent of parents say their children have become more interested in the medium in the past year. A Survey by Edison Research It found that a more modest 29 percent of kids had listened to a podcast in the past month, but that share rose to 52 percent if parents were also podcast listeners. Popular shows like Story pirates can rack up 1 million downloads per month, and smaller players are entering the space with new methods and formats.
“In 2017, it was basically just us and Wow in the worldAnd now there are so many great podcasts that are growing,” Story pirates chief creative officer Lee Overtree told me. “These are really exciting times.”
For parents, podcasts can be a welcome alternative to TV or TikTok and a source of entertainment during long car rides. But for kids, the medium can be something more: a gateway to a love of learning, and a way to practice media literacy skills when they need it most.
“They give you so much,” Nora, a 10-year-old podcast superfan from Massachusetts, told me. “I love podcasts that kind of bring you into a different world, but also give you information.”
Kids’ podcasts to try
Readers recommended some of their favorites:
Terrestrials Explore strange natural phenomena
Story time with Libra Jane and her mother WildeBook read aloud by a child and his mother
unintelligible Debunks scary stories and urban legends
whose amazing life Invites the audience to live the lives of famous people and historical figures
Greeking outGreek myth retold by narrator Kenny Curtis and his helpful, snake-loving sidekick, the Oracle of WiFi (it’s also a favorite in our house).
What podcasts teach kids
have children listening to the radio For generations, but podcasts, in particular, exploded in popularity at the start of the pandemic, with families stuck at home and parents desperate for screen-free entertainment options, Overtree told me. Since then, the adult podcasting market has endured on its own Boom and bust cyclesSmall but undeniably the children’s market continues to grow.
on Story piratesThe best kids podcast in A recent ranking by Edison ResearchProfessional actors act out stories for young audiences. Nora was featured in a recent episode with their story “The Audition”, about aspiring singers trying out for new musicals. the dog (This has nothing to do with other musical instruments). Listening to podcasts gave her confidence in her own creativity, Nora told me. “Before I heard the story I thought I couldn’t write a story Story pirates“But really, you can do anything if you pay attention to the world around you,” they said.
“Just by immersing these kids in a creative community, they’re learning that they’re writers, even if they’ve struggled in school or haven’t found the right environment,” Overtree said. “That’s our literacy goal.”
Listening to audio is not the same as picking up a book, however Researchers And Educator Say podcasts can teach many of the same skills as reading, like understanding stories Reflective thinking. Shows can teach children new words and concepts — a chest or faith In episodes about vampires, for example, co-host Doub explained that “notorious” means “when something is well-known for being terrifying.”
Podcasts are fun for kids, getting them excited about new topics and activities In A 2016 survey By the nonprofit Kids Listen, 74 percent of caregivers report that their kids have started conversations about podcasts after listening. Children in the survey “are more likely to quote or re-enact parts of the episode, share what they learned, ask to listen again, get more information, or request an activity inspired by the podcast,” the group found.
Television can achieve some of these goals. I’m not an anti-screen parent by any means, and I can name several science experiments that my older kids have tried after watching it on TV (at least one show was messier than it appeared).
But podcast advocates say there’s something special about audio storytelling. Overtree calls it a “magic trick”: “When you’re listening to audio and you’re being asked to provide images in your own head, your brain is doing the real work.”
A podcast can be “a gym for your imagination,” Overtree said.
Training future news consumers
As much as kids’ podcasts inspire praise from teachers and parents alike, podcasts for adults are causing a lot of concern right now, especially among progressives. Bro podcasters like Joe Rogan and Theo Vaughan have an outsized influence among young people, so much so that some credit them with delivering the election for Donald Trump. Meanwhile, popular podcast favorites Huberman Lab Criticized for spreading misinformation and promoting unproven supplements. If children’s podcasts are a gateway to learning, they can also be a gateway to listening to less healthy podcasts.
But some kids’ creators are thinking about the media landscape and doing their best to prepare their young audiences for it. Its creators bust or faith, For example, hopefully showing them how to disagree productively with each other. Although hosts come, say, mothman From two different perspectives, they never insult or fight each other, instead listening to the other’s point of view. They extend the same courtesy to the young “lead detectives” featured on the show.
“The tone of the program is that you can have a difference of opinion,” Herbertson said. “Okay. You can still be friends.”
Meanwhile, the popularity of podcasts may have something to teach educators, media outlets, and families about engaging kids and keeping them coming back. Part of audio’s appeal, for both kids and adults, Overtree said, is a sense of authenticity, “a feeling that the creators actually have control and aren’t puppets” of what some big companies have to tell them. These creators also have the ability to communicate directly with their audience in a way that is difficult with television.
“When someone’s in your ear, and they’re talking to you, it feels like someone’s inside your own head, and that’s powerful,” Overtree said.
what i’m reading
Last year, only 55 percent of children received the flu vaccine. Lowest rate in 12 years. This year the rate is going to be even lower. Meanwhile, at least 205 children died from the flu last year, and experts think the actual number could be much higher.
house Pass a defense bill Last week included provisions denying gender-affirming care to children of military service members. Democrats are trying now To withdraw that provision from the Bill.
As the school bus service is deteriorating across the country, Dr carpooling startups Hoping to fill the void.
My elder son and I are reading We found a monsterBy the author Swamp Kid’s Secret Spiral (which we were reading last week).
from my inbox
Thanks so much to everyone who sent in their favorite kids podcast! Next week will be the holiday season for many families and winter break for most American kids. Winter break is shorter and weirder than summer – less camp, less swimming, longer car trips or plane flights to visit relatives.
What do the kids in your life like to do during this little break between Old Year and New Year? Are they playing with cousins? Hoping for sledding weather? Complain that they are bored? Let me know at anna.north@vox.com.
