The kids and I have a 40 minute commute to and from their school every day. We have a lot of time for podcasts! Here are some of our family favorites:
Brains On
Brains On is a science podcast that answers questions sent in by kids. The adult host, Molly Bloom, is great and she always has a kid co-host as well. The show is well researched and gives answers that are kid friendly, but not dumbed down. They have several ways of telling the answers, from straight reporting to fun and engaging skits with funny characters and original songs. We also really enjoy trying to guess the Mystery Sound. It's harder than you think sometimes!
The Big Fib
The Big Fib is a game show with two grown ups and a kid. One of the adults is an expert and one is a liar. The kid contestant has to guess who is telling the truth by asking questions and listening carefully to the answers. Most of the time, this show is great and we really enjoy it. LISA (Live In Studio Audience) is a "sound effects robot" and the co-host Deborah are entertaining and fun to listen to. Unfortunately, not all of their "experts" have been real experts and there have been times that I have been screaming at the show for spreading pseudoscience and flat out nonsense. I have also developed some hypotheses about how and why people think other people are lying based on this show, unfortunately mostly based on gender. It is one of the kids' favorites!
Circle Round
Circle Round was Liam's first podcast. He was around two when it came out and it would keep him quiet in the car like NOTHING ELSE would. I'm not ashamed to admit that I used listening to Circle Round as a bribe to get him in the car more than once. He wants to go to Boston to meet Rebecca Shier, the host. Circle Round pick folk stories and adapts them for radio. They have celebrities as the voice actors, and feature a new musical instrument every episode. One of Liam's favorite parts is learning about the new musical instrument every week. Each folk tale has a lesson for kids and they give a lesson to try to carry that lesson into real life. Circle Round claims to be for kids 4-10, but Makayla still enjoys the stories at 12. We highly recommend!
Earth Rangers
Earth Rangers is a podcast out of Canada. It's host, Emma, travels all over, finding cool animal facts to share. The segments on this show vary, from guessing games to interviews and anything in between. We recently enjoyed the new series on the show "Emma's Chemistry Corner" because it acknowledges that CHEMISTRY IS LIFE! and gave fun experiments to try at home. Earth Rangers is pretty new, and they're still kind of settling in to the podcast. There are frequent changes, but we've enjoyed them all!
Forever Ago
Forever Ago is from the creators of Brains On and it's a history podcast. It explores the origins of one thing every episode, from sandwiches to video games in a fun and engaging way. It seems to be on hiatus for right now- I'm not sure if it's coming back, but there are some back episodes to listen to in the meantime!
Greeking Out
Greek mythology is one of the kids' latest obsessions and they LOVE Greeking Out. It tells a story from Greek mythology every episode. Their theme song is very catchy- probably because it's by the king of catchy kids songs- Perry Gripp. Obviously, there are some dark themes in mythology- but there's always a warning at the start if you don't want your kids exposed to particular aspects.
Mystery Recipe
Mystery Recipe is a show that makes one dish throughout the season, with each ingredient getting it's own week. Each episode dives into where the ingredient is from, how it's grown or harvested and what it's used for. You're supposed to guess what the dish might be throughout the season and before the final episode there's an opportunity to buy all of the ingredients and cook along. We're still in our first season, but we're really enjoying it!
Smash Boom Best
Smash Boom Best is a podcast that pits two things against each other. The two contestants debate through four rounds:
- The Declaration of Greatness- where each debater gets to make their case about why their thing is the best
- The Micro Round- which varies, but gives them a scenario that they have to think on the fly to come up with an argument
- The Sneak Attack- where the host makes them do something creative, like write a Haiku for your side, etc
- The Final Six- where the contestants sum up why they are the best in 6 words
There is a kid judge for each show who picks who they think is the winner, but you are encouraged to play along at home too. We've had some fun car debates over things like Avengers vs. Star Wars, Chocolate vs. Cheese and Unicorns vs. Dragons to name a few. We ALL love this show!
Story Pirates
The Story Pirates take stories submitted by kids and turn them into sketch comedy and songs. They also have a running story line throughout, which is super funny. The production quality on this podcast is tops and they do an amazing job taking stories written by kids as young as two and making them into creative works of art. Over time, you'll become invested in the running story line and you'll come to know and love the characters.
The Ten News
The Ten News is our newest podcast, it's a 10 minute news podcast for kids. It doesn't shy away from the hard topics, but it does present them in an accessible, kid friendly way. It doesn't focus on only one area of the news, but all areas. So far, the kids are enjoying learning about current events.
Tumble
Tumble is another science podcast that we enjoy. It's less flashy than Brains On, and doesn't have the same level of fun, but it's still enjoyable and we get to learn about all kinds of science topics.
What If World
What If World is an world of imagination created by Mr Eric's improv stories, sparked by a "What If" question submitted by listeners. He takes the question and creates a fun and engaging story using a cast of characters, all voiced by him. The kids enjoy this podcast, although I must be honest and say, Jeff hates this one. I could take it or leave it.
Wow in the World
Wow in the World is another of our favorites! Guy Raz and Mindy Thomas lead us on a crazy, wacky journey exploring a recent scientific discovery. There's nothing that I don't love about this podcast and it cracks me up with it's dorky science puns every week. They also have a two new series, "Tinkerclass" which guides kids on an engineering journey based on one of their episodes and "Two Whats and a WOW!" which is a game show where you get to guess which one of the three statements is the WOW! and which are the made up WHATS!? Both of these are available in the Wow in the World feed, so no need to subscribe to another podcast.
