Podcasting is one of the best inventions in consuming media. In an hour and a half - sometimes less, sometimes more - listeners can learn or laugh or cry or become intrigued or experience any other number of emotions thanks to the easy to understand format. Best of all: a majority of podcasts are free.
WNYC Studios (a podcasting division of New York Public Radio) is extending their reach to children' podcasts. Their first series is titled This Podcast Has Fleas and features a few comedy stars like Jay Pharoah, Alec Baldwin, and Eugene Mirman. Emily Lynne stars as a dog named Waffles with not so good luck. Pharoah plays an auto-tuned cat that is very cool. Both pets live together and have their own podcasts.
This Podcast Has Fleas comes from kid's programming staples Koyalee Chanda and Adam Peltzman who developed Blue’s Clues!, Odd Squad, and The Backyardigans.
Peltzman and Chanda welcomed the challenge of moving between the television and podcast realms: “These podcasts are essentially cartoons with no pictures, and we hope kids will be completely absorbed in this immersive audio experience. As longtime listeners of WNYC, we cannot imagine better partners to bring this experiment to life.”
WNYC was nice enough to provide a snippet of what listeners can expect.
Another podcast called Pickle will premiere on WNYC on December 11. The story follows Pickle who are taken through a five episode ethically based journey. Each episode will cover topics like “When is it okay to tell on a friend?” and “Should elephants be in zoos?” Pickle be joined by Shumita Basu, Carl Smith and College of New York ethicist Jennifer Morton.
Listeners can find both show on their podcasting platform of choice on December 4th and 11th.