It’s summer time! Perhaps you have a long car trip coming up or want to keep your kids engaged in some fun and educational content, well, podcasts are great for that! Check out these recommendations below, but be sure to also peruse the podcasts previously recommended.

All of these podcasts should be available on any service you use to listen to podcasts, such as Apple Podcasts, Apple Music, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, etc. Some, however, may be available only through the link provided. If you have some additional great podcast recommendations, leave them in the comments below!

Podcast Potpourri

The Activators!
For ages 8+, The Activators! spotlights young activists, allowing them to share their stories, their work, and the impacts they are making on the world.

Fun Kids Podcasts
Based out of the UK, Fun Kids offers a huge range of podcasts on a variety of topics – STEM, stories and reading, news and current events, and entertainment. Highlights include:

• Stream It! hosts discuss current TV and films and interview major actors and creators of interest to kids. For example, in a recent episode Steve Carrell joined the podcast to be interviewed about the new film, Minions: the Rise of Gru.
• In the Beginning launches its first episode on July 13, 2022 and will retell creation stories from around the world with musical and theatrical production.
• Science Weekly explores awesome, gross, bizarre, strange and wonderful science related topics each week. Definitely for fans of Weird, but True kind of books and content.

Fun Kids Radio
From the same UK-based group that creates the Fun Kids podcasts above, comes Fun Kids Radio. It isn’t a podcast, but a fantastic live-streaming kid-friendly radio station featuring music, stories, and fun programming.

Imagine Neighborhood
Imagine Neighborhood is a podcast designed to help kids (and their grownups) learn how to understand their big feelings related to things happening in their lives and the world around them through wacky and fun stories, as well as activities.

Newsy Paloozi
A great entry for kids into news stories, current events and for helping parents ease into conversations about heavier political and newsworthy topics. Recommended for ages 7+.

Who, When, Wow!
From the incredible team that also creates Wow in the World (recommended in Great Podcasts 1) and Two Whats?! And A Wow! (recommended in Great Podcasts 5) this engaging and educational podcast brings to life the biographies of various amazing, yet perhaps not that well-known, individuals. Recent subjects have included pioneering motorcyclist Bessie Stringfield; Tony Sarg, a puppeteer responsible for many of the amazing Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons; and Kalpana Chawla, the first Indian-born woman to fly in space; among many other fascinating people.

Books, Reading, & Stories Podcasts

African Folktales with Miss Jo Jo
Miss Jo Jo tells traditional African folktales in this Ambies nominated podcast. Each folktale isn’t more than ten minutes long, so a few could provide a whole storytime.

Live from Mount Olympus
Recommended for tweens and up, Live from Mount Olympus is definitely for fans of Greek myths, adventure stories, Percy Jackson, and richly produced theatrical podcasts. The adventures of Perseus are brought to life by the Brooklyn theater group The TEAM with direction from Tony Award winning Rachel Chavkin. For a highly-recommended Greek myths podcast for younger listeners, check out Greeking Out (featured in Great Podcasts 5).

Mija
Mija (Spanish for “my daughter”) narrates this bilingual podcast available in English, French, Spanish, Mandarin and Arabic. Mija, for ages 8+, tells fictional stories based on immigrant families with each season of the show celebrating the life of a different immigrant family, while also realistically portraying their experiences. A note, this chronicles experiences good and bad, so heavier topics such as racism are addressed. The first season is inspired by the life of the podcast’s creator, Lory Martinez, the daughter of Colombian immigrants who grew up in Queens.

Two Princes
For older kids and their families, this Webby Award nominated LBGTQ fairy-tale tells the story and adventures of two rival princes and their blossoming young love. Featuring romance, star-crossed love, racially diverse and LGBTQ characters, as well as wonderful storytelling.