Of all the road trip’s components, few are as combustible as its soundtrack.
Biz Ellis and Stefan Lawrence’s children live under different rules depending on whose car they are in. In dad’s car, they get to hear Taylor Swift sing “ME!” once. In mom’s, they can have it as many times as they like.
Christy Estrovitz says listening to “This American Life” with her son in the car almost ruined the secret of Santa years before she was ready to break the news.
And when Jeannie Gaffigan was growing up, she and the 11 members of her family had a single, righteous mix-tape of songs from the likes of Michael Jackson, Culture Club and Dire Straits on repeat as they made the holiday drive from Wisconsin to Florida in a Volkswagen van.
“We listened to it over and over and over again, and we knew all the words to every song and we just kept saying: play the mix-tape again,” she says. “A podcast would have really helped.”
With that in mind, and the tyranny of Thanksgiving travel just around the corner, we polled parents, entertainers and other responsible adults for recommendations of podcasts that are acceptable for every passenger on the trip.
‘Storynory’
From “The Princess and the Pea” to “A Christmas Carol” to “Gilgamesh—A Myth from Mesopotamia,” the podcast “Storynory” airs a reading of a different tale every week, both original and classic—and not just from the West (there are also stories from places like Vietnam and China). Stories range from a few minutes to around 25. It’s a favorite of Ms. Gaffigan, author of the recent memoir, “When Life Gives You Pears” and a mother of five with her husband, the comedian Jim Gaffigan. Their kids range in age from 7 to 15, and finding a podcast that could entertain the whole family during their hour-long rides to the airport became a must-need. She turned to podcasts like “Storynory” about a year ago after it got harder to find audiobooks that could engage all of her kids.
“I’m really into finding things that aren’t just pure entertainment,” she says, “but that also have something more heavy—the kids are enjoying themselves, but they’re also actually [listening to] a classic story.
‘Smash Boom Best’
Aliens vs. Robots, Unicorns vs. Dragons. Invisibility vs. Flying. These are the topics that are explored on the podcast “Smash Boom Best,” recommended by Ms. Ellis, the co-host of “One Bad Mother,” a podcast about parenthood. Her daughter introduced her to “Smash Boom Best,” a spinoff of the podcast “Brains On!” (more on that below), which presents debates in the familiar Beatles vs. Stones format, 30-to-40 minutes at a time.
Here, debaters tackle kid-friendly rivalries that are as entertaining for grown-ups as for their children. Each side goes through several rounds of arguments that tap into history, lore, and science, while a judge (and listeners) assign points for each. Ms. Ellis says her family keeps track of points silently and reveals their personal scores right before a winner is announced.
“It hasn’t really broken into too many fights,” she says, “but it has led to good conversations and, heaven forbid, our kids are learning things about stuff, which is pretty cool.”
‘Pants on Fire’
Frisbees can be thrown 1,000 feet. The barracuda bicycle is real. Solar toilets are converting waste into fertilizer. Whether statements like these are true or false is the premise of a podcast called “Pants On Fire,” a recommendation from Ms. Estrovitz, youth services manager at the San Francisco Public Library. She says that parents who can muscle past the “Paw Patrol”-esque theme music on the podcast can find plenty to like about it. In each episode a pair of grown-ups makes a case about a specific topic. The catch is that one of them is an expert, and the other is making stuff up. The object is to figure out who is telling the truth.
“The facts are fascinating and it’s really hard to tell who’s the expert,” she says. “It’s hilarious to hear kids and siblings talking, like, ‘No, I think that person’s saying a lot, so they’re probably not the expert; [or] that one stumbled over this fact, and I know that to be true.’ There’s a lot of banter and laughs that happen with that one.”
With episodes clocking in around 20 minutes, Ms. Estrovitz notes that they’re the perfect length to listen to on the road between the many holiday day-trips and activities.
‘99% Invisible’
Design and architecture aren’t exactly topics that would seem to animate children, but Danielle Miller, the director and regional librarian of Washington Talking Book & Braille Library, thinks families with preteens and teens would enjoy “99% Invisible,” a podcast that examines history and science through the lens of design.
Some of her favorite episodes, she says, are on topics such as libraries as social infrastructure, explain why skateboarders are attracted to empty swimming pools and look at the different ways people read.
Design is the unifying concept. And the podcast—typically 30 or 40 minutes each—succeeds in bringing “many threads together of things that you may not have had exposure to in a very accessible and interesting way,” she says. “Somehow it always ties it to people, and has a community and humanity element to it.”
‘Brains On!’
“How do airplanes fly?” “How do volcanoes erupt?” “How does the internet get to us?” “Brains On!,” which is recommended by Ms. Gaffigan and Ms. Ellis, is a science podcast for kids that doubles as a cheat sheet for parents who struggle with questions of the “Why is the sky blue?” variety. Each episode spends around 30 or 40 minutes unpacking obvious questions that adults tend to take for granted.
The podcast is a favorite of Ms. Gaffigan and her kids, who range in age from elementary to high school. And although Ms. Ellis and her husband, whose kids are 5 and 10, have different rules about what’s played in the car, she says they both will indulge their kids in this patient, soft-spoken podcast any time they like. In addition to being fascinating, Ms. Ellis says, it’s easy to listen to: “It’s not like listening to a Barney podcast.”
‘Without Fail’
“Without Fail” is a podcast about success and its alternative. And while that doesn’t necessarily sound like fodder for kids, Susan Petersen, the founder of the baby and mom-gear company, Freshly Picked, likes the way the podcast, from Gimlet Media, reveals the way that adversity is part of the story for even the most successful among us. (The Wall Street Journal has a content partnership with Gimlet Media.) In each episode, which hover around 40 minutes, Gimlet co-founder Alex Blumberg interviews a different guest about his or her life and career (from politicians and actors to athletes and entrepreneurs), taking care not to gloss over public failures and setbacks.
“I think it’s kind of important for my kids to see, hey, people who are seemingly really successful are also facing challenges and they just keep going,” she says.
Ms. Petersen says her kids—ages 10 and 13—particularly liked the episode featuring Sharon Price John, CEO of Build-A-Bear Workshop. She likes to think that her kids like to listen to podcasts about female entrepreneurs and executives best because their mom is one. “Or, maybe I’m just force-feeding them,” she says. “I don’t really know, if I’m being honest.”
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS
What podcasts do you enjoy listening to with the whole family? Join the conversation below.
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