Great New Podcast Recommendations for Kids and Families

‘Let’s Be Real with Sammy Jaye’

Seventeen-year-old Sammy Jaye may not be the youngest podcast host ever, but she is currently the youngest host at the behemoth entertainment company iHeartMedia. Jaye has years of experience as a Radio Disney personality, and her interviews with athletes, actors, musicians and teen activists are engaging. Jaye is providing an outlet for a younger generation to address fun pop culture topics in addition to more serious issues that affect them, such as depression, mental health and gun control. Episodes are around 30-minutes in length, but that time goes by quickly.

‘Office Ladies’

Thanks to viral memes and Netflix bingeing, the TV series “The Office” has found new life with a much younger audience. While it is up to individual families to decide if this show is age-appropriate, new fans of the old show might want to tune into “Office Ladies,” a rewatch podcast hosted by stars and best friends Jenna Fisher (Pam) and Angela Kinsey (Angela). Fisher and Kinsey read letters from fans, answer nuanced questions about the show, often bring in guest stars and sometimes find their conversations going off-topic. The additional insight into their time on “The Office” is a fun way to spend an hour once a week.

‘The Anthropocene Reviewed’

This podcast may be of interest to the precocious teen. John Green, bestselling author of YA novels (“The Fault in Our Stars,” “Paper Towns”) and co-host of the podcast “Dear Hank and John,” developed this podcast to review topics as one might review a book. Topics are wide-ranging (he has reviewed the plague, prom and air conditioning), and Green seemingly does a great amount of research and writing to prepare for them (this might explain why the series was monthly in cadence). Within the episodes you often get a glimpse into his career as a writer, and he is open with some of the personal and mental health issues he has faced in the past. Many hard-hitting topics are addressed, but they are done so with reverence and care. We give this podcast 5 stars.

Six Minutes

When the Anders family is on vacation and discover a girl floating in the icy Alaskan waters there are more questions than answers. How did she get there? Why is her memory gone? Are her parents really who they say they are? This action packed podcast (from the Peabody award-winning creators of The Unexplainable Disappearance of Mars Patel) is part mystery, part adventure, part sci-fi. There are two seasons with a total of 105 episodes, each six minutes long (except for the finale, which is nearly an hour). Your kids (and you!) will find it hard to stop listening, but since the show is complete you could binge it all at once. Keep this one in mind the next time you have a long car ride in your future, it will keep everyone entertained and begging for just one more episode!  

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in November 2020, and updated in December 2021.