The Kid Stuff Podcast: Recent Episodes
Mike Bradecich
Whether you're a parent, a kid, a caregiver, someone who aspires to make kid-friendly content, or someone who's just curious about the creative process, The Kid Stuff Podcast is for you. Learn how the people who make the stuff that you and your kids love work, how they got where they are, what inspires them, and more. Thanks for checking out The Kid Stuff Podcast!
Nicole Rivera is the Director of Original Series Development for Cartoon Network.
She came from a family of actors but discovered she wasn’t interested in performing. She studied writing at NYU but discovered she wasn’t interested in writing. Then, through a series of internships and and early jobs, she discovered a home as an executive, being the liaison between a network, its creators, its marketing team, and all the other people responsible for bringing a show to life and getting it out to the world.
Keep an eye on Cartoon Network to see what great things she has coming out of the pipeline in 2019 and beyond. Thanks for listening!
Jeff "Swampy" Marsh left a corporate job to pursue art. Three months later, he found himself learning animation by drawing backgrounds for a fledgling show in its second season called... The Simpsons. After trying for over ten years to get it on the air, he and his creative partner Dan Povenmire got their dream show on Disney, Phineas and Ferb. Spoiler alert, people liked it. A LOT.
Besides now acting as the showrunner for Pete the Cat on Amazon Prime, Swampy also devotes a lot of time to a charity called "A Walk on Water," which provides surf therapy to children with special needs and their families.
A new Pete the Cat Christmas Special arrives on Amazon this Tuesday, November 20th.
When you leave your day job to pursue your dream, that’s incredible. In Dan Garza’s case, the day job was already at Disney, so imagine how spectacular the dream must have been.
It’s a dream he’s still living, working as a puppet maker and puppeteer, voice-over artist, and artist. You’ve seen and heard his puppet performances in the family-unfriendly Melissa McCarthy movie The Happytime Murders and in the new Jim Carrey Showtime show “Kidding.” You also may have seen the 11 different digital puppets he gave life to on the Jim Henson Company’s PBS show “Splash and Bubbles.”
Dan and I are also both members of the Children’s Media Association here in LA. If you’re in New York or LA and you have a passion for children’s media, I encourage you to check them out at ChildrensMediaAssociation.org.
You can get updated information on what Dan is up to a dangarzacreative.com. Thanks for listening!
Along with his creative partner Jamie Salka, today’s guest Lee Overtree founded Story Pirates in 2004. For the last 14 years, they’ve taken kids ideas for stories and brought them to life on stage. In the last few years, they’ve expanded their output to include a radio show, a podcast, a book called “Stuck In The Stone Age,” and an album called “Nothing Is Impossible.”
In addition to his work with Story Pirates, Lee is also an award-winning writer and director.
As an 8 year old, Shawn Colvin taught herself to play songs on the piano from a book called “Lullabies and Night Songs,” with songs Alec Wilder and illustrations by Maurice Sendak. Later, as an adult about to give birth to her daughter, she used some of the songs from that book to record her first kids’ album, “Holiday Songs and Lullabies.” Now, almost 20 years later, she’s released “The Starlighter,” another album of children’s music that draws its source material from “Lullabies and Night Songs.”
You can find everything Shawn Colvin, including her current tour schedule, at shawncolvin.com. You can find “The Starlighter,” both the music and the really incredible animated videos they’ve made to accompany some of the songs, on Amazon.
Albert Mazibuko has been a member of Ladysmith Black Mambazo since 1969. They’ve recorded more than 70 albums over the course of their career, all with the same message of peace, love, and harmony. Last year they recorded their first album for kids and families, appropriately titled “Songs of Peace and Love For Kids and Parents Around The World." They’re wrapping up their current US tour, and have enough material ready for another album for families that they’re hoping to record back home in South Africa later this year.
You can find Ladysmith Black Mambazo at www.Mambazo.com. You can also find a web series they’ve been shooting on their current tour on YouTube.
The Not Its are a five-piece genuine bonafide Seattle indy punk pop rock band that have been making music for kids and their families for ten years now. They were generous enough to have me and my family at their recent show in Torrance, California, and to let me sit down with all five members of the band: Danny , Sara, Michael, Jennie, & Tom for a nice group conversation just before they took the stage and made us dance and melted our faces.
You can find The Not Its at WeAreTheNotIts.com and on your favorite social media platform.
Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood had its first national broadcast 50 years ago this week, on February 19th, 1968. To celebrate, today I’m having a 2nd conversation with my first-ever guest on the Kid Stuff Podcast, Danny LaBrecque.
Danny started off following in Fred Rogers’ footsteps, but has since branched off and found his own path as the creator and host of Danny Joe’s Treehouse.
If you take a look, it will feel familiar. It’s a calm, grown-up voice talking directly to his audience in a respectful way about really tough issues, bringing in really great guests and a variety of puppets. But it’s also brand new, and exactly what young audiences need in their media right now. It’s an island of sanity in a time of insanity.
Do you know a dude named Mike who hosts a podcast where he talks to people about the stuff they make for kids? So do I! His name is Mike Mason, and he is today’s guest. Mike started the Good Stuff Kids Podcast because he couldn’t find the interviews that he wanted to hear with the people who were making the great stuff that his kids and he were into. Sound VERY very familiar…
You can find Good Stuff Kids at goodstuffpod.com or wherever you download podcasts. You can also find Good Stuff Sports at the same places.
Tami Stronach has been very busy since she played the Childlike Empress in 1984's The NeverEnding Story. She’s mainly been a dancer, as well as a choreographer and dance teacher. Her company with her husband Greg Steinbruner, Paper Canoe, has created live theater for families, and have now released their first album. And Beanstalk Jack is a true album, with a through-line, and an A side and a B side.
You can find Paper Canoe Company on Facebook, or at www.papercanoecompany.com. You can go to their Patreon, and there are lots of fun things you can get there for just $1 a month. You can also find Tami on Twitter @NeverendingTami.
Thanks for listening!
Alitzah was a child actor. Then she grew up and was a member of the girl group Nobody’s Angel. Now, she’s come full circle and is performing for children, as her musical alter ego Twinkle. She’s continued acting all along, including a recurring part on General Hospital. She is also the President of the Young Entertainer Awards, which are celebrating their third year.
Brady Rymer has been recording and performing kids music for almost 20 years. He has been nominated for three Grammys, and at the end of last year he released his first holiday album, Revvin’ Up The Reindeer. Here’s what you should do: grab your favorite swing dance partner, Go to BradyRymer.com, listen to the first track from that album (which is also the title track), and you’ll be hooked.
Joe Hennes is not just a blogger. He is a Muppet Blogger. Along with Ryan Roe, he is the co-owner and editor of toughpigs.com, the preeminent location on the web for all things Muppet and Jim Henson. I can’t believe it took me 42 episodes of a show about children’s media to talk in-depth to someone about the Muppets. Muppets, y’all. Muppets.
Kevin Aniskovitch is the CEO of Jumo Health. Jumo Health creates comic books and other media that uses a team of superheroes called the Medikidz to teach children about different medical procedures and conditions. From jumohealth.com:
“It all started when two compassionate medical professionals wanted to alleviate the anxiety that often accompanies a diagnosis.”
Meredith Halpern-Ranzer is the Chief Executive Tinkerer at Tinkercast, the company that produces last year’s immensely popular new podcast “Wow in The World” featuring NPR’s Guy Raz and former Kid Stuff Podcast guest and Kids Place Live host Mindy Thomas.
Before joining Tinkercast, Meredith was there at the beginning of Sprout, and spent 10 years bringing the kids' channel to the world and defining its brand.
C.J. Pizarro is a fan of Vanilla Ice. He tells us why, and also explains the beautiful construction into which all of his music as Mista Cookie Jar fits, The Love Bubble.
Natalie Woociker is a photographer, an artist, and the founder of Wooly Mammoth Stories, where you can have a custom story written and performed by Natalie for your child (or for any child of your choosing).
You can Natalie her on Facebook at facebook.com/woolymammothstories or at nataliewoociker.com
Thanks for listening!
"I'm still willing to show the flaws and the edges because those things connect us all."
Heather B. Armstrong has made a name for herself writing autobiographically in an authentic and transparent way on her website dooce.com for over seventeen years.
Annabeth Bondor-Stone and Connor White met in the theater department at Northwestern University. Annabeth was writing and directing plays, and Connor discovered the group Griffin’s Tale, which took storytelling into elementary schools with high-energy performances.
When Annabeth’s young cousin Harrison sent them an email asking for a funny story to read, they did not know it would change their lives and careers. But it did, and Shivers, the Pirate Who’s Afraid of Everything, was born.
You should go find Annabeth and Connor on the web at annabethandconnor.com.
Rachel Giannini spent years as a pre-school teacher in the Chicago area. She was so good at it that she has since become one of the subjects of an upcoming documentary about early childhood education called No Small Matter. She was so good at that, that the producers of the movie asked her to take on some of the outreach for the movie via their blog.
She now works at the Chicago Children’s Museum on Navy pier as their Brand Ambassador.
You can find all things Rachel at www.rachelgiannini.com.
You can find the Chicago Children’s Museum on Navy Pier in Chicago or at chicagochildrensmuseum.org.
You can find the movie No Small Matter at nosmallmatter.com.
Susan and Refe Tuma are the creators, authors, and photographers/ art designers of the “What the Dinosaurs Did” book series. The books came out of a project they originally made just for their own kids, but blew up as a blog. Several years later, they find themselves with three books in the series. These books are so charming, and witty, and painstakingly created, they just have to be seen to be understood and appreciated. So listen to our conversation, then run to your nearest local bookseller and buy them.
You can find Susan and Refe at dinovember.tumblr.com, or you can search dinovember on Facebook.
Angela Ferrari is a painter, writer, and the creator and host of the new Story Spectacular podcast, featuring a new story for kids every Monday and a new mini-nighttime story every Friday. We talked about how she learned the business side of an art career, about finding a project that combined all of her talents and interests, and about the importance of play.
Jack Forman used to be a classroom teacher. When his first child was born, his band Recess Monkey was doing well enough that he became a stay-at-home dad and the manager of the band. Around the sa me time, he started hosting “Live From The Monkey House,” talking to kids and playing tunes on the Sirius XM Kids Place Live channel.
Now, he has his first solo album out, “Songs From The Monkey House.” It’s available exclusively on Amazon Music, and you can find a link and all the info you would ever want about all things Jack by going to jackformanmusic.com.
Find the Bazillions and their new album "Rock-N-Roll Yearbook" at www.thebazillions.com.
Stephanie Sharis is the CEO of Cricket Media. Cricket has been publishing magazines for kids for over 40 years, and they still have eleven titles that they publish, on actual paper, for kids of all ages and on a wide range of topics.
They’ve recently launched a new website and initiative called “Keeping Tech in Check.” They’re motto is “a balance, not a ban.” Keeping Tech in Check acknowledges and embraces the idea that technology and screens are part of our and our kids’ lives now. It acts as a hub for resources on how to manage the time we spend on that technology, how to use it wisely and safely, and how to share those skills with kids.
Thanks to Stephanie Sharis for that conversation, to Beth Blenz-Clucas for introducing us, and to Caroline Zekan at Cricket for setting it up. You can find cricket at http://www.cricketmedia.com/, and you can find Keeping Tech in Check at https://keepingtechincheck.com/
Also, don’t forget, thanks to our friends at BizKids, we are giving away a handful of free copies of their book “Turn $100 into $1 Million." Just write into us on our contact page at kidstuffpodcast.com and tell us a story about your business, a business you’d like to start, an idea of a business that you think kids should try, anything at all. Include your address, and boom, free awesome book.
We have a very different episode for you today. My family and I spent this past Saturday at The SoCal Mom’s Great Big Family Play Day in Los Angeles.
I had my intrepid field reporter Sophie at my side, and she and I had some conversations with some of the companies that had booths at the event.
I got to talk to Tracy Fredkin, the CEO of SoCal Moms and CityMoms and the organizer of the event.
And to close out the episode, I sat down for about 15 minutes with Lisa Loeb, who was performing that day.
Many thanks to Beth Blenz-Clucas for connecting me with Tracy Fredkin of CityMoms, to Tracy for making arrangements for my family to attend that day and for chatting with me, to Lisa Loeb for taking time out of her busy day to talk, and of course to Kid Stuff Sophie, who had all the best questions and made me look good just by being in her proximity.
You can find the city moms app here, you can find Lisa Loeb here, and if you live in or near Southern California, be sure and check out some of the other great people that Sophie and I talked to:
http://www.creating-clarity.com/
https://beingagrownman.com/
http://www.geniuskidsla.com/about.html
http://www.beautifulthings-la.com/
http://pakuahealth.com/
For a little over a year while he was in college, Garrett Sander worked at FAO Schwartz. Other than that, he has spent his entire professional career, about 13 years, at Mattel.
His background and training are mostly in graphic design, and after he presented his portfolio to them at the end of his junior year, Mattel spent the next year waiting for him to graduate so they could hire him.
He started by designed packaging. He now works in entertainment, making the animated Barbie movies, and from 2007 to 2010 he was the person who birthed the global phenomenon known as Monster High and brought it forth to the world.
You can find Garret on Instagram or Tumblr. You can find Monster High and Barbie by opening your eyes and turning your head, or by going here.
Thanks for listening!
Jeannine Glista is the executive producer of the PBS show “Biz Kids.”
It uses sketch comedy and profiles of young entrepreneurs to teach kids (mostly in the middle school range) how to start their own business, grow that business, run that business, and how to manage their money.
You know, all those incredibly useful skills that no one has taught me yet in my 40s.
The process of getting the show produced and on the air was quite a feat of entrepreneurship itself.
Thanks to Shelby Burford with Biz Kids for introducing me to Jeannine.
Thanks again to Jeannine Glista for her time and her stories, and thanks for this very exciting bonus:
Jeannine has offered me a few copies of the book from the creators of Biz Kids, “How to turn $100 into $1,000,000.”
It’s a road map for young people to take to learn how to achieve financial freedom, and you can get your very own free copy.
Tell any kid you know who has started their own business (or at least tried to) to go here.
Send us an email with the story of your business, whether it took off and became a huge success, or whether it crashed and burned or just fizzled out, we’d love to hear about it. Include your address, and the first few stories will get a copy of the book.
You can find “How to turn $100 into $1,000,000” on Amazon, you can find Jeannine on her website, and you can find BizKids here.
Thanks for listening!
I was introduced to Dan Bern’s music almost 20 years ago when a friend played the song “Jerusalem” for me, and I’ve been a huge fan ever since. I got ridiculously excited to learn that Judd Apatow had tapped him to write the songs for “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story,” and the songs he contributed to that movie are hilarious and wonderful.
He has a 7 year old daughter now, and has recently started writing more kids’ songs. He has 2 kids’ albums, "Two feet Tall" and "Three Feet Tall." Plus, he writes the songs for the amazon kids’ show “Stinky & Dirty.”
He’s also a poet, a novelist under the pseudonym Cunliffe Merriwether, and a painter.
You can find all the great things Dan is up to, plus you can buy his albums, paintings, and books at danbern.com. You can also find him on Instagram.
Aaron Goldblatt runs Metcalfe Architecture and Design in Philadelphia with his partner Alan Metcalfe. They design a lot of public spaces, and spaces for kids, including health care spaces and informal education spaces like museums and botanic gardens.
Alan’s background is in architecture, but Aaron’s is in museum design and art (he was a sculptor, ceramicist, and welder for years before getting into museums).
As an actor, it’s funny to hear their philosophies about their work. Alan Metcalfe talks a lot on their website about empathy, and creating empathetic spaces. Alan, on the other hand, is obsessed with the idea of play, and he incorporates it into his working process wherever he can. For him, that seems to mean approaching work with a sense of fearlessness, and also trying to find a place of flow, of letting the play take over and your getting your brain out of the way.
Of course, those are two of the most important elements of acting; putting yourself in the shoes of your character (empathy), and playing. I mean, when we get on stage, that’s what we call the thing. A “play.” We’re playing make-believe.
It was nice to hear that, even in fields as disparate as architecture & design and acting may seem, the goals are still to put yourself in someone else’s shoes, and to have a little fun.
You can check out their incredible body of work on their website. Take a look at some of their work, some of it may even be close enough to where you live for you to check out in person. They have worked on projects all over the country and the world.
One of the first people I talked to for this show was Shane Portman, the script supervisor for the Amazon preschool show Tumble Leaf. Shane has been a huge supporter of the show, and has connected me with several of the people I’ve talked to since then.
At one point, looking at a long list of people who had worked for Tumble Leaf, I thought “Maybe I should stop going through this list, it’s starting to become a podcast of people who have worked on Tumble Leaf."
Then I decided not to worry about that, because I firmly believe in the idea that “every head is a story.” Every person you see on the street has a story and a history and an inner life and is worthy of your curiosity.
Today’s guest, Sarah Serrata, is a perfect example of why I made that decision. Not only did she work for Tumble Leaf as a producer for a while, but I didn’t know that much about her going into our conversation. All I had were a couple job descriptions on LinkedIn and a couple credits on IMDb.
It ended up being a really interesting conversation with a really interesting person who has lived, by my count, about 18 lives so far. Her current life sees her as a producer for Mattel, making the animated Barbie movies. If you respond to the idea of animated Barbie movies the way I did before talking to Sarah, which is with at least a little skepticism (which is also the way Sarah responded to them before taking the job), than I think you’ll be just as surprised and delighted as I was by what you learn about her and about what Barbie has been up to lately.
Beth Blenz-Clucas is a PR rep and Publicist working mostly with family-friendly musicians. She lives in Portland, but her clients and the work of her firm Sugar Mountain PR extend across the US and Canada. She represents many of the biggest names in the kindie scene, from The Lucky Diaz Family Jam Band, to Justin Roberts, to Raffi, to Lisa Loeb, to The Pop Ups, to Alphabet Rockers… it’s a very long list of really great people.
I talked to Beth via Skype about how she went from getting a Masters in English Lit to a 20 year career in children’s music We talked about the importance of knowing who you are as an artist, and about the importance of setting realistic, reachable goals for yourself.
You can find Beth and Sugar Mountain PR on Twitter, on Instagram, and on Facebook.
Cheryl Capezzuti is a puppet maker living and working in Pittsburgh. She is also a sculptor and a painter and a teacher. She told me about how she was introduced to making giant puppets.
She also told me how, if you live in or around Pittsburgh, you can check her giant puppets out of the library. Seriously. How cool is that?
And she told me about all the things Pittsburgh is doing that make it such an incredible place for artists and families and everybody else.
You can find Cheryl’s work on her website or on her Facebook page.
Adam Berger loves storytelling.
It started with books when he was a young kid, and it continued with movies like 2001 and Star Wars. Then, when he was 12, his family took a trip to DisneyWorld. It was then that he realized, if only subconsciously, the power that an immersive experience like a theme park could have when it uses the power of mythic storytelling to make the guest the hero of their own story.
He’s been an attraction show writer for most of his adult life, and has had his own consulting business with his wife Julia, Berger Creative Associates, since 2007.
Adam has a book about the use of mythic storytelling in Disney Theme Parks called “Every Guest is a Hero.” You can find hard copies or digital downloads of it anywhere online that you usually buy or download books. Here it is on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
You can also find Adam on his blog, at TheMythingLink.tumblr.com
This episode comes out on March 7th, 2017, which also marks the 20 year anniversary of Laurie Berkner’s career writing, recording, and performing kindie music for 0-7 year olds.
If you have kids or an interest in kids’ music, you already know her and her songs and videos.
March is a big month for Laurie, with fun stuff going on at the Laurie Berkner Band Facebook page everyday, leading up to the release of her book “We Are The Dinosaurs” on March 21st. You can also find info on her official website, LauireBerkner.com.
What do you do if you've just fallen in love, but you never see each other because your new partner works days as a session guitar player on American Idol, and you work evenings as a stand-up comedian?
If you are Alisha Gaddis and Lucky Diaz, you form The Lucky Diaz Family Jam Band. Then, you get to work together making albums, playing shows, teaching workshops, and doing all kinds of family-friendly art. And, if that band is really good (which it is), you win a Grammy. Then you turn the band into a TV show, and you also win an Emmy.
During all this, in case you still have some down time, you also get married and have a new baby girl together.
If you have kids, you have probably heard Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band. It is pop-based bilingual kindie music at its very best. Alisha and Lucky were generous enough to have me to their home one recent Saturday while they were still passing around the colds and flus that everyone has been getting lately. I talked to both of them about the band and elementary school fundraisers and Trader Joe’s for the first half of the show, then Alisha and I got into a little more of her background in acting, writing, and comedy for the second half.
Enjoy my conversation with Alisha and Lucky! You can find them on the web in all the usual places, including their website at luckydiazmusic.com.
Directing theater and movies and tv involves three very different skill sets, and Joel Zwick has not only done all three, he has flourished at all of them.
He started with the famous La Mama theater company, bringing their shows from the Village to Broadway and the West End.
He spent the 80s and 90s with Miller Boyett television, directing literally hundreds of episodes of some of the most popular TV comedies from that era.
In features, Tom Hanks convinced him to direct this little independent comedy, called "My Big Fat Greek Wedding"
And since 2010, he’s been directing episodes of every show that you like on the Disney Channel.
All that aside, this is a guy who should have been on Hollywood Squares. He pulls no punches, he’s willing to talk about anything and everything, and he’s as naturally hilarious as the things he’s been directing for the last 40 years.
Many thanks to Marc Warren for the introduction.that lead to this conversation.
You can catch Mr. Zwick's upcoming episodes of "K.C. Undercover" on Disney Channel, and if you’re in southern California, keep an eye out this April for the play he’s putting up in Thousand Oaks, written by previous guest Marc Warren, called “Furniture.”
In this Bite-sized episode, We Bare Bears creator Daniel Chong explains how they found the voices for the three bears.
You can find We Bare Bears on Cartoon Network.
In this Bite-sized episode, writer Shane Portman explains how some people get into animation from art school, bBut some people get into it from… working in a chocolate shop?
You can stream Tumble Leaf on Amazon.
In this Bite-sized episode, animation composer Brad Breeck explains how he works with the creators of his shows to get the music ready for a new episode.
Brad makes the music for shows that you can find on Cartoon Network, Netflix, Disney Channel, and more.
In this bite-sized episode, Matt Craig, the producer of Wabbit, explains the difference between a script-driven cartoon and a premise-driven cartoon. He also explains the process of how a new episode of Wabbit is created.
You can find Wabbit on Cartoon Network and Boomerang.
In this Bite-sized episode, Danny LaBrecque from the online preschool show “Treehouse” talks about the importance of silence, and why we can use more of it in our media and in our lives. You can find Treehouse with Danny LaBrecque on Facebook or YouTube.
For almost 16 years, Mindy Thomas has been the host of “Absolutely Mindy,” first on XM Kids and now on Kids Place Live on Sirius XM radio. She’s live every weekday morning from 7am- 12pm Eastern.
She talks to kids on the phone, she plays great kids music, particularly from the “Kindie” music scene, and she facilitates and encourages a lot of wonderful silliness to help kids and their parents get through morning commutes, road trips, and any other time that the radio is on.
You can hear Mindy weekday mornings on Kids Place Live on Sirius XM radio, and you can find her on Twitter here: @AbsolutelyMindy.
Marc Warren has been at the center of kids and family TV for 30 years. He and his longtime writing partner and best friend Dennis Rinsler started out as teachers in New York. Then they started writing humor for magazines on the side,
which lead to writing pieces for the National Lampoon. Eventually, they made the move to Hollywood to work in TV.
In their early days, the duo worked with Sherwood Schwartz, the creator of The Brady Bunch.
Years later, they became the head writers on Full House, which was basically the Brady Bunch of the 90s.
For the last few years, Marc has run a program at Disney for discovering new writers called Disney Storytellers. The first Disney Storytellers resulted in the current Disney Channel show Bizaardvark.
Marc has a ton of great stories, he a very naturally funny guy, and I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it too.
Go check our Marc Warren on IMDb, and then spend the rest of the month watching all the great kid and family shows he’s been involved with as a writer, director, and producer over the years. It’s an amazing list.
Carly Ciarrocchi is one of the four hosts of the Sunny Side Up show on the Sprout Channel. It’s a live show, for preschoolers, that’s on every weekday.
Carly started out with a myriad of interests. Theater, improv, puppetry, clowning, pre-school education… and it wasn’t until she got an audition to host Sunny Side Up that she found the place that perfectly married all of those interests and skills she had been discovering and developing since she first auditioned for that production of Peter Pan as a kid in Delaware.
You should also follow the Facebook page for Carly’s upcoming podcast "The Kiddie Pool Podcast."
You can follow the kid stuff podcast on iTunes or here at kidstuffpodcast.com. We love iTunes reviews and ratings!
Thanks for listening!
Michael Cranberry is an animator on the Amazon show for pre-schoolers Tumble Leaf. The show has won multiple emmy awards in its first two seasons, and it’s something you don’t see much in kids’ TV anymore; it’s quiet. It’s thoughtful, it doesn’t go for a lot of jokes. It’s a simple show that is anything but simple for the team at BixPix to create.
Michael will tell us how he fell in love with the painstaking process of stop-motion animation, how he shifted from the horror genre to a preschool audience, and he will soothe us with the gentle baritone of his professionally-trained actor’s voice.
You can check out the first two seasons of Tumble Leaf on Amazon, and season 3 will be out sometime this year. You can find us on iTunes or at kid stuffpodcast.com.
Thanks for listening!
Eric Robles created the Nick show “Fanboy and Chum Chum.” He’s currently in the process of creating his second show for Nickelodeon, “Glitch Techs,” which won’t come out until sometime in 2018. Eric is a self-taught artist, and the story of how he got from the path to becoming a police officer to his first job in animation is an incredibly inspiring one. I’m excited for you to hear it.
Thanks so much to Eric Robles for that great conversation, thanks to Audrey Gray at nick for setting it up, and to the great Brad Breeck for the introduction. You can still find some Fanboy and Chum Chum video clips and games at www.nick.com, and next year you’ll be able to see Glitch Techs on Nickelodeon.
You can subscribe to this show in iTunes or at www.kidstuffpodcast.com. Thanks for listening!
Talent agents Harry and Brandy Gold tell stories of how they originally discovered two of the biggest names in Hollywood.
Sheryl Levine casts "Bizaardvark" and "Stuck in the Middle" for Disney Channel, plus several other shows for other outlets. In this bite-sized episode, she explains how her whole family was in show business together, and how it moved them from New York to LA.
In this bite-sized episode, Toca Boca co-founder and CEO Bjorn Jeffery explains what makes Tpca Nature so different from other kids' apps, including other Toca Boca apps.
Animation Producer Aaron Simpson tells us about his earliest experiences making animation.
In this bite-sized episode, Dr. Richard Kissel from the Yale Peabody Museum explains why a group of prehistoric animals known as diadectids changed the world in really important ways.
In this bite-sized episode, Dr. Todd from the SoCal kids' band Jelly of the Month Club tells us about the after-school program they run to teach film and music, Daydreamers Academy. Find them at http://www.thedaydreamersacademy.com/
Daniel Chong spent a lot of time working as a story artist on feature films such as "Inside Out," "Bolt," and "Despicable Me," before turning his web comic "Three Bare Bears" into the current Cartoon Network series "We Bare Bears." Mike had technical issues with this recording, and the audio quality isn't perfect. If you find it too frustrating to listen to, click here to read a pdf of transcript of the full interview. The audio version is about 30 minutes of highlights, hosted by Kid Stuff Kid Sophie. Thanks for listening!
Harry Gold started out as a child actor in New York, doing his first Broadway at the age of twelve. After he moved his family to LA, his daughters also became child actors. Harry soon left acting to become an agent. His daughter Brandy gave up acting at the age of twelve, and soon decided she would follow in her dad's footsteps. They are now both agents at the agency Harry founded over 30 years ago, TalentWorks.
Sheryl Levine casts the current Disney Channel shows "Bizaardvark" and "Stuck in the Middle." She started out as an actor in New York, but after college she found that she preferred working with the actors she loves so much to being one of them. She became an agent, then a manager, then found her true calling as a casting director.
Björn Jeffery is the co-founder and CEO of Toca Boca, an international company that makes immensely popular apps for kids. Björn tells Mike how the company started, about the importance of listening to kids when making things for kids, and why there are great and not-so-great things about living in either Sweden or the U.S.
If you grew up in the 80s, Aaron Simpson’s story may be familiar to you, especially if you grew up wanting to make movies.
He’ll tell us about the animated shorts he made by co-opting his dad’s 8mm camera.
He’ll tell us how he switched to making ridiculous live-action videos with his friends once that technology became available… by co-opting his dad’s video camera.
And you’ll also hear how he made a lot of connections in the animation industry through the blog he published about a new tool called Flash animation.
He met a lot of people that he later went on to work with by interviewing them for his blog.
I’m particularly interested in that part myself.
Richard Kissel has been on a pretty direct path his entire life to where he is now as the Director of Public Programs at Yale's Peabody Museum of Natural History. Richard tells Mike how he's always been passionate about not only his love for dinosaurs, but about getting other people to love them to by understanding their history and complexity. Mike reads this sentence to Richard from his bio page: "Dr. Kissel's current scientific research focuses on the enigmatic group of Paleozoic tetrapods known as diadectids—the first tetrapods capable of processing a diet of high-fiber terrestrial plants." Mike then challenges Dr. Kissel to explain in a way that would be exciting to a kid what makes diadectids so fascinating, and guess what? He totally does. Visit his and Kelly Kennard's awesome side project at www.oursecrettreehouse.com, and find the Yale Peabody Museum at http://peabody.yale.edu. In case you didn't already know it, this episode is a good place to discover that science is awesome.
The "Captain" part of Todd Forman's stage name might be an affect, but the "Doctor" part if 100% true. Mike tries to convince the horn player for the popular family-friendly Jelly of the Month Club band to write a book on time management or personal productivity after hearing that he is not only a professional musician (with Sublime and Sublime with Rome in addition to JOTMC), but also a practicing physician with his own family medicine clinic, a teacher who is deeply passionate about arts education, and a former college baseball and water polo player. Come to think of it, maybe he is actually a captain, and he and Mike just didn't have time to discuss it in this conversation.
A piece of Mike's longer conversation with Josh Lehrman and Kyel Stegina about how their original show, "Paige & Frankie," eventually evolved into the popular new Disney show "Bizaardvark." Perfect for curious kids!
Unlike their fellow participants in Disney Storytellers, Josh Lehrman and Kyle Stegina didn't come into the 20-week writing program with an idea for a show. But by listening to the feedback of their mentors at Disney, they were able to create (and recereate) the show that eventually became "Bizaardvark," a workplace comedy on a network that doesn't do workplace comedies. Josh and Kyle tell Mike their contrasting philosophies on social media, the discovery that writing a kids' show is at least as hard as writing a grown-up show, and how they cast an incredibly brilliant actor as Paige's dad in the original pilot, only to later cast him into the gutter for their own amusement.
Shane Portman was writing stories meant to be read aloud and creating characters meant to annoy his younger sisters for years before he realized he had been preparing himself for a career writing children's television. Shane now works on Amazon's Emmy-winning preschool show "Tumble Leaf," as well as for "Moonlight Story Time" on the Curious World app. Check out his website and learn more about how such a quiet guy can have so many characters and stories rolling around in his head.
Brad Breeck grew up drumming in bands, including the LA experimental rock group The Mae Shi, before turning from performance to composition. Brad and Mike talk about how he got from Kankakee to Colorado to CalArts, and how his love for experimental music lead him to becoming the composer for animated shows such as "Fanboy and Chum Chum," "Gravity Falls," "We Bare Bears," and the new Netflix reboot of "Voltron."
Before becoming the producer and story editor of "Wabbit," the Bugs Bunny relaunch on Cartoon Network and Boomerang, Matt Craig had a rich history as an improvisor at theaters and on cruise ships all over the world.
Matt and Mike talk about Matt's home town in Ohio, his time performing on cruise ships for Disney and for the Second City, and his influential year spent on the writing staff of Saturday Night Live.
Danny is the creator and host of "Treehouse." From the Treehouse Facebook page: "Danny LaBrecque is bringing a human voice back to children's media. A real human voice. Danny Joe's Tree House is a classic live-action children's series that teaches social-emotional learning in the digital age."
In this episode, Mike & Danny talk about how he's bringing that voice back to children's media, how he's inspired by Fred Rogers while finding his own voice, and the ways in which Treehouse is constantly evolving.