Do you have a long car ride ahead for Thanksgiving or just looking for activities to do with your kids off screens? How about a podcast? I love podcasts and listen to them with my kids often because, as I’ve written about before, we have a rule in our family about not using cellphones in the car. Every time we hear a new one we learn something, and it sparks conversation and debate. Furthermore, as Stephanie Hayes writes in the Atlantic:
“The absence of images in podcasts seems to be a source of their creative potential. Without visuals, listeners are required to fill the gaps—and when these listeners are children, the results can be powerful. Numerous studies have found that children between the ages of seven and 13 respond more creatively to radio stories than to stories shown on television. Audio stories prompt kids to draw more novel pictures, think up more unique questions, and solve problems in a more imaginative way than TV tales.”
Here are my top 3 favorite podcasts to listen to with my family–along with a few titles of recent shows:
Freakonomics
How Can I Do the Most Social Good With $100?
Thinking Is Expensive. Who’s Supposed to Pay for It?
Ted Radio
Sam Kass: Can Free Breakfast Improve Learning?
Wendy Troxel: Does High School Start Too Early?
Planet Money
Episode 804: Your Cell Phone’s A Snitch
Episode 369: If Teens Ran the Fed
Some other great ones are This American Life, Radiolab, and StoryCorps. A couple that I’ve heard are good for younger kids are Tumble and Brains On.
For this week’s Tech Talk Tuesday let’s talk about podcasts. Here are some conversation starters:
-Do you ever listen to podcasts at school? If so, are there any you like?
-What do you think of listening to something other than music in the car?
-If you were to do a podcast, what would it be about?
For more discussion ideas, you can peruse past Tech Talk TuesdaysTech Talk Tuesdays.
Delaney Ruston, MD
Screenagers’ Filmmaker
www.screenagersmovie.com
415-450-9585
