Our kids will listen to children’s podcasts when they want some chill time at home but also love them for road trip entertainment and background listening while they do puzzles, melty beads or other calmer activities.
In today’s blog post, I’m sharing a roundup of the podcasts our boys enjoy most. While Rhett (age 2) is still too young to really enjoy podcasts, Chase (age 8) and Ryder (age 5) are both into them and listen to children’s podcasts a few times a week. They gravitate toward creative, upbeat, imaginative and often silly podcasts. If you’re looking for podcasts for the little one(s) in your life to try, I hope one of their favorites below will pop out at you!
If children’s podcasts are popular in your house as well, I’d absolutely love any recommendations you might have for new-to-us podcasts we should check out! Please feel free to leave your recommendations in the comments section of this post and if you would not mind including the age of your kids along with your recommendation, that would be so helpful for anyone looking for age-appropriate podcasts for their little ones, as I know podcasts that captivate a 4-year-old might not be as good of a fit for a 9-year-old!
Favorite Podcasts for Kids
Who likes it: Chase (8), Ryder (5)
This was the first podcast that completely captured Chase’s attention and continues to be his all-time favorite. It’s a sci-fi story series (definitely start with episode one or you’ll be lost) and follows 8-year-old Finn Caspian and his friends in Explorer Troop 301 as they work together to solve mysteries, help aliens and explore space. It’s a fun and engaging podcast and Chase especially loves the podcast narrator’s mischievous and hilarious robot co-host, BeeBop.
Who likes it: Ryder (5)
This is a wonderful “starter” podcast for younger kids as the episodes are short, the stories are easy to follow and it’s filled with adventures that are fun and interesting and not at all scary. It’s a spin-off podcast version of the PBS show by the same name and follows a young Alaskan girl and her adventures with her family and friends. Ryder especially loves the episodes that center around dog sledding!
Who likes it: Chase (8), Ryder (5)
The Stories Podcast is popular for good reason. It’s easy to listen to and shares classic stories adapted from well-known fairy tales as well as original stories that easily capture our boys’ attention. The stories are light, appropriate for young listeners and creative. This podcast also has a ton of episodes with varying lengths and topics making it a great one to go to for kids who like a of options.
Who likes it: Chase (8)
This is another podcast Chase listens to regularly as he loves the creative stories created from questions submitted by kids. It’s a silly and imaginative podcast that centers around questions like “What if a tiny dragon lived in my closet?” or “What if cats ruled the world?” which proves to be very entertaining for our 8-year-old!
Who likes it: Chase (8)
We absolutely adore Mindy Thomas, one of the hosts of this podcast, and first became a fan of hers through her children’s morning radio show, Absolutely Mindy. She’s upbeat, creative, fun and just a little ray of sunshine! Mindy mentioned this podcast on her morning radio show once so we gave it a shot and Chase became an instant fan. Wow in the World is a science podcast that is educational, silly, creative and fun! There are a ton of episodes and Chase hasn’t come close to making it through all of them so we cannot speak to the more recent episodes but the beginning episodes first produced by this podcast have been a big hit for him!
Who likes it: Ryder (5)
This podcast is created by an independent bookstore and is one our big kids will both listen to though it appeals more to Ryder as it seems to be geared toward slightly younger audiences. It’s a long podcast (45 minutes) which can be positive or negative (depending on how much time you have and the length of your little one’s attention span) but the length of the episodes make it a go-to for us for road trip entertainment. It follows a curious little reading bug who sets off on various adventures in a magical bookbag.
The podcast also incorporates breaks for coloring, stretching and songs. A little side note: For our kids, the singing and songs were fun at first but Chase and Ryder now fast forward through the “boring singing parts” because the singing started to feel redundant not as exciting to them as they listened to more episodes.
Who likes it: Chase (8)
This is such a creative podcast and turns ideas submitted by children into hilarious stories and fun songs. It’s also an award-winning podcast with a lot of episodes in its arsenal and it’s one Chase turns to a lot because he thinks it’s so funny.
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Highly recommend the unexplainable disappearance of mars patel. Save it for a long road trip and start with the first episode!
Also my kids have been super into The Arthur Podcast (also based off of the TV show).
Thanks for the recs!
Thanks for sharing this, Reshma!
The Arthur one is a HUGE hit in our house as well. To the point my kids (6 and 4) can pretty much recite it..
Love this idea! My 4 year rarely naps and still needs some quiet/rest time. What do your kids listen to the podcasts on?
yes that was my question, what do they listen to it on?
An old iPhone connected to our home WiFi! For road trips, they listen using one of our phones!
Also, if you don’t want your child to have access to a phone to play the podcasts and are worried about them clicking around, you can play podcasts through a Bluetooth speaker while you keep control of the phone.
I love these suggestions!
I’d also love a similar post about your kids favorite “movie night” movies! I feel like my kids are kinda getting past loving Disney movies (or they want to watch something they haven’t seen before) and I struggle to find movies that are good for this in between age (between young kids and tweens).
Thanks for the recs. What device do you find works best for your kids to listen to the podcasts?
Oh and there is a good podcast called ‘chompers” that my kids will listen to while they brush their teeth sometimes. It’s 2 minutes and gives quick prompts in the middle for when they should switch what part of their teeth they are brushing.
We have an Alexa speaker in their bathroom outlet, so they can easily trigger the podcast to play.
This is great, thanks for sharing! Wanted to add to your list one of our favorites–“Circle Round.” It’s through an NPR affiliate station and is a staple in our home (kids ages 7 and 4). Bonus–with each podcast they release a coloring page that you can print at home for the kids to enjoy. Our oldest LOVES this feature!
Found here: https://www.wbur.org/podcasts/circleround
You should check out But Why. It’s fantastic, they talk about all kinds of things from outer space to animals to any number of random topics in a way that kids can understand. My son loved it when he was younger.
My two boys (aged 10 and 8) have enjoyed Brains On! in the past, and currently love Smash Boom Best and The Big Fib. Brains On is a science podcast that’s super creative in answering listener submitted questions/topics and diving deep into a topic through skits, songs, and other elements.
Smash Boost Best is a debate podcast where a slightly older kid (typically a teenager) is the judge where two adults have to debate which of two things are better through four really creative rounds. Episodes range from debates like Dogs vs. Cats to My Fuji vs. Death Valley to Spider Man vs. Batman (complete with a round including made up songs about a holiday dedicated to the superhero. Batman’s song is a bop!).
The last one – The Big Fib is another one with a kid as a judge (usually 8-11 years old) who asks two adults questions about a topic and then has to guess which one of the adults is the expert and which is lying. It’s really fun and quick.
All of these are under 35 mins (sometimes shorter) and they’re all big hits. I’ll say also that we end up enjoying them too when we play them in the car; they’re all pretty funny for adults but still kid appropriate.
Happy listening!
Great list! You must try Who Smarted with the boys. A silly name, but a podcast that all of us enjoy- about 15 minutes long about science and history. It’s so fun!
Thank you for the podcast suggestions. I am a “grandma” to a 9-year-old boy and 7-year old twins (boy and girl). Your blog posts about recommendations based on what your children like have always been a big help to me.
Molly and the Sugar Monster is a fav for my 4 yo girl. She has also enjoyed Quentin and Alfie’s ABC Adventure, this was the first podcast she started listening to when she was 2 or 3. I let her listen on an iPhone that doesn’t get much use otherwise and I bought a pair of wireless headphones from Amazon. The times when she’s super into it and I get some quiet, is magical!
Thank you so much for this! I was actually searching your blog last week for the kid podcast recs. Had you mentioned a NatGeo one? I’ll have to go through the other posts you mention at the bottom to see. A lot of these sound like they’d be huge hits for my boys, too, especially the Finn Caspian one! Thanks again!
That’s so cool! My grandson is only 2, so I will have to wait for a bit on him to want to listen to anything like that. My husband and I are the weirdos that go to sleep listening to “Detectives don’t sleep” which is a true crime podcast. We started out listening one night when we couldn’t go to sleep, and that guy’s voice is so nice, we both just drifted off. Now it’s a joke between us who fell asleep first. There aren’t a lot of shows yet, but I think we have listened to all of them several times.