The Wisdom of Mother Trees Part 2- Nurturing Young Minds with Rion Nakaya of The Kid Should See This (Episode 38)

In this episode of Resilience Gone Wild, Jessica Morgenthal speaks with Rion Nakaya, the founder and curator of The Kid Should See This (TKSST), an award-winning educational media platform for children. They explore how co-viewing curated videos can foster curiosity, resilience, and media literacy in young audiences. Rion discusses the importance of trust in digital content, the role of audio storytelling, and how authentic narratives help children connect more deeply with nature and science. The episode also touches on parenting metaphors like mother trees and mycelium networks, emphasizing the invisible but powerful role caregivers and educators play in cultivating learning ecosystems.

Episode Transcript

(00:04):
Welcome to Resilience Gone Wild. I am here
with my fabulous producer, Kai, and we are
letting it up because we're just sort of
How many intro recordings have we recorded?
And you always start them. I say, what
do I say?
I know. But, yeah, welcome everybody.
It's really exciting to be here. I I
mean, just we're about to get into well,

(00:25):
talk about our guest real quick, and then
I'll tell you what Oh, so I I'm
it's this fabulous woman, Ryan Nikaya, and she's,
in fifteen years ago, I think, started this
amazing
motherly
network of support for what and and they
came from the the kids should see this.
When she and her husband would, like, see
something and they're like, the kids should see

(00:46):
this. Yeah. They had one kid at the
time, so it was the kid should see
this. And it's just brilliant. And we had
just such a fun conversation about, you know,
like, what it means to be a curator,
what it means
to introduce your children to curiosity, and to
share that with them and to always be
in conversation.
And, the world just opens up. It's so
much bigger and so much brighter and so

(01:07):
much more fun when your mind is open
and you're in awe and curious.
Yeah. And and I think for me, especially
with a two year old, well, soon to
be two year old, you know, screen time
is can be a dividing issue amongst families
and how they raise their children. And it's
you know, for my wife and I, we
definitely take the as least amount of screen
time as possible. And I I believe our

(01:27):
pediatrician
says, you know, around two years is when
you can begin to introduce,
like, educational screen time. With the exception of
FaceTime, I guess, the studies show that FaceTime
doesn't have to be shouldn't be unlimited, but
it is it is something that is beneficial
for kids that age. And so, yeah, I
I was tuned in, although my wife had

(01:47):
to work. And so I had Miles with
me, and you guys talked for about an
hour and ten minutes. And the amount of
toddler afternoon that was happening during that recording
session, including the playing of a piano, we
actually managed to get the water table set
up. There was a diaper change. This was
all happening while I'm holding a laptop, making
sure, you guys were were all set. But,
I just really appreciate

(02:09):
her energy, what she brings to the table,
and this idea that it's not about restricting
screen time. Because I think with anything in
life, when you restrict, that's when you really
you're you're not doing yourself any favors. So
it's this idea of what's what is shared
screen time and how as a family, how
can you sit down and enjoy
over 7,000 videos that she has personally curated
and is saying that these are incredible

(02:31):
incredible videos and really highlighting
the videos out there that don't have a
lot of views, that are from really important
organizations is the other piece of this I
thought was really interesting. So I was so
grateful for all the information and I feel
like I have this entire library. We I
don't have to go to YouTube for with
Miles. Right? I can just go to this
website and it's it's all curated. So the
kids should see this.com. Yep. And it's so

(02:53):
broad. You know, we I have
we'll be all here that she and I
talk about, you know, the kid meal in
the restaurant. You know, they have these in
so many restaurants, you've got this, like, narrow
group of mac and cheese, french fries. Just,
you know, kids should have plain, boring food.
And
that's what we do with screen time. Right?
Like, we put on a few things that

(03:14):
we know of. But she opens the world
up to you know, she said Ella Fitzgerald's
scatting was Yeah. I love that. Her. And
she's like, my kid should see
this because then she heard her kid scatting.
He was little.
Yeah. But, you know, this world needs to
be bigger than the children's menu. Totally. And
sharing it needs to be like an moment

(03:35):
for
multi generations. And then Absolutely. Go out and
enjoy life, go out and experience life based
on what you've shared on the screen as
opposed to just using it as
a, you know, stay put. Yeah. Yeah. And
I love the kid menu metaphor because,
I was laughing a little bit because I'm
actually stoked when Miles doesn't eat his mac
and cheese because then I get to eat
the mac and cheese. Like, on our way
home last night max. You know that. Ex

(03:57):
yeah. And on our way home last night,
kept talking about he wanted a cheese quesadilla,
cheese quesadilla, which is just, you know, a
great quick dinner now that we're I was
saying we're in the middle of a kitchen
renovation. So something you can microwave quickly that's
actually pretty yummy. Got home, made it for
him. He He didn't want it. I was
stoked because now I have a cheese quesadilla.
And there's that boundary we're not and it's
actually a really important point. Like, there's this

(04:18):
boundary that we always want what's on the
children's menu. Right? Because it's comfort food. And
there's this there's this, like, that's for kids.
And she breaks Ryan, she, like, breaks that
model, that's that boundary, that strictness
that says there's things for kids and there's
things for adults, and that's gone. So, like,
we're sharing this and we're all inspired and

(04:39):
we're all hearing different things. And the reality
is like if you hear Disney or Pixar
talk about their films, there's something for everyone
in it. Yeah. The kids don't get all
the same jokes as the parents. The parents
don't get all the same jokes as the
kids. Things but there's something for everyone, and
then you can share and and chat with
it.
Absolutely. And then I think just you're just
starting that conversation at at such a young

(05:00):
age about what is screen time, what is
healthy screen time. There's more out there than
the AI generated
Yeah. Ad fueled nonsense that kinda, like, honestly,
probably gives us anxiety. And there there really
is ads in the kids to see this.
Yeah. Exactly. So it's just it's just really
it gave me a lot of hope, honestly,
coming off of because I know I'm we're

(05:20):
gonna be going into that world and,
yeah. And I think the the one thing
that really stuck out to me is she
said, we're the oldest kids. Yeah. Right? So,
like, stop. Kids. We're kids ourselves. We're the
oldest ones. So really exciting. So just to
remind everyone that we filmed we we recorded
this with Ryan because
this is part two of Mother's Day and
mother's Right. Mother trees. And happy Mother's Day

(05:41):
to anybody who's listening right before Mother's Day.
And the whole idea is that mother trees
in the forest, if you you've listened to
last week's episode, which is excellent, is all
about
that mothers quietly and people
broadly
who we could use the word mother as
a verb, who mother from afar and bring
joy and and nutrition and so much goodness

(06:04):
to care for others from afar quietly, certainly
not only mothers.
Mhmm. And this is this is all in
the realm of what we're talking about today.
Yeah. Yeah. So it's all I just the
metaphors have been so awesome, and it's just
the conversation is great. So, should we, read
a review and get to the interview? Yeah.
Sounds great. Alright. Do you have any idea
who Crazy Shell Lady is? No. I don't.

(06:27):
But I love her. Whoever it is.
I love this podcast. I'm learning so many
fascinating facts about creatures and nature and finding
connections within myself. Ditto. Each podcast is presented
in a poetic way and leaves me feeling
inspired, hopeful, and in a better frame of
Yay. Five stars, by the way. Shell Lady.
But we are getting close to the end
of being able to read reviews. So as

(06:48):
a reminder, everybody, please, if you're listening, just
stop right now. It's such a short to
pause. Ask. Yeah. Scroll maybe a little bit,
and then just give us a quick little
review. Star rating. Really appreciate it. It goes
a long way in getting this podcast into
the ears of people who are out there
looking for this kind of messaging, and that's
the it's the best or way to share
this podcast organically. So do us a solid.

(07:08):
We appreciate it. Thank you. Alright. Should we
get to the interview? Alright. Enjoy Ryan, everybody.
Welcome, Ryan. So excited that you're here, and
I have to do my usual, yay. I'm
so excited that you're here because that's how
I it's always, like, well, that's my energy,
and that's how I start.

(07:29):
So,
welcome. I am so thrilled that you are
here to follow-up on my Mother's Day episode
about mother trees
and nurturing
quietly
in the background
as,
as a force for good, seeing what people
need before they even know what they need
and what the forest needs before the forest

(07:51):
even knows what they need. So,
you were the first person that came to
mind, and I'm so excited that you said
yes and that we're here together. So welcome.
And,
please introduce yourself, tell everyone who you are
and the incredible
product, service, experience,
resource, tool, everything that you wanna I don't

(08:12):
know what to actually call it. It's just
so big and so beautiful,
that you've created and, you know, how it
how you got here and how
how it came about. Well, thank you. Thank
you so much for having me and for
all of those kind and flattering words.
So my name is Ryan Nikaya, and
I was a,
designer for interactive projects for, you know, two

(08:35):
decades and really loved that, what I was
doing. And then
when I became
a mom,
I found that, you know, I was still
going to the Internet a lot for,
you know, answers to my kids' questions
and answers to my questions.
And really,

(08:55):
I've always used that ecosystem
for
a long time. You know, it's a way
to connect to our communities and information
and, you know, certainly, it's,
has its problems, but I think that there's
a lot of good there.
Are you talking specifically about social media? Is
that kinda what you're hinting at? Social media

(09:16):
and, you know, I think that, there's a
lot of challenges with,
just access to,
information that's factual. You know, I think that
algorithms tend to push people into
silos that, are hard to escape and all
sorts of things like that.
But when I started this,

(09:37):
I I call The Kid Should See This,
a,
online
video library, a digital collection
of,
all the different
educational videos that, my family
and that I have found to be,
interesting, engaging,
educational stuff that

(09:59):
can start conversations
and be fun for the entire family to
watch. Most of them are
usually made for adults. There's a lot of
made for kids stuff on there that adults
enjoy or that I remember enjoying a lot
of throwback stuff. Like the Disney movies and
the Pixar movies. Right? Yeah. Are they made
for kids? Are they made for adults? Like,
all that underlying

(10:20):
Exactly. That adults get and kids might not
or vice versa. Like Exactly. Need to share
media much much more and not define it.
Right? Absolutely. And I think that it's really
important to watch together. Our co viewing, you
know, gives you a shared vocabulary.
It it gives you things to talk about.
You know, things can come up later, and
you know what your kids are are referring

(10:41):
to. And it's just fun. It's cuddle time.
You know, there's all sorts of great great
reasons to do co viewing when we have,
you know, the ability and the privilege to
to do it. It's it's fantastic.
And so,
the videos on TKSST, I really selected them.
They might be for adults, but,
you know, the title, the kid should see

(11:02):
this, was really kind of my little mantra,
or my my
goal for when my kid, my oldest kid,
was, you know, right around three. And there
would be something really cool
that I thought, oh, the kid should see
this. He should see this. We should show
this to kids. Hearing yourself saying that. The
kid should see this. Right? Like

(11:22):
Exactly. It's and so, you know, I call
it we all call it TKSST
now. It's it's a little bit of a
mouthful, but, it really is kind of the
driving force of let's show kids
more of what's out there. Let's not
silo them into,
you know, kids' entertainment.
Think of it like what's coming up for

(11:42):
me is, like, Happy Meals, you know, at
McDonald's or something, which is not my thing,
but I know that they exist.
And, you know,
it reminds me, I've had so many conversations
with people where I go to a restaurant
and the kids are eating or the kids'
meals, right, and they are less expensive typically
so that's a different issue. But often, you
know, it's like, oh, just let's let the

(12:03):
kids eat what's on the kids' menu, which
is like, no matter what restaurant you're at,
it's French fries, chicken fingers, and macaroni and
cheese, right? And, you know, if we do
that with kids with any sort of,
media,
they're seeing
so little and stuff that's so dumbed down,
and,

(12:23):
it's just so much healthier. I love that
you're like I mean,
you know, we we think of books that
we open kids' minds with. Right? But why
should media, why should video be a narrower
set of offerings? Yeah. Yeah. No. I agree.
I think some of it is,
for me, it's kind of a generational perspective.

(12:44):
You know, I grew up when,
you know, we we had mostly only Sesame
Street, and then I was watching a lot
of grown up shows, you know, appropriately
grown up shows with my my family.
You know, there might be stuff on PBS.
I remember, you know, a Jacques Cousteau documentary
or, you know, Jane Goodall was in the

(13:05):
the news and the magazines, National Geographic, and,
you know,
only having
an encyclopedia
set that you might be going through for,
you know, finding all the details, no Internet,
and to
to kind of distract you. And so there
was a lot of quiet time just kind
of pouring through stuff or running outside and

(13:25):
being outside and being with your friends and
adventuring. And so a lot of my decision
making
kind of comes from
that straddling of, like,
information and diving into things and wanting to
learn,
you know, what people are doing and how
things are made and all the different perspectives
that there are out there,

(13:46):
and and how people are telling those stories,
and then also kind of tying that to
making sure that in this digital space, that
the the videos are kind of,
that they're conduits to getting off the computer,
going outside, getting hands on with things, trying
different things out. And,
So that you make such I mean, I'm

(14:07):
sure this is what you talk about since
2011 when you created this, you know, that
the question of
does creating more video,
resource
and
screen resource
keep kids
inside, staring at screens, or
inspire

(14:27):
them and family to get outside?
And, you know, I imagine that's a big
part of, you know, the constant complex
question.
Yeah. Well, I mean, it's constantly
shifting, and it's different for every family.
You know, my feeling is that
video and social media video, you know, it's

(14:48):
just it's now built into the culture. There's
no escaping
in a lot of ways.
I think that, you know, if parents don't
want that, they're they're setting that boundary and
they're having to stick to it. And,
you know, I know a lot of families,
especially when your kids are younger, it's a
heck of a lot easier to be able
to
to have those guardrails up and to,

(15:11):
you know I know a lot of, families,
including us when our kids were little. They're
teenagers now.
Although we still play video games with them.
But, you know, if we were playing video
games, if we were watching
TV, it was a very small part of
our day or our weekend. And, you know,
we were with them. We were playing with
them. It was something communal.

(15:32):
And so, you know, I thought that that
was a really
great way to approach it. As far as,
you know,
introducing video, I mean, it's in some ways,
it's not different than the conversation we were
having around television,
you know, thirty, forty years ago.
It depends on what you're watching,
and it depends on how you interact with

(15:53):
it and how much you interact with it.
And so all the videos on TKSST,
they're
videos that are they either show wonder. You
know, it might be something a little random
from you know, that or something a little
viral that, you know, is not kinda a
structured educational thing, but is really fun and
conversation starting. Or it might be something from

(16:14):
the Natural History Museum in New York or,
you know, the Tate in in London, like,
talking about history or art or science or,
you know, the New Jersey Orchestra, you know,
explaining how the orchestra works. There's there's so
many,
really fascinating
kind of

(16:35):
information boundary pushing things that we can be
watching and sharing that are,
I would say,
exceptions to maybe what you would want to
avoid generally,
when you start introducing media. I love it.
There's so many things that just came up
for me and I don't know if you
heard me like making notes and and scrambling
and stuff.
But some of the things that are popping

(16:55):
up are around
trust and attention span.
And,
you know, in this world, at least I
listen to a lot of conversation about
the divide
in our country and not just
half and half but like divides within groups
and all that. And, you know, vaccines come

(17:16):
to mind. I was just listening to a
video about measles and I mean, a podcast
about measles and vaccines. And, you know, trust
of your source
is so critically important,
and people,
want to trust. You know, it's a human
behavior that we want to trust, and
it's
hard to break someone away from trust. But

(17:37):
once it's you know, there's the marble jar,
there's all these theories on it. But anyway,
so if you become the trusted source, you
know, and
you as a parent want a trusted source,
it's a beautiful,
offering that you've got because
it sounds like there's a consistency of there's
pushing the edges.
I don't remember what your expression you just

(17:59):
used, something like pushing the edges, but it's
and it's often
made for adults
but works for kids, attention starting, but there's
nothing,
like there's a boundary around what you curate
that
starts more conversations and gets kids thinking and
families talking and all that and gives this

(18:21):
amazing sense of trust so that parents
know where their kids are and these control
functions of not letting your kids be on
certain channels and certain whatever, which is not
the era that I raised my kids in,
you know, it feels like I'm like so
happy you exist
and that
the kids you know, and I I think
about language a lot and the word should

(18:43):
in your in the name that comes from
just that expression. The kids should see this.
Right?
But the should is so powerful
because should is related to trust. So I
don't know what's coming up for you around
this babble that I've just offered you, but
something might.
Well, I I think that it kind of
it taps into a lot of what I
was thinking about. I think the should is

(19:05):
is about expanding
the world. There's a lot of topics that,
you know, maybe people don't think about that
kids might be interested in. But, you know,
they should be exposed to it because
there's great information there. And kids can take
on a lot more,
than than I think we usually,

(19:27):
you know, talk about. And and I think
that,
you know, that can that can sound a
little open ended. And so I wanna kinda
specify a little bit because, you know, I'm
not talking about all topics.
That's up to all families. But, you know,
talking about, for example,
how an ecosystem,
you know, works, how a food web works,

(19:48):
how,
you know, how there are so many more
animals than we see in your typical, you
know, animal book, you know, and
different species of each of those animals and
where they live, you know?
I think that, nonfiction children's books have gotten
so much better
at that in the last ten years. But,

(20:09):
you know, there's
still more that we can be doing there.
How we can talk about, for example let
me think. I just had
a topic that I was thinking.
For example,
there are a lot of really excellent podcasts
that,
that I think are are also doing this
in in the audio world. And, you know,

(20:30):
as much as I love video, I actually
think that,
audio storytelling is is one of the most
wonderful,
ways that kids can be taking in information
and going on adventures because,
you know, it really just activates the imagination.
And and so, you know,
podcasts like Tumble or Brains On or,

(20:55):
you know, a lot of these,
different podcasts
that take kids into behind the scenes,
of of places or,
I remember this Australian podcast
that,
I think It's up to you. So you've
got just keep in mind that Yeah. Ryan
has 8,000
videos that are actually live. Seven. Seven thousand.

(21:16):
Seven thousand. Okay. Yeah. That are live and
that I'm I don't know what the ratio
is of the ones that you accept versus
the ones that you don't that you watch.
But the numb the tens of thousands of
videos
that you have watched that you're trying to
navigate through in this in coming up with
this example. So Yeah. Sort of
go ahead. Yeah. No. I mean, you know,

(21:37):
there's there's videos about, and podcasts about ethics,
you know, and just really simple ones that
that are contextualized
for kids.
That's something that
maybe wouldn't come up as quickly, as easily,
or as early as
as would be helpful.
And so, you know, by watching

(21:58):
videos with with, you know, maybe they're a
short animated short of a creator who was,
you know, at a at a animation school.
And and you can talk about what the
story says and what the challenge was and
what would I have done? What would you
do in that situation? And it can, you
know, spark all sorts of conversations,

(22:18):
You know? I mean, I'm just saying about
the time, you know, in terms of attention
span, you know, podcast versus as a podcaster.
Podcast versus video. I mean, there are times,
and I think that things have changed. I
know things have changed dramatically in attention span
and our need for
constant,
multi sensory
experience,

(22:38):
so that we're not getting distracted.
You know, if you're home and you're looking
at a screen or you're somewhere looking at
a screen together
versus you're in the car when you can't
look at a screen together,
which you can listen to audio together and
talk about it as you're experiencing it and
not after it. So,
you know,
it's an interesting

(22:59):
opportunity
to think about
when audio for kids is a good idea.
We're so busy having to fill in. Like,
people don't tend to listen to podcasts
or audio when they're not doing something else.
They have to have multi sensory things happening,
right? So if somebody listens to a podcast,
they're ironing or they're cooking or they're bling

(23:21):
or whatever it is or they're driving.
And luckily, that's, you know, the thinking fast
and slow model. You know, you can drive
and clean
and iron
while paying attention
to the audio.
And versus video, you need to be all
in with multi senses
and not doing something else at the same
time or you miss it. So I'm very

(23:42):
happy to hear that children's
podcast is appealing to you. Absolutely. And I
really didn't know about those because I'm like
that's sort of my
next entree into
children and which is why I'm so excited
to be talking to you. But anyway,
so do you have any thoughts on attention
span in that? Like are the videos gotten
shorter and the other like has the content

(24:03):
had to shrink over time or has it
grown? Like lengthwise, what do we do? Do
people speed everything up? Like, where what do
you Oh, gosh. Well, I mean, I'm sure
that people jump through videos every once in
a while. I don't usually focus on that
part. But what I what I do do
when I first started,
you know, YouTube was about five years old,

(24:24):
so there wasn't
the
deluge of, like,
everything that's out there. And the trends on
video creation was very different. You know, I
have a video from from back then that,
was a guy talking about
a species of armadillo that he'd found in
his front yard, and he talked about it

(24:44):
and he was shown the armadillo.
And it was just, you know, like a
home video that they put on YouTube and
it was fun.
But I found it to be
perfect for for the site.
The first video that I put on the
site was Ella Fitzgerald
singing,
scat singing. Scat. I know. I heard you
being interviewed about that. That is tell the

(25:05):
story, please. It's so Oh,
well, so,
you know, when my kid was young and
he was asking about things, I was always
looking stuff up on YouTube. And I remembered,
I think, something from Sesame Street,
from when I was little about scat singing.
And so I was, like, looking up on
YouTube, young, five year old YouTube that didn't

(25:27):
have as much.
And I ran into this incredible
video of Ella Fitzgerald's scat singing. I think
it's 1969
on stage.
She's sweating. She's laughing. She's working it. She's
totally improvising everything.
And it's fantastic.
And I really loved it. And I was
like, oh, you know, that kid should see
this. And so I showed it to him,

(25:48):
and we watched it together.
And,
you know, I probably
did some scat singing myself or, you know,
to play and and explain it.
But I think it was, like, later that
week,
I overheard him in his room,
like, kind of doing a little bebop, a
doo wop, you

(26:09):
know, while he was, like, playing and doing
other things. And I was like, oh, it
it got to him. It got in there,
and and he liked it. And
he was reflecting on it somehow. And I
that was the kind of the point where
I was like, oh my god. Every kid
should should be able to see these videos.
They you know, there's so much out there

(26:29):
that just makes our worlds more give it
gives it more texture, gives it more interest,
makes them stronger. And and so that's when
I started collecting stuff. And so, you know,
usually,
I try to keep the videos anywhere from
try to get it closer to two minutes,
more than one, depending,
to about six or seven minutes.

(26:49):
The trend in the last few years for
for videos has been to make them much
longer,
when they are more professional coming from museums
or science communicators
or, you know, there's a lot of real
time stuff,
of artists, like, doing work. And so that
could be, like, up to a half hour.
I don't often put those long ones on

(27:11):
there, although I'm sure sometimes it would be
helpful to just be able to put on
a video You're like, you're leave it an
hour. Right? I have to go do this.
I totally understand that. But, a lot of
times,
I want
I want the information, whatever is being communicated.

(27:31):
I think that there is a good rhythm
and structure for being able to,
keep interest.
Something that's not rapid flash cuts, but then
also something, you know, somewhere between
a oner and,
you know, just keeping it moving, having visuals
that
explain provide a little more information than just

(27:53):
what you're hearing. Or a lot of the
videos some of my favorite videos on the
site are wordless videos. And, you know, you're
just watching somebody.
There's one, I think it was from the
New York Times,
years over a decade ago of a man
who was, making a soccer ball out of,
plastic bags and different refuse that he had

(28:14):
found. And he tied it all together
and then gave it to local kids, and
they went off and played soccer. And or,
you know, people who are cooking or making
something,
quietly,
different,
Japanese.
This is like, a
I have a lot of videos of,

(28:34):
Japanese craftsmen making different things in different parts
of the country. Yes. The detail, the patience,
the
voice. Yeah. It's so mesmerizing.
Exactly. Your voice just distracts you from the
detail.
Right. And that's part of, you know, that's
part of why I like factory videos too
even though that's
completely opposite of nature

(28:55):
in so many ways. You know what? It's
not. Like, I just watched your factory video
about glassmaking
and natural materials go in glassmaking. Right? And
you just told me that there's a video
of unmaking glass back to the sand, which
is so this is all about nature. Like,
it's about, you know, what we've learned from
nature and how to how to be in
partnership with nature.
So go for it. Tell me Yeah. What

(29:16):
they want. Well, I think that a lot
of the factory videos are interesting the same
way that I want my kids to know
where their food comes from. You know, I
want to know
what all of these things that
we have around us come from. You know,
what is the expertise that goes into it?
What is the design and engineering? Who are
the people in the factories, you know, working
on stuff?

(29:37):
You know,
from footballs that are made in, like, a
local American factory to a glass factory in
in another country to you know, it's just
all
extremely
interesting to
watch, you know, balloons get
blown up and,
tested and,
crayons. One of the I I really think

(29:58):
that the factory video stuff too comes from,
you know, the old Sesame Street shorts
that would be the interstitials that would be
in there or mister Rogers, you know, you
go He used to take you, and that
was Yeah. That was so long ago. He
would take you, let's go for for a
full Yeah. Trip. I remember We go to
the crayon factory or something. Yeah. Absolutely.
Or, you know, we go recycle paper, and,

(30:22):
they'd find a steel drum,
or, like, a a metal barrel by the
side of the river and go make a
steel drum.
You know, all of those kinds of things,
I think, that,
are just natural is naturally fun and interesting
and curiosity.
Things into story. Yeah. Right? Absolutely. They turn
our
our just our stuff life.

(30:44):
Yeah. They illuminate everything. They illuminate, and they
connect you, as you said, to where they
come from as well as what they're made
of, you know, who's or what, and who's
making them. Yeah. You know, and how are
they transported to you? And and the like,
there's just
our brains are storytelling
brains. Right?
Having the story is just automatic energy light
up. And then when you see a crayon,

(31:05):
you you you the story comes to mind
because you know where it comes from and
that's so much richer.
Life is so much richer. Yeah. It's three-dimensional
instead of two dimensional. So it's more than,
you know, a video. It actually connects to
the things around us and the experiences that
we might be having.
You know, and then when you have that

(31:26):
foundation with
kids of, you know, elementary age when they
are still, you know, sponges and want to
have all these conversations with you,
you know, then you can talk about, well,
you know, what about our our refuse? What
about our,
you know, things that we can reuse or
repair or,

(31:47):
you know, that can be used in in
some brand new way,
you know, conservation,
or or,
you know, the cycle of things. Can we
take this apart and recycle the different parts?
You know, did somebody think about that when
they put it together? What are the
you know, how can we deal with all
the plastic?

(32:08):
You know, all of these challenges that well,
they can sound they can be extremely challenging
conversations,
but kids are already thinking about these things.
And they And it eases the conversation because
no one else has the right language. Right?
So you can just pick up on the
language and talk about what you saw. Exactly.
Having to be the expert on everything and
explain everything. Right? Because that doesn't work. We

(32:29):
we can't do that. We make stuff up
and it's useless or we avoid it. Right?
Yeah. Absolutely.
No. Yeah. When we can hear the experts
talking about stuff, you know, I think one
of
the my son, when he was about six,
he had said that there weren't really grown
ups,
because grown ups were just the oldest kids.

(32:49):
And
I don't know if he got that from
the fact that I was always sitting next
to him and his sister while we and
we were all learning together with a lot
of this from from topic experts and and
different videos. But,
you know, I really I really loved that.
And,
you know, it did make conversations,

(33:10):
about different things a lot easier because
I can say, oh, I didn't know about
that. I let's go look it up. Let's
go find out. And then, oh, I wanna
know more about that. Let's go to the
library and find some books on that topic.
And Yeah. I mean, there's two things you
just said that are so important. One is
that we we can push ourselves away from
being expected to be the expert and to

(33:32):
know everything and to have to to figure
out how to deal with that disappointment.
Like, it's not we don't set it we're
not set up that way by saying, oh,
this is so cool. I didn't know that,
right, like,
is the best place to start a relationship.
The other thing that's coming up for me
is that if you're having these conversations at
a young age,
not just the conversation you choose to have

(33:55):
and to teach to your child, which is
so often, right, like what these conversations can
be if you're not sharing
media together.
But if you're
sharing it from a young age, you can
keep sharing it, right? Like screen time is
not separate. It's together. It's conversational. It's growth.
It's humility.
It's

(34:15):
just
friendship,
right?
Yeah.
Yeah, what else? That's just so inspiring to
me. What else You know,
when
you say that, I think so often of
when we start these conversations
and
these habits
of coming together and
really thinking about things, spending time on them.

(34:36):
You know, that creates a habit,
hopefully, that when they are teenagers, and I've
been lucky that this has been true for
us,
you know, they're used to
having these conversations and still come to
me. When they come home and they learned
about something, I still hear about it. And,
you know, they're in high school.
And,
you know I just have to stop you
because I add this all the time to

(34:58):
people. When they say they were lucky at
something and if you step back and witness
it like I just did witnessing you,
there was just not luck. Like that was
the whole point, right? There was so much
intentionality.
There was intentionality.
It was there you know, my little test
subjects, I suppose, proof of concept.

(35:20):
We're all doing that as when we're parenting.
But it was also luck. You know, I
had the I had the, I had the
privilege of having the extra time to do
that. I'd had the, you know, education and
design and and,
you know,
constructing narrative and,
you know, a lot of writing experience, and
that came from
where I started.

(35:41):
There was there was some luck involved, but
I was able to take that and
and push it into something
kind of
that helped express my values. And I think
something that is a service that
that people,
you know, would like to have that maybe
don't have the the privilege of time or,
you know, don't wanna deal with, you know,

(36:01):
4,000,000,000
videos on YouTube. Yes. And they need to
trust the source. So let me ask you
this. If I assume that when you started
doing this with your kids, their friends came
over and their friends' parents were over because
they were little, and there was a community
developed around this experience.
So
over, you know, almost fifteen years of doing
this,
do you have some insights you can share

(36:22):
about
what
a community that has experienced this kind of
growth together, family,
caregiver, educational growth together with sharing this kind
of media
together,
how it's different from other communities that you
see?
Like what can we learn from
what you've learned, not just in being a

(36:43):
mother
in that relationship
but a larger, like, mother tree, a larger
mother to communities that have really embraced
this experience that you're offering?
Well,
so I think that for one, I mean,
certainly in in my community, we didn't we
didn't spend sit sit down and, like, watch

(37:04):
all these videos and and spend the site.
But there were links
passed here and there, and I think that
that can be really useful. I think word-of-mouth
of, like, oh, I just saw this.
You know, you should check this out. This
is really great,
is useful. I think that, you know, when
teachers are able to do that or communities
of caregivers are able to do that, that
that's

(37:24):
really important. Or even from the kids. Right?
Like if you if a kid cooks their
own food,
they're much more likely to eat it and
find joy in it. Absolutely.
If they're the ones who pick the recommend
the video to their friend Mhmm. There's gotta
be a completely different energy. Yeah. Absolutely. The
other kid watching it.
Yeah. I think I think when I think

(37:46):
about,
the mother tree and I I think that
we have so many mother trees, you know,
people that are holding it down and are,
doing it without a lot of,
fanfare.
And I kind of see myself as the
mycelium. You know, I'm, like, connecting the roots

(38:07):
of one place and and giving it to
the other.
The
a huge part of what I love doing
about this as somebody who has, you know,
produced videos and,
values communication and education, you know, these museums
and universities who are conducting research

(38:27):
or, you know, indie artists,
you know, local PBS stations who who make
little segments about local things going on in
their communities,
they so often, you'll look at their YouTube
channel and maybe a video, which is so
brilliantly produced, so many resources,
experts in their field,
and they don't have many views.

(38:48):
And so my hope is that, you know,
by
by amplifying,
you know, their information
that, you know, it will travel through from
them to other places that need that information.
And so other trees and you're the mycelium.
Yeah. Yeah. Exactly.
And you are the gift

(39:09):
that
is totally,
you know, buried and unnoticed and invisible.
Right? That but is there
making things happen. So Yeah. And I think
that there there are a lot of places
that that are are trying to do that.
I mean, I think,
the state of, you know, education
and information, media literacy,

(39:30):
critical thinking, all of these things, I think
that there are a lot of groups,
across the country and around the world who
are focused on,
strengthening
these these skills in our our young people,
in our communities.
And,
I'm always I'm inspired by by that and
learn from that and try to fold that

(39:51):
into,
the kitchen see this
in what I do.
I love it.
It just occurred to me, there's something that
you said that
reminded me of this, you know, that there's
such
angst about
communication these days. Everybody's afraid
to bring up any topic and to expose

(40:13):
their kids to any like it's just such
a hard time
to be in conversation.
And there are some topics
I just happen to notice and I'll offer
it up, you know, that you had a,
sort of a little marketing thing for Black
History Month, right, and there was a set
of which I assume that you do with
a whole lot of different holidays and things

(40:34):
that are Yeah. Absolutely. Of the month or
whatever. Have you run into what did you
run into? Like, how does,
how does your fan mail and your,
not fan mail, like, what's the interaction that
you have with people that
that don't know you and that are don't
know that you're the mycelium and don't really
necessarily,

(40:55):
well, feel both positive and negative. So let's
I'll throw it out to you. Well,
again, I'll say that I'm extremely lucky. My
corner of the Internet has not exposed me
to a lot of,
a lot of issues around that. I I
know that,
there there have been a few times where

(41:18):
videos have fallen into a, you know, subreddit,
and people have misunderstood the information or tried
to use it to,
support an argument that is
not in line with what the video is
actually saying.
And, you know, I definitely it's a living
collection. So,
you know, I certainly,

(41:39):
I, TKSST
is never the maker of the videos, but
the amplifier, and I write,
a short,
summary or introduction
to what the information is to help
translate it or make it a little easier,
kind of increase that vocabulary.
And so sometimes I will go back in
if,

(42:00):
scientific information has been updated or if there's
misunderstanding around something. So there was definitely one
video that,
definitely one video that,
was talking about how redwoods need fire to,
get their seeds going. And people were misunderstanding
around, you know, climate,
being a challenge to these fires, and and

(42:23):
they didn't understand that these fires are burning
longer and hotter and are harder for these
trees to recover. And so, you know, I
went back in and I I,
reemphasized,
the points of the video.
It's
wonderful. You have this ongoing as you said,
it's a living
library, a living experience so that you can

(42:44):
go in and
help the dynamic if there's
a hot topic. Yeah. Or correct correct information,
update information. You know, science is constantly learning
new things. So so that's often necessary.
So on the note of climate and nature
and all that, and I do I do
buy into, like, factory tours. So much of

(43:05):
it should have something to do with with
some natural ingredient. I hope most factory tours
involved,
I would guess that the ones that they
film
have
more to do with natural ingredients than,
artificial ingredients. That's
maybe a naive guess. But,
where does nature pop up for you on
this?

(43:25):
I I grew up, and as an only
child, hanging out in the backyard, digging in
the dirt
and playing with the hose,
and gardening,
and going on hikes in our local mountains
in Los Angeles. And so,
I always felt extremely connected to nature. And
even now, you know, I
step outside and

(43:46):
have a,
native
yard,
in front and back. And I'm a California
naturalist,
certified as a couple of years ago. Just
to quickly about what's a California naturalist certification?
So I went through a class,
that
and and we went on a couple local
field trips, which were really amazing. A class

(44:06):
that explains,
the ecosystems
of of California all across the state, you
know, our geology,
our,
plants, our animals, how
all of it integrates
together to make
what was for thousands of years a very
sustainable
life,
and who the people were who were helping

(44:27):
to cultivate and maintain that
in
in thoughtful ways.
And so,
yeah, that certification
kind of just
says that I have studied these things
and now I really enjoy them. Near me
because,
that's such a beautiful construct

(44:50):
to be in conversation about how things fit
together. And it's interesting because, you know, if
you think about your videos, you know, each
one is about something different.
But I'm sure some pull the ecosystem construct
together.
Yeah. So many. So siloed. Right? Or we're
so like
yeah. Go ahead.
Yeah. I mean, so

(45:10):
I think that
a huge part of nature on the site
and the videos that that talk about all
the different facets of nature,
they are really
trying to reconnect,
generations of kids that have not,
been away from the screen, who didn't just
wander around and and dig in the dirt

(45:32):
with a stick. You know?
And then also, a lot of kids just
don't have that privilege of having the open
space of of nature. And so,
you know, when I've given tours at our
local nature preserve, you know, I volunteered to,
you know, lead classes through
our little preserve.
It's, you know, incredible because it's, you know,

(45:52):
maybe the first time that they're seeing native
plants to a city that they've lived in
all of their lives and to smell them
and see how they grow. And, you know,
we're really kinda disconnected from that. And then,
you know, there's layers upon layers of that,
of how ecosystems
work and how, you know, the animals that

(46:12):
all kids really love and
and want to learn more about how that's
connected with where they live and
how humans interact with them and how we
can start to protect, you know, kids that
don't get generally, it's,
thought that kids that don't get outside that
much, you know, they are not
able to really connect with that. And so

(46:34):
the more you're able to get the kids
into the spaces or thinking about these spaces,
the more they're gonna wanna protect
these spaces. And that's so important. Resilience kind
of wild methodology, so I'm with you. Yeah.
It's interesting because as curators, because we're both
curators to a certain extent, you know, we
get to choose what we
information we
share. So have you

(46:56):
how do you work with that? Like do
you have
this specific interest of getting kids outside? Like
do you
because you mentioned this early on that you
were hoping that, you know,
kids went out and explored
after they watched the video together with whoever
they watched it with hopefully.
When you curate,
and we can sort of keep it in

(47:16):
the nature ish space, it's such a big
category,
does do you wake up in the morning
going, oh my gosh. I really want kids
to know about
something
Mhmm. And you go seek it out? Or
how do you source the make the choices?
You only have so much
time and
True.
Yeah. There's a there's a lot of rabbit

(47:37):
holes that can
that you can fall down.
You know, a lot of the early stuff
comes from my own interests and the questions
that my kids asked or things that would
come up in our days, you know, from
our local science museum trips that that we
always did or our local parks,
a national park trip. Actually saying the kids

(47:58):
should see this. Like Yeah. She's out there
like, mom, the kids should see this. You
know, they they co curated with me for
many years when they were little and would,
you know, even tell me about stuff from
from school that they thought I should I
should look at.
And then, you know, now I think that
it's so important.
Now that I
have,

(48:19):
you know, strong footing in the landscape of
different,
creators,
organ organizations
that are dedicated to conservation
and science communicators
and all of these different places who are
doing
really incredible work to
keep our environment as healthy as we can
under the circumstances.
You know, they make videos to communicate about

(48:41):
the work that they're doing to tell those
stories. And so
it's
it's a lot of,
what do I think are the best ones
that have kind of told that story really
effectively
or something that,
maybe kids can connect with their own lives
about or you know, something that,

(49:02):
that maybe gets misinformation
or disinformation
about that, you know, I hope to amplify
the clarification
around it.
And I think that,
you know, that's all really an important service.
So so I'm trying to do that a
lot.
Also, there's just, like, there's facets of nature
that

(49:23):
do not get the algorithmic
push that that we would, you know, think
that would be important. For example,
so many clean energy solutions,
natural
climate solutions of how, you know, our climate,
our our ecosystems have been
balancing things for, you know,

(49:43):
forever.
Yeah. Exactly.
And,
or biomimicry is one of my favorite topics.
You know? What can we learn from what
nature is already doing? There was this really
amazing
series called think like a tree that Wired
did many years ago. And there was a
bunch of, short videos,

(50:04):
I think mostly animated, that were explaining,
you know,
how the tree, trees down in Louisiana that
had deep roots and did the most bending
would survive the hurricane and what could be
learned from that. Or about that too. That's
too cool. Yeah. Yeah. Or shark skin has
a really specific texture that,
that bacteria doesn't attach to or or germs

(50:25):
or and so there's, like, how can we
apply that texture Yeah. To, you know, handles
in hospitals? There was
another one that,
there's this great podcast called 99%
Invisible
that Roman Mars,
records out of Oakland, California.
And he
collaborated with, I think it was Vox,

(50:47):
many years ago on
this great video about
how, I think it was
penguins,
different birds,
and in different places
had,
informed how Japan's
Shinkansen,
the bullet train, was redesigned,
so that the front nose,

(51:07):
worked with physics
instead of against it. And so, like, all
that stuff is so interesting. We can start
seeing
the stuff around us in more dimensions, and
maybe we're thinking more,
you know,
a little more unhinged to take the hinges
apart and and make different connections that we're
not usually seeing

(51:28):
to think creatively. Or unhinge and and start
seeing different connections. That'd be Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
I just think it's you know, there's so
much possibility out there.
One last thing that I think is really
important
that I wanna say is, like, modeling failure,
you know, in these,
you know, in science,
fail is just more information,

(51:50):
you know. And
I think so many kids I mean, there's
a lot of anxiety
in our communities now, and and kids take
on a lot of anxiety, partially because of
a lot of
exposure to stuff probably through screen time. But
I think that that can
their their interest in video can
be used

(52:11):
to watch things together that can help them.
For example,
mindfulness, you know, videos that that are available.
You know, I try to to do that
stuff that's,
you know, talking about
oh, what was I talking about?
How to, you know, calming yourself. I mean
Yeah. Calming yourself.
But also oh, the fails. Yeah. Also, you

(52:33):
know, when
when somebody fails, sealing seeing that resilience,
you know, of them getting back up and
feeling episode of Tell me. Of this entire
podcast was about sea turtles
and that you can't actually make a mistake
and fail because it's a learning experience and
sea turtles come up on the beach
and they what's called false crawl

(52:55):
because
they're checking it out.
And it's a lot of work to drag
yourself out of the water when you're a
sea turtle
and to be not buoyant
and to
drag your heavy body up the sand and
then decide,
I don't really think this is, like, for
whatever reason, whether there's some sign of predators

(53:15):
or the sand's not quite the right texture
or the wind's not going right, whatever it
is that, like, the future of my babies
won't be best served this way and to
drag yourself back into the ocean and try
again
is a monumental
exhausting experience.
And the message
of this first episode was you can't make

(53:36):
a mistake.
You tried, you did the best you could
in that moment,
and
you learn from it. And that message is,
I feel like there's gotta be more ways
to get that out because yes, that is
like the main, a major piece of anxiety
of Absolutely. Adults of the things. And I
think especially girls, you know, trying to toe

(53:57):
that line and not fail, not
say the wrong thing, you know, try to
have the right answer all the time. I
think, you know, boys and girls have that
challenge of trying to be right all the
time instead of, you know, that empowering
thing to say, I don't know or let's
find out. And,
you know, oh, yeah. That didn't work. Let's
try again. You know, that I I think

(54:19):
that a lot of videos,
you know, model that through just watching
somebody's work, their field trip to their office,
essentially, which might be, you know, in a
lab or in a studio or out in
the ocean somewhere.
And I and I think that's really valuable.
Yeah. And just thinking about, like, what you

(54:39):
would think you would make a film about
or you would make a video about and
and the appearance, the highlight reel, like, on
social media that everything has to go perfectly.
Right? But the message
is so wrong
if you only show the perfect trip to
the office or the perfect whatever skateboard.
You have to keep falling

(54:59):
and hitting the bumps
or else people think that they're failures.
So I, you know, in making video for,
because
there's so many people out there making media,
right, making video, making whatever in whatever form.
You know, this is such an important lesson.
But like, as
a trusted,
serious expert in curating what people need to

(55:21):
see, what they should see,
kids and families and adults, what kids should
see,
need to see real, like real life.
Yeah, absolutely.
The way things work together and the systems
and the unhinging.
Yeah. And so, you know. And I think
that that's useful
for educators too. I mean, there's a lot

(55:42):
of media made for education that maybe feels
a little more stiff or,
you know, doesn't have that dynamic energy of
somebody in the field or somebody who's, like,
super passionate about it. And so when you
open up your resources
to
the good parts of YouTube, which are hard

(56:03):
to find, which is why the site exists,
you know, then
you're you can engage with kids,
in in new ways because suddenly, there's a
lot of energy and interest and passion and
curiosity
just kind of naturally built into,
it. So educators can use them as brain

(56:24):
breaks, or maybe it introduces a unit about
something
and and kind of makes that
that textbook
come alive in in some different way.
That's that's the hope. Yeah. I have to
say, like, the the bar has gotten very
high. I mean, from somebody
like me who wants to create video around
my content,

(56:45):
I could not, in any way, shape, or
form, ever do that myself. I don't have
any of
the skills to make that happen. And there's
a lot of people out there who can,
I realize that? But the bar is pretty
high for
entertainment value, and that's true
of just, you know, for example, teachers in
the classroom
are judged on their entertainment value,

(57:07):
that because there's such an ex there's such
a new
high expectation of of not having the boring,
geeky
explanation of how something works, right, like the
old videos that were Yeah. Can you talk
to that just for a moment? I mean,
I think
I think we all wanna be entertained.

(57:28):
And I think that,
you know, stories by the campfire
are,
have been entertaining
over
the many
generation upon generation that we've told them.
I think that
there are ways that
someplace like the Howard Hughes Medical Institute,

(57:49):
who I
worked with on branding many, many years ago,
that they have a wonderful,
bio interactive
group there that was making videos. And and
they were definitely kind of an old school
scientific
models,

(58:10):
very, very straightforward
content. Dry. That was dry.
And now they make really incredible stuff.
They've changed it
completely
and have this really amazing,
studio called Tangle Bank Studios that makes nature
documentaries.
They're communicating the same stuff, but they have,

(58:31):
you know, practiced
and found, you know, and failed a lot
and found what works to communicate this really
incredible science and get it through
in ways that are are more engaging. And
it's it's just more effective. I remember,
you know, NASA videos used to be very
dry,
fifteen years ago when when things were starting

(58:53):
out. And
I wish I could remember his name now,
but I I can I can send it
to you later? There was a,
a video editor who took a bunch of,
content. I think it was partially from NASA
and from other places and cut together this
really dramatic,
beautiful

(59:13):
storytelling,
I guess, package, this short video explaining
the vision of NASA, the the power, the
heart of of exploration.
And
from then on, you know, I remember it
going viral. And
I know that it it definitely reached, you
know, NASA, JPL, Goddard.

(59:36):
And
I I really think that it changed kind
of how their storytelling
came about.
And so, yeah, there's, you know, there's a
lot of entertainment and a lot of it
is empty
out there,
in the 4,000,000,000 videos that that YouTube has.
And
so, you know,
being able to
team up and communicate

(59:58):
the important stuff,
is,
you know, you gotta have you gotta have
a way of understanding how to how to
communicate it. And I think a lot of
people are doing that, like, so much younger
and so much more quickly than they were
a decade ago.
And it's really incredible. I mean, I'm a
fan of everyone that I'm trying

(01:00:20):
to promote and amplify.
Okay. Well, hopefully, I'll be in
your fan list or whatever. I'm a fan.
I'll be the source of fans
of Cydia at some point.
I'll have to get you some great resource
recommendations from you. So first of all, I
just wanna say, I know that you won
a Webby Award for

(01:00:40):
this
amazing
experience that you're curating. Talk about that for
a moment.
Yeah. I it was actually,
it was right when the pandemic started. It
was in 2020.
So it was very it was very surreal,
but I was I am proud that, it

(01:01:02):
was a personal project Webby award and it
won, two. It was the the main award
and then the audience choice. I can't remember
the exact wording on that. But, yeah, it
was really wonderful.
You know, it it validates that that this
it's it's really the value of it is
in the collection. The fact that they're all

(01:01:22):
together, that you're searching through a smaller,
you know, a slice of YouTube that is,
in my opinion,
you know, has more valuable information. You don't
have to fight through
unboxing videos and,
problematic YouTubers and, you know, all the things
that that we try to avoid. Absolutely. Yeah.
So that. I was proud of that. Thank

(01:01:43):
you so much.
So what's ahead for you? Tell us, you
know, what's next? I mean, I know you
have a whole gift
connected, which is such an additional beautiful
offering to curate.
The gift guide? That you don't have to
go to Amazon. Yeah. The gift guide. Yeah.
Well, that tends to be,
holiday based, but I do keep it up

(01:02:05):
all year round. It's it's
primarily
books that I love, usually nonfiction,
science or art or history based books,
things that you'd see a video of on
the site,
different topics like that.
Also toys,
and
puzzles and games that I think are fun

(01:02:25):
for the entire family or
that are primarily not plastic that can be
passed on once your child's grown out of
it. It's like something something rugged that you
can just say, oh, my my little little
cousin needs it now, so we're gonna pass
it along.
Stuff that I just think is is valuable
and fun, and maybe you learn a different
level of information on it while you're while

(01:02:48):
you're in it.
And then joint
experience that's that's Yeah. Grow. Yeah. I mean,
that's that's a part of it. Like, it's
a video site and but, you know, stepping
away from it, it's like, how do those
how does that information how does that feeling,
you know,
reflect in your in your life? Like, do

(01:03:09):
you see the connections we'd have when my
kids were little?
You know, they can we'd be out somewhere,
and they'd connect. Oh, that thing is like
what we saw in that video a couple
weeks ago. You know? And that was always
like, wow. Yeah. You're right. I didn't I
didn't notice that. That's super cool.
And the next, you know, I I think
that there's

(01:03:29):
there's a lot of technical
back end development stuff I wanna do with
the site to to make it, more robust
and useful.
But It's just no small feat. Like No.
Just like it's like it the as in
your role as
heading this whole thing, like, it's that mycelium.
Right? Yeah. The the keeping the back the

(01:03:50):
back of the house going Yeah. Is giving
A lot. Right, Kai? Like,
my producers, the back of the house for
me, I mean, there's so much
that goes on that is such an enormous
time
and all different resource investment
that is just nonstop, especially with all of
the new technology that makes it Yeah. It
only makes it easier if you actually

(01:04:12):
spend the time and the money building it
into. Yeah. And and luckily, I have, like,
being a designer for so many years, I
have a lot of technical background and experience,
but there's a lot that's beyond,
you know. And so,
I'm really I have been a one person
shop for
most of the time.
Now I have backup of

(01:04:35):
coworkers,
here and there depending on what the
aspect is, whether it's, you
know,
outreach or,
you know, development or, you know, monetization,
which, you know, everything's free on the site,
but I really kind of
align
because I have public media values kind of

(01:04:55):
aligned with the content of the site, I'm
I'm going in that direction with supporting the
site.
And going, by the way. So you've set
up a subscription process. Yeah. So Completely voluntary.
Right? Yes. Absolutely.
Something if you what do you so how's
it going as a business model,
and what what can you tell what can
you tell me?

(01:05:15):
Well, so the site was was pretty, has
has always been free, always will be free.
And,
there's nothing that's,
no content that's that's paywalled or anything like
that.
But during the,
right before the pandemic,
I was looking for ways for the site
to support itself with more,

(01:05:38):
and I really kind of made this my
full time job. And so I went with
a membership model of very much of, you
know, supporting in the same way that you
would a public, you know, public media. It's
helping support the amount of time
that I put in, the amount of, you
know, server costs and and all of that.

(01:05:59):
And, you know, hopefully helping me also reach
out
to more communities of of educators and librarians
and and parents and also the,
you know, I've in the past
worked
with museum,
video producers at museums,
to to get their information out there, and

(01:06:19):
I'd love to do more outreach on on
that side of things too.
Yeah. Great partnership opportunities. Yeah. Absolutely.
Yeah. It's beautiful. So two last questions because
I've kept you've been so generous with your
Oh, you're very One is, what do you
got for us for Mother's Day? And two
is, what else you got going on that
you wanna share? And last words of wisdom
and

(01:06:40):
well, for Mother's Day, we've got a whole
bunch of videos about mothers
and mothering that I think are fun. And
that's everything from, you know, a mother raccoon
pushing her her raccoon cub up a tree,
to beautiful, you know, animations
from animation students
that,
talk about, you know, relationships with mothers or

(01:07:02):
I remember
there's one that's great. I can't remember what
country it's from. I love finding
animated shorts from foreign countries.
You know,
one of the most actually influential things from
when I was a kid was going to,
an animation festival
and seeing a bunch of shorts.

(01:07:23):
And as a kid, it was a it
wasn't a kids festival. And so I just
saw, like, all that they had to
to present. And and so I really try
to make
TKSST
a little bit of that film festival feeling
too. And so there's one of a little
kid
talking about their mother as an airplane and,
like,

(01:07:43):
just
basically emphasizing how amazing she is and all
the things that she does. And and so
I've got a lot of videos like that,
about
about mothers. We were talking about how A
love metaphor.
Right? Absolutely. So much that you're offering that
actually really is metaphor. You're offering
Yeah. Yeah. And advice oh, gosh.

(01:08:04):
You know,
I can only say what worked for me,
but,
I have found
that,
and I found this in both positive ways
and
challenging
ways,
that,
the the habits
that we set up with our kids, you
know, that's what they get used to. So,

(01:08:24):
you know,
when they were little, we didn't really have
much screen time, and it was always together.
And,
and they were used to it, and they
were pretty fine with it. We would, you
know, it was what they expected and we're
used to. And, you know, when the gates
opened,
that's
it changed. It is what time to raise
kids these days. Yeah. Yeah. And, I mean,

(01:08:46):
especially around the pandemic because I think we
all gravitated to the screens either because of
necessity
mostly because of necessity between schools and work
and all of that.
And when those gates open, it's hard because
then that's what they're used to. So I
would say just, you know, whenever we can,
try
to make it a communal

(01:09:07):
thing. Try to make it an opportunity for
discussion.
You know, try to
have your ear to what they're doing on
their own and get involved if it's something
that can interest you. You know? Play video
games with your kids and and make it
play. You know? Adults are the oldest kids.
So,
you know, let it be let it be

(01:09:28):
something that that you're doing together.
I think a lot of parents do that
already. I think a lot of parents wanna
do that and maybe don't have as many
opportunities given whatever circumstances.
But And I think that there's an there's
an awareness and appreciation
for that message that,
parenting doesn't just
come natural. Like, it comes naturally but it

(01:09:49):
doesn't. Like, as a new parent,
as a parent of young children or whoever,
like, there's no rule book. There's no like,
you know, this is how you should everything
you should say today and everything you should
do today. Like, we gotta figure it out
as we go along. So,
you know, the advice is really beautifully welcome.
Spend more time with your kids sharing their

(01:10:10):
experiences and then Learning with them. Yeah. Yeah.
Learning together.
It's super fun
too. Yeah. And and have fun. Like, we
are not grownups. We are all big kids
and there's nothing childish about there's nothing wrong
with being childish and there's nothing childish about
it being a kid. So
yeah. Awesome. Thank you so much. Thank you

(01:10:32):
for inviting me. And, I'm looking forward to
being one of your whatever
of your curating me. Thank you so much.
And thank you so much for this time.
I really appreciate it.

(01:10:55):
This has been a production of BLI Studios
produced by me, Kai. Follow along with our
other BLI produced shows at balancinglife'sissues.com/podcast-BLI.
Got an idea for the show? Email me,
Kai, at balancing life's issues dot com. And
don't forget to stay in touch with your
host, Jessica, at [e-mail].

(01:11:15):
Anything else to add, Miles?