The Story Seeds Podcast
Our Webby Award-nominated show matches kids ages 6-12 and their story ideas with diverse, beloved children's authors. Each episode chronicles the magic that grows through author-child collaboration and features an immersive story time read aloud by the author. Bonus episodes feature author interviews with our host Betsy Bird! As a Common Sense Media Seal Selection, our show is recognized as a great choice for kids and families for its engaging stories, valuable content, and diverse voices, characters, and messages and has received an A+ for educational value. Our show has also been featured in Wired, Time for Kids, Parents, The New York Times, and CBC and wasThe Week Junior magazine's 2020 Podcast of the Year. Our theme song and music is composed and performed by Andrew VanWyngarden, the Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter/musician and co-founder of MGMT. Our companion activity book "Imagination Lab: Experiments in Creativity" is a New York Times/Wirecutter "Best Gift for 10 Year Olds" pick. This podcast is a Literary Safari Production.
Episodes
Since 1996, The Webby Awards have honored the best of the Internet, so it is kind of a big deal that our small and independently produced podcast is nominated for one this year!
The episode we are nominated for is Episode 11: "A Nose that Knows" which brought together nine-year old leukemia survivor Jocelyn and Katherine Applegate, the Newbery Award-winning author of The One and Only Ivan, to grow a real-life inspired story about ...
Listen along as host Betsy Bird and Newbery Award-winning Katherine Applegate have a fun and heartwarming conversation about what it was like working with 9 year old Jocelyn in a special presentation of The Story Seeds Podcast which raises awareness of childhood cancer.
In the interview, Betsy and Katherine:
- Talk about what it was like working with Jocelyn and learning about her cancer journey [04:19]
- Discuss how Jane Goodall an...
This special Story Seeds collaboration brings together nine-year old Jocelyn and Newbery Award-winning Katherine Applegate, author of The One and Only Ivan and Willodeen.
Katherine helps Jocelyn grow this story idea:
My story seed is about a super service dog (based off of my own dog Sally) who helps kids with cancer feel better.
Join our host Betsy Bird as she guides you through this collaboration full of hope and resilience. Featur...
Priyanka and Riya are best friends. Morgan and Mercedes are daughter and mother. They are just four of the voices you will hear in this montage of eight short interviews created by kids ages 8-15 during the inaugural Story Seeds On Air Summer 2021 Podcasting Camp where aspiring podcasters learned from expert guests and each other the art and technical skills they need to amplify their voices and broadcast their ideas into community...
This specific episode which we released in June 2020 is featured on CBC Podcast Playlist this week in an episode titled "Feel good stories for when you need them most." Though it originally aired last summer, we're giving it the good ole' encore treatment—along a brief update from our host Betsy Bird on some exciting new happenings in the Story Seeds world (like our summer camp for kids)!
About the Episode
A Worm's Worth: Twelve-y...
Who says podcasts are just for listening? Our activity book is ideal for at home fun, distance learning, or the classroom, and brings together the best of a magazine, workbook, and journal. It features over 80 pages of episode inspired, screen-free prompts and projects. Scan the QR codes inside to blast off on your interactive listening adventures!
Now available to order. Get your copy here.
Listen along as The Story Seeds Podcast host Betsy Bird chats with the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, Jason Reynolds (author of Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You, a Remix of the National Book Award-winning book by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi.) They talk about what it was like working with 12 year old Irthan in Episode 10 “A Worm’s Worth” and growing his story seed about a worm that turns into a human on a full moon’s...
This week’s Story Seeds collaboration brings together 12 year old Irthan and the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, Jason Reynolds (poet, storyteller, National Book Award finalist, Newbery Honoree, and New York Times best-selling author.) Jason's latest work is Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You, a Remix of the National Book Award-winning book by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi. As National Ambassador, he recently started the ...
Listen along as The Story Seeds Podcast host Betsy Bird chats with Bil Lepp (five-time champion of the West Virginia Liars’ Competition and author of the 2014 PEN award-winning picture book, THE KING OF LITTLE THINGS.) They go behind the scenes and talk about what it was like working with 11 year old Keshav in Episode 9 “Look Before You Eat” to grow his fractured fairytale of a story seed about a cow with an ice cream house, a bunn...
This week’s Story Seeds collaboration brings together 11 year old Keshav and Bil Lepp (professional storyteller, five-time champion of the West Virginia Liars’ Competition and author of the 2014 PEN award-winning The King of Little Things.)
Bil helps Keshav grow this story idea:
Once there was a cow, a bunny and a fox. There was also a bad wolf who liked eating up people's houses. The cow made a house out of ice cream, the bunny made...
Listen along as The Story Seeds Podcast host Betsy Bird chats with Susan Muaddi Darraj (author of the debut middle grade series Farah Rocks and a 2014 AWP Grace Paley Award, 2016 American Book Award, and 2016 Arab American Book Award winner). They go behind the scenes and talk about what it was like working with 12 year old Sulaf on Episode 8 “A Girl Who Looks Like Me” and grow her story seed about a young Arab-American girl who fi...
This week’s Story Seeds collaboration brings together 12 year old Sulaf and Susan Muaddi Darraj (author of the new middle grade series Farah Rocks and a 2014 AWP Grace Paley Award, 2016 American Book Award, and 2016 Arab American Book Award winner) on a field trip to the Riverside Theater in New York City.
Susan helps Sulaf grow this story idea:
A young girl who lives in New York City and works in the theater district realizes the...
Listen along as The Story Seeds Podcast host Betsy Bird chats with Tracey Baptiste (New York Times bestselling author of MINECRAFT: THE CRASH, as well as the Caribbean adventure series THE JUMBIES.) They go behind the scenes and talk about what it was like virtually working and collaborating with 12 year old Amalia on Episode 7 “Barking Up the Right Tree” to grow her story seed about an athletic girl named Joy and her magical rela...
This week’s quarantine edition of Story Seeds brings together two super imaginative Jersey girls: Tracey Baptiste (New York Times bestselling author of MINECRAFT: THE CRASH, as well as the creepy Caribbean series THE JUMBIES) and Amalia Tsampalis (age 12).
Tracey helps Amalia grow this story idea:
An athletic 12 year old girl loves to climb trees. Maybe this tree she loves to climb is in her backyard. It's really tall and there's no...
The Story Seeds Podcast theme song was written, composed, and performed by Andrew VanWyngarden. Nowadays, he is a real-life, Grammy-nominated musician who tours the world with the band MGMT that he co-founded while in college. But, fun fact: like many of the creative rockstars featured on The Story Seeds Podcast, Andrew actually got his start making music as a child, using a Tascam four track tape machine to record! Growing up in M...
Listen along as The Story Seeds Podcast host Betsy Bird chats with Carlos Hernandez, author of Rick Riordan Presents' Sal and Gabi series and winner of 2020 Pura Belpré Author Award. They go behind the scenes of Episode 6: The Paintbrush of Doom and talk about what it was like working with twins Siri and Zarana and growing their story seed (a girl who receives a magic paintbrush from her kooky aunt that turns whatever you paint,...
This week’s Story Seeds collaboration matches Carlos Hernandez (winner of the 2020 Pura Belpré Author Award and author of the Sal and Gabi series from Rick Riordan Presents) with 10 year old twins Siri and Zarana.
Carlos collaborates with Siri and Zarana to grow their story idea:
A girl who really loves to paint get a magic paintbrush from her kooky aunt on her 10th birthday. She uses it to paint the animals she loves, but it turns ...
Listen along as The Story Seeds Podcast host Betsy Bird chats with Rajani LaRocca (author of "Midsummer’s Mayhem," a Kirkus Best Book of 2019 and long-listed for the 2020 Massachusetts Book Award as a must-read title in MG/YA Literature.) They go behind the scenes and talk about what it was like meeting Liyana and growing her story seed about a girl trying to fit in with her famous family with the help of a magic mirror on Episode ...
This week’s Story Seeds collaboration brings together 12 year old creative rockstar Liyana and Rajani LaRocca, author of the 2019 middle-grade hit Midsummer’s Mayhem (a Kirkus Best Book of 2019 and a Must Reads in the 2020 Massachusetts Book Awards) .
Rajani helps Liyana grow this story seed:
A girl who doesn’t fit in with her family of celebrities (her mom is a Bangladeshi supermodel and her dad is a Japanese soccer player) gets a m...
Listen along as The Story Seeds Podcast host Betsy Bird chats with Aram Kim (author and illustrator of Bank Street’s Best Children’s Book of 2018 NO KIMCHI FOR ME.) They go behind the scenes and talk about what it was like meeting Cici and growing her electric story seed about Queens’ new neighborhood superhero, Electric Kitty, on Episode 4 “Heroes and Queens.” They also talk about the significance of Queens in Aram and Cici's sto...
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