Ready To Learn
Podcast Accelerator for Ready To Learn Stations
A 16-week training and $10k stipend for Ready To Learn station teams to develop educational podcasts for young children, their families and communities.
Get To Know The Selected Teams!
As we’re fond of saying here at PRX, “Feedback is a Gift” – and we hope you’re feeling generous!
Enjoy musical journeys, library fun-houses, futurism for children experiencing blindness, generational story-telling adventures, and more! Each team has taken almost 20 weeks to develop their pilots for a new audience and they are excited to share some of their work with you.
To give feedback, please complete the short form next to each pilot below. The team that receives the most positive feedback will be given an Audience Choice award at the Final Showcase on October 26 at 7pm ET. (Note that this award will not determine which pilot will move ahead for production with Ready To Learn.)
Abi and the Cosmic Caravan
A Children’s Blind Futurism Audio Adventure
About the Podcast
Join the Cosmic Caravan as the tight-knit community looks for work and discovers new ways of life on distant planets.
This podcast is an immersive experience where listeners can learn skills for life and school from Abi as they join her on her galactic adventures.
Abi is an inventive eight-year-old who is daring and blind. Radish is her shape-shifting cane who transforms the world of sight into a world of sound.
Abi lives with her with her Aunt Libby and her brother, Lyle. Abi and the Cosmic Caravan loves innovating new ways to work and play while traveling in a spaceship caravan with family and neighbors,
Team Members
Grant Holub-Moorman
Janet Perez
Mecail Martin
Veronica Puente
Kijuan Amey
Kira DeCoudres
Ava’s Adventures with Abuelo
About the Podcast
The podcast follows Ava and her Hispanic grandfather, whose storytelling takes them on a fantastical voyage to discover important life skills for success in the future.
Ava is an independent and intuitive 6-year-old bilingual Hispanic girl growing up in the US, who is beguiled and bewildered in equal measure with the social and cultural differences between her home and school life.
Abuelo is more than just a grandpa. Warm and endearing, he’s a moral compass and caring caregiver for Ava and her 4-year-old younger brother, Juanito. Coming from a Hispanic culture with a passion for storytelling that also acts as a learning tool, he wants to continue that heritage with his grandkids.
As a Mexican immigrant, Abuelo’s native tongue is Spanish, yet he is constantly improving his English skills through a great intergenerational learning bond he has with Ava, as they both learn from each other.
Team Members
Andrés Salgado
Julio Gonzalez
David Rolls
I, Futuremaker
Deep dive into a new career each episode with I, Futuremaker!
About the Podcast
The world of work isn’t like it used to be. More career paths are non-linear, education no longer guarantees job placement, and technology is reshaping certain careers while creating others from thin air. There is a larger push for diversity, equity, inclusion and parity in the workplace (although those efforts and results still have a long way to go). And in all this change, millions of children have witnessed their parents, family and loved ones lose and change their jobs over the last two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, more than ever, the future seems uncertain.
That’s where we come in. Here at “I, Futuremaker”, we explore the possibilities of the future that our listeners want to make. Maybe they want to fly to space, explore the ocean, or help stop world hunger. Host Megan, and her friends Brett and Luis, who, between the three of them have worked in over forty-five different jobs, help bring the possibilities of the future to the kid caller’s present. Each episode explores a new career with an exciting interview with someone currently in that role, and through the story of someone who changed history in that job field. We even get to chat with a new tool or item each episode that someone who has that job uses!
Team Members
Megan Bagala
Brett Tubbs
Luis E. Mora
Keyshawn The Keymaker
About the Podcast
An 8-year-old is on a QUEST to give away a KEY TO SUCCESS from his key making machine to help someone in his community. In each podcast episode, listeners will discover new types of careers through adventures. They also learn KEY CAREER VALUES such as resilience, critical thinking, and collaboration.
Keyshawn is an energetic second grader and the self-proclaimed “GUARDIAN OF THE MIGHTY KEY MAKING MACHINE”. He lives in the lower level of a duplex located in North Minneapolis with his Mama, Dad, teenage older brother Terrell, and Freckles, the family’s loving pit bull. Keyshawn’s infectious personality propels him to meet a lot of people in his community. His thirst for adventure is well known by his neighbors and kids at school.
Team Members
Ed Jenkins
Avery Moore Kloss
Jerome Rossen
Page Flippers Take on the World
About the Podcast
Page Flippers Take on the World is a podcast from Brooklyn Public Library where kids save the day by exploring their interests, discovering new books and talking to real live experts.
Rachel and Sheneatha are children's librarians and co-hosts of our podcast. Each episode begins with a Page Flipper meeting, and the librarians invite a new kid co-host (the Star Page Flipper for the day) to tell everyone about their interests and the books they like to read. The Star Page Flipper gets to interview a real live expert who works in the field the Page Flipper is interested in.
Then, things get wacky! Each episode ends in some kind of kerfuffle and the Star Page Flipper has to take over the show and solve the kerfuffle by reading the right books or asking the right questions!
Team Members
Virginia Marshall
Sheneatha Frison
Rachel Tiemann
Work It! Work It!
Getting down and growing up with the world of work.
About the Podcast
An upbeat, playful, and music-driven podcast that introduces young listeners to different types of jobs. It’s Richard Scarry’s What People Do All Day meets Reading Rainbow– remixed for a new generation.
About the Hosts
“Work It Work It!” is co-hosted by Christina Sanabria and Andrés Salguero of Latin GRAMMY-winning children’s musical duo, 123 Andrés. As native Spanish-speakers and acclaimed songwriters,
Andrés and Christina blend English and Spanish with humor, wonder and a big dose of music to create a playful and bright atmosphere. Christina and Andrés are joined by Stella, an inquisitive young listener who is our resident “Work It Reporter.” Each episode, Stella interviews an adult Subject Matter Expert (SME) who can tell us about their job. This SME is voiced by a well-known children’s musician or podcaster who is knowledgeable, approachable and just the right amount of silly to keep listeners giggling.
Meet the Hosts
Christina Sanbria
Andrés Salguero
David Huppert
Pierce Freelon
Nicole Eure
About the Podcast Accelerator
The Ready To Learn initiative, from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and PBS, with support from the U.S. Department of Education, aims to develop new content that helps young children and their families, particularly those in low-income communities, build vital skills to help them succeed in school and life.
PRX is hosting a 16-week virtual podcast training for six production teams specifically at Ready To Learn “Learning Neighborhood” public media stations. The training will take a listener-centered approach to developing and strengthening show concepts, particularly geared toward career readiness and educational experiences for children and families. It will also coach teams around effective community engagement and growth.
Participants will leave this highly interactive training with plenty of peer and industry feedback on their work, new production processes and skills prioritizing iterative prototyping, the foundation to create compelling and educational audio and programming for children and their families, and a clearer path forward in their podcast development.
What We’re Looking For
Podcasts of all formats that promote educational experiences for young children and families around career readiness, life skills and learning.
Creative teams with baseline technical and editorial skills, who have experience in children’s and/or educational programming
Teams based at RTL Stations, who are eager and excited to integrate and invest in podcasting at their stations
The Selected Teams Will Receive:
16 weeks of virtual podcast training led by PRX in tandem with children’s programming experts from PBS KIDS, which will include workshops, webinars and intensive sessions focusing on concept development, audience and community engagement, production values, and more;
Regular feedback on all aspects of production, from editorial content to technical production, as creators will be guided through the development of a pilot episode and production plan;
A network of children’s podcasters, from program alumni to industry experts;
$10,000 in funding to assist with production and operational expenses; and
Access to and representation on PRX’s industry-leading podcast distribution and advertising platforms.
The contents of this RFP were developed under a grant from the U.S. Department of Education. However, those contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government. The project is funded by a Ready To Learn grant (PR/Award No. S295A200004, CFDA No. 84.295A) provided by the Department of Education to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
