Listening to podcasts can be a great way for children of all ages to learn new information and skills or to relax with a fun story or song. Finding a podcast for kids that’s actually suitable for them can be difficult and time-consuming, though, due to the sheer volume of options available.
Here are 14 safe podcasts for kids to listen to without you having to worry about exposing them to unsuitable language or inappropriate topics. You might even get a kick out of one or two of them yourself.
Book Club for Kids: New Book Discovery And Discussion
Book Club for Kids is a podcast hosted by radio journalist, Kitty Felde, and several children. Every two weeks they discuss one YA novel, read passages from it, and even interview the book’s author.
This podcast is a great motivator for kids to read more.
Celebrity guest stars and interviews with authors.
Listeners aren’t informed of what books will be discussed in future episodes so it’s difficult to feel like you’re part of the conversation.
Sesame Street Podcast: A Safe Kids Podcast With Classic Characters
The official Sesame Street podcast is a video series of 20 stand-alone mini-episodes of the popular children’s program. Each mini-episode focuses on one specific character and is made up of various clips of them talking, singing and dancing, and interacting with their friends.
Unlike most other podcasts, each episode of The Sesame Street Podcast is actually a video which can be downloaded using the regular podcast app and watched when offline.
Each episode is self-contained, meaning kids can pick and choose their favorites to watch over and over again.
The episodes are only five to nine minutes long.
Cool Facts About Animals: A Safe Kids Podcast for Animal Lovers
Cool Facts About Animals is a podcast about, well, cool facts about animals. It features an adult host accompanied by a group of children of varying ages, and together they focus on one animal each week, revealing advanced trivia on the species, followed by a quiz and occasionally an interview with an expert.
Genuinely interesting animal facts children won’t hear on most kids television programs.
Information is dropped at a relatively high speed and with a lot of scientific terminologies used. This makes each episode a little difficult for younger children to understand, though kids between the ages of six and eleven should be fine.
The child hosts have a habit of answering questions for the listener, thereby decreasing engagement somewhat.
Smash Boom Best: A Safe Kids Podcast With a Game Show Twist
Smash Boom Best is a half-hour podcast that pits two teams of adults against each other in a structured debate about which of two topics are the best. Arguments are intermingled with scientific or historical facts and there’s enough genuine chemistry between the hosts to keep parents and guardians engaged alongside junior listeners.
Smash Boom Best doesn’t speak down to children, yet the language used is simple enough for most to understand.
Teaches debating skills.
The concept of this podcast is very competitive in nature, which may not be ideal for kids going through an overly-competitive phase and need exposure to examples of compromise and teamwork.
Children under six will likely interpret this podcast as simply being a bunch of adults talking to each other. It’s safe enough for them to listen to, but they won’t find it as engaging as other podcasts made for kids.
Tumble Science Podcast for Kids: Safe Education for the Whole Family
Tumble Science Podcast for Kids focuses on a different topic each week, which is explored in-depth with trivia and audio clips from interviews with experts. Each episode runs for around 20 minutes.
Lots of well-researched information.
This podcast is absolutely suitable for the entire family to listen to, but a lot of the humor can feel forced and may make young teens roll their eyes before eventually tuning out.
But Why?: A Podcast for Curious Kids
But Why?: A Podcast for Curious Kids is a fun podcast for children that encourages them to ask questions about everything and anything they’ve ever wondered about.
Encourages interaction by asking listeners to send in recorded questions, which are played in future episodes.
Interest in each episode will vary depending on which topics are covered. Some kids may be fascinated by the episode on underground cities, for example, but could have no interest in why tape is sticky.
Episodes usually focus on topics like animals and the human body, but the podcast is very much structured by what its listeners want to hear.
OWTK Kid’s Music Monthly Podcast: Kids-Safe Tracks for the Whole Family
OWTK Kid’s Music Monthly Podcast is a faux radio station that plays songs safe for all ages to listen to. Episodes are released on a monthly basis and usually run for around 30 minutes.
A well-curated collection of kids songs that aren’t overused traditional nursery rhymes or school songs.
The monthly release schedule makes it easy to forget about this podcast.
Short & Curly: A Safe Podcast About Topics Kids Care About
Short & Curly is a podcast that discusses subjects of actual interest to kids, such as singers who use auto-tune, getting ears pierced, and why Pokemon Go is so addictive.
One of the hosts specializes in ethics and frequently offers insight into the morality of the topics covered.
All three hosts are engaging and genuinely funny.
A lot of the topics will go over the heads of really young viewers. Short & Curly is best listened to by kids aged eight and up.
Each podcast episode runs for around 30 minutes and is intermingled with discussions, skits, and interviews with children about the week’s topic.
Dream Big Podcast: Motivational Interviews For Kids
The Dream Big Podcast is a series created with the aim of inspiring children to be ambitious and reach for the stars. Each episode runs for around half an hour, with each focusing on an interview with a successful adult, such as a billionaire, a famous author, and even an astronaut.
A fantastic collection of interviews that will also appeal to adult listeners who have an interest in motivational or entrepreneur podcasts.
Parents need to be wary of the advertising on the podcast’s website and within the episodes themselves.
The child host’s dialog appears to have been written by an adult.
The interviews are surprisingly dense and would be best appreciated by those over the age of 10. This may come as a surprise to some, as the podcast appears to be marketed towards kindergarteners.
Noodle Loaf Show: A Kids Podcast With Fun Activities & Songs
The Noodle Loaf Show is a fun podcast combining singing, learning, and active listening in a way that’s just as engaging as an episode of Sesame Street or Dora the Explorer.
Suitable for children under 10 years old.
Encourages a lot of active listening.
New podcast episodes are released once a week and only run for around 11 minutes, so it won’t keep kids busy for long.
The highlight of this kids podcast is the Noodle Loaf Choir segment, which asks listeners to send in audio recordings of themselves singing a song. The creators then edit these together to create one impressive track sung by all of the participants.
Dad & Me Love History: A Safe World Trivia Podcast for Kids
Dad & Me Love History is a surprisingly informative podcast hosted by a father and son who explore historical figures and events. From World War II air raids in England to the origins of The Great Wall of China and LEGO, there’s something here for everyone.
Suitable for kids as young as five. However, children around 10 years old will benefit the most; parents will also enjoy listening to this.
The episode notes on the podcast’s website include definitions for words mentioned that kids may not be familiar with, plus a quiz to check how much they remember.
The son does have a habit of mumbling quite a bit, which can make understanding him a bit difficult. His father does clarify what he says afterward, though.
The Saturday Morning Cereal Bowl: 2 Hours of Safe Music for Kids
The Saturday Morning Cereal Bowl is a kids music podcast that curates a variety of new and classic tracks that are safe for the whole family to listen to. New episodes are released weekly and run anywhere between 90 minutes to two hours.
The episode notes contain a full list of all of the songs used.
With some episodes reaching two hours in length, this kids podcast is fantastic for long car trips.
The majority of the songs are rock music, which may not be to everyone’s taste.
TEDTalks Kids and Family: Inspiring Presentations For Children And Parents
TEDTalks Kids and Family is an official collection of TEDTalks presentations either featuring child presenters or covering subjects relating to parenting, children, and education.
Some truly inspirational podcast episodes that will motivate kids to study more and be ambitious.
Equally informative for kids and parents.
While generally safe for kids to view by themselves, one or two episodes cover topics parents may not want their children exposed to depending on their age. A solution to this is for parents to manually select which episodes to download to their child’s device.
Presentations range from a teenage scientist discussing her latest invention and a talk on the importance of birds, to how Minecraft is used to teach kids with Autism, to a young entrepreneur sharing how she started her first company at age eight.
Good Game: Spawn Point: Safe And Fun Video Game Podcast For Kids
Good Game: Spawn Point is a long-running show all about video game news, reviews, and competitions with a kid-friendly focus.
D.A.R.R.E.N., the robot sidekick, is consistently hilarious.
A great source of video game news for adults and kids.
Special educational segments that delve into the making of video games and the games industry.
Reviews of video games usually happen a week or so after a video game is released.
Video games featured on Spawn Point are limited to those suitable for all ages such as Pokemon and Minecraft, and the hosts encourage viewers to email them gaming questions which can get answered in future episodes.
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