Listen to This

Alexis Bumah, 12, puts on her mom’s work headset. At her home in Dayton, Ohio, Alexis can hear the voice of Eshaan Mani. Eshaan, 14, is calling in from Houston, Texas. The TFK Kid Reporters are about to cohost the pilot × pilot ERIK VON WEBER—GETTY IMAGES the first episode of a TV show or podcast (noun) My family watched the pilot of a new show. of a new podcast series, TIME for Kids Explains.

Over three days of recording sessions in April, Alexis and Eshaan interviewed a journalist and talked about current events. They also played a game and recorded silly sound effects. It was “a lot of fun,” Alexis says.

Anne Richards works for Pinna, a company that makes podcasts for kids. She’s the executive producer of TIME for Kids Explains. After editing the pilot, Richards tested it with kids. “That helped us in figuring out how we wanted to shape the series,” she says.

The result? A weekly news show that’s different from other podcasts. “It’s kids talking to kids, not kids being talked at by a bunch of adults,” Richards says. “It’s a really interesting, digestible × digestible HILL STREET STUDIOS/GETTY IMAGES easy to take in or understand (adjective) My little sister finds picture books more digestible than chapter books. , different way to hear about what’s going on.”

A New Way to Learn

Each week this year, the Pinna team will work with TFK Kid Reporters. They’ll record and edit an episode of TIME for Kids Explains. The kids will conduct interviews and dive deeper into stories from the magazine.

Andrea Delbanco is TFK’s editor in chief. “We’re excited that, in addition to the stories that we write, there’s a way for kids to listen to and learn about the news,” she says. Delbanco adds that the podcast will make TFK more accessible × accessible MJ0007/GETTY IMAGES able to be entered or reached by all (adjective) They lowered the water fountain so it would be accessible for a student in a wheelchair. for kids who are visually impaired or who have trouble reading.

According to Eshaan, TIME for Kids Explains is a great series for kids who haven’t listened to podcasts before. “I wasn’t a big podcast person” before cohosting the show, he says. “But my interest grew, and now podcasts have almost become part of my routine.”

Alexis shares his enthusiasm. “Listen to our podcast because it’s so upbeat,” she says. “You can paint a picture in your mind of what’s going on as we explain it.”