Our Favorite Educational Podcasts

     As a homeschool mom, I'm constantly looking for ways to add educational value to our days without adding a ton of extra worksheets and schoolbooks.  Don't get me wrong, we have some great curricula that we really enjoy.  But as homeschoolers, we often learn best when we're engaged in some way other than a textbook. (And I say "we" because I consider myself less of a "teacher" and more of a "lead learner."  I've thoroughly enjoyed learning right along with my kids!)

So today I thought I'd share some of our favorite educational podcasts with you all! Like most other families, we spend a lot of time on the go.  And although we try to balance the amount of activities we do, we still spend lots of time in the car, headed to extracurricular activities, church activities, shopping, doctor's appointments, etc. So these trips are a fantastic time to add in an educational podcast or two!  And we have learned SO MUCH this year from these podcasts! It really is amazing how much knowledge we have at our finger tips these days! 

Note: Now, as you may have already guessed by the title of my blog, we are Christians.  Therefore, there are sometimes (very rarely) things in these podcasts that we disagree with.  I point this out for two reasons.  #1 - so that any of my readers who do not share my values will understand that the podcasts I am sharing today are secular and #2 - so that my fellow Christians can also understand that these podcasts are secular. As with anything else we as parents choose to expose our kids to, do with that what you will and make judgment calls that best suit you and your family. To my Christian readers, I will say that we've come across very few issues in the podcasts listed below.  And when we have, we've used the opportunity to discuss our beliefs/values, how they differ from what we've heard, and how we should handle differing opinions - something, quite frankly, that the entire world seems to need a refresher on these days.

So, without further ado, here are our current top 10 Educational Podcasts!

1.) Greeking Out, from National Geographic Kids

This one is at the top of our list because it is our ABSOLUTE FAVORITE PODCAST! This podcast is so well produced. It’s educational AND fun! (I enjoy it just as much as the kids do!) And since we’ve been studying ancient history this year, a podcast all about Greek myths fit perfectly into our school plans! Each episode is about 15-30 minutes long and covers a Greek myth. (They occasionally branch out and do episodes on myths from other cultures, like Gilgamesh in Mesopotamia, Loki in Norse mythology, and Isis and Osiris in Egypt. These episodes are fantastic too!) We’ve enjoyed this podcast so much that we’ve binged all 37 episodes and now, sadly, have to wait for new episodes - which come out every Friday.  I cannot recommend this podcast enough. Each and every one of us has LOVED listening. And we’ve all learned a TON! 

2.) Who Smarted

As the name would imply, this is another really fun podcast!  This is probably a close second to Greeking Out. Who Smarted is a science/history podcast. Each episode answers a question, like, “how do movie sound effects work,” or “how did mirrors come from volcanoes.” There are an absolute TON of episodes, so we haven’t listened to them all. But we’ve really enjoyed the ones we have listened to! The kids also love that each episode ends with a quiz, so they get to prove how well they’ve listened. 

3.) The Way the World Works: A Tuttle Twins Podcast for Families

We’ve recently started listening to this one and we’ve really been enjoying it! It’s initiated some fantastic discussions of civics, government, and politics. I’d say this one is definitely more veered toward upper elementary, junior high, and high school. Abby and Sophie often don’t understand everything that’s being discussed. They still pick up some info though, and often join in to our conversation afterwards. This podcast is by Connor Boyack - the author of the Tuttle Twins books. The books and the podcast most definitely lean VERY HEAVILY towards libertarianism, so if that isn't something you agree with, then this podcast may not be for you.  Although we agree with much of what they say, the hubby and I disagree with some of their views (as will happen any time people discuss politics), but we’ve used those times for further discussion with the kids. And we’ve really enjoyed the discussions this has led to! You can only find episodes 192 and higher on Spotify, but if you go to the Tuttle Twins website you can listen to the older ones in their archive. They have some fantastic subjects, like, “which is more important, liberty or security,” “why is the Declaration of Independence important,” and “should we always believe what we hear on the news.” 

4.) Tumble Science Podcast for Kids

As the name implies, this is a science podcast. We just recently started listening to it, but we’ve really enjoyed it so far! What I love about this podcast is that they don’t just answer a question, but they interview actual scientists about whatever the topic is. For example, in the episode about bats, they interview Michaela Jemison, a bat ecologist with Bat Conservation International, located in Austin, Texas (which happens to be the bat capital of the world). The episodes are really well done and kids get to hear from actual scientists! And they get exposed to all sorts of careers they may have never considered before - like bat conservation! 

5.) Deep Blue Sea

This podcast is geared more towards younger kids (preschool to early elementary), but we’ve enjoyed listening together. Every episode introduces you to a new sea creature and teaches you interesting facts about it! The episodes are all 10-15 minutes long, so it’s perfect for a quick ride with little kids! My younger two (7 and 9 enjoy this one because its very cute and yet educational.) 

6.) The Big Fib 

This is a podcast and a kids game show in one! And it’s quite fun! The Big Fib (originally called Pants On Fire) is a game show where one child contestant interviews two grownups on a certain topic. One grownup is an expert and one is a liar. The child asks them questions and then tries to decide which adult is lying. As odd as it sounds, this is a FANTASTIC concept for an educational podcast! In this day and age, false information is EVERYWHERE. And thanks to social media and the internet, lots of people claim to be experts in things when they really aren’t. This game show is a great way for kids to practice critical thinking, which is crucial - and sadly, a lost art - these days. It also helps them learn to ask pertinent questions and analyze information.  At the end of each episode, they give the true expert a chance to correct any misinformation that the liar may given, which I love. (Apparently the Big Fib has been turned into a tv show on Disney+. I can’t comment on it yet, however, as we haven’t seen it. ) 

7.) Mystery Recipe, by America’s Test Kitchen Kids

Mystery Recipe is a fun podcast that teaches kids all about food and cooking! The concept is so neat! Every season they have several episodes that describe mystery ingredients and the kids have to guess what those ingredients are. There’s all sorts of great scientific and historic info about each ingredient, as well as info on how to use it, etc. At the end of each season, they combine the ingredients they learned about to cook an actual dish (with adult supervision). This is such a fun way to teach you child about cooking! Most episodes are 15-20 minutes long and then the final recipe episode is around an hour long (as they cook along with the show). 

8.) ExtraBLURT 

ExtraBLURT is a fun quiz show type podcast. Each episode has a theme, such as the human body, castles, the rainforest, and food, and each episode has several quizzes and games, plus interesting facts and silly jokes to go along with the theme. All episodes are less than 20 minutes, so it’s perfect for a car ride in town. And because the podcast hosts are asking lots of questions, the show keeps the kids engaged. 

9.) Moment of Um

This is a very short podcast (about 3-5 minutes for each episode), so it’s great for a short car trip. (It’s also my 7 year old's favorite podcast right now!)  We often listen to several episodes in a row and learn all sorts of things! Each podcast has a question posited by a young listener. Questions include, “how does pencil lead stick to paper,” “why do things glow in the dark,” and “do spiders poop.” On each episode, the podcaster interviews an expert who answers the question and gives all sorts of interesting facts. We’ve really enjoyed these because they aren’t always the kinds of questions/answers you might find in a book, so they’re very intriguing. And the podcast hosts find experts to answer the questions. This, again, leads to exposure to different careers that my kids have never considered before - and I love that! 

10.) 30 Animals That Made Us Smarter

This is an absolutely fascinating podcast! The podcast theme is Biomimicry. (Biomimicry is basically when scientists study something from creation and then use what they learn to solve problems. Here’s a quote by way of example: “In Japan, they have these very fast bullet trains. They were getting so fast that the typical bullet shape was causing a loud booming sound when these trains would exit typical train tunnels. The booming, it turned out, had to do with the shape of the face of the train. And the reason this booming was happening, they discovered, is that this cushion of air was building up in front of that speeding train, going like 300 kilometers an hour. The sound was waking up people who lived nearby. It disturbed the wildlife. But one of the engineers on the team trying to solve the problem was a birdwatcher. He had witnessed a kingfisher bird diving down through the air, going into the water and creating very little splash. So he thought, I wonder if I could apply this principle to the shape of the front of the bullet train. And so they did model the front of the train like the kingfisher’s face. It has a pointy part to it just like the beak of the kingfisher. And sure enough when they tried out that new model, it moved through without creating the boom. And it saved them 10-15% more energy because it was more aerodynamic.”

We actually listened to an episode about the bullet train and the kingfisher a few days ago and it was so fascinating! We love to use these episodes to discuss how marvelous God’s creation is and how we can even use it to help us solve problems.  (This podcast would probably be best suited for upper elementary, junior high, and high school, as some of the science discussed is a bit complicated.)