Can Astronauts Be Black?
Reading With Your Kids Podcast
In this inspiring episode of the Reading With Your Kids podcast, host Jed Doherty sits down with former Major League Baseball player turned artist and author Micah Johnson to talk about his powerful new middle grade novel, Aku: Journey to Ibra. Micah shares how a casual comment during spring training with the Los Angeles Dodgers unexpectedly launched his art career, eventually leading him to create Aku, a Black kid in an astronaut helmet inspired by his nephew’s question, “Can astronauts be Black?” What began as a painting grew into 3D art, public sculptures, and now a fast‑paced,...
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Love Over Blood
Reading With Your Kids Podcast
In this heartwarming episode of Reading With Your Kids, Jed Doherty welcomes Brooklyn teacher and award-winning author Torrey Maldonado to celebrate his debut picture book “Just Right.” Torrey shares the deeply personal story behind the book: his relationship with his niece, whom he helped raise and who later asked him to walk her down the aisle because he had been “the only dad” she’d ever known. That love and chosen-family bond lives at the center of Just Right. Torrey and Jed talk about how love doesn’t have to be biological to be real or powerful, and how kids can find their...
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Chained, Bruised, and Reading: The Real Magic Behind Houdini
Reading With Your Kids Podcast
In this episode of Reading With Your Kids, Jed welcomes picture book author Barb Rosenstock to talk about her captivating new title, Houdini’s Library. Drawing on her deep love of history and storytelling, Barb shares how a tiny sign at the Library of Congress—“Houdini Collection” —sparked years of research and ultimately this book. Barb and Jed dive into the real Harry Houdini: not just the “handcuff king” and daring escape artist, but a relentless learner who built a massive working library of magic books. Barb explains that Houdini, who likely had only a second‑ or...
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Coming Of Age In The Limelight
Reading With Your Kids Podcast
In this episode of Reading With Your Kids, we first head to 1990s New York City with Broadway actor and author Andrew Keenan-Bolger, here to celebrate his YA novel Limelight. Set in 1996, the story follows Danny, a shy Staten Island teen who lands a spot at LaGuardia High School, the famed performing arts school. Andrew explains that Danny is not a version of his younger, confident, Broadway‑kid self; instead, he wanted to write about someone with their “nose pressed to the glass,” feeling like an outsider looking in—just like so many real teens do. Andrew talks about moving to New...
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Alligators, Excavators & Judy the Great
Reading With Your Kids Podcast
In this lively episode of Reading With Your Kids, we’re celebrating the power of picture books and biographies to turn kids into lifelong readers. First, Jed welcomes author Brooke Hartman and illustrator Michael Slack to talk about their exuberant new picture book Exca Gator—a swampy, construction-site romp starring an alligator who drives an excavator. Brooke shares how the idea sprang from her daughter’s adorable mispronunciation of “excavator,” and how her own childhood around construction equipment inspired all the rumbling, clanking onomatopoeia in the text. The story follows a...
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What If You're The Only Muslim Kid At A Catholic School?
Reading With Your Kids Podcast
On this episode of the Reading With Your Kids podcast, host Jed Doherty welcomes two creators whose books spark big, meaningful conversations for families. First, Jed chats with Huda Al Marashi, author of the middle grade novel Hail Mariam. The story follows Mariam, the only Muslim girl at her local Catholic school, as she navigates the burden of representation, questions about faith, identity, and belonging, and the gray areas that arise when family, culture, and religion intersect. Huda shares how her own experience as a Muslim student in Catholic and Jesuit schools inspired the book, and...
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Can AI Replace Our Memories?
Reading With Your Kids Podcast
In this episode of Reading With Your Kids, we welcome author-illustrator Claire Keane to talk about her deeply personal new picture book, “Who Are You?” Claire shares how the idea began not with a character, but with a question—quite literally. After making a video reel to “explain” who she was as an artist and as the daughter and granddaughter of famous cartoonists, she woke up one morning hearing a loud inner voice ask, “Who are you?” That moment sent her on a creative and emotional journey. Claire describes spending a year and a half stuck on an idea involving a girl in a...
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This Ten Year Old Invented An App That Makes Screen Time Smarter
Reading With Your Kids Podcast
In this episode of Reading With Your Kids, host Jed Doherty welcomes three very different—but equally exciting—guests who are passionate about helping kids grow smarter and braver. First, Jed chats with Adam Adler and his 10‑year‑old daughter Isla, the father–daughter team behind Wyzly, a groundbreaking screen time app for kids. Tired of daily battles over iPads and YouTube, Isla came up with the idea for an app that doesn’t just shut devices off—it asks kids educational questions to unlock their favorite apps. Adam explains how Wyzly uses a “learn to earn” model and...
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A Nightingale, A Cello & A Risky Radio Stunt That Changed Evverything
Reading With Your Kids Podcast
Join host Jed Doherty on the Reading With Your Kids podcast for a heartwarming, history‑meets‑home episode featuring two wonderful picture book creators: Patricia Newman and Pooja Makhijani. First, Patricia introduces Beatrice and the Nightingale, a nonfiction picture book about Beatrice Harrison, a renowned English cellist whose garden duet with a wild nightingale became one of the earliest global nature broadcasts on BBC radio. Patricia and Jed explore how this magical moment of music, nature, and early technology captivated millions of listeners and why Beatrice is such a powerful civic...
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The Healing Garden, Helping Kids Face Cancer With Courage And Hope
Reading With Your Kids Podcast
It’s been said that you spend the first forty years of your life looking forward, and the last forty looking back—from death toward your life. But what if you never get the chance to look forward? Imagine being young and told you may only have a year to live. All around you, you see people living the life you’ve been cheated out of. How would that feel? How could you find hope in that? These are the feelings and questions that children with cancer—and those who love and support them—face every day. Jed Doherty sat down with two powerful experts to discuss exactly that on a new...
info_outlineIn this inspiring episode of the Reading With Your Kids podcast, host Jed Doherty sits down with former Major League Baseball player turned artist and author Micah Johnson to talk about his powerful new middle grade novel, Aku: Journey to Ibra.
Micah shares how a casual comment during spring training with the Los Angeles Dodgers unexpectedly launched his art career, eventually leading him to create Aku, a Black kid in an astronaut helmet inspired by his nephew’s question, “Can astronauts be Black?” What began as a painting grew into 3D art, public sculptures, and now a fast‑paced, sci‑fi adventure book designed to help kids dream big, build confidence, and understand that no one reaches their dreams alone.
Micah and Jed dive into themes of asking for help, vulnerability, and representation, exploring how seeing yourself in powerful roles—on a giant canvas, in VR, or on the page—can reshape a child’s sense of what’s possible. Micah also pulls back the curtain on his creative process, explaining how he uses VR sculpting and 3D printing to build the world of Aku and make art more accessible to kids and families.
In the Listen Back segment, Jed revisits a conversation with author Andrea Williams about her book Baseball’s Leading Lady: Effa Manley and the Rise and Fall of the Negro Leagues. They discuss Effa Manley’s trailblazing role as a Black woman team owner, the history of the Negro Leagues, and why sharing honest, complex Black history with kids is essential for raising thoughtful, informed readers.