Episode 240: Why audiobooks are really great for kids (and adults!) right now

Episode 240: Why audiobooks are really great for kids (and adults!) right now transcript powered by Sonix—easily convert your audio to text with Sonix.

Download the “Episode 240: Why audiobooks are really great for kids (and adults!) right now audio file directly. This Episode 240: Why audiobooks are really great for kids (and adults!) right now was automatically transcribed by Sonix (https://sonix.ai).

Episode 240: Why audiobooks are really great for kids (and adults!) right now was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the latest audio-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors. Sonix is the best audio automated transcription service in 2020. Our automated transcription algorithms works with many of the popular audio file formats.

Rebecca:
Welcome to Parenting Bytes, this is Rebecca Levey. I’m here today with Amy Oztan of Amy Ever After.

Amy:
Hi.

Rebecca:
And only you.

Amy:
Only

Rebecca:
Just

Amy:
Me.

Rebecca:
Only you, Andrea is off doing journalist things.

Amy:
Good tech work, good for

Rebecca:
Yes,

Amy:
Her.

Rebecca:
Tech work. She’ll come back and tell us about all sorts of crazy gadgets. Then we want to buy and put on our our holiday lists, I’m sure. So today on the show, we have a special guest, Abby West. She is the editorial director at Audible. She’s been on the show before a few times talking about different things. And we are so excited. I’m super excited to have this conversation about Audiobooks. You know, I think for people who don’t listen to them regularly, they think it’s just somebody boring reading a book out loud. It

Amy:
No.

Rebecca:
Is not what they are. They are full scale, like incredible productions, bringing books to life with incredible readers, whether that’s celebrities or regular people. And they have a whole slew of content for kids. Now that I think in this pandemic, especially parents need we need different ways of entertaining our kids and engaging their minds. And nobody wants their kids looking at screens for more hours of the day than they already are. So we will have Abian with us and she will kind of fill us in on all the cool options out there for Audiobooks and why you should listen to Audiobooks and how to listen to Audiobooks. We will be back with Abby after this.

Rebecca:
We are back with our guest, Abby West, editorial director at Audible. Hi, Abby.

Abby:
Hi, guys, how are you?

Rebecca:
Good, I feel like I should have said and friend of the show, you should have one of those corny intros, because this is I feel like this is must be the third time we’ve had you on the show.

Abby:
Yes, it is. It is.

Rebecca:
And but it’s been a long time, too long. And every time it’s something different, which is what I love. But thank you for coming on today. We’ve been wanting to do a show about sort of Audiobooks and, you know, listening and how we can work this in as parents with our kids. I think obviously we have taken screentime to a new place over the last eight months. You know, poor parents have gone from telling their kids they can’t have screen time to saying, like, now you must have screen time all day. So we are so happy to have you on to really talk about what’s going on in Audible and other places to bring audio to kids and still have storytelling and literacy and all these great things that we want. So let’s jump right in.

Abby:
Sure.

Rebecca:
I know one of the things we talked about before we got on the show was a new podcast that you guys are doing with Sesame Street. And this is so cool because I mean, we’ve done is we’ve done shows on podcasts for kids, but I’ve never really we’ve never really had a deep dove into, like, what they are and how you do it.

Abby:
I know, and this one is really cool, I consistently, you know, I’ve been I think when I’ve come to talk to you guys, I’ve been to either Entertainment Weekly, Essence and now Audible and across the board, I’ve seen a lot of, you know, celebrities, a lot of like high power things across the board. No one makes the people I work with geek out like Sesame Street characters,

Rebecca:
It’s

Abby:
Like completely

Rebecca:
Funny.

Abby:
Geek out. Everyone is trying to either take a picture with them or somehow being involved with them or talk. So this is one that we’ve all been internally pretty excited about. It’s the Sesame Street podcast with Foley and Friends. It is an original podcast, 15 episodes in total, and it’s really the first of its kind for Sesame Street. And it’s hosted by a new Sesame Street character that you’ve never met before call Folie.

Amy:
Which is the essence of of

Abby:
Exactly.

Amy:
Of Sesame Street, because the kids are not going to get that name, but

Abby:
No,

Amy:
Some of the adults will.

Abby:
Don’t you love that I

Amy:
Yes.

Abby:
Loathe

Rebecca:
Yes.

Abby:
Reminds me of all the all those Bugs Bunny times. Where’s all those jokes

Rebecca:
Yes.

Abby:
That you didn’t really get until you were an adult? Like, I love that. So, yeah, it’s the first podcast of its kind for the iconic children’s show. And with new original music, interactive games, jokes and visits from friends like that you are familiar with, like Elmo and Big Bird, Cookie Monster in every episode. And it’s specifically crafted for preschool listeners and it’s starting its launch last week. So get into it. It’s really great. I really like. I love. I almost said I wish I had a preschooler. I do not wish I had a preschooler. Let

Amy:
Especially

Abby:
Me be

Amy:
Not

Abby:
Really

Amy:
Now.

Abby:
Clear right now with two grown children, I do not wish that, but I really want everyone with preschoolers in my life to listen to this. So.

Rebecca:
Is this something the kids could just like command? I shouldn’t say her name because in mine is going to go off, but

Abby:
Yeah,

Rebecca:
They’re their echo to just play.

Abby:
We have we have integration with Alexa before mine goes off as well.

Amy:
She who who may not be named.

Abby:
Exactly. Yes, you can pair and access most, I hesitate to say all but most Audible titles through your Alexa.

Rebecca:
Oh, that’s so cool, like I feel like that’s so nice because it gives kids such agency over them deciding what they want to listen to.

Abby:
I mean, I will say as an Audible representative that we should make sure that all children have permission from their parents

Rebecca:
Yes.

Abby:
For marketing to parents. But yes, it is it is a wonderful thing for kids to have that, you know, that agency when they can.

Rebecca:
That’s awesome. Well, I love and then you were telling us, too, that there are and this is so important, I think right now tons of free streaming stories, because I think parents have run out of things and ideas

Abby:
Yes.

Rebecca:
And, you know, they can’t do another craft project, let’s be honest or read another book to their kid for the hundredth time.

Abby:
I

Rebecca:
So.

Abby:
Know, I know that was one of the things, you know, like storytelling, clearly storytelling is important to us clearly. And at the start of the pandemic and when school started closing, one of the things that we, I think, geared up within within two weeks of schools closing was Audible stories, which is a streaming service that you don’t even have to have in Audible membership to access with lessons in eight languages. So it’s global for anyone around the world to be able to listen to hundreds of stories from early listener to teens. And it’s still accessible because so many schools are still closed or doing hybrid models. So that’s still a thing.

Rebecca:
And I love that it’s in all those languages because now, like then my wheels are turning and I’m thinking about just my daughters when they were in high school needing to find foreign language, you know, just resources online. And so much of the stuff read aloud online for foreign language is really boring. You know, like it’s really awful. And they could was funny because my daughters had really good reading skills for their foreign language. But the listening, speaking back, like hearing the

Abby:
Yeah.

Rebecca:
Intonations, all that stuff,

Abby:
Mm hmm.

Rebecca:
You know, how to tell a story is much better for trying to attain some kind of proficiency and fluency than, you know, just saying my name is I go here, where’s

Abby:
Right,

Rebecca:
The bathroom, you know?

Abby:
Right, conversational vs. immersive, listening

Rebecca:
I mean,

Abby:
To.

Rebecca:
What do you guys find in terms of families using Audiobooks in their lives? Are you finding it’s like a road trip thing or it’s something people are integrating all the time? And how do you how do you feel about the kind of like best practices on I’m supplementing like the physical readings a lot of people don’t consider Audiobooks reading. And

Abby:
I

Rebecca:
I.

Abby:
Know, yeah,

Rebecca:
I don’t think

Abby:
And

Rebecca:
That’s

Abby:
That’s

Rebecca:
True.

Abby:
It’s not and there are there are definitely actual studies that prove that, you know, Audible been around for more than 20 years and I guess and really in a lot of folks consciousness in the last maybe five to 10. Right. Because it’s become more of an avenue for alternative storytelling. And there are studies that show that it is not just a good supplement, is it is the same for it does similar work in literacy for children. And, you know, I think we found that for kids and families, it’s the same as for the rest of us. While so many people were, myself included, used to listening during a commute or, you know,

Amy:
Mm

Abby:
Or

Amy:
Hmm.

Rebecca:
Ye.

Abby:
While you’re off going somewhere else. And that just abruptly ended for so many folks. You know, it’s not so much the road trip as finding that you listen at different times. You know, you go for a walk, you cleaning the house. You’re there’s so many other opportunities and use cases, especially after we were all stuck at home with everybody, every single person in your family. So, you know, we found that parents really turn to it as an alternative for screentime like, you know, since the kids were home and had to be on screens, not just recreationally, but for school now. So much doing things virtually. It was an opportunity to to have listening and story time without a screen. That’s one of the reasons why parents named as one of the best learning apps for kids recently for best four story times. You know, like let the pros take care of that, you know, because we you know, we have professional voice actors doing these amazing stories. We have celebrity actors doing amazing stories like Laura Dern doing little women or Scarlett Johansson performing Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. So there’s just we found that parents have, like the rest of us, had to pivot in how we how they approached it.

Rebecca:
That’s so interesting, too, I love I think, you know, for people who don’t listen to Audiobooks or maybe only listen to a certain kind, I don’t know how many people realize how much acting talent

Abby:
Yes.

Rebecca:
Is in these books and not even just celebrities, but the really good Audiobooks readers,

Abby:
Yes,

Rebecca:
Like there’s a group of them. Right. Like

Abby:
Yeah,

Rebecca:
That is

Abby:
Now

Rebecca:
Their

Abby:
There’s

Rebecca:
Talent.

Abby:
That is that is an entire industry, the you know, you think of I think most people think of like voiceover actors when they see something on TV or whatnot, but there is the whole audio. NARRATOR community. Hundreds of actors have their own words like the called about Ortiz, which is essentially our little Oscars. You know, it’s amazing work. Some folks who do screen work, but many who just simply do amazing voices and have their own followings. There are people there are listeners who will listen to anything like a Scott Bryk does or like their names, you may not know, but they they have thousands of followers who they don’t care what the book is, they’re going to listen to him.

Amy:
Oh, my God, Audible groupies.

Abby:
Yes,

Rebecca:
That’s so

Abby:
That is a thing

Rebecca:
Funny.

Abby:
That is definitely a thing.

Amy:
There is a great article a while ago I’m going have to find it and post it that went really in-depth with some some Audiobooks voice artists and just what it takes to get an entire book recorded. Like it’s intense.

Abby:
It is, it is, and every time and part of my job is overseeing our interviews and with authors and narrators that go out into the world, you can find it usually on the site. You can find it on social justice. Every time I interview someone who is not a voice actor and who’s narrating their own work like Jesus, I did not know how hard this was.

Amy:
Yeah.

Abby:
I have so much respect for all this. One of the more recent ones we did, David Chang, you know,

Rebecca:
Netgen.

Abby:
The Momofuku chef and restauranteur who has his new title out, and he’s just like so much props to all these actors. Like, I had

Amy:
Uh.

Abby:
No idea how hard this was. It takes a lot of work.

Rebecca:
That’s so you know, it’s interesting because I think people when you realized you really loved listening to a book and so much of it is that and sometimes you really don’t so much of it is that you’re like, is

Abby:
Yep.

Rebecca:
It the book? Like, would this have been better if I had read it? Because some things are so much better read aloud. I mean, I think about Tina Fey’s book, which I’m sure is hilarious to read, but like when you integrate, like the clips from Saturday Night Live or the thing, you know, it’s and she’s such a good reader, it really brings it alive. And I know you guys have sort of pivoted and started doing originals, which I think is so cool, like the Netflix model of like we are the experts, let’s produce our own content, Audible content. But it takes me back to, you know, these old radio shows. And that’s how. Right. Everything sort of began at the beginning of the last century and brought people around the radio. I love this idea of like new original audio content.

Abby:
Yeah, there’s just there’s just so many stories to tell so many creators to work with who have variations and, you know, some things, yes, some things are definitely elevated by the audio versus the the text. Right. It could be perfectly wonderful. But then it’s also extra special when you have the characters really brought to life in a different way. And so we have, you know, sort of things like Jamie Lee Curtis did a series over the summer called Letters from Camp. And, you know, just under SAT

Rebecca:
Oh,

Abby:
Hearing,

Rebecca:
My God.

Abby:
Folks like that just bring something to life. We have this thing called grandma for president not to get political, but it

Rebecca:
Your grandma

Abby:
Was

Rebecca:
Could go either way.

Abby:
Right. There’s a kid who, you know, he’s never been into politics. That’s what he’s like about to really push for his grandma for president because he does not care for any of the candidates. And it’s really funny. And it’s narrated by Mel Brooks and

Rebecca:
Oh,

Amy:
Oh.

Rebecca:
My God.

Abby:
Delaware. You know, it’s there are fun ways to go around these things and especially for coming up into Halloween for a little bit of a scary thing. We’ve got Knight Magic, which is narrated by Josh Gad. And, you know, it’s it’s just a way to tap into kids’ imagination. You know, this has always been the thing that we wanted to do. Everyone wants to do with their kids is to get them to get really engrossed in the story and understand how to use their imagination and not just rely on what they’re seeing play out.

Rebecca:
Do you guys have you know, when you are putting together these ideas for, you know, what original content would look like or something like the Sesame Street podcast, are you basing this on how you’re seeing your members, like how the listening is happening or where you’re seeing demand? And then how do you guys get the feedback or gauge that?

Abby:
You know, well, the ratings on the

Rebecca:
Ok.

Abby:
Site and the comments are they are definitely taken to heart in understanding. You know, we get we interact with listeners on social and in different spaces and we just see what’s really, you know, connecting based either on downloads or based on what’s going on in the world. And sometimes it is just you really want to get things and elevate ideas and stories that meet the times. So, you know, it’s understanding, especially coming through the sort of social awakening, shall we say, of this last six months. You know, we have really elevated a lot of titles from black authors and diverse authors and creators and narrators and really getting conversation that can be age appropriate as determined by the parents. But things that, you know, speak to the moments as well as the storytelling. So whether it’s our original work or, you know, something like this, I think this book called Stamped, which was Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi, is sort of remix on this look at racism and anti-racism in America. That is something we look at, like how that is doing and how well people are embracing that and think about what else needs to go out to the world.

Rebecca:
That’s really interesting, especially about nonfiction books, I think, you know, there’s this idea that when you’re reading fiction or you have storytelling for your kids, that’s something parents are very familiar with in terms of, you know, almost the first books you read. Your kids are always, I guess, fiction. I’m thinking picture books even. You know, that’s I never really thought about how nonfiction Audiobooks play into that learning experience and what it’s like to have someone speaking to you about different topics rather than you trying to process it kind of alone on the page.

Abby:
Right. And it can be engrossing in different ways and, you know, it’s also way there are there many things that folks who are a little elitist about what’s good for kids to listen to or to read. You know, I remember back in the day when my son was into started doing graphic novels and there were a lot of folks are just like, you know, that’s not it’s not real. Reading them to read more books. I was like, I need them to read anything.

Amy:
Mm

Abby:
I

Amy:
Hmm.

Abby:
Need him to get

Rebecca:
Yeah.

Abby:
Into anything. And that led to him reading like the Rick Riordan, you know, a couple of different Rick Riordan series. Like it sets up the way kids process things. And we can’t really be gatekeepers too much on that. And a lot of those things actually do translate into audio pretty well because they’re they’re kind of written like scripts, you know, like especially graphic novels because, you know, this. Did you I don’t know if any of you saw the Jerry Craft new kid last year. It won a Newbery Medal, Coretta Scott King or other award, and it ended up being one of our best Audiobooks of the year as well. And that was a graphic novel because it’s just it plays out really well. And that was not one of our originals. But it’s still it’s amazing.

Amy:
So how did they do the graphic novels, do they just kind of use it as a storyboard and describe the images?

Abby:
Yeah, there is there’s description, there’s tweaking to the imagery, you know, how you would process the imagery in the same way that you’re listening to a regular work of fiction and imagining

Rebecca:
Netgen.

Abby:
It sets it up as an imagination exercise.

Rebecca:
I can see kids probably doing both at the same time to then wanting the book, the physical book and then sort of reading along with the audio book.

Abby:
Mm hmm, yep.

Rebecca:
You know, it seems that’s one of my favorite things, is that ability to kind of switch back and forth

Abby:
Yeah,

Amy:
Mm hmm.

Rebecca:
To.

Abby:
Yeah.

Rebecca:
So because I think especially for parents, when you and moms in particular have less and less time to themselves to read, that can be, I think, one of the one of not the toughest adjustments of motherhood, but one of the things a lot of people find themselves missing and didn’t realize it until a couple of years goes by. And you’re like, I haven’t read a book.

Abby:
Yeah, yeah.

Rebecca:
And Audiobooks, I think can be a really great way for moms and dads, any caretaker to sort of tap back into to that for themselves. It is it’s I say to people all time, I think I had five years of my life where I didn’t read, you know, where or I read junk or whatever, because I couldn’t I didn’t have the brain power to read a novel. At

Abby:
Zoom.

Rebecca:
The end of my day, you know, if if you had your kids naped, you worked or maybe

Amy:
Or

Rebecca:
Even

Amy:
Slept.

Rebecca:
After you slept or cleaned or whatever it was.

Abby:
Or totally zoned out.

Rebecca:
Yeah,

Abby:
That’s just me.

Rebecca:
Exactly. Because you couldn’t process another thing. And

Abby:
Mm hmm.

Rebecca:
I remember listening to Audiobooks at some point during that time and being like, oh, I can still like be part of the cultural conversation and actually

Abby:
Yes.

Rebecca:
Listen to this book everyone’s talking about because there’s no way I’m reading it.

Amy:
It’s so

Rebecca:
It’s

Amy:
Interesting

Rebecca:
Interesting.

Amy:
That you say that, because just the other day I was filling out one of those online things like, you know, how many of these 500 books have you read? And I realized that almost all of the ones that I checked off that were in like the last 10 years, I had actually listened to and I until I saw it all in one place, I didn’t realize just how many Audiobooks I was listening to.

Abby:
You know, that’s the thing I really would not be consuming in many books if I had to read them right now. It’s just

Amy:
Mm hmm.

Abby:
There’s just no way I don’t know that I ever truly recovered from that period of time when my kids were younger. And,

Rebecca:
The.

Abby:
You know, I think the my crowning achievement was reading this one gigantic bestseller during their first five years. I remember this book very, very well because I just worked really hard at reading it. And everything since then has been sometimes a little harder, sometimes a little easier. But I definitely there’s no way I’d be hitting my good reads go. No, we’re not listening as well.

Rebecca:
Yeah, it’s it’s a muscle, right, like

Abby:
Yes.

Rebecca:
That ability to sort of read and sustain your attention that probably most of us lose not just through motherhood, but now through how distracted and divided our attention is all the time. And I think that’s what’s nice about an audio book, is that you can do more than one thing and

Amy:
Mm

Abby:
Yes,

Amy:
Hmm.

Rebecca:
You

Abby:
And

Rebecca:
Can

Abby:
Still

Rebecca:
Cook

Abby:
Process.

Rebecca:
And listen. Yeah,

Abby:
Yeah.

Rebecca:
And you can. And you totally process and you can rewind, like, if you missed it, you kind of just you go back, you’re like, wait, wait, wait, what just happened? You know? And you go back and you find it. And what I kind of love for kids is and we all know this, kids can read the same book 8000 times. Right.

Abby:
Yes.

Rebecca:
Like they don’t care. And it’s the same with audio. Like they will listen over and over and over. And I think it’s nice as a parent to know that they’re doing something you’ve kind of set up for them. You

Abby:
Blissdom.

Rebecca:
Know, that you that they you have this nice curated, you know, list of books they’re listening to and they can do that. And you, again, like they could be coloring at the same time. They could be, you know, building Legos at the same time. It doesn’t have to be this weird dedicated thing where they sit on the couch and listen, you know,

Abby:
Right, right,

Rebecca:
And they certainly don’t have to be looking at a screen.

Abby:
Yeah, it raises the bar of entry for for storytelling for kids, and I always like that where it doesn’t feel so inaccessible if you’re, you know, your kids fidgety kid, if he if they’re just prone to not really wanting to sit and do something concerted. But they and, you know, they don’t even do it when they’re watching TV like they’re moving all

Rebecca:
Yeah.

Abby:
The time. So, yeah, it just it makes it accessible. And I love that.

Rebecca:
It’s funny, I will tell you, my one of my inappropriate parent moments, we were we were away for a month together and my daughters were seven. And we listened to a lot of stuff in the car. We were just sort of in the car lot. And one of the things we listened to was David Sedaris when you are engulfed in flames. And my daughters were seven and they loved it so much, partly because they knew it was inappropriate. But we sort of got to that point in our, you know, in and out of the car that we’re like, we’re not doing the kid stuff. Like we’re done like we can’t

Abby:
Yeah.

Rebecca:
We can’t listen to it again. I can’t do another Percy Jackson, you know,

Abby:
Yeah.

Rebecca:
And and we were like, whatever. But it was so wonderful because it reminded me of when I would like get those books off my parents’ bookshelf that I probably wasn’t supposed to read. But I was like, who’s Philip Roth? You know, Audible that thing down. It’s like, oh, no, my goodness.

Abby:
Yeah.

Rebecca:
But it’s good. It would like it was funny because I think it was obviously never something they would read at seven. But he has such an incredible way of reading his work. I actually think

Abby:
Yes.

Rebecca:
His work is better read aloud

Abby:
He

Rebecca:
Not

Abby:
Loves

Rebecca:
To put

Abby:
Audiobooks

Rebecca:
Down his work.

Abby:
Know he loves them, he’s he said he would rather listen than read anything ever again. I was like, wow, OK.

Rebecca:
But it makes sense to me because his writing you once you’ve heard him right, you hear his voice in your head if you’re reading it

Abby:
Mm hmm.

Rebecca:
So you might as well just listen to it. So but it was funny. It was like a very fun way to introduce them to a totally different kind of writing than they would ever have. And we had a few stories we had to like fast forward a little bit. But it was I don’t know, it just it’s just one of my most favorite memories from that time when they were little. And it says, you know, I can’t tell you the movies we saw. I cannot. But I can tell you about those times in the car listening to David Sedaris with them in the backseat, like, oh, you know, it’s just so much fun.

Abby:
I love that you’re not doing parenting right, unless you have one of those stories.

Rebecca:
Right, I mean, take a risk, introduce your kids to something that maybe they’re not quite quite ready for, but and you know what? They don’t even get it on that level anyway. Like

Abby:
No.

Rebecca:
It’s part of other stuff goes over their head. I mean, I feel the same way about when I had them watch Dirty Dancing at one of their sleepovers when they were 10. They didn’t know an abortion happened. They had no idea what that was like. Whatever she’s sick like, they don’t know.

Abby:
Yes, yeah.

Rebecca:
Show them the movie. Yeah, that’s like a whole other conversation. But yes, parents make sure giving your children permission before, before and letting them loose on any any Audible, Netflix or whatever.

Abby:
Yes, just as it does still require parents to do their own due diligence,

Rebecca:
Yes.

Abby:
But there’s you know, it’s like anything you think you any like a fairy tale, any children’s book that you have some nostalgia for is available in audio. So there’s always something for there to turn to.

Rebecca:
Yeah, that’s perfect. Well, thank you, Abby West was like, really great, I’d love to his conversation. We don’t talk about Audiobooks enough, you know, as technology, which is sort of funny, but now it’s so accessible. It’s just part of your everyday technology. So thank you for being on. And you gave us lots to think about. And now I like have a list in my head of all the things I wanna listen to, especially the originals. I’m super into these like this whole idea of original Audible content.

Abby:
So many cool when so many cool ones that so many cool originals were doing, but they’re also just so many great stories, whether we have created them or not. And I just want more people to take advantage of that opportunity for their kids.

Rebecca:
Well, we will do our part to spread the word, thank you again, I hope we have you on much sooner, not like such a long time ago. And we’ll have to make a plan for summer reading or road trips or something.

Abby:
I would love it, I would

Rebecca:
Perfect.

Abby:
Love it.

Rebecca:
Great. Oh, thank you again. We will be right back with our Bytes of the Week.

Rebecca:
We are back with our Bytes of the Week. are short bites, it’s just me and you. All right. What do you got? Amy.

Amy:
Well, so I have talked about Hrishikesh Hirway on this show at least twice before because he was the host of West Wing Weekly, along with Josh Malina, which was one of my favorite podcasts. And then he came out with a new podcast with Samin Nosrat, his home cooking podcast, which is still

Rebecca:
Oh,

Amy:
Going

Rebecca:
My God, I love her.

Amy:
Out there. And they’re so great together on home cooking, which it’s hilarious because it was only supposed to be a four parter, because I don’t think they thought that the pandemic was going to last as long as it did either. So, like, you know, there they’ll be like, OK, this is Episode seven in our four part series. But he now he has another podcast that I was never a huge fan of called Song Exploder. And the reason that I wasn’t a huge fan is that it’s mostly songs that I’ve never heard of by artists I don’t listen to. So I just never got into it. It’s been turned into a Netflix series, so I checked it out. And here’s the thing. There are four episodes. It’s like Alicia Keys won about Hamilton won about RTM and losing my religion. And then a fourth one that I can’t even remember because I’ve never heard of the singer before. And that’s kind of the thing. Like, all four episodes were super interesting. But if you actually already love the song that they’re talking about and already have an emotional attachment to it, I don’t know. For me, that just made those episodes just absolutely incredible. Like I watched the losing my religion won three times.

Rebecca:
Oh, that’s cool.

Amy:
It’s so great. And so, like, maybe and and you should also check out the podcast Song Exploder, just because maybe you listen to different music than I do and you will

Rebecca:
Right.

Amy:
Have an emotional attachment to to those to to more episodes than I did, because the episodes that I did listen to were fantastic. But again, I kind of picked and chose the ones where I already knew the artist or already knew the the song and loved it. But it’s the Netflix show. It’s really great. Like, it’s really well produced. He just he sits down with the with the artist and just picks apart their process for coming up with the song and producing the song. And it’s it’s super fascinating. I loved it.

Rebecca:
That’s really cool.

Amy:
Even the two that I were I didn’t like, you know, really

Rebecca:
Care

Amy:
Get into

Rebecca:
About the

Amy:
The

Rebecca:
Song?

Amy:
Song. I still I still really enjoyed it.

Rebecca:
I think I mean, you’re just looking at a creative process, right, any time you’re under, like, lifting up the hood on a really creative process that you don’t know anything about.

Amy:
Yeah,

Rebecca:
It’s fascinating.

Amy:
Yeah, and the thing is, like out of all of the different creative fields, I think, like producing a song is what I know the least about.

Rebecca:
Yeah.

Amy:
You know, like like seeing Alicia Keys go into a room with a producer and another songwriter was really fascinating because I really had no idea how you come up with a popular song and like what role the producer plays. And it was it was cool.

Rebecca:
That’s awesome. I’m going to check that out because I’m out of things to watch,

Amy:
Well, they

Rebecca:
So

Amy:
Only four episodes, but there you

Rebecca:
Perfect.

Amy:
Go.

Rebecca:
That’s like a British show. So there you go. British shows either are four episodes or 300. So TikTokers.

Amy:
Well, it’s it’s like they because our contracts for shows go seven years, theirs go three, so.

Rebecca:
Yeah, but there are literally shows with two episodes like what was that

Amy:
Yeah.

Rebecca:
I don’t understand, but anyway, that’s a whole other discussion. We’ll have to have someone come on from British TV at some point and explain the British season to us. I would love that, actually. All right. My bite this week, which probably everyone in the world has seen at this point, but whatever it’s the parody video of our guest Beauty and the Beast, but is wearing a mask. And I’m always amazed at how well the lip synching works out in these animated videos. And I guess it’s because lips don’t really move that much in animation. You’re projecting, right,

Amy:
Right.

Rebecca:
That it’s that it looks in sync. But the truth is, once you substitute any words, it pretty much works as long as you’re hitting the big ones

Amy:
Right.

Rebecca:
The same. So, I mean, you’ve seen this so this video, it’s so good. It’s two minutes. The lyrics are so smart and funny. And obviously people who aren’t wearing masks aren’t going to find it funny. But I don’t care because it’s just hilarious. And I don’t know. It’s probably a really fun thing for a kid to see, even though there’s some

Amy:
There’s a little language.

Rebecca:
Salty language. But I don’t know. I just love that people take the time to make these creative, nutty things. And I just found it ridiculously enjoyable. Like, I probably watched it too many times and shared it with too many people, all of whom like, I know, but I don’t care.

Amy:
It’s funny because I had seen it going through my feet a lot and didn’t watch it because I’m kind of snobby about that stuff, like it’s got to be really clever for me

Rebecca:
Yeah.

Amy:
To actually like it. And then I saw, like, people that I actually trust sharing it. And then a friend of the show, Nancy, she she tagged me in it and I was like, okay, I better watch it. And by the time Mrs. Potts come on comes on, it was hilarious.

Rebecca:
It’s so funny and I appreciate I appreciate the attempt at covid shaming humor so dear, but that is that is our show for today. We have links to everything we talked about today with Abby, with us. If you haven’t seen the video, there will be a link to it. You can find everything we talked about at our show page on Parenting Bytes dot com. And of course, on Facebook, dot com slash Parenting Bytes, where you can leave us comments. Let us know how you’re doing and let us know your favorite Audiobooks, please. Rate reviews, subscribe and share from wherever you are listening to us. And until next week, happy parenting.

Amy:
Bye.

Rebecca:
Hey, this is our Parenting Bytes disclaimer, everything we talk about on the show is our own opinion, any products we recommend, it’s our own personal recommendation for entertainment purposes only. If you buy something through our affiliate links or you just happened to buy or see or read or watch something that we recommended, it’s at your own risk.

Automatically convert your audio files to text with Sonix. Sonix is the best online, automated transcription service.

Sonix uses cutting-edge artificial intelligence to convert your Episode 240: Why audiobooks are really great for kids (and adults!) right now files to text.

Manual audio transcription is tedious and expensive. Are you a podcaster looking for automated transcription? Sonix can help you better transcribe your podcast episodes. Get the most out of your audio content with Sonix. Are you a radio station? Better transcribe your radio shows with Sonix. Create and share better audio content with Sonix. Automated transcription is much more accurate if you upload high quality audio. Here’s how to capture high quality audio. Automated transcription is getting more accurate with each passing day. Lawyers need to transcribe their interviews, phone calls, and video recordings. Most choose Sonix as their speech-to-text technology.

Sonix uses cutting-edge artificial intelligence to convert your Episode 240: Why audiobooks are really great for kids (and adults!) right now files to text.

Sonix is the best online audio transcription software in 2020—it’s fast, easy, and affordable.

If you are looking for a great way to convert your audio to text, try Sonix today.