Whale hello there! What's your favorite quarium? Andrew & Polly are getting ready for a big July -- the 10th year of Ear Snacks! Wolftrap on July 11th ! -- but we can't leave June without celebrating Aquarium Appreciation Month! Nate from The Show About Science talks about Luna the Otter at the Shed Aquarium in Chicago, Rebecca Johnson from the California Academy of Science talks about nudibranch camouflage (crypsis!) and evolution, and our friend Jenn talks about her love of seahorses! (We ...
Jun 25, 2025•22 min•Season 5Ep. 4
Today on Ear Snacks we're celebrating Juneteenth (Freedom Day! Jubilee Day! Emancipation Day!) with songs from the GRAMMY-nominated family music album "All One Tribe" - we hope your family will find, support, and share their work! On this episode you'll hear: For All by The Wise Channel Family Reunion by Fyütch feat. Divinity Roxx What Do You Believe? by Shine and the Moonbeams Clap Your Hands by The Magic Jones Shine (The Melanin Remix) by Alphabet Rockers Nothing Wrong With the Black Crayon by...
Jun 18, 2025•34 min•Season 5Ep. 3
Polly goes to Fiddle Camp, violinist Katie Buckbee and her son Archer expound on their love of bluegrass, and our pal Eddie Berman introduce us to his 5-string banjo. A bit of ear training on Ear Snacks! (And we use "fiddling" as a model for ways of learning by doing.) We're getting ready for the 10th year of Ear Snacks, and we can't make this show without you! Parents around the world have shared their children's voices & ideas with us, and we love building inspirational, educational, fun s...
Jun 11, 2025•22 min•Season 5Ep. 2
We mustache you a question -- What exactly IS a mustache? And WHO can have one? Celebrate Pride month with Andrew & Polly by wondering about all the different types of hairs that can grow on a face! Filmamker Sally Rubin joins us to talk about her family's mustaches and her animated short film "Mama Has a Mustache" a conversation starter for families and educators thinking about gender (that we made the music for!) To support all kinds of families and hear kids talk about gender, visit mamah...
Jun 04, 2025•20 min•Season 5Ep. 1
(Hello! We're excited to make more music and podcasts for & with you in 2025! Meanwhile, enjoy these holiday-themed episode remixes -- and thanks for listening!) Happy Happy Holidays! Let these completely original family-music tunes light up your holidays, road trips and home days! Thanks to these incredibly talented and generous musicians who fill our ears and hearts all year long - a great way to support their work is by sharing their music, adding their songs to your playlists and followi...
Dec 27, 2024•28 min•Season 4Ep. 29
(Hello! We're excited to make more music and podcasts for & with you in 2025! Meanwhile, enjoy these holiday-themed episode remixes -- and thanks for listening!) Andrew & Polly talk about BOXES in a special interview with Antoinette Portis, author of Not a Box . This episode also highlights The Box Project with Eliza Gregory - and, of course, thanks to our kid experts: Ruslan, Gavin, Manny, Charlie, Penny, Ainsley, Liliana, Lane, Guy, Grey, Sadie & William. Oh - and this episode was ...
Dec 26, 2024•19 min•Season 4Ep. 28
(Hello! We're excited to make more music and podcasts for & with you in 2025! Meanwhile, enjoy these holiday-themed episode remixes -- and thanks for listening!) Sundown, lights up! Andrew & Polly ask their friends about sources of illumination, human-made and natural. Lori Hoch Stiefel from PJ Library shares her Hanukkah story and we begin to wonder...why do candlelight and winter celebrations go hand-in-hand? Thanks to Arlo, Molly, Poppy, Opal, Sam, and Thiri (and their parents) for sh...
Dec 25, 2024•21 min•Season 4Ep. 27
(Hello! We're excited to make more music and podcasts for & with you in 2025! Meanwhile, enjoy these holiday-themed episode remixes -- and thanks for listening!) Celebrate the winter solstice by exploring the darkest depths of the ocean with marine biologist and self-proclaimed Mermaid Danni Washington ! Check out her amazing book, Bold Women in Science , and her podcast for kids, Genius Generation. Thanks again to our friends Arlo, Molly, Poppy, Opal, Sam, and Thiri (and their parents) for ...
Dec 24, 2024•24 min•Season 4Ep. 26
(Hello! We're excited to make more music and podcasts for & with you in 2025! Meanwhile, enjoy these holiday-themed episode remixes -- and thanks for listening!) Andrew & Polly think about how to stay warm in the winter with some of our favorite family holiday tunes. For more great episodes on the holidays, check out these episodes about Hanukkah , Kwanzaa , our most favoritest family holiday music playlist and lights in the ocean! Thanks to Sara Louise Callaway from The Music Box and th...
Dec 23, 2024•25 min•Season 4Ep. 25
Hey Texas! Andrew & Polly are SUPER-excited to finally perform in you! We're taking the stage at Austin City Limits / Austin Kiddie Limits this Friday and Saturday, October 4th & 5th, at 12:30p. Awesome band? GRAMMY-nominated music? Double check. Enough shakers, stickers & bubbles to share? Check, check, check! The good people of ACL are bringing some amazing live acts for all ages along with crafts, activities & snacks to support a full day of rocking and rolling -- so come sing...
Oct 02, 2024•2 min•Season 4Ep. 24
Kick off your summer with new bops and classic tunes about translucent spectra! Here’s just a taste of the songs you’ll discover on our Spotify playlist, Songs About Rainbows 🌈 : Sing a Rainbow by Peggy Lee Cry a Rainbow by Pierce Freelon & Nnenna Freelon Rainbowland by Miley Cyrus & Dolly Parton Rainbow Seekers by Ants on a Log Rainbow Shoppe by Andrew & Polly feat. Lucy Kalantari Rainbow World by Claudia Robin Gun Over the Rainbow by Dan Zanes Parents - please help support these a...
May 29, 2024•26 min•Season 4Ep. 23
Metamorphic caterpillars! Fungus farming ants! Digital bees? Oh my! -- how can these all be bugs? In this episode, Avery talks about bugs in computer code and how she built a pollination video game with a Raspberry Pi. Izaiah updates us about the worms in the compost pile on his farm. And our friends at Valle de Niños in San Francisco take us on a tour of the life cycle of caterpillars. (Entomolgist Chris Wheeler also gets some words in edge-wise1)
Apr 18, 2024•26 min•Season 4Ep. 22
What IS a CRITTER? Andrew & Polly ask some friends around the world about the different critters that live in their neighborhoods. Ear Snacks is a free interactive experience centered around children’s voices & ideas. To support the work we’re doing for your kids (and all kids), become a supporter on Patreon or through Apple Podcasts Premium Subscription feature. Thanks for listening! Need more snacks? Connect with us on Instagram , Facebook , Twitter or TikTok !...
Apr 18, 2024•27 min•Season 5Ep. 22
An interview with a mermaid scientist!!! This Earth Week remix episode of Ear Snacks features the bright light of science communicator and mermaid, Danni Washington . Check out her amazing book, Bold Women in Science , and her podcast for kids, Genius Generation. Thanks again to our friends Arlo, Molly, Poppy, Opal, Sam, and Thiri (and their parents) for sharing what they know about lights! And thank you to all our listeners for your beautiful inner lights and for using them to help others see s...
Apr 16, 2024•21 min•Season 4Ep. 21
Happy Earth Week! What has 3 trillion trees and one kid named after a birch tree? Andrew & Polly's family tree has (at least!) 3 tree experts who give us just the tiniest glimpse into the wonder of all things arboreal. Thanks to Bay Area-based Plant Stars and Oakland Aesthetics for sharing what they love! To learn more or to be on the show, visit earsnacks.org - and thanks for listening!...
Apr 16, 2024•10 min•Season 14Ep. 20
What do you see during an eclipse? What does it feel like? What does it sound like? In 2017, we asked kids and families living in the path of totality to record their experience of the Great American Eclipse. If you're getting ready for the total solar eclipse on April 8th, 2024 that will stretch from Texas to Maine, check this out! More awesome eclipse- and science-related listening goodness, including… Our episode about Shadows where Mat Kaplan from Planetary Radio explains how eclipses are sp...
Mar 27, 2024•18 min•Season 4Ep. 19
Why ARE there so many songs about rainbows? Because there's SO MUCH TO SAY about them! Happy Holi! Andrew & Polly act as the prism for some awesome tangential concepts connected to ROY G BIV. Jazz piansit Charu Suri shares the connection between raga (Sanskrit for "color" or "dye") and the aura of music, as well as her love of the mischievously vibrant paint-throwing Festival of Colors, Holi ! And Nina Silver takes us on a guided unpacking of flood myths and rainbows as symbols of hope in a ...
Mar 22, 2024•34 min•Season 4Ep. 18
WHAT IS PIE? What about pi? Can I have 3.1415 pieces, please? Pre-heat your International Pi Day festivities! Andrew & Polly get granular with Molly Birnbaum from America’s Test Kitchen Kids who does all kinds of fascinating kitchen experiments and games on her new kids podcast, Mystery Recipe. Find more at ATKkids.com/mysteryrecipe and earsnacks.org — we hope family time can be filled with fun and learning and good food!
Mar 08, 2024•16 min•Season 4Ep. 17
Do you ever make things in your house? Do you ever use YARN? Unwind the knotty world of knitting, coziness, and monster design with our friends Lilah, Gertie, Dot, and Andy Ferguson a.k.a. musician & puppeteer, Red Yarn! Andy shares a paper bag craft, using pantomime to create new puppetry characters, and how crafting can contribute to protest movements. Our pal Angela Diveglia shares about her time working with Bread and Puppet Theater and the giant protest puppets they've used in civic eng...
Feb 23, 2024•31 min•Season 4Ep. 16
Do all hearts beat the same? We don’t know…unless we listen to them. With the help of four well-informed hummingbirds and renowned muralist Ruben Rojas, Andrew & Polly explore what they know about hearts – biological and metaphorical! Our friends Maya, Anders, Jackson, and Emmet share about how their hearts feel when they give and receive Valentines. And Polly shares about the little robot in her chest (her pacemaker-defibrillator) and the way it keeps her heart dancing to a steady beat. Man...
Feb 09, 2024•34 min•Season 4Ep. 15
Guest host extraordinaire Carly Ciarrocchi introduces you to the GRAMMY®-nominated artists for Best Children's Music Album in 2024: DJ Willy Wow! for HIP-HOPE FOR KIDS! 123 Andrés for WE GROW TOGETHER: PRESCHOOL SONGS Andrew & Polly for AHHHHH! Uncle Jumbo for TASTE THE SKY Pierce Freelon and Nnenna Freelon for ANCESTARS Congratulations to all the nominees for the 66th GRAMMY Awards! We hope you'll follow these artists and support their work! @djwillywow @123conandres @andrewandpolly @hellou...
Jan 27, 2024•33 min•Season 4Ep. 14
Ding ding! Andrew & Polly explore a world of bell sounds and sensations guided by blind author Andrew Leland and percussionist Abby Savell. Kora, Nora, Hazel, Max, Fortney and Berlin think about the use of bells in mindfulness and meditation, around the necks of cats and cows, and the language of fairies. Topics include the physics of sound, the spectrum of blindness, the British punk band Wire, and a vast array of bells including: Almglocken, Bell Trees, Bicycle Bells, Camel Bells, Cat Bell...
Jan 12, 2024•32 min•Season 4Ep. 13
Happy Happy Holidays! Let these completely original family-music tunes light up your holidays and upcoming home days. Thanks to these incredibly talented and generous musicians who fill our ears and hearts all year long - a great way to support their work is by sharing their music, adding their songs to your playlists and following them on social media! Happy Happy Holidays by Aaron Nigel Smith All I Want for Christmas is Used by Formidable Vegetable Coniferous Trees by Molly Ledford & Billy...
Dec 16, 2023•28 min•Season 4Ep. 13
Fun and funny songs to inspire the next generation of scientists! On this episode, we're sharing the growing-things (biology) part of our Spotify playlist Science Class Soundtrack featuring these radically thoughtful artists: The Scientific Method by Andrew & Polly feat. Mista Cookie Jar The Dichotomous Key by Billy Kelly & Molly Ledford Trees by Ozomatli Presents Ozokids Micro Biome by Formidable Vegetable Little Mushroom by Pierce Freelon & Nnenna Freelon The Mycelium Underground N...
Dec 01, 2023•28 min•Season 4Ep. 12
Wheeeee! How do slides work? What makes something slippery? And what happens when one person wants to go down a slide and another person wants to go up? Andrew & Polly think about the physics of playgrounds, sledding, trombones, and outer space. Our friends Oscar, Alexis, Calvin, Monroe, Tenney, Ainsley, and aerospace engineer Frankie help us make friends with gravity and friction. Plus we turn a playground structure into a percussion instrument. You can hear the full version of the song fea...
Nov 17, 2023•28 min•Season 4Ep. 11
On this episode of Ear Snacks, Andrew & Polly play some of their favorite songs from family music artists about BIG feelings -- and how it's okay to notice them and be with them for a while. This is just a small selection of the great music made for kids we're curating on Spotify playlists, so check 'em out! On this episode of Ear Snacks, you'll hear: Tiger in a Hammock by You and Us Wild Thing by Hot Toast Music Company Let's Get Mad by Andrew & Polly feat. Alphabet Rockers Let It Out b...
Oct 21, 2023•38 min•Season 4Ep. 10
When you need a little pep talk, these songs will reassure you - you can do it! We're celebrating our new album “ AHHHHH! ” by playing our new songs along with awesome songs from some other amazing family music artists – all about positive self-talk. Worthy Mantra by Tiptoe Giants Soy Yo by Bomba Estereo Powerful, Wonderful by Andrew & Polly (feat. Raye Zaragoza) Smardi Gras by Secret Agent 23 Skidoo I Am Enough by Miss Julieann & Propel Schools Performing Arts Academy I Can Do It! by Ka...
Oct 06, 2023•30 min•Season 4Ep. 9
Today on Ear Snacks we're celebrating our new album “ AHHHHH! ” by playing our new songs along with awesome songs from some other amazing family music artists – all about joy and resilience. Resilience is that thing kids need to help them get through tough stuff, and allowing joyfulness is one of the ways we can fill our tanks when we're feeling on empty. So get ready to bounce - and practice how to bounce back! Many thanks to these awesome music-makers for sharing their songs: All We Can Be by ...
Sep 22, 2023•37 min•Season 4Ep. 8
New Yorker cartoonist Tom Toro ( Home Free , Back to School Backpack ) talks cartoons of all shapes and sizes on this episode of Ear Snacks ! Andrew & Polly avoid anvils, consider political cartoons, think about how it feels to STOP watching your favorite stories, and sing a brand new song by Eilis Cahill. Thanks for listening! A big thank you to Leo, Solomon, Hannah, Seamus, Leon, Waylan and Izzy — and their parents — for sharing what they know about cartoons. To learn more or to be on the ...
Sep 08, 2023•23 min•Season 4Ep. 7
Sloths on motorcycles. Stereo sound. Ball bearings left over from WWII. We're talking about Moves, people. Independent ride operator Bruce Perlman talks about how he got into the carnival industry, how his friend Sergio designs gigantic moving attractions, and how boats and 22-wheelers move these carnival rides from place to place. Ramona, Hank, Willa, Colin, Bella, Desmond, and Charlie also make their Ear Snacks debut pondering what they know about movement.
Aug 09, 2023•18 min•Season 4Ep. 6
