How to Tell Stories to Children – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Technical and general information from the podcast's RSS feed.

How to Tell Stories to Children

Kids & Family

Education

Frequency: 1 episode/14d. Total Eps: 29

From the authors of How to Tell Stories to Children comes a podcast that supports parents, teachers, and grandparents who want to engage in the intimacy and excitement of storytelling at home. Our work has been endorsed by Dr. Jane Goodall, New York Times bestselling authors and parenting guides Steve Biddulph, Kim John Payne, Bill McKibben, Richard Rohr, Charles Eisenstein, and many more. Warning! This is not a collection of children's stories. It's about empowerment. It is about finding your voice. We combine the science of storytelling with a step-by-step method, practice exercises, and sample stories to help you awaken to the storyteller within.

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Apple

Data updated on 04/07/2026

Recent rankings

Latest chart positions across Apple Podcasts and Spotify rankings.

Apple Podcasts

🇨🇦 Canada - Parenting
04/12/2025
#75
🇫🇷 France - Parenting
29/07/2025
#96
🇨🇦 Canada - Parenting
21/07/2025
#100
🇩🇪 Germany - Parenting
08/06/2025
#88
🇩🇪 Germany - Parenting
07/06/2025
#64
🇫🇷 France - Parenting
23/02/2025
#92
🇨🇦 Canada - Parenting
02/01/2025
#92
🇫🇷 France - Parenting
10/12/2024
#97
🇫🇷 France - Parenting
09/12/2024
#69
🇫🇷 France - Parenting
08/12/2024
#48

Spotify

No recent rankings available

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

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https://howtotellstoriestochildren.com/podcast
2 shares
https://howtotellstoriestochildren.com/podcast-blog/stories-for-earth-day
1 share
https://howtotellstoriestochildren.com/podcast-blog/how-to-grow-fresh-green-stories
1 share

https://www.amazon.com/dp/190735915X/ref=as_sl_pc_tf_til?creativeASIN=190735915X&amp
1 share
https://www.amazon.com/Stories-Light-Night-Communities-Storytelling/dp/1912480271/ref=pd_sbs_4/132-8871303-5073344?pd_rd_i=1912480271&amp
1 share

RSS feed quality and score

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RSS feed quality

To improve

Score global : 63%

Publication history

Monthly episode publishing history over the past years.

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Latest published episodes

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A Shared Story & Goodbye to Joseph Sarosy

Season 3 · Episode 8

Thursday, January 6, 2022 • Duration 46:30

After three years of focused work on How to Tell Stories to Children, Joseph Sarosy is moving on. Silke and Joe tell a shared story to commemorate this shift, followed by some of the directions they'll both be taking in the next few weeks and months. Rest assured, their common interests are growing closer, not apart.

In part, Joe is stepping away to make more room for Silke to take center stage. Look for more Randolph Roots stories in the near future and some refreshed energy and direction from her. However, Silke is right now in Germany with her mother and her dying father. It is a little uncertain when she will return to this podcast, but return she shall.

Joe is shifting his focus back to writing about education, children, and wilderness. His blog Off Grid Kids led to the creation of How to Tell Stories to Children over three years ago, and he's returning to that subject matter with a new blog titled Rare Earth. He is also working on a second book - about trees, neural development, and education. You can find his work at www.josephsarosy.com.

Thanks for all your support!

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Randolph Roots & the Christmas Wichtels

Season 3 · Episode 7

Thursday, December 23, 2021 • Duration 29:49

Willie Wichtel, the Christmas gnome, is tired and ill. He worries that no one will be able to make all the Christmas magic happen.

When Randolph Roots shows up to give Willie some rest and attention, Eddie Elf takes charge. He helps all the helpful little wichtels get organized, for they have much work to do.

Wichtels are helpful little creatures that arrive at our hearths each year to help parents and grandparents with the extra tasks of the holiday season. Chopping kindling, washing dishes, sweeping floors - they do it all silently while the people rest.

You can be a wichtel too! But shh...every kind deed they do is a well kept secret.

This is Season 2 - After the story, Silke & Joe discuss the story's context and meaning. The story comes first, so that listeners with little children can access them easily.

Our goal is to inspire you. We love telling stories, but we love it even more when you feel empowered to tell your own. Whether you find inspiration in the stories, or something of value in the discussion - let that be your guide to opening your own voice.

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The Storytelling Tree

Season 3 · Episode 6

Thursday, December 9, 2021 • Duration 53:41

The Storytelling Tree has a special talent: when a story is told underneath its branches, characters and images from the tale appear in the shapes and twists of its canopy. Summer brings fantastical stories, and in fall the mosaic of colorful leaves paint scenes of incredible richness, surpassed perhaps only by the sparkling frost and prismatic colors of winter's sunlight.

World class storytellers visit the tree in dazzling seasonal festivals - till one day little Annabel Rattigan reminds everyone that sharing stories is not merely about spinning wild and elegant yarns, but sharing the sweet, intimate, and sometimes small connections between mother and child.

Today, some say the tree never existed. But we know that’s not true for one simple reason - children still find them. Chances are there is a storytelling tree in your backyard this very moment. It may even be peaking in your window, waiting for just the right child to sit underneath its branches.

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Randolph & the Little Witch

Season 3 · Episode 5

Thursday, November 25, 2021 • Duration 44:07

Randolph and Naughty Foot wake to find a rum-tumbling witch capering through the forest. She loves Halloween and Thanksgiving, and she's a bit of a mischief maker. After turning the forest pond into a giant pumpkin pie, all the animals are invited to the feast.

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This is Your Brain on Stories

Season 3 · Episode 4

Thursday, November 11, 2021 • Duration 01:08:29

Thanks to elegant research from some of the best scientists in the world, we are finally beginning to understand why stories wield unique significance for Homo sapiens - including why our brains are able to comprehend them in the first place.

If you have ever watched a child act out a story, you have observed something exceptional about the impact of stories on human behavior. Not only do we understand them, we move our bodies and limbs in tandem with the stories in our minds – even if, as is often the case, we know them not to be true. No other animal, so far as we know, possesses this remarkable trait.

The human relationship between story and behavior sheds new light on the question of whether a particular story is true or false. Better to ask - is it effective? If it motivates behavior, and that behavior impacts the individual and/or others, then the story is of consequence.

But stories aren't just play things. They are the root of our religions, nations, and the precious possessions of our cultures. We may sacrifice much in life, but we will often live and die for the right story. To understand why, we need to take a deeper look into how stories take up residence in our brains, and what happens when they depart. This is your brain on stories.

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Randolph & the Corn Mother

Season 3 · Episode 3

Thursday, October 28, 2021 • Duration 01:00:15

Randolph visits a corn field, where he listens to the story told by the Corn Mother to the little seeds within the cob. He is gifted a few of the seed babies, which he takes on his journey.

On his way home, Randolph comes across a house where the mother and father are arguing. Their child is saddened by their arguments, and Randolph talks with her. He gives her the seed babies, which bring a magical blessing into the home.

This is Season 2 - After the story, Silke & Joe discuss the story's context and meaning. The story comes first, so that listeners with little children can access them easily.

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The Wizard and the Crystal Ball

Season 3 · Episode 2

Thursday, October 14, 2021 • Duration 47:24

Amalgamesh was a mid-level wizard who wished to be a great wizard. For that, he needed a crystal ball. But not just any crystal ball - one crafted by his own hands.

In return for a few chickens with which to feed his family, a stone mason helps Amalgamesh polish and craft his crystal ball. Finally, after months of work Amalgamesh discovers a fatal flaw - something he could not see until the crystal was nearly complete.

Feeling dejected, Amalgamesh resorts to anger and frustration - till a young child helps him recognize that his place in the community is what makes him a great sorceror, not his greatness above others.

This is Season 2 - After the story, Silke & Joe discuss the story's context and meaning. The story comes first, so that listeners with little children can access them easily.

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Randolph & the Apple Tree

Season 3 · Episode 1

Thursday, September 30, 2021 • Duration 31:16

Hi everyone! We are excited to return with Season 2 of our podcast. We are doing things a little differently this season, so here’s what to expect.

A story comes first, so that listeners with little children can access them easily. After the story, adults will have a chance to listen to part 2 – where Silke & Joe give a little background and perspective on the story.

Our goal is to inspire you. We love telling stories, but we love it even more when you feel empowered to tell your own. You may find inspiration in the stories. You may find something of value in the discussion. Whatever strikes you, let that be your guide to opening your own voice, like a beautiful flower blossoming after a long drink in the summer sun.

In this episode, Randolph Roots encounters a circle of fairies singing around an old and dying apple tree. In acknowledging the loss, there is also a celebration of new life - a tiny seedling sprouting nearby.

As we move into Autumn, we invite you to explore stories like this with your children. Maybe take a tour of your garden, yard, or neighborhood, then tell a story about a tree or plant that made an impression on you. Tying stories like this into real life experiences can be incredibly meaningful for both parent and child.

P.S - We will still occasionally publish episodes on timely storytelling topics and ideas.

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A Storytelling Game for Families

Season 1 · Episode 21

Thursday, July 29, 2021 • Duration 38:57

Telling stories can be a fun way to connect with the whole family - whether that's around a campfire or your kitchen table. In this episode, we share a simple method that gets the ball rolling - so that everyone is involved.

The format is simple - each person has a chance to tell a story, real or imaginary, and also to listen. The goal is short, easy stories - so no one feels pressured to “do it right.” By drawing inspiration from the previous story, you eventually get a “snowball effect” that turns into laughter, creativity, and lifelong memories.

Photo by Josue Michel on UnSplash

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Stories to Soothe and Heal Trauma

Season 1 · Episode 20

Thursday, July 15, 2021 • Duration 41:24

Children who have suffered an injury, be it physical or psychological, benefit greatly from the healing format of a story - especially from a parent or loved one.

This can be as simple as helping our little ones process a tumble by telling (and allowing them to retell) how it happened. But it can also be as complicated as a therapeutic story that helps a child process a traumatic event with big emotions.

The goal of this episode is to help you define trauma, differentiate between small and large traumatic events, and give you some guidance on the kinds of stories that may work in different contexts. Further resources are provided at the end.

Disclaimer - If you or your child is experiencing significant psychological or emotional stress, please seek the help of a doctor, therapist, or another qualified professional.

In this episode, we define 3 types of healing stories:

Reconstruction and Repetition of Real Events
Soothing/Calming Stories
Therapeutic Stories

Further Resources on Therapeutic Storytelling

Therapeutic Storytelling by Susan Perrow

Using Therapeutic Storytelling With Children by John Sommers-Flanagan, PHD

Guidelines for Therapeutic Story Writing by Susan Laing

by Susan Perrow

How to Tell Stories to Children – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

How to Tell Stories to Children – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

Other6

Amazon2

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Similar podcasts and content

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Other6

Amazon2

Apple Podcasts

Spotify