A Fantastic Podcast for Curious Kids, Drac!

This is how the creator, Eric Rogers, and the GoKidGo podcast network describes Drac! With help from his bestie, Wren, Drac sets out to learn all he can about the wonders of our world. He learns about how the sun works and why it’s important to the solar system, how planes fly, how movies are made, how the nervous system helps our bodies function, and so much more to engage curious kids. The length of each episode is around 10 minutes.

Podcast Checklist

Starting a podcast can feel super overwhelming, and Googling how to start a podcast usually adds to that overwhelm. That is why I created a comprehensive list of podcasts. All the things you need to create a successful podcast.

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How Drac! Came to Life

I’m Eric Rogers and I have been a writer in LA for many years. When I’m not doing that, I have been doing this podcast called Drac! I write screenplays in my spare time and I got hooked up with Maya Glickman, who is one of the partners with Jennifer Clary at Go Kid Go.

Creating a podcast always interested me, especially the narrative podcast world. I went to Maya and asked how it works and how a writer can get a show. She told me to pitch them a handful of ideas and that if we love one, we’ll run with it. The show Drac! was one of the ideas. It came from a very simple place. I think all of the best,  fun and successful ideas are always the ones that are the simplest.

Drac is a kid vampire who doesn’t thirst for blood, he thirsts for knowledge. Him and his sidekick Wren take adventures in every episode. In each one they do a deep dive on one particular topic.  I build a story around that topic. It could be about anything, holidays, traditions, and why do we follow these holiday traditions? I feel sick today, what’s a virus? 

Learning Lessons In a Unique Way

I feel like we all take for granted that we have cell phones. Kids know they can turn on the TV and watch any show at any time. They stream any movie that they want. Kids know that mom and dad have a car and will get them to and from wherever they need to go. They also know that mom and dad work for money and have bank accounts and all that.

But I think most kids don’t think about this stuff. To them, it is what it is and they have these things around them and this is how the world works. So, Drac is a main character that is really deep, inquisitive, and thoughtful. He needs to find out why things work and how things work. 

My hope is that when kids listen to it, they come away from it with more understanding. That they have a better understanding of the topics because of the stories. Curious kids have a fun new podcast to enjoy and it will help others to develop a new sense of curiosity about the world around them. 

Creating Curious Kids 

The podcast is successful for me if a kid walks away from an episode understanding the topic in a way they didn’t before. Also if they want to learn more about that topic. I also hope that they want to come back and hear another episode of Drac! because they want to find out what the next topic is going to be. 

It’s hopefully always going to be a topic that they never thought about before in that way. If a kid is walking away from the podcast and loving learning in a new way, it’s a success. 

Showcasing A Quality Friendship

I think that Drac! is super playful. Drac and Wren become best friends pretty quickly at the start of the series. They’re buddies who they meet randomly at school. Drac is insecure about being a kid vampire, he thinks he’s an outsider. Wren is somebody who immediately welcomes him and is not afraid of him.

There’s nothing to be afraid of, he’s not a traditional vampire who is scary. He’s got a thirst for knowledge that needs to be quenched and he dresses kind of flamboyantly. We had to figure out a way to have Drac be at school during the day.  So Drac has a big floppy hat and this cape. I lean into that with his character and make him flamboyant and dramatic. The way that the characters’ relationships have developed, Wren is rolling her eyes all the time at Drac, because Drac loves weird stuff.

We just finished an episode about holiday traditions. There’s just this dumb joke in it where they’re talking about the first holiday greeting cards. Drac says something about, licking the back of envelopes and Wren is like, dude, you don’t have to lick the back of envelopes anymore. She explains that they came with a little strip and then it’s adhesive. Drac says, oh, that’s why it always tastes so funny, you know? I enjoy playing with that stuff between both of them. 

Every time I sit down and dive into the next show it’s fun to visit them. They get to go on another new adventure. As much as it’s super playful and funny there’s also a sci-fi vibe to. The kids have this vehicle called the Coffin of Curiosity. From the outside, you’d think it’s just a coffin. When you go inside it’s this whole wonderful super computer spaceshipWhenever they start to investigate a topic, it allows them to freeze the real world time so they can go and back in time or to a specific place/person/etc.  

Follow Drac!

Drac! is available wherever people listen to their podcasts such as Apple and Spotify. 

If everyone wants to just go right to the main source, gokidgo.com is where every episode is along with all of the other awesome podcasts that they make. 

Teaching Kids in Fun Ways

My favorite episode is one that just came out, and it’s called Gross. In this episode Drac and Wren decide to investigate gross things about our bodies. Drac wants to know why there are boogers, and what earwax is. There’s a crazy amount of dead skin cells that come off our bodies in a very minuscule amount of time. This episode is really fun because it’s things that I think kids will think are really funny. Kids can burp, but they don’t know what a burp is unless they really investigate it.  

Maybe a kid comes out listening to this and has some better hygiene. When we talk about Boogers, Drac asks if it is gross and unsafe to pick your nose. Wren explains why other than picking your nose is disgusting. It gets into how you’re spreading germs and the tissue and the membrane inside your nose is delicate. The more you put your finger up there, the more you can mess with that and cause other issues like being prone to allergies.

Things like burps and barf and all that stuff, kids just eat that stuff up, figuratively, not literally. It was a blast to write. 

Ideal for Curious Kids Ages 6-11 

Drac! Is for children ages six to 11. We try to do things in these shows that a 13 year old would still be interested in and think is cool or interesting, but also an 11 year old might be able to learn about too. I like pushing the envelope a little bit so that younger kids might be getting a little bit more out of it than they would a typical podcast. We want all curious kids to enjoy Drac!