A Dinosaur Podcast Your Kids Will Love, Digger Rex

Links:

• Digger Rex Website  
• Digger Rex Podcast  
• GoKidGo Instagram  
• GoKidGo X 
• GoKidGo Facebook  
• Digger Rex Podcast Guanlong Episode

A Unique Dinosaur Podcast

Born from a miraculous lightning strike in Glen Rose, Texas, Digger Rex is a fusion of an excavator and an ancient reptile. This podcast brings to life an adventurous tale blending science and fantasy. It is tailored for young inquisitive minds. This dinosaur podcast transports listeners on epic global expeditions where digging deep reveals astonishing dino facts and paleontological wonders. Each episode is about 10 minutes long. 

Podcast Consultations

I’ve been able to talk to some amazing podcasters about their shows while doing interviews for the Friendly Podcast Guide. Along the way, I’ve learned so many tips and tricks on how to start a podcast from the hosts I’ve interviewed.

Fom personal experience, I’ve talked to podcast hosts about what made their launch successful and what made it more difficult. I for sure know what I would do differently if I could go back and launch my show again. I want to share my knowledge with you. That’s why I’m offering free podcast consults.

I have a couple of spots open in the next month. If you need help nailing down your podcast idea, figuring out your niche or have any other podcast questions, I would love to work with you to answer. All of your questions and help you launch your show. If you’re interested in working with me, fill out the intake form in the show notes, I can’t wait to help you make the podcast of your dreams.

Podcast Inspiration

My name is Jennifer Clary. I’m a co-founder and the COO of the GoKidGo Network. I run it with my life partner, but also one of my closest friends, Maya Glickman. Maya is the CEO. She came to me during the pandemic and said, I watched my sister with two little kids trying to grapple with all of the illness related things happening in her family and society during the pandemic. Her kids were isolated and she didn’t want to be sticking them in front of the television.

A lot of parents had issues with that because the American Academy of Pediatrics actually reported a 6x increase in screen time for elementary school kids during COVID. It is pretty remarkable when you think about it. Of course, a lot of that was due to utilizing things like Zoom for classroom activities instead of actually going into school. But kids were sedentary, kids weren’t as active, and kids weren’t engaging in the same way as they had been pre COVID. 

When Maya came to me she said there needs to be like a Pixar for your ears. We need something that kids feel as compelled to get engaged with as they do with their TV shows.

Using Podcasts to Reduce Screen Time 

Something that is also really positive for brain development and getting them to be imaginative and creative. It can help them level up in literacy because literacy was another complete casualty of the pandemic. GoKidGo was a very mission driven business and we didn’t  know how it would play out. Kids podcasting was a relatively unsaturated vertical. It takes time to scale shows and listenership. 

We’ve tried everything, but  what we find is that we discover a lot of kids in schools now. It’s teachers telling parents about the GoKidGo Network. They are listening to our shows and we’ve now grown to a point where we have something for everyone.

Whether your kid likes dinosaurs like Digger Rex, or if they are a little bit more advanced and they want detective shows like Snoop and Snippy. There are also podcasts to solve their own puzzles like the Upside Down Story. We really do try to provide something for everyone.

By the end of this year we’ll have over 20 programs for kids ranging from ages three until 12. It’s pretty diverse at this point and we’re super proud of it. 

The Creation of Digger Rex

I’m a mom, in addition to being an entrepreneur, I have two little kids. I have Lyric, she just turned four years old. Then my second is Jad, who’s turning three next week. That 13 month gap between the two of them makes a big difference in their development. She can really sit down and listen to a lot of things that Jack maybe isn’t as interested in.

Jack, like a lot of kids his age, is extremely interested in dinosaurs. I would say 95 percent of my conversation with my son is related to T-Rexes, or  Parasaurolophus, or all these things that he knows the names of that I don’t, right? I thought there should really be an opportunity for me to learn more about the dinosaurs that he’s interested in, that I can’t pronounce. It would also be great for him to level up his literacy and his understanding by creating these engaging stories that share something else about the dinosaurs. So Digger Rex was created! 

A Special Dinosaur

He’s not a regular dinosaur, there’s a little bit of lore behind him. The whole concept is that there was this digger. My son also likes diggers, not as much as dinosaurs, but he likes them. There’s this digger that paleontologists were using on a dig site in Texas. Texas is known for thunderstorms. So this digger gets smacked by lightning and becomes sentient. Since it’s on this paleontological site, he gets infused with the ghosts of these past dinosaurs and becomes a Digger Rex.

That sort of explains why this random piece of machinery now sort of looks like a dinosaur and can talk and be sentient. This Digger Rex creature machine goes to different dig sites all around the world. Instead of just learning about dinosaurs now, my son’s learning about where fossils have been found. He’s learning different geographical locations, cultures and things you can see there which has been really good for him.

I think it’s been really good for my daughter as well. She gets a kick out of all the beeps and the roars. She’s much more into princesses and mermaids than she is into dinosaurs but she tolerates it because she loves her brother.

Pretend Play  

One of the developmental reasons that kids gravitate towards dinosaurs specifically is pretend play. I think dinosaurs are a very sticky pretend play because whereas some kids like fantastical creatures, unicorns and whatnot, dinosaurs actually existed.

I think kids get a real intensity around it, which is why you find kids who are talking about dinosaurs all the time. Digger Rex was really to provide an outlet for them to level up their understanding of the world in the context of dinosaurs. It also allows them to have a really good time.

All of our shows lead with entertainment. We always have an educational element, but we like kids to get it subliminally.  I think what’s great about Digger Rex is that it’s a program that’s very easy to multitask to. One of the things that we do while listening is kinetic sand.

We use kinetic sand and we hide like fossils in it. I’ve been trying to show parents on Instagram stories how he actually listens to the dig findings. We hide fossils from the different dinosaurs or I take his plastic dinosaurs and hide them.He digs them up during the show. All of these things that seem sort of rudimentary to parents are actually really stimulating your child’s brain development. Providing those layers of activity, it’s screen free, but it’s deeply engaging and the kids really do get very invested in the storytelling.

A Podcast for Everyone

I hope a lot of parents are getting something out of it too. Not everything has been created specifically for my children. We have a universe of five shows. It’s Pflugerville universe and the idea was to create an Avengers style world for younger children. The intention is that they could get attached to characters in one situation and  follow them through different adventures.

Bobby Wonder is more about superheroes, aliens, and saving things, pow, wow, right? But the cool thing is that Lucy Wow also lives in Pflugerville. She’s an inventor and a tinker and a doer. That program leads into a STEM focused learning podcast.

Pflugerville Universe

The five shows are Bobby Wonder, Lucy, Wow, Pflugerville, Whale of a Tale and Story Train. The Story Train goes to the Rainbow Tunnel, so younger kids actually get into Pflugerville’s universe in a really traditional way. That little universe of shows all live together, and they cross pollinate. Kids can discover something that they like in one universe and track that same character into another story, which is cool.

We also have new shows all the time. One is the Musical Time Machine. It’s such a good show. It’s all about a teacher who’s really dorky. He has these kids who interrupt his class and it always ends in an incredible song. We have a very fantastic composer named Danny Teager who works on that show. He created it. If you want to hear a riveting rendition of a song about the Salem Witch Trials, or anything like that for older kids it is fantastic.

Time Traveling Tanya, is a show about a magic tortoise who transports her best friend Tanya to different eras in history. They meet all kinds of historical figures from Mozart to Harriet Tubman to whoever we may think of. All of these shows speak to different interests and they speak to different levels. 

We really are a family network, so you don’t really outgrow GoKidGo. You use it throughout your childhood, and then as an adult, you can go back to it and use it for your children. We really hope it’s an enduring product. 

Next Level Dinosaur Podcast 

As an adult I find Digger Rex to be a little bit quirky and hilarious. He got struck by lightning and got a little bit of razzle dazzle, He’s a very funky machine. I love that he roars and immediately does a beep beep, like a burp. It’s a very fun show with a very enriching soundscape. You have dinosaurs and you have diggers and there are kids who love both of those.

You also have the cultural aspects.If you’re in China, you’re hearing sounds that you might hear on a dig site in China. If you’re talking about the Isle of Wight, you might hear seagulls or waves. There are a lot of really cool sound effects. Kids who like dinosaurs will be enthralled by the standard roaring and stomping. Kids that  have a more expansive level of interest will still enjoy it because it’s very captivating.

Keep In Touch 

You can find us at GoKidGo.com and you can search for GoKidGo on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you find your podcasts. You can also search for specific shows like Digger Rex by typing in Digger Rex, wherever you find your podcasts.

We are on Facebook, X, Instagram and we are getting into YouTube. In 2024 we will be offering a lot more interactive content for families. You can find links to all of our social media directly from GoKidGo.

Unearthing Unique Dinosaurs 

My favorite episode of Digger Rex is Guanlong because it’s a dinosaur I’d never heard of.

I thought the episode was incredibly well researched and I just learned a lot. As a parent, I found that one fantastic because I’m super tired of hearing about T-Rex, Spinosaurus and Ankylosaurus. 

Digger Rex is a kid podcast for ideal ages of three to seven. I think three and four year olds will enjoy the sound effects. They’ll enjoy hearing the sounds of dinosaur names that they have familiarized themselves with. The older kids will benefit from some of the detail around the episode. It does get quite detailed in terms of what the dinosaurs could do, what animals they’re related to and where they existed. There’s a lot of much deeper information that will appeal to older children. ‘m hard pressed to imagine an 11 year old turning it on, but you never know. As an adult I do still learn new things listening to Digger Rex.