The Code Witch: A Pre-Teen Fantasy Novel With a Female Programmer

Description : Programmer Ada Lovelace is having a bit of a Kickstarter moment.  There was Wollstonecraft, a YA novel about Lovelace and Mary Shelley (programming and  steampunk), and now a novel from a pair of Stanford University seniors, Sarah Sterman and Elise Guinee-Cooper are writing The Code Witch .  It's a pre-teen fantasy novel featuring a female programmer, whose setup is described as "a dragon shows up at Ada's door, starting an adventure of magic and coding."

Miss Mary Mack might very well be the perfect target audience for this novel -- interested in reading and math, and probably susceptible to being swayed into coding.  Even though my coding days never got past computer science classes in high school, I'm excited about the idea that more women should be coding, and every little bit, even fictional narratives, can change the culture.  $8 gets you the e-book, $15, the paperback.

 

BrickPi: Using a Raspberry Pi Computer with LEGO Bricks

 Description : Take your Raspberry Pi computer (it's about the size of a credit card), place it in the board, and you can connect the board to LEGO® motors and gears.  The case will protect as it motors on the go.

As a parent of a child who's eagerly anticipating the start of LEGO Robotics at the start of the school year, this sounds like an awesome way to have fun and learn some programming skills.  I'm not as eager about the idea of programming a robot to become a ball cannon, but that's a risk I'm willing to take.  $45 gets you the board and case (Raspberry Pi, about $25-$40, and LEGOs are your own responsibility.)

Introducing the Non-Cast

For a variety of reasons, there are family-friendly Kickstarter and other crowdfunding projects I'd like to feature but just can't do it in podcast format. 

Why should that stop me from promoting them, though? 

So I'm going to start mentioning them occasionally here on the website.  They'll be brief mentions, not much more than a summary, but if you're enjoying what you're hearing about, I think you'll like reading about some of these items, too.  We'll call it the "Non-Cast."  Hope it helps you find even more cool projects.

Episode 3: Django Jones (AKA Girlyman), Debut Kids Music Album

Doris Muramatsu, Nate Borofsky, and JJ Jones are the trio Django Jones, a side project of their band Girlyman.  All three of them joined me for a chat about their Kickstarter project to help them get their debut kids music album into the world, how kids music can be freeing, song-wise, and the limits of preparation for improvised music.

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Links 

Django Jones

Girlyman 

Django Jones Kickstarter project

Zooglobble interview with Barenaked Ladies drummer Tyler Stewart

 Girlyman tuning song collection

Episode 2: Kaitlin McGaw, Alphabet Rockers TV Pilot

Kaitlin McGaw is the founder of the Alphabet Rockers, a Bay Area-based trio that performs hip-hop for kids and (as you might guess from the band name) does that in service of entertainment and​ education.  We chat about their brand new Kickstarter project in which they're raising funds to produce a TV pilot.  We talk TV, hip-hop, and more.

Links​

Alphabet Rockers​

Make an Alphabet Rockers TV pilot Kickstarter project

Hello, iTunes!

I'm starting to get the hang of getting into iTunes.  If you go to this link, you'll be automagically directed to the iTunes Store page for the podcast.  As always, I'll ask that you please subscribe and rate and review the podcast, no matter what your opinion -- subscriptions and ratings help the podcast's visibility in iTunes generally.​

And if you use something besides Apple's Podcasts app (such as, say, iTunes on your computer) you can always enter this link direct into your podcasting app: http://zooglobble.com/bakesale?format=rss

​Thanks for listening.  More interviews on their way!