I've spent more than a dozen years reviewing kids music on and offline, but starting today I'm going to expand slightly into reviewing podcasts for kids. (Think of it as kids audio worth sharing!)
Why start reviewing podcasts for kids now? As I noted in a piece on the kids podcasting world a couple weeks ago, the scene feels fragmented, in part because discovery is reeeeeally difficult at the moment. I'm hopeful that adding my voice to those (very) few who are attempting to chronicle the field qualitatively will help in some small way in creating some sort of coherent core from which creative podcasts for kids can leap out of. Also, I think there is some small boom of podcasts focusing of kids about to happen (waves hi at Todd McHatton, for one).
As for my general podcasting tastes, I think they're broadly reflective of the NPR/Gimlet nonfiction world, with a broad appreciation for reported and assembled shows like This American Life, Radiolab, and Serial, with some discussion/interview shows like Dear Hank and John, Bullseye, Another Round, and Back to Work mixed in. That's definitely not a complete list -- I probably listen to a couple dozen podcasts at least semiregularly -- but it gives you a good idea where I'm coming from. (In other words, not from the comedy podcast world.)
So, don't worry, musicians, I'll still be reviewing music, and at a greater frequency than podcasts, to be sure. But I also think the shifting landscape of the recorded music business and the non-music recorded audio business is changing, and more of you are going to be recording these things soon enough.
