I've written recently about how hard it is to discover good podcasts for kids and families, partially pinning the blame on iTunes, whose "Kids & Family" section approaches kids and families as not only the target audience but also the subject area, which leads to including a lot of parenting podcasts in the mix. Stitcher is the same, though at least they're willing to retitle the category a little more accurately as "Parenting, Family, & Kids" (probably in that order).
As a result, I want to try to create a "kids and family"-only chart of top-rated (audio) podcasts. Now, I've done the chart-viewing thing before for kids music myself, and frankly, doing it every week was not only taxing, it didn't produce much useful information. Sort of like watching your 18-month-old: hard to notice change week to week, but easier to do so month to month. I should also note that these charts, particularly the iTunes one, are pretty opaque, and it's not entirely clear what they're measuring. It's sort of like trying to chart the growth of that 18-month-old by looking at their Duplo block constructions. But it's better than nothing, and I'm hopeful that by combining (and equally weighting) the iTunes and Stitcher charts, I'll come up with something moderately useful.
(Other technical matters: results compiled from Top 100 podcasts on iTunes and Stitcher "kids and family" charts as noted above on Friday, April 15, 2016. Podcasts that appear on both charts rank higher than podcasts appearing on only one chart. Your mileage may vary. Charts not valid in New Hampshire and the District of Columbia. Take all of this with the large grain of salt it so richly deserves.)
Here goes...
1. Brains On
2. Storynory
3. (tie) Tumble Science Podcast for Kids
3. (tie) Stories Podcast
5. Story Pirates
6. Story Time
7. The Official Adventures in Odyssey Podcast
8. Family Folk Tales
9. (tie) Sparkle Stories
9. (tie) Activated Stories
Others (alphabetical): 1001 Classic Short Stories & Tales, Barefoot Books Podcast, Biddy the Duck's Bedtime Stories, The Children's Corner, Classics For Kids, The Cramazingly Indcredifun Sugarcrash Kids Podcast, Gather 'Round Kids, Little Stories for Tiny People, The Saturday Morning Cereal Bowl, Spare the Rock Spoil the Child, The Story Home, That Story Show
