From Music Blocks to Mission Responsible, 5 family-friendly podcasts that are smart and educational – without boring the adults

For family members used to enjoying their preferred content via multiple devices, the summer road trip offers the chance to bond over shared podcasts that appeal to both kids and parents. Countless high-quality shows are specifically designed for the preteen market by the likes of Radiolab for Kids and Gen-Z Media, which are a perfectly acceptable listen for grown-ups, too. But children are curious beasties, often just as keen to waggle their ears towards their parents’ podcasts, and surprisingly tolerant of (and quick to pick up) unfamiliar jargon and the dry humour associated with more adult fodder.

The trouble with this, of course, is that lots of podcasts meant for adult consumption rely on bad language and racy discussion to engage their audience, ideally with a bit of depravity or gore for colour, none of which is considered suitable for children. Many kids’ shows, meanwhile, are populated with high-pitched voices that give you a headache, or a patronising tone capable of inciting violence. Good shows that genuinely appeal to both adults and children are quite rare and anything that will also amuse a teenager is basically a unicorn.

My children missed out on car podcasts, mostly because of the limited technology in our ancient vehicle and my ancient phone. I held on to that clamshell for as long as I could before succumbing to my first smartphone. So we went old school on our commutes and road trips: we listened to music, played a lot of I spy and, later on, enjoyed audiobooks such as How to Train Your Dragon and Philip Pullman’s Northern Lights. It wasn’t awful but I can’t help thinking how much their younger selves would have loved listening to today’s smart, tightly scripted and hugely entertaining offerings and discussing points of contention that would have cropped up. It was with this in mind that I compiled this week’s recommendations for the whole family to enjoy together – before they eventually break out the earphones.

1. Music Blocks: Raise your voice!

2. Tardigrade & Platypus

Just the Zoo of Us, an animal podcast by Florida couple Ellen and Christian Weatherford, is a joy. Their tender voices are perfectly suited to the quick-witted but gentle banter around the show’s main premise that they review animals, ranking them out of 10 for “effectiveness, ingenuity and aesthetics”. I thought my animal knowledge was pretty good but the existence of solenodons and sarcastic fringeheads was entirely new to me.

The light rain of tirelessly mined facts continues throughout each episode, somehow sticking somewhere in the mind forever. I don’t know if I will ever recover from finding out that my favourite animal, the tardigrade, isn’t even pink.

3. Criminal

This podcast is true-crime royalty, with 10 years of stand-alone stories on diverse topics and what feels like a more anthropological focus than others in this category. Excellent storytelling in production and sympathetic narration by journalist host Phoebe Judge, also podcast royalty, make Criminal one of the most consistently compelling podcasts out there. The grisly murder episodes should probably be swerved for younger children but many more are barely about crime – one episode is about the invention of margarine, aka “the demon spread” – and some are particularly interesting to kids, including the episode detailing four stories where ingenious 10-year-olds helped solve the crime.