The Children's Hour
Curtis Roosevelt, who was nine years old when he began to receive an invitation to attend the cocktail hour, described in his book being a witness to the scene surrounding his grandfather, with a ginger ale in his hand.
The Children's Hour
Tickets are available through the Hancher Box Office website or by calling 319-335-1160. Tickets can be purchased at the Box Office at the Theatre Building one hour prior to the performance, on an as-available basis, unless the production is sold out.
Parents need to know that The Children's Hour, from a New Mexico nonprofit that's been on public radio for decades, is a sort of variety show. It covers a wide range of subjects, including STEM, civics, history, art, underrepresented ethnic groups, and a variety of music. The content is aimed at various ages (especially ages 5 to 12), but the content is appropriate for all. Children play a big part in the production of the show, and now that it's recorded over Zoom rather than live, you'll hear many of these kids' voices telling jokes, asking questions, and performing. Music makes up at least half of each episode's runtime and includes Indigenous music and lots of women artists; some hour-long episodes are made up entirely of songs (if you're more interested in talk, this musical production may not be the podcast for you). Several episodes are devoted to racism; others have touched on autism, bullying, the human brain, military kids, and much more.
In this weekly, one-hour public radio variety show out of New Mexico, each short segment focusing on topics like civics, STEM, culture, performance, and others, is punctuated by a full-length song. The songs introduce listeners to a wide variety of "kindie" music -- clean, with positive messages, good vibes, all-ages appropriate, and often from young artists. THE CHILDREN'S HOUR is music-heavy, with songs making up at least half of the content. Prior to 2020, the shows were recorded live; since then, the shows have been done over Zoom, so it's easy to hear lots of kid thoughts, questions, and jokes. Veteran host Katie Stone has a welcoming, assured, informed voice and chats easily and confidently with all sorts of people, like Divinity Roxx (who was Beyonce's bass player and now makes funky music for kids), Native American author Sherman Alexie, and New Mexico U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich.
The format is relaxed, partly because each episode is an hour long and also because it's a show that began -- and still airs -- on the radio, many years before podcasts gained popularity and became so slick. So it's got a nice old-fashioned radio show feel to it, with high quality sound because it's mostly done in studio and by audio professionals. It's a bit of an odd duck, though, because it's so music heavy (typically more than half of the content of each episode). Many folks choose to listen to either music or words. But for Prairie Home Companion lovers, this might be a perfect family-friendly option. 041b061a72