Season 5
This March 11th, another season of Pop and Play is about to roll into your podcast feeds! This season, Haeny and Nathan are exploring children’s media. By talking with game designers, performers, artists, and kids, we’ll examine what it takes to make children’s media and how kids relate to it. And of course they play games and find out “what’s poppin.” Follow now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or search “Pop and Play” wherever you listen to Podcasts and subscribe!
Haeny Yoon:
When school is out, I come straight home, make a bowl of ramen and turn on the TV to watch the, wait for it, Bad News Bears on Nickelodeon. My jam was a kids show about a team of little leaguers coached by a cranky old white dude.
Nathan Holbert:
That tracks. For me after school, it was all about Duck Tails. Something about Scrooge McDuck doing the backstroke through a money vault full of coins really spoke to me.
Haeny Yoon:
Money, money, money.
Nathan Holbert:
Oh, I'd also watch Tailspin.
Haeny Yoon:
Punky Brewster.
Nathan Holbert:
Sesame Street.
Haeny Yoon:
Electric Company.
Nathan Holbert:
He-Man, and the Masters of the universe.
Haeny Yoon:
He-Man? The buff guy with the blonde bob?
Nathan Holbert:
Yeah, and the Loincloth.
Haeny Yoon:
This season we're talking about children's media if you hadn't noticed. And look, television raised me. I say it facetiously, but it's true. I was home alone a lot. My parents aren't native English speakers, so television gave me a sense of the cultural landscape.
Nathan Holbert:
For me, it was a way to play with other forms of things I already loved, right? TV shows about games, cartoon characters, et cetera. It also introduced me to new ideas, genres, and experiences that I'm still into today.
Haeny Yoon:
It gave me possibilities and a sense of how people were thinking out there. When my parents didn't have the cultural insider knowledge to tell me how to navigate American life, I had TV, not as an accurate portrayal, but a way to look in.
Nathan Holbert:
This season, we're talking children's media. TV, movies, games, puppets. Join us for the conversations with media scholars, game designers, performers, artists, and of course-
Haeny Yoon:
Kids.
Nathan Holbert:
It's Pop and Play. You know we're going to talk to kids.
Haeny Yoon:
We're going to dig into what it takes to create children's media and the special relationships kids build with these characters.
Nathan Holbert:
And the reasons why we keep coming back long after we're supposed to grow out of it.
Haeny Yoon:
Hey, some of us are still kids.
Nathan Holbert:
Oh, Haeny, this is so Gen Z.
Haeny Yoon:
Thank you. Season five of Pop and Play starts March 11th, and a new episode releases each week. So be sure to subscribe with your favorite podcast app so you don't miss an episode.
Nathan Holbert:
And tell your friends, especially if your friends love counting.
Haeny Yoon:
Season four. Ah, ah, ah.
Nathan Holbert:
Season five. Ah, ah, ah.
Haeny Yoon:
Ah, ah. That's five.
Pop Offs
- Are AI Tools Good for Teaching?
- Do We Need Checklists for Children’s Play?
- Special Halloween Bonus!
- Is It Okay to Play in Difficult Times?
- Why Are We Hearing So Much about “Parents’ Rights?”
- Offering Hope about Gun Violence Research with Sonali Rajan
- Goodbye 2024! New(ish) Year’s Bonus Episode
- FAQs from Adults about Kids’ Play and Pop Culture
Past Seasons
- Images were generated by Canva's AI Image Generator.
Meet Your Hosts
Haeny Yoon is an Associate Professor of Early Childhood Education in the Dept. of Curriculum and Teaching. She works with both pre and in-service teachers in designing spaces for children’s play and inquiry. She is also the faculty co-director of the Rita Gold Early Childhood Center, serving children from infant-PreK. The center provides a play-based, emergent curriculum model that forefronts children agency and imagination as central to children’s development.
Haeny Yoon is an Associate Professor of Early Childhood Education in the Dept. of Curriculum and Teaching. She works with both pre and in-service teachers in designing spaces for children’s play and inquiry. She is also the faculty co-director of the Rita Gold Early Childhood Center, serving children from infant-PreK. The center provides a play-based, emergent curriculum model that forefronts children agency and imagination as central to children’s development. In her role at the Center, she facilitates professional development on curriculum, equity, and racial justice. Her research points towards a pedagogy of play or what she defines as those practices that blur boundaries, destabilize hierarchies, and disrupt traditional ways of knowing. She extends conceptions of play to reach beyond curricular design in early childhood settings and argues for more expansive practices that include our own personal, political, cultural, and low brow activities within all the spaces we (as adults) inhabit. She brings this perspective into her work with doctoral students who study early childhood, literacy, media/pop culture, childhood/youth studies, and curriculum. Dr. Yoon is committed to the merging of public space and academic space, engaging in opportunities where productive conversations converge. As an affiliated faculty member of RESI (Reimagining Education Summer Institute), she maintains a focus on equity, race, and social justice in schools, alongside teachers. Stemming from her work with teachers, she has launched a new website, Using Our Teacher Voice, which serves as a public platform for teacher stories, particularly in the pursuit of racial justice, reckoning, and healing.
Nathan Holbert is a dad who designs stuff and builds stuff. He also plays a lot of games. He’s quite lucky to be able to design, build, and play as an Associate professor of Communication, Media, and Learning Technologies Design at Teachers College, Columbia University. Nathan likes to build and study playful tools and technologies that help kids make things they care about or ask questions about the world around them.
Nathan is co-editor of Designing Constructionist Futures: The Art, Theory, and Practice of Learning Designs and Founding Director of the Snow Day Learning Lab.
