Screen-Free Learning That Works: Why Teachers & Parents Love the "Who Smarted" Podcast

Worried about too much screen time for your kids or students? Discover how the Who Smarted podcast is helping parents and teachers bring back curiosity, focus, and fun — without a screen in sight.

In this episode, Jerry Kolber, co-founder of Atomic Entertainment and creator of Who Smarted, shares how his wildly popular educational podcast (with over 3 million downloads!) is changing the game. Learn how short, engaging, screen-free episodes are being used in classrooms and homes to spark learning, boost retention, and cut down on screen addiction.

🎧 Why kids engage more with audio than reading
 📚 How teachers use podcasts as screen-free learning tools
 🧠 The science behind audio comprehension & learning
 🎉 Why Who Smarted feels like entertainment but delivers real education

✅ Whether you're a parent looking for healthier habits or an educator searching for creative teaching tools, this is your go-to solution.

📌 Learn more about ad-free classroom use: whosmarted.com

💡 This episode is CPD accredited!
 Educators can now earn Continuing Professional Development (CPD) minutes by listening.

To claim your certificate:

1. Listen to the full episode
2. Visit https://thecpd.group/podcast
3. Enter code 800059 to check in and download your certificate

Stay sharp. Stay certified.

Chapters

• 0:00 Screen Time Concerns in Digital Age
• 2:43 Research on Screens and Brain Development
• 3:30 Introducing Who Smarted Podcast
• 5:45 Benefits of Audio Learning for Children
• 11:01 Making Learning a Natural Part of Family Life
• 14:35 Gamification in Educational Content
• 19:46 Accessing Who Smarted Resources for Educators

Transcript

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 0:00

In today's digital age, screen time is an increasingly prevalent concern for parents and educators alike. But could podcasts offer a solution to the detrimental effects of too much screen usage? Welcome to the brighter side of education, research, innovation and resources. I'm your host, dr Lisa Hassler, here to enlighten and brighten the classrooms in America through focused conversation on important topics in education. In each episode, I discuss problems we as teachers and parents are facing and what people are doing in their communities to fix it. What are the variables and how can we duplicate it to maximize student outcomes? In today's episode, we explore audio-based educational podcasts as an engaging, screen-free learning alternative.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 0:56

According to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, children ages 8 to 12 in the United States spend an average of 4 to 6 hours per day using screens, while teens spend up to 9 hours. This excessive screen time has been linked to a range of issues, including sleep problems, lower academic performance, less time spent with family and friends, reduced physical activity and even mood and self-image concerns. Activity and even mood and self-image concerns. A recent study published in Scientific Reports by Dr John Hutton and colleagues at Cincinnati Children's Hospital sheds new light on the impact of digital media use on young children's brain development. The research, which involved MRI scans of 52 healthy children aged 3 to 5, found that higher amounts of screen time were associated with lower measures of brain structure and areas responsible for skills such as language development, literacy and social abilities. As Dr Hutton notes, these findings of differences in brain structure related to higher digital media use are especially important because the brain is growing so rapidly before age five and is exquisitely sensitive to experiences. He advises parents to limit screen time, especially at young ages, and encourages analog activities like reading, talking and creative play. So how can we balance the realities of a digital age with the developmental needs of children?

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 2:23

One promising solution is the use of audio-based podcasts as an educational tool. Unlike video-based media, audio-based podcasts remove the visual stimuli that can be so captivating and potentially detrimental to young minds. At the same time, well-crafted educational podcasts can provide engaging, informative content that stimulates children's imagination and curiosity. Now, on that note, I'm thrilled to introduce our guest for today's episode, jerry Kolber. Jerry is the co-founder of Atomic Entertainment and the creative force behind the hugely popular children's podcast who Smarted. Now with a career spanning television and streaming content for networks like Disney, hbo, national Geographic and more. Jerry has brought his passion for storytelling and education to the world of podcasting. Now, in just one year, who Smarted has already hit an impressive 3 million downloads, a testament to Jerry's ability to make learning fun and accessible for kids and parents alike. Hi, jerry, welcome to the show. We are so excited to have you here to share your insights on how to use podcasts as an educational tool and an alternative to screen time.

Jerry Kolber: 3:33

Awesome. Thank you so much for having me here.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 3:36

So tell us about who Smarted, what inspired you to create this type of a podcast and what makes it unique in the world of children's educational media.

Jerry Kolber: 3:45

Sure, yeah. So who's Smarted is the only three times weekly 15 minute podcast for families. It comes out three times a week and every episode is 15 minutes or less and it uses a trusty narrator character who takes the kids and the parents on an adventure through a single topic. It's a science topic, history topic, cultural topic, and then gives like little facts and exciting little journeys along the way. Everything in the world of who Smarted can talk. So we have lots of character voices and it's a lot like watching a cartoon, but without the screen. And that's kind of the key to why we created it was.

Jerry Kolber: 4:22

We've been making a lot of TV shows for families educational shows for National Geographic and Netflix but they were all you know TV and video.

Jerry Kolber: 4:31

And during the pandemic, when we realized kids were on their screens all day, from waking up, playing games, watching TV on Zoom, doing homework online, watching TV at night, we just as because of the work we do with kids and families, we know that excessive screen time is negative, it's harmful for kids, and so we saw an opportunity.

Jerry Kolber: 4:51

Since we weren't able to shoot any TV shows, we were like well, this is a great time to make a podcast for families and just help create something fun and exciting that was as fun as the stuff online and on screens, but that was audio only to give kids a break from the screens that parents and teachers could feel good about and maybe even participate in. And so that's how who Smarted was born, and it became so popular that even as things went back to normal, you know, and as the pandemic ended, it had taken on a life of its own and it just became this giant podcast that's used now in thousands of classrooms around the country and we have almost 700,000 listeners a month. So, yeah, it's become this wonderfully impactful project. That's become a core of what we do here.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 5:38

I love the topics. I listened to why Do you Yawn? And I thought, well, I want to know about this too, and so it's fascinating and fun as an adult to even listen to it. I love how they're bite-sized and you just make it amusing and engaging with the sound effects and the quizzes. It's fun for an adult and a child.

Jerry Kolber: 5:59

That makes me so happy to hear you say that because, look, there's a lot of great kids'. To hear you say that because, look, there's a lot of great kids video and audio out there, but a lot of it is really just for kids. You know where, like as a parent, you just don't want to listen to it because it's not fun for adults. And that's such a core of everything we do. When we make stuff for kids, we really think of it as making it for the families, because there's nothing really cooler than a parent listening in a car with their kid to an episode of one of our shows and then having a conversation afterwards, and for the parents people our age and younger parents to feel like they can enjoy the show too and get excited to listen with their kids. I love that, and so when I hear that firsthand from somebody, it makes me really, really happy, because we really wanted who's Smarted to be fun for adults and kids.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 6:44

So how can parents and teachers use who's Smarted to be fun for adults and kids? So how can parents and teachers use who's Smarted to be able to support learning at home and in the classroom?

Jerry Kolber: 6:50

Sure, a lot of parents will use who Smarted for bedtime and car rides, as a treat during breaks, road trips. You know it's an opportunity to have something that's fun and educational and really sparks the kid's curiosity. More formally, we know that a huge percentage of our audience are homeschool parents. You know running the gamut from faith-based homeschool to parents who just want to teach their kids at home, who don't have a faith aspect. But all of them tell us they use who's Smarted as a way to introduce topics into their homeschool curriculum or as a way to help settle the kids down after lunch or taking a break, because it's 15 minutes. It just primes their minds to start thinking, even if it's not the topic they're necessarily studying. It just gets them excited to learn. And you know we're in thousands and thousands of classrooms now and the teachers tell us kind of the same thing. Some of them use will use a who Smarted episode as an introduction to a topic, kind of table set to get the kids excited.

Jerry Kolber: 7:48

We have over five or 600 episodes now, so there's pretty much any topic you can imagine. But often we hear from classroom teachers that they're using it for transitional time, as a way to reset after recess or between periods or you know, if there's been some sort of assembly and you're trying to get the kids to settle back down, that it's been accepted into classrooms because we have an ad free version of it that we offer to all educators for free. So there's no concern about playing ads in the classroom. There's no politics or taking sides in our show, so it's just a very easy, classroom safe way to get kids to settle in and listen. So it's funny. That was not necessarily our intention when we made the show, but when we started hearing from teachers that they were using it that way, we're like, okay, that's really cool, that's really cool. We love that it that way. We're like, okay, that's really cool.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 8:35

That's really cool. We love that. I could definitely see you have such a wide array of topics that you could choose from. That would be a wonderful way to just get kids interested into a topic, like you were saying, or even fun breaks like a treat or a reward. We'll listen to it if we can quiet down fast enough and we have a few minutes. I could see where they'd be really excited about that In your experience. What kind of benefits can children gain from engaging in educational podcasts like who Smarted, and how do you think that those differ or complement other learning resources?

Jerry Kolber: 9:07

We are a research-based company. I mean, obviously we make entertainment it's fun and educational but behind all of it we do research, and one of the things that we found when we were looking into making podcasts is there is a lot of research out there that shows that kids are able to comprehend audio at usually two to three grade levels higher than they can comprehend reading, especially kids in this seven to 10 age range that we're really focused on. So right away. That's interesting because that means that we can be delivering material that is significantly more complex in audio than they would have if they're reading, and so that helps raise their comprehension levels a lot. The other two things that were really interesting about audio is number one. The research also shows that kids are much more likely to engage in a conversation with each other and with adults if they learn something from listening than from reading. Conversation with each other and with adults if they learn something from listening than from reading. So because they've experienced the material in more of a conversational way, they're more likely to then jump into a conversation around it. And then the other thing that's really interesting about audio is it's so accessible, and this is an issue we have with video.

Jerry Kolber: 10:08

We've made tons of educational video. We've made TV shows, you know, online videos, all that stuff. The problem with all of that is you need to be sitting somewhere with a screen. It's typically more like a one-on-one or two people watching something, and then, especially in the classroom. A lot of schools don't even allow a lot of the websites that have educational materials to be played in classrooms. You know, we've read into that where teachers have asked why can't we show brainchild in our classroom, like it's on Netflix, and so that's the school that blocks it.

Jerry Kolber: 10:34

And so one of the things we love about audio, besides the comprehension levels, is, like any kid, any family anywhere can listen to it at any time. It can be used in any classroom, anywhere. It's very easy to access. We have the ad free version that we offer to educators, but the free version is anywhere you know. You can put it on your car, it's just easy. It doesn't matter what socioeconomic level you're at or where you are, so we love the fact that it's super accessible for kids. So that was a big part of it as well.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 11:03

When you were talking about the listening component, I had not considered the conversation style and how children would engage in a conversation more. I think that's really interesting. When I did teach first and second grade, I would always advise parents, as a way to increase their comprehension levels, to listen to audio books at least one or two levels above their reading level, and so when I hear that the podcast can do the same thing, it makes sense that children would be able to listen to audio at a higher level and comprehend that. And also what I had noticed is in the classrooms, many children were having a difficult time with listening skills, and I think that by listening to podcasts and audio books it heightens your listening, helps you focus, maybe, so that's another advantage.

Jerry Kolber: 11:54

Yeah, for sure. I mean that ties in so much with also just developing critical thinking skills, which is often challenging for kids. I mean, kids are bombarded with so much information and content and media that they sometimes don't even have the time to stop and process and assess what they're taking in. And so, whether it's our show or any other podcast or anything else that does create in, and so whether it's our show or any other podcast or anything else that does create that kind of focus, it's like you said, like it's an amazing ability to focus and then actually think and process. It's very important that we continue making sure that that's happening for kids.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 12:30

Many parents struggle to turn everyday moments into learning opportunities. What advice do you have for making learning a natural, enjoyable part of family life?

Jerry Kolber: 12:41

Yeah, that's a great question. I mean, one of the things that we know we hear a lot from parents is their kids ask so many questions and that's natural. I mean, kids are just naturally curious. But a lot of parents don't necessarily have the bandwidth for that, like you know. They get frustrated or overwhelmed, like you know enough with the questions kind of thing, and so we advise people.

Jerry Kolber: 13:01

You know, if your kid's asking a lot of questions, it's actually a great thing, and if you don't know the answers, that's also great, because maybe you get a little notebook for your kids and say tell you what, write down your questions or put it in their phone or whatever, if they have a phone and then find some time to sit with them 30 minutes, 45 minutes and actually explore those questions together. Right, so go into Google or whatever your search engine of choice is, and start to explore the answers to those questions. So you're honoring the question, saying let's, let's actually take the time to explore together. And they might have 15 questions on the list. You might only get through one and go down 17 rabbit holes, but it also gives you the opportunity to make memories with them and teach them how to think critically about sources as well, which is important, right? So, obviously, like, some sources are going to be weighed more heavily than others, so that's a very simple thing.

Jerry Kolber: 13:53

We suggest is just, you know, find time to let your kids drive like an online research session on a topic of their choice, with you there to assist and monitor. Let them drive it. It's such a great way to honor their curiosity and then also start to build their own confidence in their abilities to do research. That's my number one tip Keep it simple, Keep it fun.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 14:13

And it's helping with their writing skills. It's also teaching them some patience. How do I write this down? How do I word this? Really thinking about it, and who knows, they could end up writing stories about it or drawing pictures about it. So that ends up being kind of more valuable than the parent being able to answer it sometimes.

Jerry Kolber: 14:31

I agree.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 14:32

Gamification has become really busy in the world of education. We hear it around a lot. People are trying to make gamification lessons. We've got things like Kahoot, you know, for gamification in the classroom as a way to help kids engage with even studying, and so how do you incorporate those game-like elements into who's Smarted, and why do you think the approach has become so effective?

Jerry Kolber: 14:55

Well, I think, look, we're obsessed with games. I like playing games. I like reading about games. I'm the nerd who will like read a book that settled. You know theories and practices of game design. I'm really into games and how they work.

Jerry Kolber: 15:08

The simplest way to put it is that games are an opportunity to see how we're doing right. It's a way to see how we measure up, and the best kind of games for kids, in our opinion, are the ones that have no stakes. We have games in who's Smarted that you play when you're listening to the show. You play along with it, but there's no stakes. We don't tell you you're doing good or bad. It's just an opportunity to test yourself and test your listening skills. It's just a self kind of assessment sort of thing.

Jerry Kolber: 15:37

And so the thing that we love about incorporating those little games is, once a kid listens to one episode of who's Smarter, they know those are coming and so it actually makes them listen better because they want to do well, they want to be able to answer those quizzes. It's a little bit of a buried piece of psychology in there, but the anticipation, we know that kids will. You know this is part of the research we do. You know, like once kids know that's coming, they're going to listen and pay more attention because they want to make sure they know the answer when the quizzes come. But if they don't, we don't make them feel bad, it's just like no problem, let's just keep going.

Jerry Kolber: 16:11

So we, we love building games like that in, and you know, almost in every project we do here at Atomic, whether it's that show or like we do another show for kids a little bit older, like nine to 11, called Mysteries About True Histories. That is a scripted show about these two kids who explore the world and help solve problems, and problem solving is baked right into the narrative of that show. So in that case the games are part of the actual thing that the characters in the show are doing. But we give enough time for the kids who are listening to. If they want to play along and solve the problems, they can, and if they don't want to, they can just listen and enjoy it. So that's how we think. We think of games as just a driver of interest and a way to keep kids really focused and listening and developing their own critical thinking skills.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 16:57

Kids really focused and listening and developing their own critical thinking skills. One of the great things about your podcast is that it does spark all of those meaningful conversations, whether it's about something interesting that's going on in their body, like yawning, or something that would be maybe historical, and, of course, the mysteries is part of the fun and the challenge that can kind of go into motivating that engagement. So how can families use who Smarted as a springboard for those deeper discussions about science, history and culture?

Jerry Kolber: 17:26

Yeah, that's a great question. I mean we just encourage families to listen to the show together in a car or taking a break in the afternoon, or, you know, if you listen with your kids, then you are going to have an opportunity to not only hear what's most interesting to them, but then to have that conversation afterwards, and that's just the simplest way to do it. We, you know, honestly, we don't make it any more complex than that. Like parents, teachers, have enough on their plate. We don't build a whole like framework of things, just like listen to the show, have fun listening, and if you want to explore afterwards and see where those little rabbit holes lead you and your kids, that's fantastic, that's a win for us.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 18:06

It's always fun when kids get to walk away with something that they can ask somebody else and feel like they've gained a little nugget of knowledge, like the yawning. It's like, hey, do you know why you yawn? Well, I do. And they love to feel like they know something and then they can share that and become like little masters of it and impress all the adults in their lives Like, did you know? My five-year-old knows how they yawn. You know all wonderful things that we want our kids to do.

Jerry Kolber: 18:33

Yes.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 18:33

Yeah Well, thank you so much for joining us today and sharing your remarkable work with who Smarted, and your passion for creating engaging educational content that sparks children's curiosity is very inspiring. I know our listeners are going to be very excited to explore your resources with those educational podcasts like who Smarted and what is the next one? That's Mysteries About Histories, and then you've got another one with puzzles. You were saying something about the ant in this story.

Jerry Kolber: 19:01

Yep yeah, mysteries About True Histories. Aunt Murgatroyd has her own little spinoff logic show. But the one thing I will mention is for your educators listening, because we know a lot of educators do like to use who Smarted in the classroom as transitional or to help with lessons. We do offer totally free for life subscription to our who Smarted Plus ad-free version of the show. Usually there's an annual charge for it. We have worked with some of our backers to offer that completely free to educators so they can use it free in the classroom with no ads and get all the bonus material. And it's really simple. You just go to whosmartedcom, okay, click on educators and you just enter your email and you get the immediate link and you're good to go.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 19:45

Wonderful. What kind of resources.

Jerry Kolber: 19:47

So we have, besides the ad-free version, we actually have additional episodes on that feed that aren't available on the free feed. And then we also have a SmartyQs, which is every month. We take questions from the audience, and sometimes those come from classrooms, sometimes they come from parents and kids at home, and we actually answer their questions in a special episode called SmartyQs. That only exists in that ad-free version.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 20:10

Oh my gosh. Well, I want to sign up right away, and this sounds amazing.

Jerry Kolber: 20:14

So fun.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 20:15

Thank you, thank you, thank you for all that you're doing and for making educational podcasts like this so engaging and what a wonderful resource. So thank you.

Jerry Kolber: 20:23

Thanks, thanks for having me on Appreciate it.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 20:31

Inspired by today's discussion, start exploring screen-free learning resources and educational podcasts to enhance listening skills and spark their imaginations. If you have a story about what's working in your schools that you'd like to share, you can email me at lisa at drlisahasslercom, or visit my website at wwwdrlisahasslercom and send me a message. If you like this podcast, subscribe and tell a friend. The more people that know, the bigger impact it will have. And if you find value to the content in this podcast, consider becoming a supporter by clicking on the supporter link in the show notes. It is the mission of this podcast to shine light on the good in education so that it spreads, affecting positive change. So let's keep working together to find solutions that focus on our children's success.