Welcome to week three of Ping and Echo, a daily newsletter that links to one amazing podcast episode that is guaranteed to be a great listen for kids and their families. Each newsletter includes links to articles, videos and activities related to the podcast so you can turn every episode into an adventure.
Today’s podcast episode is from Twenty Thousand Hertz, a podcast “revealing the stories behind the world's most recognizable and interesting sounds.” This episode looks at the sounds made by toys over the course of history. For the grown-ups it’ll provide an immediate sense of nostalgia for many toys you likely haven't thought of for ages (from Speak and Spell to Tamagotchi). For the kids listening it provides a funny and surprising look at how toys make noise, why they make noise, and how surprisingly loud many of our toys are. We had fun listening and Googling pictures of the toys they mention. This episode was suggested by one of Ping and Echo’s early subscribers (thanks Brian!). If you have a great podcast episode to share, send it our way.
Podcast: Twenty Thousand Hertz
Episode: Noise "R" Us
Length: 28 minutes
🧐 You Should Know
I’ll always give you a heads up if there is anything in the podcast that might surprise or worry kids. Nothing to worry about here.
💡 Try This
After you listen to the episode you can fill your ears with more sound experiments with the links and activities below:
Study sound waves and build a stringed instrument (pdf link) - Kiwi Co.
Explore amplification about build your own speakers (pdf link) - Kiwi Co.
Blow Their Minds With Just Cornstarch, Water And A Speaker - Fatherly
🔎 Explore More
Read up on the science of sound behind this episode with these links:
The Science of Sound - NASA
Video: The Sounds of a Toy Store - KLRU
Bringing Toy Story 4 to life with sound - A Sound Effect
The name Ping and Echo comes from sonar technology which relies on sending out “pings” and receiving back “echos” to discover the world around you. You can send us pictures of the art and activities created by your kids. Email them to pingandecho@gmail.com and we’ll post all your echos on our Instagram and our Twitter page.
Thanks for lending us your ears and your inbox.
Josh, Toby, and Ruby