Pop and Play

Haeny and Nathan look back on the most epic season of Pop and Play yet. They ask themselves, what are we taking away from this season of play dates and pop culture reflections? They discuss “The Banal Horror of Jimmy Fallon” by Jon Greenaway ( https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-banal-horror-of-jimmy-fallon ) and ask: does play always have to be commodified?  For transcripts of this episode, t...

This week, Haeny and Nathan get into some dirt with John McCann-Doyle, Outdoor Education Specialist and Kindergarten Teacher at Community Roots Charter School. They talk about gardening with kids, why play outdoors is so memorable, and what happens when plants don’t do what we expect.  For transcripts of this episode, to learn about our guests, and more, visit our website . Follow now on Apple Pod...

Do you know what dinking in the kitchen is? Well this week, Haeny and Nathan tried pickleball and found out. They’re joined by fellow academics and pickleballers Srikala Naraian, Professor of Education and Curriculum and Teaching Department Chair at Teachers College, Columbia University, and Jon M. Wargo, Associate Profess at the University of Michigan’s Marsal Family School of Education. They tal...

This week Haeny’s niece Emily comes on the show to teach Haeny and Nathan about synchronized ice skating! Emily travels with her ice skating team, and she has some things to teach Haeny and Nathan about getting better at skating, how to stick with things even when they’re hard and you get frustrated, and of course, ice cream.  For transcripts of this episode, to learn about our guests, and more, v...

Can rules give us more freedom? How can games help us make life more process oriented instead of outcome oriented? Can these questions about games help us think about teaching? This week Haeny and Nathan are joined by Professor C. Thi Nguyen from the University of Utah. Haeny and Nathan are big fans of the work in his book Games: Agency As Art and he has a new book out called The Score: How to Sto...

This week second-grade teachers Michael DiGregorio and Carly Haber join Haeny and Nathan to talk about how they play role-playing games in their second grade classroom! How do the kids react to what they call “shared story”? And how do you tell a shared story with 26 second-grade players?  For transcripts of this episode, to learn about our guests, and more, visit our website . Follow now on Apple...

Is listening to an audiobook reading? What should you do if your kid only wants to read graphic novels, or doesn’t want to transition from picture books to chapter books? Haeny and Nathan settle the big questions in reading and literacy once and for all. Or do they? For transcripts of this episode, to learn about our guests, and more, visit our website . Follow now on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , or...

Join Haeny and Nathan in the club! We mean the after school club, of course. Can Haeny still tap dance? What position did Nathan play on the football field? And are clubs for playing around and seeing what’s fun, or creating resume lines for college? Find out in this week’s episode about clubs! For transcripts of this episode, to learn about our guests, and more, visit our website . Follow now on...

Protest music and acts of protest from musicians are in the news right now. What is the role of music in protest, and how has it taken shape in different times and places, including our current moment? Patrick Schmidt, Professor of Music and Music Education at Teachers College, Columbia University ( https://www.tc.columbia.edu/faculty/pks2150/ ) joins Haeny and Nathan to talk music and protest tod...

This week Haeny and Nathan are sharing their top moments in play and pop culture from 2025! What is giving them hope? What reframed their perspective? Find out in this best-of episode that goes deeper than your typical top 5 lists.  Here’s the Deep Dive on LLMs Nathan mentions in the episode:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xTGNNLPyMI For transcripts of this episode, to learn about our guests, a...

How do you know when what you started playing around with has become a serious craft? This week Haeny and Nathan talk with Professor Bryan Keller about his passion for woodworking that has grown some deep roots.  Bryan Keller is an applied statistician and Associate Professor of Practice at Teachers College, Columbia University, where he directs the programs in Measurement, Evaluation, and Statist...

Kids these days just don’t know what it was like back in our day. Which makes sense, cause they’re, you know, kids. This week on Pop and Play, Haeny and Nathan talk about the good, the bad, and the nuance of nostalgia. Just a note that this episode was recorded in September, 2025. This episode references the “Nostalgia Bone” episode of Throughline , and the article “Whatever You Want to Call It: S...

Welcome to a very special holiday music pop off! In this festive bonus episode, Haeny, Nathan, and special guests Sonali Rajan and Lalitha Vasudevan talk holiday music! Which songs do they love, and which would they get rid of if they could? What’s that ringing sound? They’re at your door and they want to sing you songs? For transcripts of this episode, to learn about our guests, and more, visit o...

A Pew Center Report from 2024 prompts Haeny and Nathan to ask a big question: “What is the Purpose of School?” And is school the best place for children to learn? For transcripts of this episode, to learn about our guests, and more, visit our website . Follow now on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , or search “Pop and Play” wherever you listen to Podcasts and subscribe! Our music is selections from Leaf...

This week, Haeny and Nathan finally get to share what’s poppin’ for them! Enough politely making space for guests to share, it’s time for the hosts to show off their play and pop cultural recommendations! For transcripts of this episode, to learn about our guests, and more, visit our website . Follow now on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , or search “Pop and Play” wherever you listen to Podcasts and sub...

Welcome to Season 6 and our first “play date”! Listen along with Haeny and Nathan and guest and fellow Swiftie Dr. Cassie Brownell, Associate Professor at the University of Toronto to Life of a Showgirl by a little known artist called Taylor Swift. What is being a Swiftie all about, and what can we learn from being part of that community? Find out this week and check out the album if you want to b...

Nathan and Haeny get all dressed up for Halloween! Well, Nathan does. Can you guess Haeny’s secret costume? They talk about some fun and light Halloween topics, and then they get into what really scared them when they were kids and when to let play be scary and when they might want to step in as adults.  For transcripts of this episode, to learn about our guests, and more, visit our website . Foll...

What are the implications of controlling play? Haeny and Nathan ask what forms autocratic control can take when it comes to play, when it comes from leaders like those in the government, and how that can be distributed to individuals regulating each other or censoring themselves. And they ask what can be done when people want to resist that control.  For transcripts of this episode, to learn about...

This week Haeny and Nathan are here to talk about Summer Break! Just in time for it to be over. But we can look back on it fondly! They talk about pools, road trips with the family, and their advice for parents thinking about what do over the summer with their kids.  For transcripts of this episode, to learn about our guests, and more, visit our website . Follow now on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , o...

Nathan and Haeny are back for another Pop Off about recent cuts to funding for federal research. And they brought in a special guest: Vice Dean for Digital Innovation at Teachers College, Managing Director of the Digital Features Institute, and Pop and Play producer, Lalitha Vasudevan. What is being cut, what are the impacts and implications, and what can people who are concerned about these cuts...

Haeny and Nathan aren’t just here to talk about children’s media - in this season finale, they’re here to MAKE children’s media! Welcome to a fictional tale of what happens after the end of the world, drawing on prompts and suggestions from this season’s guests and narrated by guest star Hannah Holbert. It’s an episode unlike any previous Pop and Play: we hope you enjoy it! And if you share it wit...

What kinds of shows and media are kids into these days? Haeny and Nathan go straight to the source to find out: kids, of course! Their guests this week are three pairs of kids aged six, eleven, and sixteen. They share their viewing habits and opinions, talk about who they watch with, and Haeny and Nathan learn that “kids media” and “adult media” aren’t always such separate things after all.  For t...

Haeny and Nathan welcome to the show Andy Davenport, one of the creators of the hit children’s show Teletubbies. Find out about the origins of the show, the inspiration behind the teletubbies themselves, and Davenport’s background in children’s language development that all contribute to the show we know and love. This deep dive into the world of Teletubbies with its rolling hills and baby sun wil...

In this episode, Haeny and Nathan talk with two of the creators of the award-winning kids and family podcast Story Pirates ! Co-founder and Creative Director Lee Overtree and Co-founder and CEO Jamie Salka join to talk about how to treat children as true collaborators, both in podcasting, as well as the many other forms of media Story Pirates is creating including books, music and television. We’r...

This season is all about exploring children’s media, and this week Haeny and Nathan talk with Emily Reardon, Emmy Award-winning and patents-holding designer specializing in the development of emergent technologies for play and learning, and Michael Preston, Executive Director of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center. Emily and Michael talk to us about their favorite TV shows growing up — remember Electric C...