SEASON TWO of Ooh You’re in Trouble, from the CPB-funded PRX & TRAX, and the makers of the podcast Mortified, is out TOMORROW, and I’m sure both parents, educators and the tween set are brimming with anticipation! The bold, adventurous podcast, narrated by Merk Nguyen (co-host of Adult-ISH (from Radiotopia & YR Media), known as LV, the “little voice” inside your head on the pod, sets out to help middle schoolers with that freedom that young people grapple with on the daily — getting to make decisions for themselves! Heck, even us adults have trouble with that sometimes, so it’s not surprising that it can be a challenge for those adult decision bound tweens. As kids navigate the murky waters of decision-making, it’s inevitable that they will run into challenging dilemmas. This often leads to the question, “Is it OK to break the rules?” The podcast’s answer to that question is very fair emphatic…. SOMETIMES!
According to Phyllis Fagell, school counselor and author of Middle School Matters: “It can be really helpful to use a vehicle such as a podcast, like Ooh You’re in Trouble to have these conversations with children, because… it gives the child some emotional distance… using a podcast or a character in a movie or a lyric from a song, or even a story about a friend’s child who lives in another state can be so effective, is because tweens have a really hard time solving their own problems. They are just too close to the situation. And by using an outside person and outside character, a story from a podcast, it allows them to have that emotional distance to help them come up with a solution to a problem that they might not readily be able to retrieve if it was about themselves.” From the episodes we listened to, Ooh You’re in Trouble is the perfect vehicle to help equip kids to maybe modify their behavior for the better.
Some of the subject matter covered in SEASON ONE ranged from the quite innocent matter of being a candy smuggler to the much more serious territory of catfishing, vandalism, and the historical lessons of the Little Rock Nine, who challenged the status quo of the times. The stories are all told in a kid-friendly manner. The tales also take the young ones’ impressionable minds into careful consideration using compassion, great storytelling and a touch of humor. Per Mortified co-creator Dave Nadelberg, “When we were fleshing out the initial premise for Ooh You’re in Trouble, Neil [Katcher, Co-Creator and Executive Producer,] Hadley [producer] and I spoke a lot about not wanting to make this a show that shames or praises kids for acting up or breaking a rule. Breaking a rule is neither inherently a good or bad thing, but it always helps people, especially kids, learn and grow. Just like our work with Mortified, this show is also using personal storytelling to create empathy. You learn a lot when you experience the world through someone else.” They’ve definitely succeeded in that respect!
With the help of LV, listeners will once again enjoy true stories of “Rebels, Rascals, Rule Breakers, and even Revolutionaries” in 12 brand-new episodes. The “kid-appropriate true crime podcast for middle school misdemeanors” should make the transition back to real world school all the more pleasing. Happy listening, cool kids and their elders!
Mentions: Get caught up on Season One episodes HERE. Follow the show on Instagram and Twitter.