A few weeks ago I shared some of my favorite podcasts to use in high school English. I even made this guide of 17 that myself and other English teachers love!
Of course, this will be an ever-growing suggestion as we discover more podcasts every day. In today’s post, I wanted to share one that was not on the original guide, but will definitely be on the next one!
If you are a Millennial (like me), then the host of this podcast needs no introduction….
Yessssss! LeVar Burton has a podcast!
This is a little more grown up than the beloved Reading Rainbow stories.
The stories that he shares on his podcast are geared towards an older audience, but so many of them are perfect for our students!
Studies have shown time and time again that being read to is good for comprehension and as well as enjoyment. So, this podcast can be the perfect fit for you.
Here are 4 stories that I love on this podcast!
“The Paper Menagerie” by Ken Liu
This is a beautiful Magical Realism story that will also break your heart a little. A Chinese immigrant mother tries to bond with her American-born son by creating a magical paper menagerie.
It tackles racial issues, identity and self-acceptance. Topics that will speak to many of our students.
I have resources HERE to use while teaching this short story and I highly suggest playing this recording with it! I extra love his analysis and personal connections at the end of the episode.
Chivalry by Neil Gaiman
An elderly widow purchases the Holy Grail at a second-hand store, and becomes wrapped up in an epic quest when Sir Galahad comes knocking on her door.
This is another Magical Realism story that I adore because it is just fun. We often tackle the heavier things in English class, but sometimes it is nice to read a story that is not filled with death, hate, and sadness.
However, this is still filled with wonderful takeaways about what is most important in our lives and how we figure that out.
I also love hearing Neil Gaiman read this himself, but that can be trickier to find these days.
I also have a resources for this short story HERE!
“1000-Year-Old Ghosts” by Laura Chow Reeve
A grandmother teaches her family to deal with difficult memories in a unique way — by pickling them in jars.
You guessed it, another Magical Realism story.
I am sensing a pattern in myself….
This story was really interesting when thinking about memories and how they shape us as a person. What if we could remove all of our bad memories and store them outside of ourselves?
I also immediately though about how this corelated to the story told in the Irish animated movie Song of the Sea (check out my post on it here) since the Owl Witch takes all the unpleasant memories and feelings and stuffs them into jars. But, what ends up happening is that people are turned to stone because they can no longer feel anything.
With this product, you can use this story to do a deep exploration of memories and their impact on our personal identity with your students!
“The Hidden Forests of Earth and Mars” by Anna Zumbro
A young woman (Paloma) must decide her future: planting seeds and forging civilization on Mars, or caretaking for future generations on Earth. She must choose between forever living on Mars or on an Earth that has grown incredibly harsh to live in. She also finds that she must choose between never seeing her father and the forest she has grown to love again or never seeing her mother and brother again.
This is a science fiction story that feels all too real given the climate issues that we face. In her world infrastructure and ecosystems on Earth have continued to fail. The forest that she has grown up in and cares for, burns down.
However, one can also see the irony in that they have the resources and drive to colonize Mars instead of putting those efforts into restoring the systems on Earth.
This story is great for discussing global climate issues as well as identity and moral obligations.
Final Thoughts
Podcasts can be such a valuable tool for your English classroom! If you want to see more podcast suggestions, check out this blog post.
I hope you are as excited as I am to check out all of these wonderful stories that LeVar Burton shares. There are plenty that you will love for yourself and tons for our students as well!
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