Podcasting for Kids: The next big thing

When and how did you start podcasting?
I was always exposed to the world of podcasts because my mother, Mansi Zaveri, runs a podcast on Kidsstoppress.com, which ranks in the top-50 podcasts in the Kids and Family category in India; it’s called ‘I’m Not Bored’. Both my parents are avid podcast listeners and from the age of six, I was aware of what podcasts are and what they do. I would listen to them as a child when my mom would play a few interesting ones, so somewhere podcasts were always in the background. They emerged in the foreground during the pandemic when I saw many of my friends doing so many interesting things. And then with online schooling, when I realised the power of the internet, I wanted to have my own podcast. I love videos too, but somewhere they create a bias and steal the focus of the conversation and the message because of the visual impact. Also for me, I wanted my stories and conversations to be the centre; and not me. I learnt a lot about podcasts through the internet but both my parents helped me brainstorm through the ideas, concepts and guestlist. My mom did guide me through setting it up to ensure all digital security checks were and are in place. Also, to anyone starting out, create a bank of episodes before you hit publish on episode one.

What interested you about podcasting?
I found that podcasts are a great way to open up conversations with peers around the world. I was amazed to see that there are 1.2 billion teens that I could learn from, but there were only a handful of podcasts catering to teens and young adults and I wanted to take the opportunity of building that platform to drive stories. Having banked eight episodes and premiered on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, my podcast features young adults from across the country including entrepreneurs, sportspeople, artists and many others.