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This episode is the fifth in our series Imagine Equity: Six New Stories About Race, Identity, and Making Things Right. This episode starts to address the big topics of discrimination, injustice, and activism, so it might be a good idea for you to listen together with your child (or your grown-up). This week, a new restaurant called Big Bot Burger is coming to The Imagine Neighborhood™.  Doc and Scotty are super excited to try it . . . until they find out that Big Bot won’t take Doc’s order. It turns out that Big Bot Burger has a company rule to not serve people from the Wasteland. Being a Wastelander is part of Doc’s identity—and not letting someone do something because of their identity is a super-wrong type of unfairness called discrimination. When rules discriminate against someone, or against a whole group of people, that’s called injustice. And those kinds of rules need to change. Doc and Scotty set out to make things right and get some justice. Doc uses her music and her voice to get people’s attention and start a peaceful protest. When the neighborhood learns that Big Bot discriminates against Wastelanders, they decide to leave and patronize Justice Burgers instead. But that doesn’t put an end to the injustice. Big Bot has locations everywhere, and it’s up to our heroes to stop them! To be continued next week! This week, Doctor Apocalypso used her voice and her music to speak up against injustice.  There's a long history of musicians who have used songs to talk about injustices they see in the world—just like Doc. We've put together a list of some of those songs. Grown-ups, you could choose a few songs that would work for your family to listen to together, and then talk about the injustices those musicians wrote about. If you want even more of The Imagine Neighborhood, sign up for our newsletter. Each week, you’ll get additional discussion questions and activity ideas for kids and grown-ups. Keep sharing your ideas, drawings, and creations with us—we love seeing what you come up with, and you might see it featured on our Infinite Refrigerator! This show is supported by a generous grant from The Allstate Foundation. The Allstate Foundation works to empower youth to reach their full potential and build the just, equitable, and healthy world we all deserve. To learn more, visit AllstateFoundation.org.  

This episode is the fourth in our series Imagine Equity: Six New Stories About Race, Identity, and Making Things Right. This week in The Imagine Neighborhood™, Macho Supreme and Count Vacula are using their imaginations to turn a cardboard box into the spaceship from their favorite movie, Nebula Trek! But every time Vac tries to jump in and help Macho save the galaxy, Macho won’t let him play. Macho thinks that Vac can’t play as his favorite characters from Nebula Trek—because in the movie, those characters are white, and Vac is Asian. Scotty explains to Macho that he has excluded Vac, and that is not okay. To exclude means to leave someone out, or tell them they can’t play. When you exclude, you get stuck: the game is less fun, the story is less interesting, and people’s feelings are hurt. Instead, the kind thing to do is to use your imagination to make room in the story for everyone. Make it okay for everyone to play! If you want even more of The Imagine Neighborhood™, sign up for our newsletter. Each week, you’ll get additional discussion questions and activity ideas for kids and grown-ups. Keep sharing your ideas, drawings, and creations with us—we love seeing what you come up with, and you might see it featured on our Infinite Refrigerator! This show is supported by a generous grant from The Allstate Foundation. The Allstate Foundation works to empower youth to reach their full potential and build the just, equitable, and healthy world we all deserve. To learn more, visit AllstateFoundation.org.  

This episode is the third in our series Imagine Equity: Six New Stories About Race, Identity, and Making Things Right.   Today, The Imagine Neighborhood™ gets a surprise visitor from Alakazambra’s past! The young wizard Preston Changeo arrives, played by our very special guest star Tom Lenk, ready to learn all of Alakazambra’s tricks and spells for battling monsters . . . and is upset to learn that Alakazambra and her old nemesis Count Vacula are now good friends.   Preston doesn’t think that wizards and monsters are allowed to be friends.  But when he accidentally summons a messy rainbow sherbet monster, everyone has to work together to solve the problem. It turns out that having friends and neighbors with all kinds of different identities is not only fun, it helps you learn new skills and be a better friend. Welcoming new wizards and monsters (and even people) into your neighborhood can help you, your new neighbors, and your whole community.   If you want even more of The Imagine Neighborhood, sign up for our newsletter. Each week, you’ll get additional discussion questions and activity ideas for kids and grown-ups. Keep sharing your ideas, drawings, and creations with us—we love seeing what you come up with, and you might see it featured on our Infinite Refrigerator!  Grown-ups, if you want to learn more about our special guest star Tom Lenk, you can find more info here.   This show is supported by a generous grant from The Allstate Foundation. The Allstate Foundation works to empower youth to reach their full potential and build the just, equitable, and healthy world we all deserve. To learn more, visit AllstateFoundation.org.  

This episode is a collaboration with the Stoopkid Stories podcast. It’s the second episode in our series Imagine Equity: Six New Stories About Race, Identity, and Making Things Right. Today, Princess Donnasaurus stumbles out of The Imagine Neighborhood™ and into the neighborhood of Princess Tia from the Stoopkid Stories podcast!  At first, neither princess thinks the other looks the way a princess should, but Princess Tia and Princess Donnasaurus talk it out and team up. Together, they embark on a quest to open an enchanted backpack and defeat the evil identity-stealing Erazor! Along the way, Princess Tia and Princess Donnasaurus meet Princess Slime Monster, Princess DottyPotty, and Mister Princess. They learn that a true princess is kind, brave, and proud of who they are—and takes care of their neighborhood. All princesses have that in common, but they also each have their own identity. Your identity is made up of all the things about you that make you who you are, and it’s special to you; no Erazor can ever take it away. If you want even more of The Imagine Neighborhood, sign up for our newsletter. Each week, you’ll get additional discussion questions and activity ideas for kids and grown-ups. And keep sharing your ideas, drawings, and creations with us—we love seeing what you come up with, and you might see it featured on our Infinite Refrigerator!   This show is supported by a generous grant from The Allstate Foundation. The Allstate Foundation works to empower youth to reach their full potential and build the just, equitable, and healthy world we all deserve. To learn more, visit AllstateFoundation.org.

This episode is the first in a series of new adventures, called Imagine Equity: Six New Stories About Race, Identity, and Making Things Right.   Today in The Imagine Neighborhood™, Scotty and Vac are pirate-sitting the Fire Pirates while Captain Marion is off at the dentist. Everything is shipshape . . . until Burn Voyage is attacked by the troublesome Captain Deen!   Captain Deen takes over the ship, and immediately insults everyone’s lunches. She thinks that pirates should only eat gross asparagus dumplings, not the food they brought from home.  But the pirates’ foods are important to their ethnicities, which is a part of who they are. Vac decides to make things right, and mutiny turns into a food fight! It takes a giant, delicious mess to teach Captain Deen that everyone’s ethnicity is special—and that the strongest pirate crew is a diverse one.   If you want even more of The Imagine Neighborhood, sign up for our newsletter. Each week, you’ll get additional discussion questions and activity ideas for kids and grown-ups. Keep sharing your ideas, drawings, and creations with us—we love seeing what you come up with, and you might see it featured on our Infinite Refrigerator!   This show is supported by a generous grant from the Allstate Foundation. The Allstate Foundation works to empower youth to reach their full potential and build the just, equitable, and healthy world we all deserve. To learn more, visit allstatefoundation.org.

The Imagine Neighborhood returns next week with six new episodes!  Subscribe to our newsletter for new activities and to know when the episodes are live! https://www.imagineneighborhood.org/contact

This week in The Imagine Neighborhood™, special guest narrator Cardboard Scotty reads the fantastical tale of the first Cardboard Boxing Day. While everyone in the Neighborhood busily prepares for different holidays, Princess Donnasaurus has a case of the end-of-year blues . . . which she decides to fix by buying up every toy she can get her claws on! But when her friends don’t come over to play with all her loot, Princess Donnasaurus learns that happiness doesn’t come from toys. The greatest joy comes from time spent with the people we love. People in The Imagine Neighborhood celebrate lots of different holidays, and all of them are special. But there’s one holiday that everyone can celebrate: Cardboard Boxing Day! On the last Monday of the year, everyone gathers to spend time with each other (and with plenty of cardboard boxes). What cardboard masterpieces will you build with your loved ones this Cardboard Boxing Day?   If you want even more of The Imagine Neighborhood, sign up for our newsletter. When we come back next year, you’ll get additional discussion questions and activity ideas for kids and grown-ups. Until then, share your drawings, your ideas, and your cardboard creations with us—we love seeing what you come up with, and you might see it featured on our Infinite Refrigerator!

Hey, everybody! Do you ever have questions for your friends in The Imagine Neighborhood™? This week on the show, we’ve got answers! Listeners had questions about what makes Macho Supreme so strong, how Doctor Apocalypso spends her morning, and whether we ever fly paper airplanes in the Neighborhood. One listener even had a question about sharks! If you have a question for us, you can find us on Stitcher or Apple Podcasts and put your question into a review (and while you’re there, you can let us know what you think of the show). Or you can email your questions to kind@imagineneighborhood.org. And if you want a say in next week’s episode, you can go vote in our joyful songs poll. We’ll play the most joyful song in our season finale! Check out the episode, and hear what Macho, Doc, Vac, and I are all up to. And then send us a question of your own! We can’t wait to hear from you.   Thank you so much for sending in all of your feedback, ideas, and submissions so far! Keep sharing your drawings and ideas with us, and follow our Infinite Refrigerator to see creations from listeners like you. We’ll see you again soon in The Imagine Neighborhood. In the meantime, I hope you and your loved ones are staying safe, happy, healthy, and kind.   Scotty

It’s almost Friendsgiving in The Imagine Neighborhood™! Scotty and Vac have been working on their thank-you jar all year: every time they feel thankful, they put a penny into the jar. And every year on Friendsgiving, a mythical yeti collects everyone’s jars and donates the money to help the Neighborhood—unless Tantrumus Maximus gets his way . . . This year, Tantrumus Maximus is determined to ruin Friendsgiving. If nobody has anything to be thankful for, maybe everyone will pay attention to him instead. Tantrumus tries every idea in his evil ideas vault to make Scotty and Vac feel less thankful. But even with burned desserts, a pixie pandemic keeping their friends at home, and Tantrumus stealing the thank-you jar for himself, Scotty and Vac manage to find things to be thankful for—including a surprise visit from a mystery guest! It can be hard to find reasons to feel thankful, especially when things go wrong, and especially when a pixie pandemic keeps everyone from being together in person. But that’s a great time to start a thank-you jar! Even if you only get to see your loved ones in BrineBlox instead of in person, you can still drop a penny (or a note, or a poem, or a drawing) in the jar. And if you start filling it up now, maybe you’ll get a visit from the yeti next year!   If you want even more of The Imagine Neighborhood, sign up for our newsletter. Every week, you’ll get additional discussion questions and activity ideas for kids and grown-ups. And you can share your drawings and ideas with us—we love seeing what you come up with, and you might see it featured on our Infinite Refrigerator!

Hey, everybody! Do you ever have questions for your friends in The Imagine Neighborhood™? This week on the show, we’ve got answers! I got to hang out with Macho Supreme, Princess Donnasaurus, and Count Vacula, and answer questions from listeners all over the country. If you have a question for us, you can find us on Stitcher or Apple Podcasts and put your question into a review (and while you’re there, you can let us know what you think of the show). Or you can email your questions to kind@imagineneighborhood.org. Check out the episode, and hear what Macho, Princess Donnasaurus, Vac, and I are up to.  And then send us a question of your own! We can’t wait to hear from you.   Thank you so much for sending in all of your feedback, ideas, and submissions so far! Keep sharing your drawings and ideas with us, and follow our Infinite Refrigerator to see creations from listeners like you. And we’ve got a new suggestion for listeners: Julie’s Library is a podcast for families that will inspire a love of reading across generations. Learn more at julieslibraryshow.org. We’ll see you again soon in The Imagine Neighborhood. In the meantime, I hope you and your loved ones are staying safe, happy, healthy, and kind. Scotty  

It’s Blurghsday AGAIN in The Imagine Neighborhood™. On any given Blurghsday, we get a new rule that changes everybody’s plans for the whole day—usually we can just “Blame it on Blurghsday.” But when too many Blurghsdays happen in a row, Scotty and Doctor Apocalypso start to feel stressed. They need to “get small to deal with it all,” which means taking a break so they’re ready to tackle the next challenge. But when a tidal wave of deli meats threatens the Neighborhood, they realize it’s time to “get large and take charge,” which means to step up and be a helper. We can feel stress when there’s too much to handle, and it can feel different to different people.  You might feel it in your body, or in your thoughts and feelings, or in all three. It can make you feel crummy, and it can make it hard to focus your attention or remember to be kind. Sometimes your neighborhood may need you to “get large and take charge.” But if you’re feeling stressed, it’s also important to “get small to deal with it all.” Everybody has their own ways of “getting small” and taking a break from stressful things. You could try spending some quiet time in a private place, or reading a book, or even making some music, just like Doctor Apocalypso.  With special guest voice, Mike Harrington!   If you want even more of The Imagine Neighborhood, sign up for our newsletter. Every week, you’ll get additional discussion questions and activity ideas for kids and grown-ups. And you can share your drawings and reflections with us—we love seeing what you come up with, and you might see it featured on our Infinite Refrigerator!

It's Macho's time to shine at the Space Marines Annual Smelling Bee! But there's just one problem: Macho is full of worries. And when Macho's worries get out of control, they become worrywarts that get bigger and bigger! Macho needs Scotty's help to calm down, talk about his worries, and prepare for the things he's worried about—before the worrywarts turn into a worrycane that blows away his chance to win the Smelling Bee! Sometimes we worry about everything at once—even the things we can't change. But it's important to calm down and talk about our worries. Otherwise, our worries might turn us into a worrycane! And then we won't even be able to help fix the things we can change. If you find yourself feeling overwhelmed by pre-election stress, here are a few techniques that can help! And if you want even more of The Imagine Neighborhood, sign up for our newsletter. Every week, you’ll get additional discussion questions and activity ideas for kids and grown-ups. And you can share your drawings and reflections with us—we love seeing what you come up with, and you might see it featured on our Infinite Refrigerator!

Dr Kelly Mendoza from Common Sense Education, drops by to talk about what grown-ups can do about cyberbullying.  We'll talk about resources and tools grown-ups can use to help keep their kids safe and kind online.  For more information about Common Sense Education's amazing programs, hit the link and visit their website.

Today in The Imagine Neighborhood™, Scotty is inside a video game called BrineBlox. It’s a place where you can build castles, dance studios, koi ponds, or whatever you want—all out of pickles! Everyone’s having a good time . . . until a malevolent bird starts blowing up other players’ creations and leaving mean comments. That’s no way to be a friend—not in a world made out of pickles, or in any game, or in real life. Macho and Scotty decide to get to the bottom of this bullying behavior—and find a big surprise.   In online and computer games, sometimes we forget that our words and actions can cause real hurt feelings. But meanness can’t be solved by more meanness. It’s important to remember to be kind and be a good friend, whether you’re playing on the playground or in a video game made of pickles!   This episode was created in partnership with Common Sense Media. They’re a leading source of entertainment and technology recommendations for families and schools, and they offer resources on online bullying as included in their Digital Citizenship curriculum. If you want even more of The Imagine Neighborhood, sign up for our newsletter. Every week, you’ll get additional discussion questions and activity ideas for kids and grown-ups. And you can share your drawings and reflections with us—we love seeing what you come up with, and you might see it featured on our Infinite Refrigerator!

It’s Halloween in The Imagine Neighborhood™! Scotty and Vac have built a super-spooky haunted house, and they can’t wait to scare the socks off of everyone. But when Alakazambra stops by, there’s just one problem: she doesn’t feel scared.   Alakazambra invites Scotty and Vac over to her house for a truly terrifying time, where she conjures the scariest creature in the universe! But this time, Scotty and Vac aren’t scared. It turns out that different people can feel differently about the same things—and that it’s always kind to understand our friends’ perspectives (and maybe help them chase down a monster on the loose). If you want even more of The Imagine Neighborhood, sign up for our newsletter. Every week, you’ll get additional discussion questions and activity ideas for kids and grown-ups. And you can share your drawings and reflections with us—we love seeing what you come up with, and you might see it featured on our Infinite Refrigerator!

Bonus Episode.  Dr Aisha White from the University of Pittsburgh's P.R.I.D.E. program joins us to talk about different ways to discuss racial identity with kids. She mentions some great resources in the interview which can be found below. Raising Race Conscious Children Embrace Race PBS Kids: Talking About Race  

Today in The Imagine Neighborhood™, Scotty and Vac visit a robot wrestling championship. Vac is so excited that he decides to be exactly like his new hero, the intergalactic robot wrestling champion Destructivir! It sounds like fun . . . until things get a little out of hand.   Vac decides to switch his robot code to change how he acts, and he builds himself a new robot body to change how he looks. But it turns out that being just like his favorite battling robot makes Vac miserable! It takes a visit from Destructivir to show Vac that the way you look is just one part of being a robot, but it’s not the most important part.   Destructivir reminds us that the way you look is only one little part of who you are. Being kind—and being yourself—is the best way to be a robot. (Or a person.) If you want even more of The Imagine Neighborhood, sign up for our newsletter. Every week, you’ll get additional discussion questions and activity ideas for kids and grown-ups. And you can share your drawings and reflections with us—we love seeing what you come up with, and you might see it featured on our Infinite Refrigerator!

Listeners write in with questions, we have answers!   Got a question for Scotty or any one on the show?  Send it in to Kind At Imagine Neighborhood.org.

It’s a sad day today in The Imagine Neighborhood™. Doctor Apocalypso’s motorcycle, Giganticus, has gone kaput. He really meant a lot to her; she built him from scratch and they had so many epic adventures riding through the Wasteland together! In a lot of ways, he was her best friend. At first, Doc doesn’t know how to feel. She wants to be happy, but she really feels angry and sad. She wants to celebrate Giganticus’s life, but she is so upset that she decides to quit her band. Scotty, her family, and her friends all want to help Doc find a way to feel all her emotions—and they want her to know that she has people around who support her, even when she’s sad. When you lose something or someone that is important to you, things can be confusing and really hard. The world feels upside-down for a while. It’s good to feel all of those big feelings, and it can help to talk to a friend or grown-up about what you’re going through. Remember, you have people who love you and who want to know how you’re really feeling. And you will feel more like yourself again someday, but it will take some time. Take that time you need to feel the feelings that come up. And if you have a friend or family member who lost someone or something important to them and is feeling big feelings, let them know that you are there for them.   If you want even more of The Imagine Neighborhood, sign up for our newsletter. Every week, you’ll get additional discussion questions and activity ideas for kids and grown-ups. And you can share your drawings and reflections with us—we love seeing what you come up with, and you might see it featured on our Infinite Refrigerator!

This week, in the The Imagine Neighborhood™, a powerful wizard comes searching for Count Vacula. It’s Alakazambra the Demon-Hunter! To complete her magic spell, she needs the teeth of an angry vampire. But . . . Vac’s not angry. In fact, he’s usually hungry and a little bit nervous. Alakazambra needs some help figuring out how other people are feeling. This skill can come in handy, whether you’re making a new friend, trying to figure out what someone else needs or wants, or finding angry vampire teeth to complete a magic spell! When you’re trying to understand what another person is feeling, you can look for clues in their face, body, and situation. Are their eyes wide open, narrowed, or closed? Are they standing with their arms crossed or fists clenched? Are they at a surprise birthday party, a petting zoo, or a spooky haunted house? All of these things can help you identify what they might be feeling. Alakazambra gets some good practice, and you can too! If you want even more of The Imagine Neighborhood, sign up for our newsletter. Every week, you’ll get additional discussion questions and activity ideas for kids and grown-ups. And you can share your drawings and reflections with us—we love seeing what you come up with, and you might see it featured on our Infinite Refrigerator!