For the last few months, I've been working on a fun new project—a kid-friendly music-themed fantasy adventure podcast called Musicland Stories. The first 12-episode season was written by Bob Proehl, author of the Nobody People superhero book series, with two episodes by me. It's an intergalactic journey about a young girl from a planet of people who are totally out-of-sync, as she finds a pair of fantastical drumsticks and tries to join an interstellar band.
The second season (currently ongoing) focuses on a group of young aquatic explorers, surfing the (sound)waves to find a legendary sea monster and record its song. And I wrote every last word of that season! It was a fun challenge from a few different directions: writing done-in-one stories to a tight commercial format, that also contributed to a larger narrative and moved the season forward, and were consistently exciting and accessible for kids. Sort of the OG Saturday Morning Cartoon format—you can dip in on any individual episode and understand what's happening, but it's more rewarding if you take in the season as a whole. Which is to say: I learned a lot (and I think I pulled off a few fun narratives, too).
Did I mention that the Musicland Stories debuted in the Top 10 on Apple Podcasts, even beating out Tucker Carlson for a while? That was fun. Here's the official Deadline show announcement, from back in December:
Former UTA agent Jed Baker launched his podcast company Starglow Media earlier this summer and now he's launching his first original series.
The company has teamed with Disgraceland producer Double Elvis to produce Musicland Stories.
The 48-part show, broken into four seasons, will each explore a different locale: an intergalactic voyage, under the sea, in the forests, and in the deserts of this distant universe.
The series is narrated by Nikki Lynette, who plays The Conductor. The company is already having early conversations with book publishers and producers for TV and film adaptations of Musicland Stories.
Musicland Stories is narrated by Nikki Lynette, with music by Scott Janovitz. It's produced by Double Elvis—the music-themed audio company behind Disgraceland—with Alessandro Santoro, who produced Apple's Operation: Tradebom, as the showrunner. You can listen on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or wherever else you listen to podcasts.
