Jack, age 8, talks about everything future!

From the future of science, technology and inventions, to global issues affecting our planet. A fortnightly podcast for children and grownups by Jack, age 8. Jack talks about what’s changing in the world, what the future could be like and how we can help.

Jack is an avid STEM enthusiast and would like to be an engineer, inventor and scientist when he grows up. He brings a sciencey and technological angle to all of his episodes, often with an invention idea or two thrown in there!

He interviews professionals in different fields about what they do; current trends they see; what their predictions for the future are and offers his take on things for discussion.

Jack and his dad adore the film Back To The Future and given the nature of the podcast, a slight edit to the title seemed more than apt!
The podcast is aimed at children aged 7+ but is also for adults 😊.

Jack’s mum, Laura does all the behind the scenes work, in terms of editing, arranging interviews and promotion etc but Jack does the research, writes the questions and conducts the interviews himself .
 

Jack started his podcast during lockdown in the UK, around March 2021, following a short stint on a local radio show. Jack is forever curious, always interested in how and why things work so this was a perfect platform for him to ask others accordingly.

Since starting Jack To The Future, we have befriended a number of child podcasters and as a result have started listening to a number of different shows.

Jacks goal would be to have 10K followers (no pressure! 😂) and to interview famous people. He wanted to know more about what our planet may look like in the future, particularly as his generation will lead the way with conservation and change. He is keen for children, like him, to be aware of what the future could be like and where things do need to change, what we can all do to help. He wants people to care about their future.

We released his first episode more or less straight away and he is really enjoying learning new things and speaking to such interesting people.
 

The episodes are released twice a month, fortnightly. Jack’s mum, Laura, does all the editing and social media coverage etc. due to Jack’s age. Episodes are getting quicker to edit and produce but mum is still a little on the slow side and has to juggle podcast ‘work’ with a very demanding toddler! Probably around 6 hours per episode, including social media promotion 🤨

As Jack is of school age, we are limited to recording and researching in the evenings and at weekends.

We use free tools to produce the podcast so there is no cost, other than time.
 

We don’t monetise the podcast. It is purely for pleasure. Jack enjoys it, he’s learning all the time and it’s great for his confidence, social and language skills . As soon as the fun stops, so will we.

As his mother, I’ve noticed an improvement in his ability to ask relevant questions, active listening skills and relating to a variety of people of different ages, from different backgrounds, all of whom have different interests.
 

We use Zoom to conduct virtual interviews, Audacity to edit, Anchor FM to host, Canva and Clipchamp for imagery/ videos/ social media etc.

We use good old Google to research guests, occasionally LinkedIn but also knowledge of local businesses . We also use socials to reach out and contact prospective guests.

We research the area of interest, have a discussion about Jack’s thoughts about the future for that genre/area and then email the questions over to the guests in advance. Any other questions and their responses are on the fly during the Zoom call.

We record intro and outro afterwards and these are usually a bit more scripted than the main interview, but only in that Jack talks with his mum about what we researched and he recounts what he has learnt in his own words.
 

The majority of listeners are through Apple (31%)and Google (20%) Podcasts, aswell as Anchor (19%) itself.

We’re on most major listening platforms, as well as Storyskimo and Kids Listen.

We find Instagram and Facebook most useful for marketing.
 

Just go for it! We don’t have a massive audience, but then the podcast is quite niche. As long as you’re enjoying it and you have some listeners, then it’s worth it.

We didn’t realise quite how time consuming it is , although if we didn’t edit, I guess it would be quicker? More of a conversation type podcast. Editing is tedious!

Mum has really had to brush up on her social media skills! She’s still learning and doesn’t have time to post all that regularly, or follow ‘trending’ ways of capturing more listeners, but it has been interesting, albeit a learning curve.

Having decent equipment makes all the difference. Nothing too flash, but a middle to upper range quality microphone is really noticeable.
We have learnt a lot from listening to other podcasts and looking on socials at how other people market their podcasts.
 

We have our own Linktree account which will navigate you to all of our socials and major listening platforms.
https://linktr.ee/Jtothefuture
Enjoy! 🌎