What An Award-Winning Podcast Creator Taught Me About Parenting Values

Since talking with Kristen Kim about Culture Kids, the award-winning podcast she runs with her son, 8-year-old Asher, I’ve been thinking about parenting values. Specifically, how many of Kristen’s values are embedded in the podcast and in the way she talked about her family’s use of tech and screens.

Culture Kids is a “live, immersive audio adventure” that explores places, holidays, and historical moments around the globe through sound. You can watch my interview with Kristen here or listen on any podcast app.

My family discovered the Culture Kids podcast when we bought the Yoto for our daughter and now it’s a long-car-ride staple.

But I’ve actually never really thought much intentionally about my values as a parent, and I thought reviewing Kristen’s comments might spark some ideas. Some key points from the interview:

On screen time

Kristen keeps her rules simple:

No screen time for her 5- and 8-year-olds Monday through Thursday unless it’s homework-related. On Saturdays and Sundays they get one to one-and-a-half hours.

They can choose what they want to watch from a range of options, and she guides them toward things that “spark their brain, not smush their brain.” A check-in afterward adds a layer of reflection. She described how she asks Asher how he felt or what he learned after time spent watching someone play a video game. His answer shows both creativity and an eight-year-old’s sense of humor:

“Well now I know mom how to unlock this level. And it takes a lot of brain power, I promise.”

To me, the intentional reflection and the cheeky answer are just as interesting as the limit.

Noticing wonderful and interesting things

A major theme for Kristen is encouraging kid’s innate sense sense of wonder. And, framing things as interesting to observe, even if they’re different.

Kristen says she wants to convey that “everywhere you look things have a story. There’s something so amazing and magical and incredible about everything around us.”

And:

“I want to get in a habit of making children feel like that there’s so much to learn and enjoy in this world, right? Whether it’s sports or arts or skateboarding.”

She looks for small moments, like flowers on the walk to school, cloud shapes, things her kids notice first to help keep that muscle active. She joked that it sounds kind of cheesy to an adult, but it seems like an intentional, and useful practice to me.

And, she says she chooses her words carefully: avoiding saying things are “weird” or “yucky” that are just different or more common in another culture.

Respecting kids as creative partners

Kristen believes kids deserve to feel like true contributors, not add-ons. It comes through in the way she makes Culture Kids with Asher and how it compares to her past work in media:

“Your talent needs to feel like they’re a very integral part of the creative process from start to finish, no matter what age… They all need to feel like this is their project.”

She treats her son as a creative partner who has ideas that matter. She creates time for his questions, lets him reshape scripts, and follows their curiosities. Creativity becomes a muscle she helps her son and daughter strengthen.

Reconciling with things you don’t… “love” (Pokémon, video games, etc.)

Kristen values curiosity and cultural learning. Her kids often bring her straight into topics she wouldn’t choose herself—especially Pokémon.

“[My son] will squeeze in every Pokémon reference imaginable… sometimes we have to edit it out… and then he gets really upset, so we have to negotiate.”

She still finds the entry points within his interests. Pokémon becomes a way to talk about Japan, Japanese storytelling traditions, and cultural influence. Her kids lead her to new places, and she adapts.

Encouraging activity and building the village to support it

Kristen’s kids do a surprising number of extracurriculars. Her five-year-old skateboards. Her eight-year-old does TaeKwonDo, basketball, soccer, chess, and more. Honestly, it sounded overwhelming, so I asked her how she manages it.

Her answer: a five- or six-family neighborhood village. A group that she thoughtfully constructed over recent years.

They trade pickups and drop-offs, cover for each other when someone is sick or working late, and keep things moving through shared planning in spreadsheets. She joked about spending hours editing episodes in the TaeKwonDo studio:

“You will see like a row of parents doing the same… a quarter of our episodes were edited at the TaeKwonDo studio.”

But there’s another side: “You can create that village, but you have to be that village yourself too.” She gives the example of bringing food to another family dealing with a sick household. The whole structure and choices support the kind of life she wants for her kids.

A balanced media diet and the power of audio

One of the most striking parts of Culture Kids is its effective and interesting use of audio. Music, sound cues, and vocal storytelling shape the experience in a way that encourages imagination.

Kristen says “[sound] helps evoke sense of imagination and creativity… children form their own visuals.”

She mentioned research showing that listening activates the same parts of the brain as reading. In my own life, I’ve found audio books and podcasts offer reliable ways to learn when I may not be able to sit down to read and know many others feel the same.

So what do I value as a parent?

This conversation led me to think more deliberately about my own parenting values. I know curiosity and creativity matter to me. I love “why” questions. I’m the person who will spend an entire day in a Natural History Museum and leave feeling like I needed more time.

But I realized I hadn’t spent much time thinking about how to make space for this kind of curiosity for my kids. I’m sure it’s happening and of course we go to zoos and children’s museums, but it could be more intentional.

I also thought about values like independence and confidence and how our family is still figuring those out. We’ve only recently begun having our four-year-old carry her plate to the sink. There is so much room to help her build confidence and capability, in small steps that eventually make a big difference.

Kristen makes great points about the value and importance of community, but beyond being kind and trying help others I think I could do a lot more here.

And now I’m of course wondering where technology and screens fit into all of this. In Kristen’s case, the Culture Kids podcast clearly helps her encourage curiosity and connection. And, she encourages shows like Emily’s Wonder Lab and thoughtful reflection after watching. For our family, I think there are places where we’ve done a good job connecting it to values and places where we could be more intentional.

This started as a conversation about a podcast our family loves, but I think it’s a prompt to look at the values underneath our everyday choices.

We all have enough going on, so I hope it’s not another thing to worry about. Instead, I hope it’s an invitation to reflect on what we already know we care deeply about.