{"podcast":{"title":"Reading With Your Kids Podcast","slug":"reading-with-your-kids-podcast-793427","podcast_index_feed_id":793427,"rss_url":"https://readingwithyourkids.libsyn.com/rss","website_url":"http://readingwithyourkids.libsyn.com/site","image_url":"https://static.libsyn.com/p/assets/5/d/a/e/5dae7cd66b261421/GRC_-_two_4.png","author":"Jedlie Circus Produtions, Inc","episode_count":2440,"summary":"Reading With Your Kids is all about encouraging parents to read with their kids, and cook with their kids, and do activities with their kids, and experience tv, movies and music together. In other words, our podcast is all about helping parents build stronger relationships with their kids.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-30T14:22:56.866546+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/reading-with-your-kids-podcast-793427"},"episode":{"title":"Blazing Humor & Kind Hearts: Celebrating Mel Brooks, Kind Bunnies, and Brave Mice","slug":"blazing-humor-kind-hearts-celebrating-mel-brooks-kind-bunnies-and-brave-mice","published_at":"2026-06-28T04:33:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/reading-with-your-kids-podcast-793427/blazing-humor-kind-hearts-celebrating-mel-brooks-kind-bunnies-and-brave-mice","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/reading-with-your-kids-podcast-793427","url":"https://readingwithyourkids.libsyn.com/blazing-humor-kind-hearts-celebrating-mel-brooks-kind-bunnies-and-brave-mice","audio_url":"https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.libsyn.com/secure/readingwithyourkids/June_28_Ann_Koffsky.mp3?dest-id=477844","summary":"In this episode of Reading With Your Kids, we're celebrating humor, heart, and the power of picture books to bring families together. Most of our time is spent with Ann Koffsky, author of Blazing Humor: Mel Brooks Is Seriously Funny. Ann and Jed dive into why Mel Brooks' comedy, while very much for adults, still offers a powerful, kid-friendly life story. Ann talks about the challenge of sharing a famously edgy comedian with young readers—focusing not on the racy jokes, but on Mel's resilience, his use of humor to face bullies, racism, and hard times, and his joyful Jewish identity. She describes curating a YouTube playlist of kid-appropriate Mel Brooks clips and reflects on how picture books might be one of the last truly shared media experiences for grown-ups and kids. Together, they explore how humor can be a survival skill in an angry, algorithm-driven world. Next, Evelina Ruimy joins the show to introduce The Kind Bunny, the first in her Hops Tales series. Written during a frightening wildfire evacuation, the book helps families talk about unkind words, hurt feelings, and why kindness begins with how we treat ourselves. Evelina shares how Bunny chooses to answer rudeness with kindness, turning conflict into friendship, and how parents can use the story to start meaningful conversations about bullying and self-worth. Finally, Bob Richley stops by to chat about Redeeming Rhubarb, a middle-grade novel about a mouse, a rat, and what it really means to love your enemies—even when you've been taught to hate them.","meta_description":"In this episode of Reading With Your Kids, we're celebrating humor, heart, and the power of picture books to bring families together. Most of our time is…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3326,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/reading-with-your-kids-podcast-793427/episodes/blazing-humor-kind-hearts-celebrating-mel-brooks-kind-bunnies-and-brave-mice/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/reading-with-your-kids-podcast-793427/blazing-humor-kind-hearts-celebrating-mel-brooks-kind-bunnies-and-brave-mice.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}