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JULIE ANDREWS, ACTRESS: Well, in fact, Christiane, this was something that Emma and I had been planning. We were going to do a podcast for children’s entertainment and hopeful partial education and joy quite a while ago. But because of the virus and it was brought forward and escalated a little bit, and it’s up and running and hopefully, helping families have some entertainment time with their children and maybe grandparents are joining in. I don’t know. But it is not just children’s stories. It is everything to do with bringing children into the podcast. Emma, I’ll let you explain a little bit about that if you want. You’ll take it from there.
EMMA WALTON HAMILTON, ARTS EDUCATOR AND CHILDREN’S AUTHOR: Sure.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: Emma, before you do — sorry. Go ahead.
HAMILTON: No, no.
AMANPOUR: No, I just want to put it out there that, you know, there are a lot of prime ministers and leaders who have actually specifically addressed children. You know, the prime minister of New Zealand, the prime minister of Norway, they have actually held news conference for them. They’ve talked about the tooth fairy and the Easter bunny being essential workers. So, it’s really relevant, Emma, and I wonder, you know, whether you can expand on that and the kind of work that’s gone into this podcast.
HAMILTON: Absolutely. Thank you. It is really relevant. Children are — as we all know, are experiencing the effects of this extraordinary time as much as adults, perhaps even more so. And what we’re hoping to do in addition to providing, as mom said, some entertainment and some joy is to provide an opportunity for some social, emotional conversation and learning. And so, the books that we choose and that we read, we also have conversations about, and we have guests who we invite into the library to speak with us about the social/emotional themes in the book and invite children to call in as well and share their ideas and favorite words and so forth. So, our hope is that the impact of the podcast is sort of multi- directional.
About This Episode EXPAND
Christiane speaks with Dr. Atul Gawande about the current COVID-19 statistics and Julie Andrews and Emma Walton Hamilton about their new podcast for children. Hari Sreenivasan speaks with former Foreign Minister of Ecuador Guillaume Long about the severe challenges facing Latin America.
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