50+ Best Podcasts for Kids and Teens in 2026

Podcasts are a great teaching tool for kids, especially for language learning. A 2024 study published in the International Journal of English Language Studies looked at nearly a decade of classroom research and found that podcasts help students improve listening comprehension, vocabulary, pronunciation, and motivation. This makes them especially helpful for multilingual learners and for students who understand content better when they hear it rather than read it. Providing students with the option of using podcasts as a way to access information also aligns with Universal Design for Learning by giving students flexible, accessible ways to engage with content.

Check out our favorite classroom-ready podcasts below. We’ve divided the list by grade level because some might be more intense or cover more mature topics than is appropriate for younger students. You are the best judge for your own kids or students, though, so we recommend vetting all material before sharing it to make sure it’s a good fit for your students and school context.

Jump to podcasts for the grade you teach:

Below are some practical tips for using podcasts with students from Hannah Irion‑Frake, a literacy coach and former elementary classroom teacher. Visit her website Reading With Mrs. IF.

Hannah has used podcasts regularly with her own students and often shares how she integrates kid‑friendly podcasts into comprehension lessons, vocabulary building, and background‑knowledge work, particularly as a way to make content accessible for students who struggle with decoding. Her approach connects listening comprehension directly to reading comprehension, making podcasts a meaningful literacy tool rather than a passive activity.

Hannah’s classroom‑tested podcast tips include:

• Preteach any tricky vocabulary before listening. 
• Build necessary background knowledge before listening. Showing pictures or short videos can help students better visualize what they’re listening to. 
• Provide students with something concrete to do after they listen. This is a great opportunity to incorporate writing (or drawing for nonreaders) as a way to demonstrate comprehension. You can give students prompts, sentence starters, or questions to help them focus their responses. 
• Create a routine for listening to podcasts with your students and pre-teach how to listen to a podcast. This will pay off in the long run because students will know what they’re expected to do when listening. 
• Go beyond listening by creating your own podcasts. Check out these 10 podcasting projects you can do in your classroom.

Check out Hannah’s top podcast picks for elementary school below and follow her on Instagram at @readingwithmrsif.

Podcasts for elementary schoolers need to be snappy, entertaining, and jam-packed with information that young kids can understand. These podcasts are a great way to bring everything from stories to science into your classroom.

Top 5 Podcast Picks From Reading With Mrs. IF

Best Storytime Podcasts

Best Social-Emotional Learning Podcasts

Best Science and Nature Podcasts

Best General Interest and News Podcasts

Best History Podcasts for Elementary Schoolers

Best Music Podcast for Elementary Schoolers

Want podcasts for teachers? Check out these education podcasts teachers swear by.

To be honest, a bunch of the podcasts for elementary schoolers would work for middle schoolers too. But here are podcasts that especially cater to the middle school set.

Best Podcasts About Books and Stories

Best General Interest and News Podcasts

Best Science and Nature Podcasts

Best Vocabulary Podcast

Best History Podcast

For secondary classrooms, podcast choice really matters, says Betsy Potash, former high school English teacher, veteran podcaster, and founder of Spark Creativity. In addition, through her free workshop, Camp Creative, she helps educators use podcasts both as content‑rich texts and as mentor models for student thinking and creative work.

Check out Besty’s top podcast picks for high schoolers below and follow her on Instagram @nowsparkcreativity.

Top 5 High School Podcast Picks From Betsy Potash

Best Podcast About Music for High Schoolers

Best Podcasts About Psychology and Economics

Best Story Podcasts for High Schoolers

Best General Interest and History Podcasts

Best Science Podcasts for High Schoolers

Ready to incorporate podcasts into homework or a classroom lesson? Grab our free podcast reflection sheet! Just click the link below and fill out the form to get yours.

What are your favorite podcasts for kids? Come share and ask for advice in the We Are Teachers HELPLINE group on Facebook.

Plus, check out The Big List of Virtual Author Activities.