The Birth of Sesame Street (1969)

This Day

Jody Avirgan & Radiotopia

History

4.6 • 982 Ratings

🗓️ 11 November 2025

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It's November 11th. This day in 1969, a new show for children is on the airwaves -- Sesame Street.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie dive into a two-part look at the birth of this new show, from the big ideas about television and children's psychology, to the set design and use of puppets.

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Our team: Jacob Feldman, Researcher/Producer; Brittani Brown, Producer; Khawla Nakua, Transcripts; music by Teen Daze and Blue Dot Sessions; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everyone, Jody here along with Nikki and Kelly who are here too.
0:05.5	Hello.
0:07.0	Hello. Hey.
0:07.6	And guess what time it is, folks.
0:09.1	It is the Radiotopia fundraiser.
0:12.2	Hold your applause.
0:13.3	Nikki and Kelly are going crazy.
0:14.8	I can tell.
0:15.5	But look, this is the moment each year when we remind you, the listener, that this show and every show in the Radiotopia Network
0:21.6	exists because of listener support.
0:25.1	Yes, and as you know, we are an independent show.
0:27.9	We make all our own decisions.
0:29.4	We're big kids.
0:30.0	But we're also part of this incredible collective called Radiotopia.
0:34.9	You may have seen some of the things happening across the media landscape, the podcast
0:39.4	landscape in particular, layoffs, entire companies are folding. Shows are disappearing overnight,
0:46.3	but not at Radiotopia. Radiotopia is growing. It's adding new shows, it's letting its
0:52.7	creators try new things, and it's able to do that because it is built differently. It is creator-owned, independent, and powered by listeners who decide to support the shows and the network directly. And that support feels really good. Like, don't we all need something that makes us feel really good? I know that I do. So I think we're looking for ways where we can support the things that we love and the things that we believe in. And that's where Radiotopia comes in. When you give to Radiotopia, you're giving directly to the shows you love, not shareholders, not some big corporation, just to the creators and the
1:29.7	stories you care about. Look, if someone wants to be a shareholder, I'm not going to stop them.
1:33.4	By all means, but if you want to be a big corporation, we're going to judge you.
1:37.0	But look, it is true that the support you give to Radiotopia goes directly back to us
1:42.0	and the other incredible shows that are part of this special collective.
	...

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