Narrator

Foreign.

Mandy Hammond

Welcome to the Screenstrong Families podcast bringing you the best solutions for parents who are serious about eliminating screen conflicts in their homes. This is Mandy Hammond and I'm your host for today's episode. Thank you so much for joining us. You are in for a treat today. I, I think I always say that, but I just love our guests that come on here. But I want you to know that your kids are at as well. Okay. So in fact, what I dare say that this episode is one for the kids. Okay, so what is going to be fun is at the end of this podcast, there's going to be a little present for your children to listen to. Okay? So just kind of know that that's coming at the end and this first part is going to be for the parents just to kind of encourage you and talk about our topic today. So we are going to talk today about creating versus consuming. And our guest today, you're just going to love him. It's, it's going to be super inspiring to you. So you know, we're either creating or we're consuming. And according to this Magic Kids who we're going to talk to today, this choice shapes who we become. Okay. Whether we're creating or we're consuming and more. In the screen saturated culture, our kids are being trained to consume and to scroll and to compare. And if you've been around at all, you hear us asking Screenstrong all the time, you know we've got to protect childhood. And if childhood is spent consuming and scrolling and comparing, what kind of adults is this going to create? What kind of end game are we wanting here for our children? So we are excited to talk today about how to raise kids who can express and imagine and build rather than scroll and compare. So let's dive right in. I'm so excited to introduce all of you Screenstrong families to our guest today, Bradley T. Morse. Bradley is a father, storyteller and serial entrepreneur. He's the founder and CEO of Magic Kids, which is an audio, entertainment and education company on a mission to end the screen zombie epidemic. His company, Magic Kids produces Pixar level movies for the ears, cinematic audio stories, music and imagination meditations. Each experience includes hands on creative learning activities that spark imagination and no screens are required. So welcome Bradley, to the show.

Bradley T. Morris

Thank you for having me here. I'm excited.

Mandy Hammond

Awesome. Well, let's start off by just having you tell our audience a little bit about yourself.

Bradley T. Morris

Sure. I am a papa bear of Soren who is nine and a half and I have been making Magic on the Internet for about 22 years. First video I ever put on the Internet went viral. That led to speaking tours and kind of launched my career long, long time ago. And yeah, I man where to start. So I have been, I've done everything from produce world class audio meditation libraries that have reached millions and millions of people, to helping build online creative platforms, schools, and transformational educational entertainment based media. My career has been kind of in a whole bunch of different directions. And when my kiddo was three and a half was going to preschool, everything was great. And then one day he decided that he just didn't want to go anymore. And over the course of weeks and weeks of him resisting and putting up a fight, more and more it got to a point where he refused to leave the welcome mat. And so finally we got on our knees, we got eye to eye with them and we listened. And we asked him why he did not want to be going to preschool. Because before he was really enjoying it. And he said he'd made a decision. And his decision was, you're my people, I want to be home with you, and I can't focus on my projects. We said, well, it sounds like you have some very important projects to do and we will pull you from preschool and we're going to keep you home and we're going to pivot our plan. Because my wife was just starting to get back into work. I've had a media company for years and I have my own studio here on the property. And so, you know, we could bend with what was happening naturally. And after several years, Soren and I were making up a lot of stories. You know, when he was born, I looked at him and I was like, my little adventure buddy's here. This is the coolest thing ever. And so he and I were making up bedtime stories every night. And some of them were pretty awesome. And sometimes he would tell me, get me to retell the same stories again and again and again. So I got to refine them. Eventually I recorded them. I would take the recordings and transcribe them and then I would edit them. And after half a dozen stories, I was like, these are pretty good. And that was when we decided to have a new baby business called Magic Kids. But before that, let me just back up a little bit, because when Soren was three and a half, around the same time as him realizing he didn't want to do preschool anymore, he we had a hard move. We had to move our studio in our home. And it was like two months of total chaos. Anybody that's ever moved, just knows it's, it's, especially with kids, it's chaos. And so that was hidden his introduction to paw patrol and TV shows and all the things. That was his first time ever getting screen time. And in the two months of chaos, we noticed our sweet little kiddo, who was always quite regulated, rarely cried, was always quite happy, turned into what we playfully dub as a screen zombie. Like, his nervous system regulation was totally off. His tantrums were heightened, like multiple times a day. All he wanted to do and all he kept asking us to do was watch shows. And so after we got settled into the new home, we just, we stopped shows altogether. We're like, this is totally not working. It's not worth it. We're watching like the joy, sparkle inside of our little kiddo just totally disappear. And so this was before I got into the science of it all. And so we took it away and we started experimenting with audio stories. And when we started putting on the audio stories, we wouldn't just press play on an audio story and leave them to be. My wife, Celeste, would put out activities every day when it was audio story time. And so she would put out whether it was play doh or blocks or color supplies, painting supplies, whatever. There was always a creative thing for him to do. And he was like, hey, it's audio story time. And she would press play and he would listen to the stories, his imagination would expand, he'd be actively creating. And then I would ask him about the stories he was listening to after he was done. And he would retain the characters, the storyline, what happened. You know, we would talk about some of the lessons in them. And that was when the light bulb went off for us of like, his nervous system calmed down pretty darn quick. You know, he went through some withdrawals, as when they come off of a drug. For the first week or so, he was asking for shows every day. And we just told him that it's not going to happen anymore. And then, you know, everything has been pretty amazing. So he's nine and a half now. He gets one show or movie time per week. Friday nights, that's your movie night. You can have a show, you can have a movie every other week. We might watch something together. Right now we're watching Avatar Last Airbender as a family. Every couple weeks we'll watch a few episodes, but that's it. And so we're not anti tech. And this is, this has become our parenting philosophy. And the philosophy behind what we built at Magic Kids, our media company, is that we are either creating or consuming when it comes to technology. And most of the consumer products and consumer facing shows out there are training children to become passive consumers that don't necessarily own their own creative capacity. And my son and I had this conversation the other day of like, why do you think they call TV shows shows? And he thought about it for a minute and he's like, the light bulb went off. He's like, because it's showing you what to think and what to imagine. I'm like, bingo, buddy. Why do they call the news feed on social media the feed? Because it is feeding you what to think, it's feeding you what to see, it's feeding you what to believe. And an empowered creator is someone who has the, the skills to critically think, to receive information, and to be able to discern what is true, what is not true. How does this feel inside of my own system and what do I want to do about it? And so, yeah, that's, it's been our parenting journey and it's really shaped how we have focused the, the creative parts of what we're building at Magic Kids. So, yeah, hopefully that's a good answer for you.

Mandy Hammond

That's a fabulous answer. And I love it. And I love that you have a personal story connected to it and you've watched this with your own child. I mean, that is huge. And you watched it go the other direction when you took back the screens and went the, you know, direction of creativity. So what do you think's happening in just society now to a child's brain and their identity when most of their free time is spent consuming instead of creating? Like, what's happening?

Bradley T. Morris

Yeah. I mean, I'm sure you've talked about the horrific stats of like children being on screens six to eight hours a day on average. Which, you know, when we were growing up, we were outside playing for six to eight hours. Yeah. And so in a generation, 70% of kids playing have lost this skill of playing and imagining. And so when we are putting children in front of these screens, it seems like, oh great, my kid seems like they're just chilling out. But what it's doing is, is it's taking over their nervous system and it's preventing them from doing the work that kids have done for since the beginning of time, which is make worlds and imagine and create. And the way children, the way children learn and the way that they can regulate themselves is to like, have this space to dream and play and explore and to try on different characters and to come up with their own elaborative games and these, their own elaborative worlds. But what happens when they're being fed, when they're being shown what to imagine? It literally switches off that part of the brain. The brain's just like, well, I don't have to work on this anymore because it's all right there for me. And, you know, we're all watching the world on fire right now. And what we need is kids to maintain their connection to their imagination, to feel like they do have the ability to affect reality, because they need to be the ones who are going to be facing the challenges coming up on planet Earth and to dream into the better world that's possible for all of us. And if they're just being fed and shown what to imagine and what to believe without the discernment or critical thinking skills being developed inside of themselves, then they just take at face value in those sweet developing brains that they have. Everything that they're being shown is, is what is true and real.

Mandy Hammond

I loved also that you talked to your son about the show and the feed. And I, when I talked to teenagers, I talked to them about how, you know, the tech companies call us users of their product. You know, we're all, we are the product. Right? And our kids are the product. And so we talk a lot at springtime about it's not about restriction of screens so much as it's about what are they replacing. Like asking yourself what is screen time replacing? Is it replacing that deep play that our, that we used to have as kids or the independent thinking or the emotional regulation? It's, it's crowding those things out and it's hijacking those, you know, things that our kids need to be developing right now. Yeah, no, that's all very, very good.

Bradley T. Morris

And, and we're not, you know, my wife and I, we're not anti technology. We are cool with technology. It's here to stay. You know, we, we're open to that. But our son uses technology for creativity, for creating, for bringing value into the world. So like last week he and I, we spent, we, we've co written 23 stories together. Oh, that's over the last four years. It's been epic. It's like one of my most cherished parts of, of our relationship is we go for walks and we talk about ideas, we go to coffee shop dates once or twice a week and we, we map out our, our worlds that we're building together and then we come back to the studio and we write. And he's now really into cartooning so he came to us. Uh, he reads two to three hours a day and he loves graphic novels. So he came to us a few months ago and said he figured out what he wants to be. He's going to be a cartoonist. And we're like, cool, we're doubling down on this. We're going to support him with mentorship, we're going to support him with whatever he needs to like go as far down the rabbit hole of cartooning as he possibly can. And so we're with Magic Kids. You know, we partner with a lot of companies and there is a company called Daylight Computer which is the first blue light free computer and they have a kid's version of it that has all sorts of parenting safeguards. And the screen doesn't have any blue light. So it's kind of like a piece of paper or like a Kindle.

Mandy Hammond

Yeah.

Bradley T. Morris

And they have their own built in like Illustrator, like Procreator Illustrator program for doing cartoons. And Soren is in charge of every Saturday morning for Magic Kids. We release our new audio stories, music and meditations and curriculum. And he has now taken on the job of the Saturday morning cartoon section. So he is doing his own cartoons. We're now starting to get kids submitting cartoons to that as well. And so he's, you know, he's spends a few hours every week, three, four hours a week, working on brainstorming his cartoon of the week, doing a rough draft on paper and then going and grabbing his, his tablet, his Daylight computer and, and doing the actual cartoon that we'll then use in the, the newsletter. And so, you know, that's one way he has a, an electric drum kit. So he, we produced a 90 minute, it was actually closer to 2 hour feature length audio story. And he's the narrator and he narrates the story about how he and I get sucked into a gnome door portal into the magic realm and we have to bring the magic back to the human realm because it's been lost. And it's, it was a 14 month production process with him and I in the studio and he's the narrator telling the story. And so at the end of that I was like the agreement at the beginning was you narrate the story and we're going to buy you an electric drum kit. And so he finally got that after 14 months of production and going through the creative process of building something big. And, and so he does drum lessons on his, his tablet and he's really into D and D. So he designs 3D characters for his dungeons and dragons campaigns that he's doing, you know, so those are things that, like, he's creating. And he brings these creations out into the world so other people can experience and enjoy them. And there's a lot of empowerment that comes when we get to see the ways in which our creations impact the world around us.

Mandy Hammond

Yes. How rewarding for him, too. And have to work for 14 months before he can get that reward. You know, kids today, and even we as adults are so used to getting that really quick dopamine fix, you know, and that quick reward to our brain. That's. That's what we want. And it's very hard to do hard things. It's very hard to stay in it for the long haul. So let's talk about creativity. And, like, how would you define creativity? That's probably pretty broad.

Bradley T. Morris

Yeah.

Mandy Hammond

What's creativity about?

Bradley T. Morris

I feel like we all have this connection to something greater than just ourselves. Some people think Saul happens inside of their brains, and other people feel like we're instruments for something greater to come through. Whether it's the lyrics to a song or a rhythm in a beat or the words for a story. I know when I sit down at my computer after brainstorming with Soren, and it's time to start writing the story after we've talked it through and we've mapped out characters and stuff, I am no longer in my thinking brain, and I am in my flow state, creative brain. And my fingers dance across the keyboard and the character lines start to come through and the world starts to appear before me. And so for me, like, creativity is the act of creation. And creation can mean anything that we are making. Creation could be kids, you know, playing a game, a house. Creation could be, you know, drawing and coloring. It could be anything. And there's an energy through the act of creation that feels very, very natural. I mean, I've been creating. I was not a good student in stool in school. I dropped outta college to start my first business. Um, and that was when the light bulb went on for me of like, oh, I'm not stupid. I was just looking for a different way for me to bring value and creativity through me and into the world. And entrepreneurship was it for me. It was like, oh, this is a vehicle for me to make anything I want and to provide value for others. And so I've taken it in a lot of directions. And kids are losing the ability to create because they're literally being entrained to consume day and night all the time. And nobody saw this coming. Nobody was like, Nobody looks at this and is like, oh, this is great for the world that kids don't know how to imagine and create anymore and that their nervous systems are out of whack. This is literally like we're a science experiment. And now the alarm bells are going off, which you know, shows like you and people like, oh, gosh, this is. This is way worse than we thought. And there's, like, an actual, you know, epidemic in children's mental health that's taking place right now, which is really sad. And it can be reversed quite quickly. Yeah, withdrawals. Instead of turning on TV shows, say, Kids, we're doing an experiment for 30 days. Because I just checked and, you know, according to the data and what I'm paying attention to is we're spending over 100 hours a month on our screens, and now we're going to do audio stories in the afternoon. And while we do our audio stories, we're going to develop artistic skills and we're going to be a family of creators, because that seems more fun than sitting around.

Mandy Hammond

Yes. You're going to get so much more reward back for that at the end of it. Like, so much. Okay, so let's talk about the audio thing. Like, what is the power of audio in listening to a story?

Bradley T. Morris

This is. This is a great question. And people get to. At the end of this episode, we're going to have our. One of our stories that they can listen to. Spoiler alert. So what happens when we listen versus when we watch is all of a sudden our imagination switches into gear. I mean, anybody that's read the Harry Potter series and you've, like, you go through these incredible journeys and you've imagined the castles and you've seen all the characters and you've, you know, pictured the spells and the seas, and like, a world literally takes shape inside of you. That, and everybody reading the same story sees the world differently, sees the characters differently. Then we get a show, and the show just shows us. And I remember, like, when I went from reading the books to watching the movies, I was like, this is disappointing. It's fun to see the characters. It's fun to see, like, the environment and all that sort of stuff, but so much goes missing. And, you know, when we're in that imaginal space, we're also connected into our emotional body as well. You know, like, how many people have read a book and started to weep because you're so connected to the characters. And movies can do this as well with the music and the imagery and the way you get some Great actors in there. But there, there's something so powerful and you know, it goes back all the way to the beginning of, of humanity is stories are how we have learned, it's how we've developed, it's how we have, you know, learned to understand the world. It's how we've passed wisdom to each other. There's something so powerful about the spoken word and oral storytelling. And what we've done at Magic Kids is like in this, this world of AI is, is we are an artist powered engine. And so we've worked with hundreds of artists through our fair pay publishing model where we give, you know, a significant chunk of our revenue into an artist royalty pool. And so we have voice actors playing all of our characters. We have a couple 90 minute audio stories in our library that have, you know, upwards of 26 voice actors playing characters. And then I have a team of local producers to where I live that score all the music and sound effects. So that movies for the ears is the idea. And movies for the ears actually came from a five year old. I was driving my son's buddy home from a play date when they were five and our first audio stories just came out and I was testing them on his friends and I took him home and pulled up to his house and I shut off the car and the story just ended. I said, hey, what'd you think of the story, buddy? And he was like, it was like a movie for my ears. And I was just like, you we're taking that just made Magic Kids marketing history. This is unbelievable.

Mandy Hammond

I love that.

Bradley T. Morris

So, yeah, I mean then you think about, okay, so we just made up a world with our imagination and that's how kids play as well. But now let's, let's just put on the hat of you're an empowered creator. You're here to contribute value and goodness to the world through your gifts and through your contributions and through what you create. And in order to create anything in the world, we have to first imagine it first. And if we, if we lose the ability to imagine, then how are we going to solve the problems of the future? If we lose the ability to imagine, how are we going to picture ourselves in the perfect career that fits our gifts and personality? How are we going to imagine the adventures we want to have? It becomes harder. And this is what happens to so many adults. And we actually have a story called the Dults an adult is. And this came from a group of kids because I kept having. My son's friends were always asking like, how come you're still kind of like a big kid, you know, what's with all the. And then they called it. One of them called it a slip of the tongues. What's with adults? And so then I started interviewing my son's friends, and they started, like, coming up with all these things that adults do. And so adult is a person who grows up and loses connection with their inner kid. And a grownup is somebody who grows up and they remain connected to their inner kid. And what happens to all of the adults, One of the reasons they. They become stiff, rigid, serious, unhappy people is because they lose that interconnection with their creative spirit, with their imagination, with their playful side. And we can all get that back. And screens can. Our consumption of media and content and junk food, entertainment are some of the pieces that are what are causing anxiety and causing people to switch off their imaginations and their creativity and their playful spirit.

Mandy Hammond

Wow, that was really good. So that is one of your stories, the Dalts, that it compares grownups to adults.

Bradley T. Morris

That's right. Yeah. So the Dalts is inside of our library.

Mandy Hammond

Okay. Okay, I love that now I'm gonna go listen to that. Okay. So as we're kind of rounding out today, because I know we gotta get to our story, and I'm so excited, parents, for you to bring your kids in on this conversation. And honestly, they can listen to this entire podcast and hopefully get inspired. But the story is wonderful. But so what are some simple ways that parents can invite creation back into daily life without just adding a ton of pressure or making it complex? Because we gotta normalize that. There's a struggle, there's a struggle with parents. There's a struggle on our own screens. There's a struggle with managing it all when everybody else's kids are doing this or that and you've got the pressure with your own. So what, what are simple ways that parents can invite this creativity back?

Bradley T. Morris

Yeah, ultimately, you know, put your own phones away.

Mandy Hammond

Yeah.

Bradley T. Morris

Get the phones out of the living room spaces. We lock ours in our. In our studio office every night. I finish work at five o' clock and leave the phone in the studio and don't bring it into the living room and the kitchen and the. The spaces where we spend time together. So that is, you know, kids are going to model what parents do, not what parents say. And so, parents, it's up to you to be responsible for yourselves. And if you are craving deeper connection and more inspiration to flow through your household, the first step is locking the phones. We. We have a phone box that we lock them in. So maybe as a creative art project and a declaration to the household, you set clear boundaries with when screens are used and when screens aren't used and you all creatively co create the phone box and then you can call each other out if it's phone box time and somebody like is caught sneaking a text or looking at a video or whatever. Like, that is one thing that, that we've done. The second is like, kids want presents from their parents, and if they don't get presents from their parents for long enough, they give up on it and they kind of numb out because they're sad. And so if you have been putting off the quality time that your children have been waiting for and yearning for, it's up to you to like to do the repair work and come back into presence with your kids and check in on them and see if you can line up some inspired ideas. There's, you know, we have hundreds of hours worth of activities that you could be doing with your kids after listening to a story. So I would say, like, download the magic kids app, listen to a story, check out the learning guys that we have creative activities and like, plan to do some creative stuff with the kids to integrate the lessons and themes from the story so that your kids get to feel what it's like to go through the growth arc that the characters did in the story. And then instead of it just being a story, it becomes an embodied system of values and a philosophy that they've like really stepped into and lived in their lives. So that would be another piece. And I would just say come up with a family list of what does everybody like to do for fun?

Mandy Hammond

Yes.

Bradley T. Morris

So what do your kids like to do for fun? What do the parents like to do for fun? And in the evenings when everybody's tired, I can tell you this from personal experience, is that fun is what makes everybody feel alive and come feel energetic. And so everybody's tired. At the end of the day, what you need instead of watching a TV show is to do something that's fun. And then all of a sudden everybody's going to be happy and joyful and you're going to have more energy and you're not going to want to go to bed because you're having fun. And so how do you bring more fun? I would create a fun list for everybody in the family. What are like 10 things that you all like to do for fun? And some of you parents out there that forgot what fun is, remember back to when you were a kid? What are 10 things that you love to do for fun when you were a kid and start doing those things again with your kids. Remember, you're in, you're going to reclaim your inner kid by doing those things with your kids. Trust me, that's how it flows.

Mandy Hammond

Oh, that's beautiful. That's beautiful. Okay, so last question here. Besides, we want to talk about like where people can find you and all of that, but real quick, one is giving you hope right now about families who are kind of choosing this different path. With all the families you work with and the kids and the people that have, you know, encountered your product and are doing more audio listening, creativity, what gives you hope about these families?

Bradley T. Morris

I mean, there, there's a huge movement right now of people that are seeing the damage and they're embracing audio over video. And I think that's, that's an amazing, amazing thing. And I'm really grateful for, you know, all the sciences coming out that are sounding the bells on this science experiment gone wrong. And, and so I, I just feel really hopeful that more and more people are waking up and more and more kids are being given the opportunity to step into creatorship and that there's parents who are stepping into creatorship with their kids actively. And that just makes me feel really hopeful that we're going to get through this. Everybody, yes.

Mandy Hammond

You're doing good work. Thank you so much for your work. So where can families learn more about Magic Kids and kind of how does it work?

Bradley T. Morris

Yeah, come check us out at magickkids. M A J I K kids dot com. You can get a free trial to the Magic Kids app. We keep it very, very affordable if you decide to stick around. And we have tons of movies for the ears, audio stories, over a thousand kids songs from artists around the world, dozens of kids, imagination meditations, a curriculum with every story. And we're really firing up our creative engine and working with world class artists to bring all of this amazing media to your ears and imaginations.

Mandy Hammond

Yes. Love that. Well, thank you so much for being on the show today, Bradley.

Bradley T. Morris

Thanks for having me. This is so fun. I'm grateful for the conversations that you were sparking here.

Mandy Hammond

Yes, very good. Okay, so we are going to, without further ado, we are going to present to you Grumpy Town. And actually, Bradley, before I hang up with you, do you want to set this up and explain to people anything about Grumpy Town?

Bradley T. Morris

So Grump, Grumpy Town. The reason we're choosing this one, this is, this is a far away planet. That's. That's far away from here, where parents realize that their their kids would stop nagging and annoying them if they put a flashing box in front of them. And so the kids over time lose the ability to imagine and play. And one day there's a power outage and everything changes. So that's all I'm gonna say. It's a fun story inspired by the times that we're living in. And what you'll find about our Magic Kids stories is they're all inspired by the times that we're living in right now. You know, this is not your average junk food entertainment that's just here to pass 20 minutes of your time. It's here to inspire you and support you and your kids to have meaningful conversations when the stories are done.

Mandy Hammond

Wonderful.

Bradley T. Morris

Hey. Welcome to Magic Kids. This week's story is called Grumpy Town, written by Bradley T. Morris and Soarin Magic Narrated by Bradley T. Morris with audio and sound effects by Blair Francis. If you'd love to own the illustrated book version of it, then head on over to magickkids.com and buy yourself a copy to read to your kids class or self. Thanks for tuning in and enjoy the story.

Story Narrator

On a planet far away, there was a sad little city. Yes, the state of this city was not at all pretty. All the grown ups were grumps and always disagreed and their bad vibes had spread like a pesky old weed. All the elders had become cranky and bitter. No longer did their eyes sparkle and glitter and their children, now adults, didn't fall far from the tree. They cast blame like big rocks and had no eyes to see that their misery was caused by their own negative ways. Instead they'd moan and complain and carry on for days. Yes, the state of this city was a sad sight indeed. But no one stood up and no one would lead. And where were the kids in this dark and strange place? Were they playing in a playground with a smile on their face? Well, that's not quite true nor is it quite right. You see, the adults learned a trick that they deemed to be bright. They put their kids in front of screens to settle them down. Then the kids became quiet. They didn't make a sound. They were still as a stone with their eyes open wide Watching the moving pictures from low till high tide. Days turned to months and they hardly went out. They became couch potatoes. They didn't giggle or shout the show those that they watched stole their imaginations away. They were like screen watching zombies all night and all day the kids forgot how to play and Critically think too. It was a bleak looking future. No one knew what to do. You see, if you get stuck in a rut for way too darn long, it could become a comfortable place, making. Making it hard to move on. Because change can be funny. It can seem scary and weird. Your mind makes up stories about what ought to be feared, eventually making you numb to how bad things have got. Which is what happened in this city where everyone fought. Now, before you get sad and think the story story is done, there's a happy ending coming. So get ready for some fun. Because on one auspicious day, the power suddenly died. Then the flashing screens went blank and all the kids cried. They wailed and they slammed, yelling for more, more, more. But when more was no more, they didn't know what to do. Without entertainment, how would they pass the time through? Because they'd forgotten how to imagine, create and play. They sat there in despair, unsure of what to say after the shock wore off and the screams turned to sobs. The parents got annoyed without the screens doing their jobs. So they kicked the kids out and

Bradley T. Morris

said, come back when it's dark.

Story Narrator

While the kids little faces look befuddled and stark. And with a synchronized slam, the doors all shut behind, leaving a city full of children bored out of their minds. One by one, they all piled into the street, seeing all their old friends and new faces to meet.

Mandy Hammond

Hi.

Narrator

Hey.

Story Narrator

They awkwardly shuffled. They hadn't conversed for so long, their voices were muffled as the streets filled up. They all stood around fidgeting and fumbling as they stared at the ground without a screen telling them what to think, say or do. The kids uncomfortably squirmed like they needed to poo. But the silence was broken when something went toot, which was followed by a smell that resembled rotten fruit.

Narrator

Was that a car backfiring? Or a popcorn explosion? It sounded like a baby seal burping in the ocean. No way. I think it was a trumpet dipped in some soup. Or an accordion turned inside out and filled up with goop. Actually, said a kid, it wasn't any of those things. It was the oldest tune our bodies ever did sing. It was a beamy cloud of moon gas that came from someone's bum. It was a farty stink torpedo inside a boomy bass drum.

Story Narrator

An explosion of laughter took over the crowd. Their eyes streamed with tears as they cackled and howled. And just like that, they remembered how to have fun.

Narrator

Us kids are supposed to be playful. We need to jump, dance and run.

Story Narrator

They all talked at once. It sounded like little birds chatter Recalling the things they forgot, like what really matters.

Narrator

The screams numbed us and dumbed us one factually. Yeah, the screens still nice sparkle, making me blank in the head. I felt like I couldn't live without the silly thing on. But I realized that I'm wrong. Now that the screens are all gone,

Story Narrator

the smallest of kids stood up on a can and gave a great speech about their fun little plan.

Narrator

We've forgotten our ways, like kids before us knew. Now I say suggest that we play until fun's what we do.

Story Narrator

All the kids gave a cheer that was heard across town by the cranky old grownups all wearing their frown. What was that ruckus? An older one muttered.

Narrator

It sounded like joy.

Story Narrator

Another fearfully stuttered.

Mandy Hammond

Well, we don't do that. Not since I recall. We better go see. Stop it before it spreads to us all.

Story Narrator

Back on the streets, the kids were having a blast. Climbing trees, playing tag and running so fast. The laughter was infectious and spread all around like a contagious joy giggle that traveled by sound. Imaginations were used to make make games up on the spot. All the kids got along. Not a single one fought. But then, without warning, everyone froze. The ground rumbled so much they felt it down in their toes. And a grumbling thunder was heard over the hill. The children just stood there, silent and still. Then on the horizon, they could suddenly see a thousand grumpy grown ups looking curmudgeon as can be. They were shaking their fists and yelling at the same time. Stop laughing. Stop playing. It's practically a crime. The kids looked around from the corner of their eye that erupted into laughter so hard it made them cry.

Narrator

You sad, stressed grown ups. You forgot how to have fun. You take everything so serious your hearts weigh a ton. And all of that heaviness that's stored in your heart you pass to us children when all our lives start.

Story Narrator

You naive, silly children. It's not about fun. It's about getting to work to get the job done.

Narrator

But you might be surprised if you give fun a chance. No.

Story Narrator

We're too old to play and too old to dance.

Narrator

Now it's time to go home because the screens are back on. We don't want to watch them. Life's more fun when they're gone.

Story Narrator

There was a long quiet morning that passed through the crowd when the silence was broken by a toot that was so loud it was said to be heard from 20 miles away. least that's what the town's neighbors ventured to say. Everyone stood there. No one knew what to do. But before anyone had time to think, another kid tooted too soon. It was a symphony of loud and squeaky sounds. Some bass, tenor, percussion too. All ages could be found. Finally the music faded and a wafting silence followed. The quiet was so thick you could hear when someone swallowed. Then, louder than the thunder, a great laughter did ensue. They giggled, cried, and rolled around. It was all that they could do. The laughter was so healing it washed their grump away. For the first time in their adult lives, all the grown ups began to play. My imagination, I think it's coming back. Celebrated one of the old ones who went by Papa Jack.

Bradley T. Morris

My heart, my heart. I can feel my heart. And it's all because of that small child's fart.

Story Narrator

Now it wasn't that the toot was the thing that saved the day. It just reminded the adults to loosen up and play. All the grown ups faces began to make a shift as their heaviness and grumpiness started to uplift. Their inner kid selves began to shine right through in a way that their children had never seen and never knew. Because that's what happens when you remember how to play. It inspires a life you love and look forward to every day. And so that grump filled city became a silly one instead, where the mayor mandated having fun from morning until bed. So if this story has a moral or some lessons you could learn, the first would be that farts are funny, so let her rip when it's your turn. The next would be that watching screens is highly overrated. So go outside and play with friends to become joyful and elated. Now you may be thinking that this story is all done, but for the people of Silly City, the tale's just begun. The End and the beginning.

Bradley T. Morris

Thank you for tuning in to this week's Magic Kids story.

Narrator

Grumpy Town.

Bradley T. Morris

Subscribe to the Magic Kids app, the world's most magical audio library featuring new stories, music, meditations and learning activities every week. Our Fair Trade publishing model pays our artists 50% of the subscription revenue we generate so they can continue making magic for your kids. If you're already a fan, share Magic Kids with three friends and help us raise the spiritometer today. Thanks for tuning in and you'll hear us next time.

Mandy Hammond

So we hope you enjoyed that amazing story. We want to leave you with one simple question today. It's truly ask yourself, where is your child mostly creating? And where are they mostly consuming? And what can you do to balance that out better? And to do way more creating? Not even balance. Let's just say out outweigh the creation with the consuming. And so we really hope that this got you thinking today. And if this conversation resonated with you, we invite you to learn more about what Screenstrong offers about Magic Kids. You know, you've got lots of great resources out there for you, and really, it's just one small step at a time. And even just this week, what can you do as a family to be more of a creator than a consumer? So thank you for listening today and thank you again to Bradley Morris of Magic Kids for his work and his company that they are doing the work that his company is doing to create creators in this world. You can find out more about our curriculum on screenstrong.org store. If you're wanting your children to learn more about the science of how screens and how consuming is affecting their brains, that'd be a really great start for you as well. So just go on over to our website, screenstrong.org we've got you covered on most things, and reach out to us if you need anything. Remember, we've got your back and we are here to help you remove the screen conflicts from your home. So until next time, stand up for your kids, stand out from the crowd, and stay strong.