Folktales with music, heart, and momentum.
Circle Round adapts folktales from many places into brisk, polished audio stories for children and families. Each tale moves through vivid scenes, gentle questions, and tidy emotional lessons about courage, friendship, gratitude, fear, teamwork, and kindness.
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Circle Round is a family folktale show with the shape of a cozy radio play. It is built for children, but it does not talk down to them. The stories move briskly from a guiding question into a vivid situation, then let the lesson arrive through action. A tiny bird tries to bring fire down from the sun. A sly fox tricks two boastful coyotes. Two longtime neighbors let a wandering cow turn friendship into a feud. A baker faces magical Tengu by talking through fear. These are simple setups, yet the show gives them color, rhythm, and enough suspense to keep young listeners leaning forward. The tone is warm. The pacing is quick. The language is clear, with playful turns that make old story patterns feel alive instead of dusty. Many episodes pause at a cliffhanger, recap the trouble after the break, and then push toward a tidy resolution. That structure makes the show easy for children to follow and useful for grown-ups listening alongside them. Circle Round also has a strong theatrical streak. Live episodes bring stage actors and musical accompaniment into the room, while other episodes feature named performers connected to television, film, Broadway, video games, and other kids’ podcasts. Still, the folktale stays at the center. The show is most interested in choices: whether to be brave, whether to brag, whether to forgive, whether to admit fear, whether to work together. It can get tense, but it stays clean and emotionally guided. The result is bright, sound-rich storytime with a moral compass and a generous sense of play.
Made for: Best for children and family listeners who enjoy clear, lively stories with gentle lessons. It also suits grown-ups looking for screen-free listening that can spark conversation after the episode.
What sets it apart: Circle Round blends folktales from many places with radio-play production, live-performance energy, and careful emotional signposting. The show feels theatrical without losing the clarity of bedtime storytelling.
Created and produced by parents of young children, WBUR's Circle Round adapts carefully selected folktales from around the world into sound- and music-rich radio plays for kids ages 3-103. Each 15 to 25-minute episode explores important issues like kindness, persistence and generosity. And each episode ends with an activity that inspires a deeper conversation between children and grown-ups.
Based on 4 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Circle Round makes folktales vivid through audio drama, then gives families clear openings to talk about fear, pride, friendship, and clever choices.
Circle Round turns folktales into lively audio drama, using playful dialogue, character voices, and musical accompaniment to make each story easy to follow. The host introduces an emotional question before the action begins, then places the tale geographically.
A baker tells two spell-casting Tengu she fears copper; you may suspect a trick.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A determined bird's trip to the sun gives this fire tale a strong, steady lift.
Circle Round's "Lighting a Spark" gives Jenny Wren a clear, sturdy quest as she tries to bring fire to Earth from the sun in a tale inspired by France. Robin, Goldfinch, and Pheasant mock the plan, while Skylark provides the encouragement that keeps Jenny Wren moving forward.
Swift Fox turns the Coyote Twins' bragging into a cliffside lesson.
This Circle Round outing, Swift Fox and the Coyote Twins, opens with two bragging coyotes convinced their speed makes them untouchable, then gives the edge to a sly fox who knows exactly how to puncture that confidence.
Circle Round stages a neighborly cow dispute as a clear, live folktale about pride and hurt feelings.
Circle Round turns a neighbor feud into a folktale about how quickly friendship can sour when a cow wanders onto the wrong property line. Recorded live at the Cleveland Museum of Art's Gartner Auditorium in Cleveland, Ohio, the episode gives Joe and Josephine's standoff a roomy,…
A live fairy tale that turns fear, dumplings, and copper pieces into a brisk, easy-to-follow adventure.
Recorded live at the Cleveland Museum of Art's Gartner Auditorium in Cleveland, Ohio, Circle Round uses "Copper and Dumplings" to treat fear as a feeling worth naming, not hiding.
Thanksgiving gets a strange, lively spin with turducken, whale science, and a brisk three-story lineup.
Circle Around gives Thanksgiving a comic twist by turning the holiday into a three-story feast, with Rebecca Shear guiding a turducken tale that stretches from turkey, duck, and chicken into whale science.
Classic tales, calmly brought back to life.
Bedtime stories with comic bite.
Fast, familiar story time for young listeners.
Frogopolis chaos with a bedtime-story frame.
Classic bedtime mischief after dark.
Circle Round's Thanksgiving special turns turducken into a three-show crossover with Terrestrials and Wow in the World, anchored by Rebecca Shear.
The episode 'In the Wolf's Mouth' adapts a Portuguese folktale where Wolf bullies smaller forest animals.
A retelling of a West African folktale about Anansi the spider who plays a trick on his friends but gets outsmarted.
A story about a tiny bird who ventures to bring fire from the sun to the people, inspired by French tales.
A fox teaches two boastful coyote twins a lesson in this folktale from various cultures.
A live recording of the Circle Round podcast telling an Appalachian folktale about two farmer friends whose friendship is tested by an unexpected event.
A live storytelling episode of Circle Round featuring a Japanese folktale about overcoming fear through conversation.
A podcast episode introducing a Brazilian folktale about teamwork and a magical canoe.
Circle Round adapts “The Bolt of Silk,” a folktale with versions from Egyptian, Palestinian, and Sudanese traditions.
Circle Round's "The Fourth Post," adapted by Rebecca Shear from folktales from Great Britain, Italy, Russia, and the Philippines, follows new teacher Alfie, who builds a cabin with three posts and borrows a fourth from carpenter Albert.
Stretch a balloon over an empty tin can, secure it with a rubber band, and you have a drum.
A Thanksgiving-themed episode where three kids' podcasts collaborate to tell stories about the turducken.
A woman named Tatiana refuses to complain about her hardships and instead takes action to improve her situation.
A folktale about what happens when anger is outlawed and frustration is forbidden, featuring a story called 'Call of the Cuckoo'.