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I'm only mentioning this because you brought up audio stories for kids (not in a self-promoting way, but hopefully a relevant one.) Check out Goop Tales, we do audio stories for kids, we have over a million downloads, and they're free to listen wherever you get your podcasts - gooptales.com

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Good to know! Appreciate the tip :)

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I'm happy to see I'm not the only one struggling to laugh from audio content 😅

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Glad it's not just me!

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Yes! The National Park Service has one of the best IG accounts around :)

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They do! Whoever is running their social is doing a good job (and hopefully someone is getting paid well to write their jokes).

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Ooof - When I was working on a book I was so lucky to get to know a media ranger ... and... it's a tough job. the Parks in general are underfunded and trying to do a lot with a little

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This is great! Now I can sprinkle MID and SPICY into conversations with my 12 year-old (according to whom I am a pretty sus bruh) and see if he is in fact listening to anything I am saying.

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Ha, perfect!

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Thank you for the DEEPEST LAKE shout-out, Julie!

And keep that tween and teen slang coming. I was googling slang just last week during novel revision. I am stuck back in the days of "cool" STILL. There's a podcast in this, for some other enterprising person. 10 minutes a week to keep writers up on younger slang and cultural habits just for the purposes of writing credible minor characters. I had a mention of teens selling their Ritalin in my WIP and my daughter immediately corrected me. "This should be Adderall now." Note received!

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Of course! A podcast to keep up with the slang for writers is a good idea. Maybe it's something some middle schoolers should start 😂

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Loved your babies piece!

For another teen slang item, I submit "icy," which I believe is what we gen Xers would have called "cool." ("Mid" is a regular in our house -- also "OP" for over-powered, more of a gamer term, and "opp" for an opponent, enemy, nemesis, hater).

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Thank you! I don't think I've heard icy yet, I'm going to keep an ear out for it. But they definitely say OP sometimes (typically when playing video games!)

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The Martian is a great book. I read it though, but I'd imagine it would do well on audio as well, which apparently it did! And The Reductress is always good for a laugh, thanks for the reminder, Julie.

P.S. Will try to use 'spicy' for non-spicy things and will report back to you.

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I think the narrator for The Martian does pull it off and I've heard he is now a very popular audio narrator.

I look forward to hearing your report!

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Love the slang! I just learned the term "rizz" but still can't figure out how to use it in a sentence. : ) Can't wait to see you soon!

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Informative indeed. I love that Reductress headline. FYI, my 11yo is saying "bet" I guess as "ok"

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Oh that is a new one for me! I'm going to ask my 11 yo if he knows it. The other one they use a lot is "sus" as in "suspect" I guess?

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Thanks for sharing, Julie! Also re: The Martian, I read it and didn't realize it was funny until I saw Matt Damon in it. 😂

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Of course. Ha! I don't think I had ever read the book previously but just watched the movie when it came out so it was interesting to listen to the book text. I feel like humor is always so subjective, especially on audio for me.

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The sun is mid!!! That is so funny

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I know! Trying to convince them to upgrade it out of mid but have not been successful so far.

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