Generation: The media we love & how it shapes us

Generation: Baby-Sitters Club

From the creators of “Generation: Barney” and “Generation: Gilmore Girls,” meet “Generation: Baby-Sitters Club”! In our third season of the “Generation” podcast series all about the media we love and how it shapes us, we revisit the books that help us become who we are.

In August 1986, tween girls first saw the iconic lemon-yellow paperback written just for them by Ann M. Martin. Book one, “Kristy’s Great Idea,” introduced us to four preteen friends who started a successful babysitting business. The series itself became a big business, selling over 200 million copies worldwide! In the forty years since its debut, “The Baby-Sitters Club” has grown to include over 200 titles, two television shows, and a feature film. The stories continue to inspire generations of readers, who have become leaders in Hollywood, publishing, and much more.

Over five episodes, “Generation: Baby-Sitters Club” revisits the popular paperbacks to learn about how they shaped the world of children’s publishing, how the series is reaching new audiences through graphic novels and on-screen adaptations, and why we cherish stories that take the tender years between elementary school and high school seriously.

Episodes drop on Tuesdays starting September 29.

Generation: Gilmore Girls

Why have three Gilmore girls and a small town resonated with generation after generation of fans? And what does a TV series that ended nearly two decades ago tell us about who we want to be? This three-part podcast looks for answers where it all began: in Connecticut.

Generation: Barney

It's about the purple dinosaur. But it's also about music and love and backlash and toys and nostalgia. Most of all, it's about the television that helps us become who we are, from the station that helped launch Barney into the world.