Junior Boardroom

Why can't a country just print more money and hand it out, so that everybody has enough? It sounds like an obvious fix to poverty, and most adults cannot explain what is actually wrong with it.

This family-friendly show for kids answers it without economics jargon. It is about the difference between money and the things money is for. Money is a promise that you get a turn at something real: an apple, a seat, a place on a team, a house. Promises can be printed in an afternoon. The real things take a season, or a year, or a decade.

In this episode:

• Why "just print more money" sounds like an obvious fix to poverty, and what is actually wrong with it
• The difference between money and the things money is for
• Money as a promise that you get a turn at something real: an apple, a seat, a place on a team, a house
• Why promises can be printed in an afternoon while the real things take a season, a year, or a decade
• The kids test the idea against places they already know, and argue with their dad about whether it is fair
• The two questions worth asking any time someone says more money will fix a problem: is there more stuff, and if not, how long would it take to make some?
• A country that printed anyway, and what its money was worth by the end

Best for ages 7 to 12.

Junior Boardroom is a family podcast where kids break down business, money, and how the real world works. Hosted by Raina (10), Devin (8), and their dad Mel. More at juniorboardroom.com.

Passports explained for kids: what a passport actually is, why every country issues its own, and why officers at the border ask the questions they ask. Raina (age 10) and Devin (age 8) find out what is printed inside a passport, why only your own country's government can issue you one, why even a baby traveling on a parent's lap needs one, and why there is no single passport for the whole planet.

In this episode:

• What a passport is and what information is printed inside it
• Why each country issues passports to its own citizens, and why a world passport does not exist
• Who needs a passport, including babies, and who does not
• Why a country wants to know where you are staying: the host and guest rule
• How entering a foreign country differs from returning to your own
• Why agricultural items are restricted at borders but souvenirs usually are not
• Why traveling between states does not require a passport
• How facial recognition works at passport control, and why an officer is still there

Concepts covered: passports, citizenship, borders, immigration and customs, geography and civics. Recorded after the family's trip to Costa Rica, and best for ages 7 to 12.

The Junior Boardroom is a family-built podcast where kids break down business, money, and how the real world works. Hosted by Raina (10), Devin (8), and their dad Mel.

Subscribe, share with a friend or a teacher, and send us topic ideas at JuniorBoardroom.com.

What does it really mean to be responsible when something goes wrong? This episode of The Junior Boardroom opens with a real one: Raina reads the actual waiver from her horse riding camp out loud, the one that makes you accept "any and all risks of injury... or death." From there the kids crack open one big grown-up word, liability, and suddenly start spotting it everywhere: the "No running" sign at the pool, the waiver at the ski resort, the "no riding in the cart" sign at the grocery store, even a locked-up tennis court.

In this episode:

• Raina reads her horse riding camp's real liability waiver out loud
• What the grown-up word "liability" actually means, and how to spot it everywhere — pool signs, ski waivers, grocery cart rules, locked tennis courts
• The "Whose Fault Is It?" game: a golf ball through a window, a dog bite on a dog-sitting job, and a stadium pretzel that makes you sick
• Chasing blame up the supply chain: who's at fault when an ice cream makes you sick — the shop, the store, or the farm?
• Why a waiver protects you from accidents but never from hurting someone on purpose, explained through a tennis match
• A Costa Rica ziplining trip, a very bitey sloth, and what happens when you ignore a warning sign
• Who's to blame when a self-driving Waymo crashes?
• The true story behind McDonald's famous "hot coffee" lawsuit, and why it's not as silly as it sounds

It all builds to the most ridiculous, escalating disaster story the board could dream up, and the real lesson hiding inside it: fault is almost never just one person, and you should never blame the first name you think of.

The Junior Boardroom is a family-built podcast where kids break down business, money, and how the real world works. Hosted by Raina (10), Devin (8), and their dad Mel.

Subscribe, share with a friend or a teacher, and send us topic ideas at JuniorBoardroom.com.

In this episode of The Junior Boardroom, the kids take a trip around the globe, touring eight currencies tied to their own classmates' home countries: the US dollar, Japanese yen, Brazilian real, South Korean won, the euro, Indian rupee, Turkish lira, British pound, and the Costa Rican colón. They crack the secret that a big number on a price tag doesn't mean something is expensive (that same Pokémon pack costs about four dollars almost everywhere, once you do the exchange-rate math), and find out why France has no "French dollar."

In this episode:

• What a currency is, and why almost every country has its own money
• A world money tour through eight classmates' home countries — yen, real, won, euro, rupee, lira, pound, and the colón
• The Pokémon Pack Test: why a 600-yen pack and a $4 pack are the same price, and how the exchange rate proves it
• Live math on air — converting colones, won, and British pounds in their heads
• Why France, Germany, Italy, and Spain gave up their own money to share the euro
• How a kid's Greenlight debit card does the currency conversion automatically the moment you travel
• The wildest surprise of all: a country whose money is literally Raina's name (the Nigerian naira), and one for Devin too (the denar)

With the family's August trip to Costa Rica weeks away, it's a warm, kid-friendly guide to currencies, exchange rates, and money around the world.

The Junior Boardroom is a family-built podcast where kids break down business, money, and how the real world works. Hosted by Raina (10), Devin (8), and their dad Mel.

Subscribe, share with a friend or a teacher, and send us topic ideas at JuniorBoardroom.com.

Raina has been campaigning for a dog for TWO YEARS. So this week, the Junior Boardroom puts pets on trial. Is owning a dog actually a good deal? We dig into the $150 billion U.S. pet industry (yes, that's bigger than the entire NBA), and we teach two business concepts every kid — and grown-up — should know: recurring costs and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).

In this episode:

• Why companies LOVE pet owners (hint: you keep coming back every week)
• Live math on air: $100/month × 12 months × 12 years = the real price of a dog
• The jobs built on top of dogs — dog walkers ($600/week!), trainers (six figures), and vets
• Service dogs and how a K-9's nose is 10,000× more powerful than ours (300 million smell cells vs. our 6 million)
• Famous movie dogs that out-earned their human co-stars — Toto from The Wizard of Oz, Air Bud, Marley & Me, and the cautionary tale of 101 Dalmatians

After all the math, does Raina still want a dog? You'll have to listen to find out.

The Junior Boardroom is a family-built podcast where kids break down business, money, and how the real world works. Hosted by Raina (10), Devin (8), and their dad Mel.

Subscribe, share with a friend or a teacher, and send us topic ideas at JuniorBoardroom.com.

Game, set, money! With the French Open just around the corner, Raina (age 10) and Devin (age 8) break down the business behind professional tennis. We take a quick tour of all four Grand Slams: the Australian Open, the French Open (Roland-Garros), Wimbledon, and the US Open. Then we tackle the big questions:

How much does the US Open champion really take home? Why did it take until 2007 for women to earn equal prize money? Why is Roland-Garros the only Grand Slam still using human line judges? And how did 204 Hawk-Eye cameras change tennis forever? A fun, stat-packed episode for young athletes, tennis fans, and curious kids, perfect for the car ride to practice.

It's Tax Day season! In this episode of The Junior Boardroom, Raina (age 10) and Devin (age 8) learn what taxes are, how income tax works, who the IRS is, and what happens if you just... don't pay. Plus — why does the government take money out of your paycheck before you even see it? A fun, kid-friendly breakdown of taxes perfect for the car ride to school.

Hey Steph Curry fans! Ever wonder how the NBA makes billions of dollars every year? In this episode, join 8 and 10-year old siblings, Devin and Raina in the boardroom to learn about the massive business behind your favorite dunks and three-pointers.

We dive into billion dollar TV deals, explain why a tiny patch on a Golden State Warriors jersey is worth $20 million, and figure out why an All-Star seat costs more than a car.