The Reading Bug Podcast - Original Adventures, Bedtime Stories and Music for Kids

Lauren's Little Bedtime Stories

Clementine and Blythe are mouse cousins who could not live more differently. Blythe has a cozy home in the roots of an old oak tree, a well-stocked pantry, and a meadow she considers the finest view available to any mouse anywhere. Clementine has a fashionable city apartment, access to extraordinary crumbs, and strong opinions about both. When the cousins visit each other's worlds, the results are educational: Clementine tries gamely to appreciate the quiet of the meadow and nearly jumps out of her scarf every time an owl calls. Blythe makes it to the city, is genuinely dazzled — and then has to hide behind the refrigerator before the cat even arrives. This story is over two thousand years old. It holds up.

Every Lauren's Little Bedtime Story includes:
Calming Relaxation: Gentle breathing exercises to help your body relax.
Original Bedtime Lullaby: Wind-down time as Lauren sings you to sleep.
A Full Original Bedtime Story: A whimsical story read aloud by Lauren.

A Reading Bug Adventure with Original Songs

Part 3 of 3. Hark, Reader! Hop into the Reading Bug's magic book bag for a legendary trip back in time to the magical kingdom of Camelot — home of King Arthur, Queen Guinevere, and the Knights of the Round Table!

But the road to Camelot is no easy quest. Dangerous trolls and serpents lurk around every corner — and once we arrive, something feels strange. Could the kingdom be... cursed?

King Arthur and Queen Guinevere need help, and they're looking to us. Freshly knighted and ready for adventure, we must rise to the challenge and break Camelot's curse before it's too late!

Explore the Magic! Check out the books featured in this adventure at: ⁠⁠www.thereadingbug.com/adventures/royal

Lauren's Little Bedtime Stories

Gerald the frog has formed a committee. Someone, he feels, should really be in charge of when it rains — and that someone is going to be him. The Official Rainstorm Committee convenes on a flat rock beside the pond with five members: Gerald, who has a gavel and an agenda; Dorothy the duck, who votes in favor of rain on every single item regardless of what the item is; Winston the cat, who votes against rain on every single item regardless of what the item is; Edgar the worm, who brought a crumb to share and agrees with whoever spoke last; and Old Margaret the turtle, who arrived with a notepad, a pen, and the quiet certainty that this is the Mushroom Foraging Society. The committee debates, deadlocks, and adjourns — and then it rains anyway, exactly when it was going to.

Every Lauren's Little Bedtime Story includes:
Calming Relaxation: Gentle breathing exercises to help your body relax.
Original Bedtime Lullaby: Wind-down time as Lauren sings you to sleep.
A Full Original Bedtime Story: A whimsical story read aloud by Lauren.

A Reading Bug Adventure with Original Songs

Part 2 of 3. Hark, Reader! Hop into the Reading Bug's magic book bag for a legendary trip back in time to the magical kingdom of Camelot — home of King Arthur, Queen Guinevere, and the Knights of the Round Table!

But the road to Camelot is no easy quest. Dangerous trolls and serpents lurk around every corner — and once we arrive, something feels strange. Could the kingdom be... cursed?

King Arthur and Queen Guinevere need help, and they're looking to us. Freshly knighted and ready for adventure, we must rise to the challenge and break Camelot's curse before it's too late!

Explore the Magic! Check out the books featured in this adventure at: ⁠www.thereadingbug.com/adventures/royal

A Reading Bug Adventure with Original Songs

Part 1 of 3. Hark, Reader! Hop into the Reading Bug's magic book bag for a legendary trip back in time to the magical kingdom of Camelot — home of King Arthur, Queen Guinevere, and the Knights of the Round Table!

But the road to Camelot is no easy quest. Dangerous trolls and serpents lurk around every corner — and once we arrive, something feels strange. Could the kingdom be... cursed?

King Arthur and Queen Guinevere need help, and they're looking to us. Freshly knighted and ready for adventure, we must rise to the challenge and break Camelot's curse before it's too late!

Explore the Magic! Check out the books featured in this adventure at: www.thereadingbug.com/adventures/royal

A Reading Bug Adventure with Original Songs

Ahoy, Reader! Hop into the Reading Bug's magic book bag and set sail with Lauren and the Reading Bug to meet some of the nastiest, rowdiest, smelliest, song-and-dance-iest pirates to ever sail the seven seas!

But there's trouble on the high seas — a young girl has been captured by the fearsome Captain Blackbeard and his motley crew, and she needs our help.

To get everyone to safety, we'll need to be brave, cunning, and ready for action. Can we outsmart Blackbeard before it's too late?

Explore the Magic! Check out the books featured in this adventure at: ⁠⁠www.thereadingbug.com/adventures/pirate

The Fact Fly's One Big Question

Why does your brain run its most powerful, most emotional, most gloriously illogical show every single night — while your body lies completely still? Join Lauren and the Fact Fly (the proud keeper of forty-seven dream field reports, convinced he's been visiting an alternate dimension) as they investigate the mysterious science of dreams. From a real university sleep lab where scientists watch brainwaves spike the moment a dream begins, to a microscopic zoom inside the sleeping brain, this episode reveals why dreams feel so real, why their logic makes perfect sense until you wake up, and why scientists are still genuinely debating what dreams are even for.

You'll discover why the emotion center of your brain blazes at full power during REM sleep while the logic center goes nearly dark, how the hippocampus remixes your memories into wild new stories with no one to say "wait, this doesn't make sense," and why a chemical called norepinephrine switching off is the reason your dreams fade within five minutes of waking. Then the Fact Fly explores the three competing theories scientists have been arguing about for decades — the Rehearsal Room, the Memory Remix, and the Static Channel — and finds out that the real answer might be all three at once. Plus: why that falling-and-jolting sensation as you drift off is an ancient tree-sleeping safety reflex, what dream priming can do for nightmares, and why the platypus — of all creatures — has the most dramatic dream life of any animal on Earth.

Perfect for curious dreamers, anyone who's ever woken up desperately trying to hold onto a fading story, and anyone who needs to know what an octopus is doing when it flickers through colors in the deep ocean — while fast asleep.

A Reading Bug Adventure with Original Songs

Part 2 of 2. Ahoy, Reader! Hop into the Reading Bug's magic book bag and set sail with Lauren and the Reading Bug to meet some of the nastiest, rowdiest, smelliest, song-and-dance-iest pirates to ever sail the seven seas!

But there's trouble on the high seas — a young girl has been captured by the fearsome Captain Blackbeard and his motley crew, and she needs our help.

To get everyone to safety, we'll need to be brave, cunning, and ready for action. Can we outsmart Blackbeard before it's too late?

Explore the Magic! Check out the books featured in this adventure at: ⁠www.thereadingbug.com/adventures/pirate

Lauren's Little Bedtime Stories

Remi runs the finest — and only — delivery service in the village of Bramblewood. She has a leather satchel, a very organized notebook, and a perfect record. By late afternoon on a Thursday in October, she has one package left: a small brown parcel addressed to old Mrs. Thistle-Finch at the top of Wren Hill. The only problem is that somewhere between the post office and the bottom of the hill, the package has started making a sound. A faint, steady, impossible-to-explain ticking. A beaver named Mr. Holt has a theory. A crow named Vex has several, each more alarming than the last, and he follows Remi up the hill uninvited to share all of them. Nobody is right. When Mrs. Thistle-Finch finally opens the package in her warm stone cottage at the top of the hill, the ticking stops — and something much better takes its place.

Every Lauren's Little Bedtime Story includes:
Calming Relaxation: Gentle breathing exercises to help your body relax.
Original Bedtime Lullaby: Wind-down time as Lauren sings you to sleep.
A Full Original Bedtime Story: A whimsical story read aloud by Lauren.

A Reading Bug Adventure with Original Songs

Part 1 of 2. Ahoy, Reader! Hop into the Reading Bug's magic book bag and set sail with Lauren and the Reading Bug to meet some of the nastiest, rowdiest, smelliest, song-and-dance-iest pirates to ever sail the seven seas!

But there's trouble on the high seas — a young girl has been captured by the fearsome Captain Blackbeard and his motley crew, and she needs our help.

To get everyone to safety, we'll need to be brave, cunning, and ready for action. Can we outsmart Blackbeard before it's too late?

Explore the Magic! Check out the books featured in this adventure at: www.thereadingbug.com/adventures/pirate