What’s Happening Inside Me?

This week’s listener question comes from Dom, from Pennsylvania, who asked: “How many times do you have to get hit to have a concussion in football?”

That’s a really good question — and one that every kid (and parent!) who plays sports should understand!

In this episode, we talk about:
⚡ What a concussion is and why doctors call it a “mild traumatic brain injury.”
🏈 How our brains get hurt — from hits, hard stops, and even whiplash.
💫 What symptoms can happen when the brain gets injured.
🦺 And how to keep your brain safe by wearing helmets, playing smart, and resting when you need to.

Because remember — you only get one brain, and it’s in charge of everything!
So let’s learn how to take good care of it together.

💡 Enjoying What’s Happening Inside Me?
If you loved this episode, please share it with a friend or leave us a review—it helps more curious kids and families discover the show! 🌟 👉 Visit us at WHIMpodcast.com to:

• Send in your own question for a future episode
• Grab the most recent partner pages for free
• Stay up to date on new releases

Thanks for listening, learning, and exploring what’s happening inside YOU! 🩺✨

It’s Halloween week — and Sloane has an idea! 👻
This time, she convinces Mom to share some of her “scary” stories from the ER. Don’t worry — these stories aren’t too scary, but they’re definitely interesting, a little gross, and packed with lessons to keep kids safe. 💀 From fishhooks to helmets to beads (and even blood!), this episode has it all.

You’ll hear:
🪝 A fishing trip gone wrong — and what happens when a fishhook ends up in someone’s cheek.
🚴‍♀️ A bike ride that turned into a real-life lesson about helmets.
💎 A bead-in-the-nose story that might sound familiar to some parents...
🩸 And finally, a not-so-spooky vampire-style story about blood transfusions and how donating blood can save lives!

This Halloween, we’re mixing a few chills with a whole lot of learning. Perfect for car rides, classrooms, or cozy listening while you carve pumpkins! 🎃 Lesson Takeaways:

• Always listen to safety rules — they’re there for a reason!
• Helmets aren’t optional (even for grown-ups!)
• Keep small things out of noses, ears, and eyes!
• Donating blood can be life-saving — and your body makes more!

👩‍⚕️ Hosted by Audra (a real ER PA!) and her 8-year-old daughter Sloane
🎧 Available wherever you listen to podcasts

💡 Enjoying What’s Happening Inside Me?
If you loved this episode, please share it with a friend or leave us a review—it helps more curious kids and families discover the show! 🌟 👉 Visit us at WHIMpodcast.com to:

• Send in your own question for a future episode
• Grab the most recent partner pages for free
• Stay up to date on new releases

Thanks for listening, learning, and exploring what’s happening inside YOU! 🩺✨

My brother told me I had to do an episode on burps and farts… so here it is!

Let’s be honest — everyone does it. But have you ever wondered why? In this episode, Sloane and I dive into the science behind burping and tooting. We’ll talk about what’s really going on inside when gas builds up, why it’s totally normal, and how our amazing body systems all work together to make it happen. We’ll learn about:

• What happens when you swallow air (and where it goes!)
• The tiny bacteria living inside you that make gas
• Foods that make us extra gassy (yes, beans made the list)
• And the fancy doctor words for burps and farts — eructation and flatulence!

It’s science. It’s silly. It’s slightly stinky. And your kids are going to LOVE it.

Perfect for: Curious kids (ages 4–12), parents, teachers, and anyone who secretly finds burps and farts hilarious — so, basically, everyone.

Listen now on What’s Happening Inside Me? — wherever you get your podcasts!

💡 Enjoying What’s Happening Inside Me?
If you loved this episode, please share it with a friend or leave us a review—it helps more curious kids and families discover the show! 🌟 👉 Visit us at WHIMpodcast.com to:

• Send in your own question for a future episode
• Grab the most recent partner pages for free
• Stay up to date on new releases

Thanks for listening, learning, and exploring what’s happening inside YOU! 🩺✨

Ever wondered what your belly button actually does? (Spoiler alert: not much!) But don’t worry — that tiny spot on your tummy used to be one of the most important parts of your body when you were a baby growing inside your mom!

In this episode, Audra — a former teacher, emergency room PA, and mom of four curious kids — takes listeners back to before they were even born to explain how the umbilical cord and placenta helped them eat, breathe, and grow long before their actual birth day. 

Kids will learn:
🩸 How oxygen and nutrients travel from mom to baby
🎈 What the placenta and umbilical cord do
👶 Why the belly button is actually a scar
🤯 How your blood and your mom’s blood never actually mix!

This “Questions from Listeners” episode is perfect for curious minds who love learning how their bodies work — even before they were born!

💡 Want to hear your question on the show?
Submit it anytime at WHIMpodcast.com —

#WHIMpodcast #whatshappeninginsideme #kidslearn #kidseducation #kidslovelearning #educationalpodcast #funforkids #curiouskids #sciencelesson #kidpodcast #familyeducation #podcastforkids #kidhost #kidsaskwhy

💡 Enjoying What’s Happening Inside Me?
If you loved this episode, please share it with a friend or leave us a review—it helps more curious kids and families discover the show! 🌟 👉 Visit us at WHIMpodcast.com to:

• Send in your own question for a future episode
• Grab the most recent partner pages for free
• Stay up to date on new releases

Thanks for listening, learning, and exploring what’s happening inside YOU! 🩺✨

What’s smaller than small and busier than busy? It’s the cell—the tiny building block of every living thing! In this episode, Audra and her 8-year-old cohost Sloane explore what cells are, where we find them, and why they’re so important. Using fun examples (and a few Lego bricks), they zoom in layer by layer—from body systems to organs to tissues—all the way down to the microscopic world inside every cell. Along the way, they meet three superstar organelles:

• 🧠 Nucleus – the control center that holds DNA, the instructions for building you
• ⚡ Mitochondria – the “powerhouse” that turns food and oxygen into energy (ATP!)
• 🏭 Ribosome – the protein factory that makes all the proteins which help your body grow, heal, and work properly

By the end, kids will understand how every breath, bite, and heartbeat depends on the work of trillions of cells—all working together like a team of tiny builders inside us.

💡 Enjoying What’s Happening Inside Me?
If you loved this episode, please share it with a friend or leave us a review—it helps more curious kids and families discover the show! 🌟 👉 Visit us at WHIMpodcast.com to:

• Send in your own question for a future episode
• Grab the most recent partner pages for free
• Stay up to date on new releases

Thanks for listening, learning, and exploring what’s happening inside YOU! 🩺✨

✨ Questions from Listeners: Why Do I Get Hiccups? 
Submit your own question at WHIMpodcast.com/contact-us

✨ Laura sent in a fantastic question for today’s Questions from Listeners episode:
👉 Why do I get hiccups, and what are they?

If you’ve ever had hiccups, you know how annoying they can be. But what’s actually going on inside your body when they happen?

In this episode, we’ll:
✅ Discuss how your body breathes with the help of your diaphragm and intercostal muscles
✅ Learn why nothing sucks in science (and how air really gets into your lungs)
✅ Discover how a spasm in your diaphragm and closing of your vocal cords creates that “hic!” sound
✅ Talk about some common hiccup triggers (like eating too fast or spicy foods)
✅ Share a wild fun fact about the longest ever case of hiccups

Hiccups might be annoying, but they’re also a fascinating window into how your body works!

Have a question you’d like me to answer on the podcast? You can send it in anytime through our website—your question might be featured in a future episode!

🎧 Tune in now to explore the science of hiccups

💡 Enjoying What’s Happening Inside Me?
If you loved this episode, please share it with a friend or leave us a review—it helps more curious kids and families discover the show! 🌟 👉 Visit us at WHIMpodcast.com to:

• Send in your own question for a future episode
• Grab the most recent partner pages for free
• Stay up to date on new releases

Thanks for listening, learning, and exploring what’s happening inside YOU! 🩺✨

Click HERE to visit our site and get activity pages to support today's learning!

Welcome to What’s Happening Inside Me? In this episode, we will go on a journey to discover how our bones heal when they break.

Last week, we kicked off the season with a special guest, Lea, one of Sloane’s school friends with a broken arm. Now, we’re diving into one of the body’s coolest secrets: how do bones repair themselves after a fracture?

In this episode, you’ll learn:
🦴 The difference between a fracture and a broken bone
🔨 The 4 steps of bone healing
💪 Why rest, casts, and time are so important for strong healing

We’ll break it down step by step in a way that’s fun, silly, and easy to understand — but still packed with real science! 

 This episode is perfect for kids ages 4–12, but parents and teachers will love it too. Whether you’re listening at home, on a drive, or in the classroom, you’ll walk away with a whole new appreciation for your bones.

✨ Don’t forget — each episode comes with free coloring pages and activities to keep the learning going! Grab yours HERE 
💡 And if you’re enjoying the show, please leave us a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating and review so more families can discover the fun of learning together!

💡 Enjoying What’s Happening Inside Me?
If you loved this episode, please share it with a friend or leave us a review—it helps more curious kids and families discover the show! 🌟 👉 Visit us at WHIMpodcast.com to:

• Send in your own question for a future episode
• Grab the most recent partner pages for free
• Stay up to date on new releases

Thanks for listening, learning, and exploring what’s happening inside YOU! 🩺✨

Click HERE to get FREE activity sheets to go along with today's episode.

🦴✨ We all know we have bones—but did you know they’re some of the busiest parts of your body? In this episode, Sloane brings her friend Lea (who just broke her arm!) to ask what bones actually do. Spoiler: they do way more than just sit there! 

Join us as we discover how bones…
🔹 Protect our soft organs like armor
🔹 Give our body structure (so we’re not a squishy pile!)
🔹 Work with muscles to help us move
🔹 Store minerals (like calcium) and energy
🔹 Act like blood factories, making millions of new blood cells every second!

By the end, you’ll see your skeleton in a whole new way! 👩‍👧

 Hosted by Audra (a PA in emergency medicine) and her 8-year-old daughter Sloane
🎧 What’s Happening Inside Me? is the podcast where kids (and their grownups) learn the amazing science of our bodies—together.

👉 Don’t forget to join us next week when we talk about broken bones and how they heal!

🌐 Visit us at WHIMpodcast.com for FREE activities and extras that go with each episode.
⭐ If you’re enjoying the show, please leave us a good rating and share it with friends—it really helps more families find us!

💡 Enjoying What’s Happening Inside Me?
If you loved this episode, please share it with a friend or leave us a review—it helps more curious kids and families discover the show! 🌟 👉 Visit us at WHIMpodcast.com to:

• Send in your own question for a future episode
• Grab the most recent partner pages for free
• Stay up to date on new releases

Thanks for listening, learning, and exploring what’s happening inside YOU! 🩺✨

Hey listeners! You’re probably wondering where we’ve been. We had to end our summer season a little early because Sloane and I both got really sick—two weeks without a voice (that’s called laryngitis!) plus high fevers making us feel terrible plus a bad cough that just wouldn't go away meant no recording.

But don’t worry—those last two planned episodes will be back in Season 3! 🎉 New episodes start September 19 with fun topics like bones, lots of listener questions, and the much-requested Crazy Stories from the Emergency Room!

In the meantime, follow us on Instagram and Facebook @whatshappeninginsideme, visit our website HERE for free activity pages, and send us your questions about what’s happening inside YOU—we just might feature them in an episode.

Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you September 19!

This week, we’re diving even deeper into the ear! In this second part of our ear adventure, Audra and Sloane explore ear infections—and what happens when you get those little ear tubes some kids need to help!

We’ll talk about:
👂 Swimmer’s ear vs. middle ear infections
🦠 What causes all that pressure and pain
🧫 How doctors figure out what’s going on
🧴 How medicine or ear drops help
🔊 And of course—ear tubes! What they are, why some kids get them, and how they help keep ears healthy and clear.

If your child has had ear infections (or ear tubes!), this episode will help them understand what’s happening inside—and take some of the fear or mystery out of it.

✨ Perfect for curious kids ages 4–12
🎒 Great resource for school nurses and pediatric offices
🎨 Free coloring pages and activity sheets at WHIMpodcast.com
📱 Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts.
🔍 Just search: What’s Happening Inside Me?

💡 Enjoying What’s Happening Inside Me?
If you loved this episode, please share it with a friend or leave us a review—it helps more curious kids and families discover the show! 🌟 👉 Visit us at WHIMpodcast.com to:

• Send in your own question for a future episode
• Grab the most recent partner pages for free
• Stay up to date on new releases

Thanks for listening, learning, and exploring what’s happening inside YOU! 🩺✨