children between 8-12, parents,
and middle-grade teachers.
“Families and kids are a growing
podcast audience,” adds Ramos.
“Podcasts are a great screen-free
source of entertainment. We’re
members of an excellent organiza-
tion called Kids Listen, which is a
grassroots organization of advo-
cates for high-quality audio con-
tent for children.”
They currently have four seasons
of 10 episodes mapped out, along
with bonus content between sea-
sons. It’s like Back to the Future
with a larger purpose.
“Alexa and Beni are New Jersey
kids to the core, but they have a
genuine curiosity about who and
what came before them,” con-
tinued Ramos. “While exploring
their culture’s past, they start to
take ownership over it. Since the
twins are traveling back in time
and witnessing moments from
their culture’s past, they gain a
deeper understanding of how
NJ STAGE - ISSUE 61
complex and mixed their Puerto
Rican heritage is. Their travels will
include trips to Europe and Africa
as well as the island before the
arrival of the Spanish. The twins’
quests also bring up questions
about gaps in the history they’ve
been taught: How and why are
certain people celebrated and re-
membered while others are most-
ly forgotten?”
Eve Batey of Inside Podcasting
says, “It’s audio fiction with a mis-
sion, a fun kids’ sci-fi show that
embeds its Latinx history mes-
sage in young-adult appropriate
adventures.”
Aquino utilizes many of the skills
he’s learned from recording his
own music and adapts it for audio
fiction.
“In Timestorm, we’re employing
various miking techniques to cre-
ate the three different environ-
ments in our show: contemporary
Newark (stereo), the past (mono),
and inside the Timestorm (binau-
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