Is this the End of Sesame Street?

What Next | Daily News and Analysis

Slate

News, Daily News, News Commentary, Politics

4.6 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 18 March 2025

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Educational, entertaining, and about as universally beloved as any part of American life, how did Sesame Street find itself cutting staff and searching for a new broadcasting home? Guest: David Kamp, author of Sunny Days: The Children's Television Revolution That Changed America Want more What Next? Join Slate Plus to unlock full, ad-free access to What Next and all your other favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the What Next show page on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/whatnextplus to get access wherever you listen. Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme, Ethan Oberman, and Rob Gunther. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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1:05.1	There's so much to get worked up about these days that I'd forgive you for not noticing a news item that completely
1:11.9	bummed me out a couple weeks back. The news was about layoffs at Sesame Workshop, and I get it.
1:20.1	I'm a softy, a parent, a person of a certain age, but still, I heard all this, And I thought, really? Yeah, I had the exact same
1:32.5	reaction. Like, what kind of world are we living in where, you know, Sesame Street, Sesame
1:38.1	Workshop has to lay off people and there isn't some person charging on a white steed to
1:43.7	save the day.
1:46.8	David Camp is not an unbiased person to call with this news.
	...

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