In March 2020, Montana-based journalist Jeremy Smith and his 10-year old daughter, Rasa, started their podcast “You Must Know Everything” when they found themselves with a lot of free time.
When Rasa’s school closed down last year due to the pandemic, the dad-daughter duo decided to turn their question-and-answer discussions into their own podcast, called “You Must Know Everything.”
“Rasa has taught me so much,” Smith told in a CNN report. “Like, ‘why fidgeting is actually good for you,” and then in return, I teach her things like ‘what to do when someone close to you experiences a loss.'”
When Rasa was a baby, Smith said he kept a list of all the things he will teach his daughter as she grew up, from math techniques to why it’s actually a good thing to have a disaster on your first date.
But, as his daughter grew older, Smith started to realize that there were more things she needed to know, like the beauty of slime.
Now, the duo releases two 10-minute episodes of the podcast weekly. Every episode begins with a theory or a lesson. They also read and discuss a poem, and then end each episode with a “vexing question” selected from online submissions.
“The hope for us is that these 10-minute episodes serve as empathy and curiosity engines for young kids,” Smith explained. “We plan to keep doing the podcast until life goes back to normal or we know everything — whichever comes first.”
The majority of the episodes also feature a special guest. Their most popular guest to date has been Crissie McMullan — Smith’s wife and Rasa’s mother — who runs a women’s shelter.
Smith said that the podcast is for families with kids between the ages of 5-12, but they also receive comments from all sorts of listeners.
“People leave the nicest comments!” Rasa said. “Some of them tell us that the podcast is their kids’ favorite part of bedtime. One woman wrote to us, who didn’t even have kids, but said she loved listening to our podcast because we have such a special father-daughter relationship. It feels really good to get those notes of encouragement and support.”