This week, Michael McRay sits down with Jordan Geary, Emmy Award-winning creative producer and executive at Sesame Workshop who has spent over 20 years crafting stories for children and families through beloved shows like Sesame Street's Mecha Builders, Ghostwriter, and Helpsters. After ten years at Sesame, Jordan has discovered his new mission: helping people shift their perspective from feeling like extras in their own lives to recognizing themselves as the heroes of their personal stories. This conversation explores how children's content teaches us about the power of personal stakes in storytelling, why kids are far smarter than adults give them credit for, and how the future of media will continue moving toward giving audiences more agency and curation. In this episode, they also discuss:

• How the best stories focus on personal stakes rather than world-ending scenarios
• Why the most anticipated achievements often matter less than the relationships and people who witness them with us
• How rejection and failure can reveal what we must accomplish in our lives versus what we simply want to achieve
• How simple acts of play can restore the creative joy that adult seriousness often suppresses

Coming Up Soon

• STORY 2025 - Oct. 9th and 10th in Nashville, TN at the Schermerhorn (use code PODCAST100 for $100 your ticket)

Resources Mentioned

• Jordan Geary
• @TheJordanGeary on YouTube and Instagram
• Becoming Restoried
• Join The Circle