Podcasts and Audio Clips

Ages 3 and Up

  • Francesca Learns to Fly: A baby flying squirrel learns how to fly. An original story, copyright © 2010 by Michael Litzky. Right-Click to Download

  • The Dragon Earns His Name: Another original story which I tell with puppets. The big dragon just wants to be friends, but everyone is scared of him. You see, he doesn’t have a name, and everyone knows that knows that all good dragons go to the wise old monkey for a name. (Note: When I went to video this story, I found that my antique monkey puppet just didn’t work on camera. So the video version is different.) Right-Click to Download

  • Coyote, See If It's Dry Yet: My adaptation of a simple tale told by the Native Americans of the San Francisco Bay Area. Original music copyright © 2011 by Michael Litzky.Right-Click to Download

Ages 6 and Up

  • The Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow: My adaptation of Washington Irving's classic "Legend of Sleepy Hollow," for younger listeners. Move over, Johnny Depp: the original is plenty scary, it's just not gory! Right-Click to Download

  • Crick and Crack: I first heard this Irish tale more than 20 years ago from a friend of the family. The faerie people in the story are not cute little elves with pointy hats. They are a proud and ancient people and a mortal who has dealings with them never knows what might happen... Right-Click to Download

  • Po Wan and the Goddess Guanyin: This tale is from China. I've just recently fallen in love with traditional Chinese music and I'm even learning a few of the written characters. But you don't have to know anything about China to enjoy this story of a poor man who meets a snake who wants to be a dragon. (By the way, the name of the goddess in the title is often spelled Quan Yin.)Right-Click to Download

Ages 10 and Up

  • The King's Riddles: A cruel king tries to trick his advisor with three riddles that can't be answered--or can they? A traditional Irish story, which I first heard performed by Joel Ben-Izzy. Right-Click to Download

  • The Wise Bird and the Foolish Man: A Jewish animal story, from A Treasury of Jewish Folklore by Nathan Ausubel. A talking bird teaches wisdom to the man who catches him. Right-Click to Download

Ages 17 and Up

  • Wisdom or Luck: I adapted this from a story in the Pantheon collection Yiddish Folktales by Weinreich and Wolf. I love the "story within a story within a story" structure. (Note: This audio tale includes some pieces which wouldn’t fit into the video version.) Right-Click to Download

  • Coyote and the Wonderful News: The many native American tales of Coyote the trickster inspired me to make up my own. This story is copyright © 2010 by Michael Litzky. Right-Click to Download

Podcasts: Kids

  • Wondrous Tales Podcast 1: In this first podcast, we meet Francesca the Flying Squirrel and Willy the Wolf and hear the funny story of how Francesca learned to fly. Then we hear the very beginning of The Queen of Serensea, a fantasy epic. Original stories, copyright © 2010 by Michael Litzky. Right-Click to Download

  • Wondrous Tales Podcast 2: Chapter 2 of The Queen of Serensea, where the plot thickens. Can you answer the mysterious riddle "What's green and gold and never eats, cries in the nighttime and sings every morning?" Original story, copyright © 2010 by Michael Litzky. Right-Click to Download