July 24, 2023
SHARE
CANADALAND
#904 The Truth About Polkaroo
From Mr. Rogers to Mr. Dressup to Degrassi, some of the most iconic names in children’s television got their start in Canada, so why don’t we remember just how good we were at being first and being best in children’s television?
Jonathan Goldsbie
News Editor
Jesse Brown
Host & Publisher
Cherise Seucharan
Reporter, CANADALAND
Tristan Capacchione
Producer
Bruce Thorson
Senior Producer
Karyn Pugliese
Editor-in-Chief

Our news editor, Jonathan Goldsbie, ventured out to find his inner Polkaroo by way of  an exhibit on the history of Canadian children’s television programming at Toronto’s Myseum. As he’d heard rumours that our publisher Jesse Brown and intrepid reporter Cherise Seucharan were actually children themselves, once upon a time, he invited them along.

Skinnamarinky dinky dink,

Skinnamarinky doo,

Now you can listen too! 

 

Host: Jonathan Goldsbie

Credits: Jonathan Goldsbie (News Editor), Tristan Capacchione (Audio Editor and Technical Producer), Bruce Thorson (Senior Producer), Annette Ejiofor (Managing Editor), Karyn Pugliese (Editor-in-Chief)

Featured in this episode: Ed Conroy Toronto-based cultural historian, archivist and online video producer. He is the Founder of Retrontario.com

Further information:

 

Sponsors: Oxio, Douglas

If you value this podcast, support us! You’ll get premium access to all our shows ad free, including early releases and bonus content. You’ll also get our exclusive newsletter, discounts on merch at our store, tickets to our live and virtual events, and more than anything, you’ll be a part of the solution to Canada’s journalism crisis, you’ll be keeping our work free and accessible to everybody.

You can listen ad-free on Amazon Music—included with Prime.

More from this series
“Public dollars require public accountability, and every publisher in this country should want that.” -David Skok
October 12, 2026
“What’s my crime? Journalism? … I get that I piss off a lot of people with my articles.” -David Pugliese
October 5, 2026
 ”These are a group of white men coming to our area saying, "We bring you the gift of nuclear waste.” - Dennis
October 1, 2026
You can't really call Regina a news desert. They still have a newspaper. But if you actually look under the hood you’ll discover that they stopped printing the newspaper in Regina. They stopped editing it in Regina. The editor lives somewhere else. And as far the CBC goes, well, that acronym is now synonymous with layoffs. 
September 28, 2026
1438
I f you don't like what you're hearing, it's because it doesn't agree with your worldview, but you're interviewing an expert, and I'm giving you my expert analysis. -Dr. Peter McCullough
September 21, 2026
 We can surveil you. We can also perhaps even influence you, change the way that the game interacts with you in a way that might kind of subconsciously impact your understanding of the world. - Dr. Vinita Singh, associate professor of law, University of Minnesota
September 14, 2026
“ If they wanna draw Garfield and expose his  genitals,  you know, that's up to the fans.” -Nathen Mazri
September 7, 2026
“Everything changed when I treated it like a 9-5.”
September 3, 2026
all podcasts arrow All Podcasts
CANADALAND