Image of people wearing Sesame Street character costumes standing on steps in front of a building

Everything Happens Here: A Half-Century of Sesame Street

A limited-series podcast

“Everything Happens Here” is an anticipated nine-episode podcast about the history of Sesame Street and what America has learned from the show over a half-century of broadcasting. Based on interviews with many of the show’s puppeteers, actors, writers, producers, as well as researchers who have studied Sesame Street, “Everything Happens Here” will explore everything that Sesame Street has taught, both intentionally and without planning to, from the pre-academic skills that were the focus of the first season to the social issues and arts appreciation that have become some of its most iconic contributions to American culture. It will also answer the question, what can we learn as a society from Sesame Street’s first 50 years?

About the series launch

The release of the series is planned for late fall 2020 or early 2021. An excerpt of the pilot episode is now available at the history podcast Backstory, where it was part of a November 2019 episode on the history of Sesame Street. Listen on Backstory.

About the hosts

Image of Kathryn Ostrofsky next to a Sesame street character
Cohost Kathryn Ostrosfsky interviews Sesame Street's Abby Cadabby.

Kathryn Ostrofsky is an historian of the political and cultural uses of media who has studied Sesame Street for more than ten years. She serves on the Scholar Advisory Committee of the American Archive of Public Broadcasting (AAPB, a joint effort between the Library of Congress and WGBH to preserve public media) and has worked on the agreement for the digitization and donation to the AAPB of the entire 50-year run of Sesame Street.

Image of Sherman Dorn with a statue of Kermit the Frog
Cohost Sherman Dorn meets Kermit and Jim Henson at the memorial statue on the University of Maryland – College Park campus.


Sherman Dorn is an historian of education policy and a professor at Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College. He has written about the history of dropping out and graduation, special education, and accountability policy, and he is currently working on a history of educational broadcasting since World War 2.