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The Tinkercast Story

Tinkercast was founded by three media veterans, storytellers, and parents on a mission to add more WOW to kids’ worlds, spark their sense of wonder, ignite their creativity, and inspire them to become the thinkers and tinkerers that will shape tomorrow.

The team of Tinkerers behind our award-winning podcasts, best-selling books, live events, videos, and educational content embodies the spirit of play, curiosity, creative innovation, and collaboration every single day and is nothing short of WOW.

Meet The Team

Meredith Halpern-Ranzer

Chief Executive Tinkerer

Meredith Halpern-Ranzer is Tinkercast’s co-founder and Chief Executive Tinkerer, leading Tinkercast’s strategy, vision and mission to add more WOW to kids’ worlds, spark their sense of wonder, ignite their creativity, and inspire them to become the thinkers and tinkerers that will shape tomorrow.

More About Meredith

Meredith is an Emmy-nominated children’s media executive and co-founder / Chief Executive Tinkerer at Tinkercast. As CEO, Meredith leads Tinkercast’s mission to nurture curiosity in kids and grown ups across platforms to help us all find the WOW in our world. She has been a thought-leader in children’s media, spearheading multiplatform innovations that shape industry trends for over 25 years. From 2005 to 2015, Meredith served as VP of Creative, VP of Alternative Programming, and Executive Producer on the team that launched and led the preschool channel, PBS Kids Sprout. Prior to joining Sprout, Meredith learned the answer to the burning question of childhood, when she not only found out “how to get to Sesame Street,” but worked there for eight years as a producer and editor. She is a founding member and on the board of directors of the Children’s Media Association.  Meredith is a constant seeker of WOW in her world with her husband, son and a campervan named Shoshanna. 

Guy Raz

Chief Strategic Tinkerer

Guy Raz is Tinkercast’s Chief Strategic Tinkerer and co-creator of Wow in the World, Two Whats and a Wow, Flip & Mozi’s Guide to How to be an Earthling, and Who When WOW! When Guy is not tinkering, he is the host and creator of How I Built This and The Great Creators.

More About Guy

Previously, Guy co-created and hosted the TED Radio Hour and The Rewind. He’s been called “one of the most popular podcasters in history” by the New York Times and has been on the radio for more than two decades, serving as a foreign and war correspondent and as a host of All Things Considered. Guy is the father of two boys and lives in the Bay Area where he can often be seen riding his bike in red pants.

Mindy Thomas

Chief Creative Tinkerer

Mindy Thomas is Tinkercast’s Chief Creative Tinkerer and and co-creator of Wow in the World, Two Whats and a Wow, Flip & Mozi’s Guide to How to be an Earthling, and Who When WOW! Mindy has been living out her childhood radio dreams for almost two decades by creating radio and audio programs for kids.

More About Mindy

Mindy is the co-creator, co-host, and head writer of the award-winning Wow in the World podcasts, books, and live shows. She oversees Tinkercast’s creative offerings including Flip & Mozi’s Guide to How to be an Earthling, Who When WOW! And new show development. She is the Gracie award-winning host of the Absolutely Mindy show on SXM’s Kids Place Live. Mindy believes that childhood thrives at the intersection of imagination and curiosity and finds that her best work does too. She lives in northern Virginia with her husband and two kids, and has no plans of ever growing up.

Jodi Nussbaum

Chief Operational Tinkerer

Jodi Nussbaum is Tinkercast’s Chief Operational Tinkerer leading the day-to-day operations on all Tinkercast productions across all platforms while growing and scaling the organization.

More About Jodi

For over two decades Jodi was a senior executive at Sesame Workshop where she balanced educational programmatic excellence with the realities of the financial and operational rigor necessary to achieve project goals. Jodi’s passion for leading teams that create meaningful stories and characters that not only entertain but address critical issues for families around the globe has been her North Star for the last three decades. She and her husband live in New Jersey and will travel anywhere at the drop of a hat.

Ali Paksima

Chief Financial Tinkerer

Ali Paksima  is Tinkercast’s Chief Financial Tinkerer, leading the planning and managing of Tinkercast’s finance activities while driving sustainable growth.

More About Ali

With over 20 years of experience in financial management and planning across various industries, Ali has helped organizations manage change and scale up profitably. Children’s education is near and dear to Ali’s heart and he also serves as advisor and GM of Magrid Learning Solutions. Ali earned his MBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School and is a State of NC registered CPA. He lives in Durham, NC with his wife, son, and daughter where you can usually find him playing pickleball with his kids in their driveway.

Jed Anderson

Supervising Production Tinkerer

About Jed

Jed is the musical magician who brings some of your favorite Tinkercast shows like Wow in the World to life! Jed’s been recording music since 1995 when he first figured out how to record audio on the family computer. Jed has worked for more than 6 years as a musician, producer, and video editor and is one part of The Okee Dokee Brothers and the voice behind everyone’s favorite nosey neighbor; DENNIS! 

Rebecca Caban

Educational Content Tinkerer

About Rebecca

Rebecca is Tinkercast’s Educational Producer. Rebecca began her career as an Early Childhood Educator. She is passionate about creating meaningful, playful, inclusive learning experiences that inspire kids to be curious, creative, critical thinkers and collaborators.

Dr. Natascha Crandall

Senior Research Tinkerer

About Natascha

Natascha has worked in the children’s media industry for 20 years and has a love for finding out what kids think and how they learn. She has created curricula, conducted research, and evaluated scripts for children’s television shows and now does that for Tinkercast podcasts as well!  She’s also taken on the role of head Knitting Tinkerer during her time at tinkercast; scarf anyone?

Kenny Curtis

Head Writing Tinkerer

About Kenny

Kenny is a 30-year veteran of Kids Media – mostly in audio content. He hosts a daily national radio show, writes children’s books, and works with the amazing creative team at Tinkercast as head writer to come up with stories, scripts, and funny noises to entertain and engage kids and families all over the world

Lizzie Freilich

Executive Assistant Tinkerer

About Lizzie

Lizzie keeps us all organized and in the zoom box. She is a former biologist  who loves performing and currently voices characters in two Tinkercast podcasts, Wow in the World and WeWow on the Weekend.  She loves storytelling, any and all animals (but especially her dog April), and Shark Week.  

Kristen M. Giang

Senior Digital Tinkerer

About Kristen

When she was a child, Kristen liked childish things — and never grew out of it. An Emmy-award-winning producer of kids’ interactive media, author of children’s books, and mom to two kids (plus critters), she can’t imagine anything better than making cool stuff for kids. Luckily her job is to tinker on all things digital at Tinkercast — and TinkerClass! 

Twee Mac

Associate Production Tinkerer

About Twee

“Jack of all trades, master of fun” is Twee’s life motto! You’ll find her doing a little bit of everything at Tinkercast, whether it’s analyzing social media data or drafting newsletters and making episode art, each day is a chance to learn something new! She enjoys dressing up her dog Tobi in silly outfits, catching up with her younger cousins on Facetime, and discovering her next new hobby.

Erika Medina

Production & Script Tinkerer

About Erika

Erika is the Production and Script Coordinator for Tinkercast. With years of Coordinator experience, Erika has orchestrated seamless productions for documentary films, commercials, and now podcasts. When she’s not Tinkering with scripts, deadlines, and recordings, Erika is most likely pedaling on her Peloton bike or reading a celebrity memoir.

Henry Moskal

Audio Production Tinkerer

About Henry

Henry is an audio producer, musician, and nerd (proudly). He puts his keen ears to work as an all-around production tinkerer at Tinkercast. When he’s not working, you might hear Henry playing guitar with friends around Chicago, or see him shopping for a new pair of cowboy boots.

Linda Rothenberg

Controller

About Linda

Linda is Tinkercast’s Controller and makes sure our financial books are not bonkerballs. She lives in New Jersey and loves nothing more than tinkering with her granddaughter. Linda has been working with Tinkercast from the very beginning and brings with her over 30 years of experience across finance and accounting functions.

Steph Sosa

Line Producer

About Steph

Steph works with the teams to bring projects in on budget and on time while also hosting the most fun meetings at Tinkercast. She has volunteered teaching English abroad in places like Peru and Congo, coached hundreds of clients in producing their one big dream, and served as President of the Children’s Media Association. Steph travels between L.A. and Texas every couple of weeks with her hubby, two puppies, and lots of audio books!

Tyler Tholl

Audio Production Tinkerer

About Tyler

Tyler is an audio producer at Tinkercast, who helps make the silly sounds for our shows. Previously, he was a composer and chief audio engineer at a post-production studio in Minneapolis. He’s also written music for a wide range of media and produced records for bands and solo artists.

Tom van Kalken

Writing & Production Tinkerer

About Tom

Tom has been wowing with Tinkercast for 5+ years. He has a background in kids television as well as documentary film. He had hoped to get Most Likely To Win Jeopardy in the high school yearbook but won Best Hair instead.

Adrienne Vrettos

Senior Marketing Tinkerer

About Adrienne

Adrienne Vrettos has channeled her lifelong love of storytelling into creating and marketing kids’ media that connects, inspires, and makes the world more awesome for everyone. Her favorite question is, “What if…?” and “and her favorite answer is, “Yes, and…”. Adrienne is delighted to join the marketing and communications team in celebrating kids’ curiosity and spreading the word about all things Tinkercast.

Johanna Weber

Senior Marketing Tinkerer

About Johanna

For 20+ years, Johanna has been lucky enough to learn from amazing people across media, non-profit, and the space where those worlds converge: non-profit media. These days, she can be found tinkering on all Tinkercast brand, marketing and PR efforts.  She’s the mom of two boys and spends lots of time rooting them on at baseball games or laughing at Calvin & Hobbes comics.

Anna Zagorski

Marketing & Communications Tinkerer

About Anna

At any given moment, Anna is searching across the internet to find a funny animal video to post on the @wowintheworld Instagram. She channels her love of marketing into helping connect families to meaningful children’s content. When she’s not writing in Tinkercast’s brand voice, Anna is writing as many puns as she can for Two What’s and a Wow, and she’s never too far away from a glass of Diet Dr. Pepper.