We recently connected with Mick Sullivan and have shared our conversation below.

Mick , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

For nearly eight years, I’ve written and produced a history podcast for kids called The Past And The Curious, and it has found a deep and dedicated audience – not just among kids, but also their parents. Working on a passion project that aims to bring a little joy to the world has brought me much joy in return, but when I hear how special it is for families who listen, I’m at my proudest.

Just last month in Boston a mother softly whispered, just out of ear-shot of her child, “You’ve gotten us through a lot of tough times.” I could feel her intent and it was difficult to hold back my own emotions in that moment. It’s moving to be told how much you matter to people who are strangers.

I began the project because there was space in the podcast field for kids, and I already had a career that involved interpreting elements of the past for kids, so a podcast was a natural extension. I make strong an effort to highlight people and places that might be unfamiliar to most, but still resonate with anyone.

Mick , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a museum educator in Louisville, KY and I love nothing more than to surprise someone with something they’ll remember. I believe it works the same for kids or adults. People love a good story, whether it’s happy or sad, it should resonate. People need to feel connection.

After years of teaching in classrooms and galleries I decided that there was an audience to reach beyond the people I came into physical contact with, so with a bit of production skills I picked up as a musician, I began to develop The Past and The Curious, a history podcast for kids and families. I made friends with a co-hort of creators on the vanguard of kids audio, and have been producing the independent show for nearly eight years. Episodes are rich with humor, insight, and research, while always paying honor to the people covered, be it pioneering swimmer and dress reformer Annette Kellerman, possible inventor of the donut hole Captain Hanson Gregory, or pivotal folk musician Libba Cotten. It’s important to me to share these people with a young audience, but I’m keenly aware of how they’ll respond to a typical history treatment. So I make them not just approachable, but actually engaging and engrossing.

I have also published a pair of books that are connected to the show, “The Meatshower” and “I See Lincoln’s Underpants”

I’m proud of the wide scope of history we’ve already covered and enthused by the growing response from kids, parents, and teachers alike.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

When I started in kids podcasting, there was near-limitless room for independent creators. But over the years, companies began to put more and more money into developing their own shows, many of which were tied to high profile IPs. This pushed a lot of people out of the space where they could get noticed. iTunes top charts started to be filled instead with a mix of familiar cartoon characters and off-the-cuff parenting advice.

I’m glad I was able to establish the show when the space was more democratic and often see other new indie show have a hard time finding an audience because it’s hard to get noticed. I really believe in the indie approach. Luckily start up costs are pretty low for a podcast, so I was able to fund my own show. Because of that, I had no financial ties or editorial restrictions. I hope new shows can find that space to create – in a true and unique way – and have the time to develop so they can hold their own against companies vying for the same space.

Support indie creatives. They are often the closest to something true and honest.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

I wish, long ago, I would have known that where I’d feel the most passionate and make the biggest difference was in doing something I’d never considered before. I have worked as a musician for years and it is a tough industry to survive, financially speaking – more so now than ever. But a lot of what I learned was preparing me for something else.
There were many times I lost faith in myself, or at least lost faith that I could succeed in a chosen field. The thought of not working on a creative outlet was terrifying. But then dedicating myself to this kids podcast has given me so many ways to reach back and borrow things from my past self (I create all of the music, in addition to writing and production) while finding a new sense of self today.
I would have also like to have known that I would find a fulfilling creative outlet that was possible to do from home, rather than the stage. With a family, this is crucially important.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thepastandthecurious.com
• Instagram: @thepastandthecurious
• Linkedin: mick-sullivan-a226916a
• Youtube: @thepastandthecurious.com

Image Credits

Photo of Mick by Simon Meiners

Photo of performance: Mick Sullivan with Joey Thieman at WBUR CityStage in Boston, MA by Rachel Unger