From True Crime To Bedtime Stories: Brevity Studios Launches Screen-Free Kids Audio

Award-winning podcast studio Brevity Studios is taking an unexpected turn with the launch of Brevity Kids, a new screen-free storytelling studio for children aged 5 to 12, created by a team best known for its investigative journalism and true crime content.

The project has struck a chord early, debuting at number one on the Kids & Family charts on Apple Podcasts last week across Australia and New Zealand, showing the strong appetite for calmer, more intentional children’s audio. Rather than chasing fast, noisy, highly visual kids’ content, Brevity Kids is deliberately slowing things down, treating children as capable listeners and designing stories that work just as well for the adults listening alongside them.

At the creative helm of Brevity Kids is Jacob Masters, an experienced actor, voice artist, and content producer. Masters is best known for his work across television, streaming, and film, including roles in South Pacific Pictures’ Head High, Amazon’s Prime’s The Wilds, and Downlow Concept’s My Favourite Dead Person.

Masters as Scotty Crockford, Head High, Season 2

Masters has become increasingly interested in what happens when performance is stripped back to sound alone - “I’ve found audio demands a different kind of performance,” “You are guiding attention, imagination, and emotion without visuals. With Brevity Kids, we are treating children as capable listeners and giving them stories that are engaging, calm, and built with care.”

The launch taps into a wider cultural conversation around screen fatigue, attention, and how families consume media at home, positioning audio as a calmer, shared alternative to screen-based entertainment. Working with communities and local schools, Brevity Kids aims to set a new standard for children’s audio in New Zealand and Australia, combining professional performance, thoughtful sound design, and stories built to stand the test of time.

We’d love to explore this as a lifestyle feature, including:

• Why investigative storytellers are turning their skills toward children’s audio

• The quiet shift toward screen-free listening in family homes

• How respecting children’s attention changes the way stories are made

• Why audio can feel calmer, richer, and more connective than screens

Brevity Kids is produced by Brevity Studios. Creators of New Zealand’s Best True Crime Podcast of 2025, GUILT and award-winning documentary podcast series’ The Flood, and Black Summer.

Supported by Acast, The Fantastic Ten-Minute Time-Machine podcast series is now available on all major podcast platforms.

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