The Imagine Neighborhood

Latest Episodes:

No Filter with Chris Ballew Mar 13, 2022

Show notes

Oh hey, everybody, Count Vacula here! It’s great to see you again! This week I got to use my friend-making skills with a very interesting and talented person named Chris Ballew!

Chris does really cool drawings, but he’s mainly a musician. Your grown-up might know him from his band Presidents of the United States of America, or you and your family might have listened to one of the nineteen Caspar Babypants albums he’s recorded! He even wrote a terrific “Five Questions” theme song for my show, which you’ll hear in this episode!

Chris told me all about his imaginary childhood friend Mr. Shadow (he also made up a great story about how shadows get fat!), and the cool things he’d make out of cardboard, and how being creative makes him feel really happy. Chris and I both love making jokes, and being kind, and we had a really fun time getting to know each other. I think you’ll like meeting him, too!

I’ll be back in a couple of weeks with a new No Filter, but in the meantime, I’d love to get to know YOU a little better! You can write me anytime at kind@imagineneighborhood.org, and just tell me about yourself, or share a drawing, or let me know—how were you kind today?

See you soon! Your pal, Vac

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Work it to Win it Mar 06, 2022

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A DOCTOR APOCALYPSO™ episode.

Doctor Apocalypso is about to compete in the Tour de Rancid, the greatest unicycle race in the world! But even though the racetrack is difficult, Doc hasn’t practiced at all. She’s confident her natural ability will be enough to win, but co-pilot Scotty isn’t so sure. He’s feeling worried—about the piranha pits, about the field of booger craters, and about how Doctor Apocalypso might react if things don’t go her way. . .

So buckle up for today’s muddy, and mutant-frog-filled DOCTOR APOCALYPSO™ milestone!

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No Filter with Representative Marilyn Strickland Feb 27, 2022

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Hi, everybody! It's me—your pal, Count Vacula!

It’s been a long time since I got to share a new No Filter with Count Vacula with you, and I’m super excited for us to get back to practicing meeting new people and learning how to make friends.

My guest this week is the congresswoman for Washington’s 10th District—Marilyn Strickland! Congresspeople are a very important part of our government. They’re chosen by the residents of their state to work together to make lots of big decisions. It’s a tough job, but you get to help all sorts of people in all sorts of ways!

Even though Marilyn is a human and a congressperson and I’m a robot vampire vacuum cleaner, we have a lot of things in common! Both of our families come from the Asian country of Korea; we both like to travel (even though she mostly travels in airplanes and I’ve mostly traveled on Cap’n Marion’s ship or the Mach Billion); and we both think it’s really important to be kind and to help people as often as you can.

Marilyn had some really interesting things to say about meeting ghosts, and making cardboard sleds, and she told a fun make-believe story about how tigers got their stripes—and why they might sometimes smell like candy!

I really enjoyed getting to know Marilyn better and finding out about her, and I hope you will, too. If there’s someone you think I should get to know better—let me know. Maybe they can be a guest on my show!

Love, Vac

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The Ptwanger Part Two: Fartnado's Revenge Feb 20, 2022

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Welcome to Part Two of our putrid parable about problem-solving, as we rejoin Scotty, Princess Donnasaurus, and Pete Twanger in the middle of dealing with myriad magical messes all over town—plus a fart tornado that’s still headed right for the Neighborhood!

With so many things going wrong, it’s going to take every problem-solving approach that PD and Scotty know to get the Neighborhood sorted out and make sure everyone’s safe inside before the fart tornado hits!

So head on over to The Imagine Neighborhood™ for cardio conundrums, mole sauce (made by actual moles), and finally finding a problem that Pete’s ptwanger can solve in today’s second stormy story installment!

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The Ptwanger Part One Feb 13, 2022

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This week, Scotty and Princess Donnasaurus will need a LOT of new ideas, because they have a LOT of problems to solve. First, there’s a dangerous (and very stinky) fart tornado headed right towards the Neighborhood! And second, there’s a new grown-up in town who isn’t very good at problem-solving. Pete Twanger thinks he can fix the fart tornado by throwing things at it with his “ptwanger” machine. From sofas to people to Princess Donnasaurus’s beloved magical treasures, he ptwangs and ptwangs, but of course the fart tornado keeps on coming—plus, he’s making a big magical mess all over the place!

Can Scotty and PD teach Pete Twanger how to Switcheroo before it’s too late? Will “getting large to take charge” help Pete stop creating magical kittens by mistake? Will “getting small to deal with it all” bring back PD’s enchanted record player? In any case, somebody better shake things up quick, because the Neighborhood is getting stinkier by the minute!

So, join us as we kick off Part One of this pungent parable, and don’t miss the thrilling story conclusion one week from today! In the meantime, have your grown-up get on our mailing list for our weekly Wednesday newsletter with episode discussion prompts and activity ideas. And hey—we’re so excited to welcome you back to another year in The Imagine Neighborhood™!

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Q&A Kobe Edition Dec 26, 2021

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Hey, friends—it’s the last Monday of the year, so you know what THAT means, don’t you? . . . Yup! It’s Cardboard Boxing Day! Happy Cardboard Boxing Day, everybody! We hope your family is making the most of any boxes left over from the holidays, and we can’t wait to see photos of all your amazing cardboard creations!

Today is also the day of our last episode for 2021, so we wanted to do something a little special—Recently our pal Kobe sent in a bunch of terrific questions for different folks in the Neighborhood, so we decided we’d just dedicate this whole episode to answering them!

If you’ve ever wondered about Vac’s attachments, or Alakazambra’s powers, or life in the Wasteland, or what the Space Machos are up to, or where Princess Donnasaurus comes from, then this special Kobe Edition of The Imagine Neighborhood™ is for you!

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Cardboard Boxing Day 2: Everything’s Fine Dec 19, 2021

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‘Tis Cardboard Boxing Day Eve, and all through our ‘Hood,

Friends are being generous, kind, cheerful, and good.

With boxes all set to become cardboard creations

To delight and amaze neighbors, pals, and relations.

From Lava Avenue to Alakazambra’s place,

Everyone’s got a bright holiday smile on their face.

There's Doc! And the Cap'n! PD and Princess Dotty!

Plus Music Man, Macho, and pals Vac and Scotty!

We’ll hang with an ogre, and our fave dromedary,

And clap as Mannrick performs the Sugar Plum Dairy.

Enjoy a stellar spaceout with the TIN PhD’s,

And spin a dreidel with Fieryous on the high seas!

And though sometimes holidays can make folks feel stressed

From working so very hard to deliver their best—

What makes a day great isn’t because it’s grandiose,

It’s spending time with the people who matter the most!

So come join us this magical Boxing Day Eve

With its cardboard creations you just won’t believe!

And by the end, you too will opine—

“Right in this moment, everything’s fine!”

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No Filter with Aaron Horowitz Dec 12, 2021

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Hi, everyone! Guess what? . . . Vac’s back! I couldn’t wait for you to meet my newest friend, Aaron Horowitz!

Aaron is kind, and smart, and fun, and he has the coolest job I ever heard of! Aaron makes robots! And not only robots—he makes robots who have empathy! And not only robots who have empathy—he makes robots who have empathy in order to help kids!

His company is called Sproutel, and they make special robots that are designed to help kids with illnesses like cancer or diabetes. They also make robots like Purrble who helps kids get better at calming down when they’re upset. I thought that being a robot who keeps the house clean was pretty cool, but Aaron’s robots make kids' lives better and healthier! How cool is that?

Aaron’s not a robot, but some of his best pals are robots, which is something we have in common! Other things we have in common are that we both love making cardboard creations, and learning about—and from!—other people.

We talked about empathy, and about how we can pick up garbage in the park to help keep our neighborhoods clean, and he also taught me that every single one of us can make a positive difference in the world, all by ourselves—whether we’re a kid or a grown-up, or even a robot!

I really liked meeting Aaron, and I think you’ll like meeting him, too!

Your pal,

Count Vacula

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No Filter with Melly Victor Dec 05, 2021

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Hey, everybody! It's me, your good pal, Count Vacula! This week my guest is Melly Victor—who is super cool, and is someone I already know and like a lot!

One of the reasons Melly is so cool is that she’s part of the awesome creative team at The Imagine Neighborhood™, and another reason is that she has a great podcast of her own called Stoopkid Stories, and another reason is that she’s a really terrific person to talk to about adoption—which is what she and I talked about on this episode!

If you listened to “Shkarf Attack” on The Imagine Neighborhood a couple weeks ago, you learned that Cap’n Marion is adopted, and that sometimes people have a lot of questions about adoption. Well, just like Cap’n Marion, Melly is adopted, too! She’s also very smart and kind, and she agreed to come talk with me and help me understand more about what it means and how it feels to be adopted.

I don’t want to spoil the episode for you, so I’ll let you listen for yourself—but some important things I learned are that adopted kids are just like anybody else, that not all adopted kids want to talk about adoption and that that’s okay, and most importantly of all, that all families are real families!

I hope you enjoy getting to know Melly a little better, and if you have any questions for her, or for me, please send us a message! I’m always so excited to get your letters and drawings—it’s great to get to know you a little better, too!

Well, thanks a bunch for listening to No Filter! I'll be back again soon with another terrific guest, and in the meantime, I hope all of you and your families are staying safe, happy, and kind!

Love, Vac

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Re-run: Friendsgiving Nov 29, 2021

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It’s almost Friendsgiving in The Imagine Neighborhood™! Scotty and Vac have been working on their thank-you jar all year: every time they feel thankful, they put a penny into the jar. And every year on Friendsgiving, a mythical yeti collects everyone’s jars and donates the money to help the Neighborhood—unless Tantrumus Maximus gets his way . . .

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