The Imagine Neighborhood

It's our birthday! The Imagine Neighborhood launched on this day in 2020, and now we have 5 seasons, 145 episodes, and over 1.3M downloads, all thanks to YOU!To celebrate we're sharing a brand-new remaster of our first-ever episode, "Count Vacula Feels Afraid." It's the story about the time Count Vacula was having some big feelings called separation anxiety. The babysitter was coming over, and even though Vac likes her a lot he suddenly felt very worried that I might never come back! But with a little encouragement, Vac was able to share his feelings with me—and together we learned that talking about the things that matter with the people that matter most can help you feel better about almost anything!Get more at: IMAGINENEIGHBORHOOD.orgFriend and follow us!TWITTER, FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM

Adjusting to new things can be challenging. Just ask Princess Donnasaurus—she’s about to become a big sister, and that means lots of change! And although she’s really excited, she’s also feeling uncertain. She’s learning that a new sibling means sharing her toys and her room, and not making too much noise—plus it turns out that you can’t even yeet a baby! Not ever!And although PD has a handbook to help her learn what to do, it feels like the baby dinosaur is growing too fast to keep up with. Even with Scotty’s help, everything’s going wrong! Furniture is smashing, paintings are falling, and there’s Jell-O EVERYwhere.So come join us at the (slightly crowded) castle, where we’ll meet the Neighborhood’s newest royal reptile, get better at adjusting to change, and find out that babies are just like anybody else—what they need most of all is kindness!Get more at: IMAGINENEIGHBORHOOD.orgFriend and follow us!TWITTER, FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM

This week on No Filter with Count Vacula, I get to introduce you to a very cool new friend of mine named Jonathan Knowles. He’s an explorer and a scientist who studies all kinds of things! He studies animals and the ocean and the climate and outer space and technology and even robots like me. But the thing that interests Jonathan the most is helping make everybody’s future the very best it can be! Jonathan thinks the most important thing we can do for the future is to be kind—to each other, and to our planet, and also to the plants and animals that live on the earth with us. And even though Jonathan’s work is pretty serious, he is a very silly and fun person. He even told me a really funny joke that I can’t wait to share with Scotty!I think my favorite part of our talk was when he said that his Cardboard Creation would be big bridges that connected every person in the world to every other person in the world—because then everybody would be able to spend time together and get to know each other and make friends. Just like me and Jonathan! I’m really happy I got to meet Jonathan, and I think you’ll like him too!Have you met anyone new lately? Did you ask them any of the five questions from No Filter? Has anyone ever asked you a question from No Filter? I’ll ask you one now! What is something that you wish people would ask you about yourself? Send your answer to me at [email protected] I can’t wait to learn more about you! Have an awesome week! Your pal,VacGet more at: IMAGINENEIGHBORHOOD.orgFriend and follow us!TWITTER, FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM

Here in the Imagine Neighborhood, we love questions! We love to ask them, because that’s how we learn about things, and we love to answer them because that’s how we help other people learn about things. This week, Vac and I are answering questions from listeners like you, and they’re great!  A big thank you to Elyza, Levi, Maggie, Mara, Robin, Rosemary, Theo, and all of Mrs. Darley’s first-grade class for writing in to us—that was very kind of you! Get more at: IMAGINENEIGHBORHOOD.orgFriend and follow us!TWITTER, FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM

Today’s No Filter with Count Vacula guest is a really cool author named Rachel Litfin. She writes books for young adult readers, which means people who are age 12 and up. Her stories are all about an imaginary land full of dragons and Epic Quests, and the main characters are all kids who have to save the world while also going to school and remembering to finish their homework!   Rachel started writing her very first story when she was only 13 years old, and now it’s her grown-up job. How great is that?! We talked about how stories help us to learn about our own feelings, and how they can also teach us that everybody else has big feelings, too!  Rachel had really fun answers to my Five Questions, and my favorite was when she said that she likes being asked “What is something that at first you thought was scary or bad, but it turned out to be good?” It reminded me of the time I met Princess Donnasaurus! She dropped her ice cream, which was bad, but when she bent down to get it, she saw me—and now we’re best friends! That turned out so good! I really liked getting to know Rachel and I think you’re going to like her too! I’ll be back next month with another new friend for you to meet, but in the meantime, I’d love to hear about a time something happened to you that seemed bad but turned out to be good. Maybe your class got a new teacher and you felt uncertain, but then she turned out to be awesome! Or maybe your grown-up served you a new food you thought you would hate, but it was delicious! I love stories like that!  I hope your week is full of good things! Talk to you soon! Your pal, Vac Get more at: IMAGINENEIGHBORHOOD.orgFriend and follow us!TWITTER, FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM 

If someone doesn’t speak your language, and you don’t speak theirs, can you still find a way to communicate with them and make friends? That's the big question in today’s episode, "MACHO'S EGGCELLENT ADVENTURE"!  When Empress Bawkarella of the planet Cluckatron catches a lift in the Mach Billion, everything goes great. That is, until the gang runs into a field of dangerous EGGsteroids! And with Scotty out doing a squeegee spacewalk to wipe off the windshield, it’s up to Macho and Bawkarella to find a way to navigate the ship to safety together. But the Empress doesn’t speak English and Macho doesn’t speak Bawkish! It’ll take patience and paying attention to social-emotional cues to get their messages across. And by the end, Bawkarella and Macho will be besties and Scotty won’t be the only one who’s a little bit bilingual! Bawk b’gawk, everybody! Get more at: IMAGINENEIGHBORHOOD.orgFriend and follow us!TWITTER, FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM

BREAKING NEWS! This just in from WTIN Studios, The Imagine Neighborhood’s top radio station: Reports indicate that many kinds of animals are having difficulty safely crossing the busy road in front of Princess Donnasaurus’s castle! Her Royal Highness is personally taking action to assist them, but it seems she hasn't made sure that they all want her help.Is an act of kindness still kind, even if it's unwelcome? Let’s join lead anchor Cardboard Scotty with Count Vacula live at Donnasaurus Castle to bring you all the answers. Over to you, Cardboard Scotty! . . . Get more at: IMAGINENEIGHBORHOOD.orgFriend and follow us!TWITTER, FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM

Hey there, my little hardcore headbangers!Doctor Apocalypso here, welcoming you back for Part Two of our slammin’ story about fighting discrimination.So, last week, you heard how our new Big Bot Burger restaurant wouldn’t serve Wastelanders like me—and how me and Scotty led a peaceful protest to let them know unfairness is not welcome in our Neighborhood.And for a while, our protest worked! After finding out that Big Bot discriminates, people refused to eat there, so our Big Bot location closed down. But guess what? Big Bot just opened their restaurants in other places. Lots and lots of other places!And most folks didn’t know about Big Bot’s unfair rules against Wasties, so they kept eating there. And so Big Bot kept getting more and more powerful, and built more and more restaurants so they could discriminate against more and more people!Like I said before—the thing about discrimination is that you have to fight it no matter where it happens. So even though Big Bot wasn’t open in the Wasteland anymore, we still had to do something. We had to let everyone know the truth! Because no matter how delicious a Big Bot burger is, nothing is tastier than some juicy justice!I hope you have a great time listening to the episode, and always remember—whenever you and your friends stand together against injustice, you make the world a more rockin’, cooler, and kinder place!Get more at: IMAGINENEIGHBORHOOD.orgFriend and follow us!TWITTER, FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM

Hey there, rockers, it's Doctor Apocalypso! Strap on your skull boots and crank up the volume because today, we're going to re-listen to Part One of a story that's really important to me. Maybe you remember that a couple of years ago, a new restaurant called Big Bot Burgers opened up in the Wasteland. We were all so excited—I even performed a slammin’ concert for their grand opening!But the thing is, they wouldn't actually let any Wastelanders eat there! Other people could order all the tasty burgers they wanted, but when Wasties like me came in, the restaurant called us terrible names and kicked us out. At first I got really mad. And sad! But then I decided to do something about it. Big Bot needed to make things right—so we held a peaceful protest to let everyone know about the discrimination going on at the restaurant, and you know what? Our protest worked! Big Bot was forced to leave the Wasteland! Well, it sort of worked. It turned out that Big Bot just moved to other locations. And the thing about injustice is, you can't only care about it when it affects your own Neighborhood. You have to fight discrimination wherever it's happening. So Scotty and I called all our friends and we . . . oops! Oh man, I’m sorry! I'm getting way ahead of myself. We'll tell you that part of the story next week!For now, it's time to rock and resist. Ready? WE WANT JUSTICE! WE WANT RESPECT! BIG BOT BURGERS, GET CORRECT!See you at the protest!Get more at: IMAGINENEIGHBORHOOD.orgFriend and follow us!TWITTER, FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM

Hello, you little throw rugs. It’s me! Your very favorite supervillain, Queen Hastabee!  You remember me, right? Of course you do. I’m the one who tried to teach Scotty and his rusty robot pal a lesson about the way a pillow fort HAStabee, but they escaped and instead I just got buried in fluffy blankets! Then I tried to make those two cornflakes understand the way a bowl of cereal hastabee, and they still got away from me!So today, we are listening to this episode again, because it is clear to me that none of you understood it the first time!You and your friend Scotty seem to think this story is all about being proud of your identity, when obviously it is all about the extremely demanding work I do to keep everything the way it hastabee!I know that you’ll enjoy re-listening to this episode because it stars me, and anything starring me hastabee amazing. And just ignore the part where that pillow-fort fraud Scotty says that we all have a superhero inside us—what does he know? He’s the sort of person who puts two different kinds of cereal together in the same bowl!Farewell for now, fringe fleas! And don’t forget to keep things the way they hastabee, or . . .I’ll bee back!Get more at: IMAGINENEIGHBORHOOD.orgFriend and follow us!TWITTER, FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM