About Tinkercast
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.
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, Who When WOW! and Once Upon a Beat! When Guy is not tinkering, he is the host and creator of How I Built This and The Great Creators.
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, Who When WOW! and Once Upon A Beat! Mindy has been living out her childhood radio dreams for almost two decades by creating radio and audio programs for kids.
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.
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.
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
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
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
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
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.
Kristen M. Giang
Senior Director, Digital Tinkerer
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
“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.
Henry Moskal
Audio Production Tinkerer
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
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
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
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
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.
Anna Zagorski
Senior Manager of Brand and Content Marketing
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.