2026-10-16
Hi, I'm Daniella Doncel, host of Generation Babysitters Club,
the latest season of Generation, the media we love and how it shapes us.
The chart-topping podcast from the award-winning NPR and PBS member station, Connecticut Public.
Our new season explores how these slim, candy-colored paperbacks changed the publishing
industry and why their stories of friendship and entrepreneurship still resonate with readers.
In this first episode, you'll hear from founding editor and series co-creator Jean Fiwell.
She shares how she got the idea for the books,
how she and author Anne M. Martin won over the early skeptics, and how their approach changed.
Business as usual in the book industry.
You won't hear from author Anne in this episode because we're saving that interview for our series finale.
So make sure you follow Generation Babysitter's Club on your favorite podcast app so you don't miss that conversation.
Now, here's the full episode.
In fifth grade, I was browsing the shelves of my school library,
and I discovered the fictional suburb of Stony Brook, Connecticut.
And I met Christy Thomas, a lovably bossy tomboy.
She founded a worker-owned childcare cooperative.
The Babysitter's Club.
I'm proud to say it was totally my idea, even though the four of us worked it out together.
The Babysitter's Club novels launched in 1986, right in the midst of the Reagan era.
All of us together, we've got the American economy on the move again.