The Money JAR Podcast Is Worth Its Weight in Gold
March 6, 2020
You can find podcasts about finances, podcasts about parents, and podcasts about kids. But A podcast about kids, families, and money? Enter The Money JAR from Junior Achievement of Oregon and Southwest Washington (JAORSWWA) and Junior Achievement Radio (JAR), the brainchild of former JAORSWWA President and CEO John Hancock.
Back in 2012, podcasts weren’t the media juggernaut they are today. According to the Pew Research Center, in 2011, only 25% of U.S. adults had ever listened to a podcast. By 2019, that number had increased to 51%. With around 850,000 podcasts in existence that have aired 30 million episodes, it’s safe to say The Money JAR was ahead of its time.
John Hancock, now the President and CEO of JA of Georgia (USA), created the podcast as a way to get the message of JA out to the world in a new way. Rather than use the podcast as a platform to promote JA, The Money JAR uses the principles of JA to bring stories about work readiness, financial literacy, and entrepreneurship to its listeners. “I just wanted people to experience value from the content and know that it had been brought to them by Junior Achievement,” John said. “But I didn't want them to feel like they were being sold to, or that they had to officially be a part of JA in order to benefit from it.”
Two of John’s favorite episodes:
Episode 1 – “Allowances, Yay or Nay?”
Episode 27 – “How Do You Define Success?”
The podcast’s target audience is middle- and high-school students, but it’s also designed with parents in mind. The show aims to demystify the common challenges all families face while trying to educate children on the economics of life. Following the JA tradition, The Money JAR aims to help families begin conversations about work readiness, financial literacy, and entrepreneurship. Co-host Todd Yuzuriha says, “the message tends to be on the level where students can understand it, but also we're speaking to parents, so we're trying to foster that family conversation.”
Two of Todd’s favorite episodes:
Episode 83 – “Climb Every Mountain”
Episode 138 – “Kid-preneur Gabby Goodwin”
Of course, key to any podcast’s success is its hosts. In 2012, when JAORSWWA put out a call for podcast hosts, Todd Yuzuriha and Evan Wilson responded and, together, created the The Money JAR’s signature voice.
Todd first became acquainted with JA as a volunteer during his tenure on the local school board. Passionate about financial-literacy education for kids, Todd, a retired engineer, volunteered with JA BizTown and was put into what he calls “the hardest, most hectic, chaotic job in BizTown”: assisting the bank manager. And he loved it. So when JAORSWWA put out the call for podcast hosts, the self-proclaimed podcast junkie applied immediately. “This opportunity sort of married my interest in podcasts with my interest in personal finance,” Todd said. “I was really, really excited.”
Although Todd’s kids were grown in 2012, co-host Evan Wilson was father to a one-year-old, bringing a different perspective to the show. Today, he is CFO of a branding company and father of two. The podcast, he said, has taught him a lot about kids and money, and he has applied many of the lessons to his family.
In 2014, The Money JAR won the laudable MetLife Entrepreneurial Award, which recognizes excellence, innovation, and entrepreneurial approaches to program development that enable youth to own their economic futures. In late 2019, the show celebrated its 150th episode.
Mindy and Todd
When Evan stepped down from the podcast in January 2020, new co-host Mindy Lockard stepped up. An internationally recognized leadership and etiquette expert, Mindy brings her fresh perspective on leadership and interpersonal development to the show, as well as an expertise in networking and professional development.
The Money JAR continues production from the JAORSWWA office. For its first seven years, executive producer Alex Ward of Sounds Like Pictures led production, but in 2020 all operations are done in house under the guidance of Rachel Cline, Senior Development Manager at JAORSWWA. The team releases episodes twice a month, featuring entrepreneurs of all ages and financial experts who provide advice, break down their successes, and share lessons they’ve learned along the way, all in a half-hour nugget.
Listen and subscribe to The Money JAR on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Google Play Music. You can also follow the show on Facebook and Twitter.