Storytelling without Screentime: How Audio Dramas are Reclaiming the Imagination of Children
- Guest Contributor
- 60 minutes ago
- 6 min read
By Madison Van Frank
In our noisy, overstimulating, screen-centric world, many of us have tried to simplify our own relationships with technology. This is what we’re supposed to do as Catholics, right? Unplug from the world, disconnect and turn off our screens.
Although we’re fighting the good fight, so many of us rely on devices in our hands to function in our daily lives. We’re used to hearing the buzz or beep of notifications regularly. If you’re like me, no matter how much you resist or have tried to use physical planners, they never quite seem to keep you as organized as a Google Calendar. Some of us spend hours each day in front of a screen at work. Kids are often glued to screens for their entertainment.
Movies, TV shows, TikTok, Instagram, video games, the news — the list goes on and on.
Despite our best efforts, screens dominate our lives.
But what if it didn’t have to be that way? What if you could put down the device and close your eyes? What if you could turn off the screen and still enjoy meaningful entertainment? What if there was a story you could experience together as a family that utilized different senses than your eyes?
Well, Welcome to Hope Springs!
A Heartwarming Adventure Rooted in Faith and Friendship
Earlier this year, the Augustine Institute launched Welcome to Hope Springs, an original Catholic audio drama series designed to spark imagination and conversation for children and families.
Written for ages 10-12, Welcome to Hope Springs aspires to fill a child’s mind with the wonders of knowing and living the Catholic faith through quality entertainment and engaging storytelling. It also explores meaningful moral lessons in a way that feels natural and genuinely fun, while giving parents easy opportunities to start conversations about character and faith with their children. Throughout this inaugural 10-episode season, the young characters pursue adventures, solve unexpected mysteries and encounter unexplainable events. They gradually learn that their choices and relationships shape who they are becoming.
It’s Saturday morning in Hope Springs, a charming fictional town nestled amidst the Colorado Rocky Mountains. 11-year-old Jay West and aspiring podcaster Rooney Lane are excited about the long-awaited opening of the newly renovated train depot. Everyone will turn out for the festivities. But a smoke bomb disrupts the day, launching a series of mysteries involving stolen artifacts, unexplainable secret messages and the deep, forgotten history of the town. In no time, Jay, Rooney and their friends are caught up in events that will test their relationships and bring them face-to-face with unexpected danger.
Now that you know a bit about the show, you may still be wondering, why audio drama? You may even be asking, what is audio drama? It might be helpful to start with a definition.
An audio drama lives in the same world as audiobooks and podcasts, but it’s a dramatic story performed by a full cast of actors, with an original score, sound effects and more. It has all the things you love about your favorite TV shows or movies, but without the visuals!
Storytelling as a Method for Catechesis
Given the current crisis of young people disaffiliating from their faith, catechesis through storytelling can offer a glimmer of hope.
Hope to keep our children faithful. Hope to help them understand the wisdom of the Church. Hope to hand on what we believe in a way that resonates with today’s youth.
As we learn from Jesus throughout the Gospels, storytelling is sometimes the best way to explain profound truths.
Jesus was a master storyteller, often sharing his moral lessons through parables — even pulling his disciples aside to explain and unpack them for greater understanding. He shared stories relevant to his audience. He provides the ultimate model for teaching through storytelling.
Storytelling is woven into the fabric of our humanity. It’s at the core of who we are. The late Pope Francis tells us, “Sacred Scripture is a story of stories… It shows us from the very beginning a God who is both creator and narrator. Indeed, God speaks his word and things come into existence (cf. Genesis 1). As narrator, God calls things into life, culminating in the creation of man and woman as his free dialogue partners, who make history alongside him (Message of His Holiness Pope Francis for the 54th World Communications Day, 3).”
As Catholics, we know that our lives are each individually a story, but we are part of an even greater story: the story of salvation. Human beings are created by the ultimate storyteller, the Divine Author. Our lives are each a unique story intertwined in that much bigger story of salvation.
The story continues in the Church established by Christ, and we each have a role to play in carrying the story forward.
A Tribute to the Augustine Institute’s Colorado Roots
This is not the first audio drama produced by the Augustine Institute. Thanks to award-winning writer, producer and director Paul McCusker, the Augustine Institute has been producing audio dramas for nearly a decade.
McCusker is no stranger to writing for youth audiences, nor is he a stranger to writing for this medium. Many Catholics are familiar with his background writing for the long-running children’s audio series Adventures in Odyssey and many other productions for Focus on the Family. His conversion to Catholicism eventually led him to the Augustine Institute, where he serves as Senior Director of Creative Content. As a writer for the Augustine Institute, he has created six feature-length audio drama productions: The Trials of Saint Patrick, Ode to St. Cecilia, The Legends of Robin Hood, The Victory of Joan of Arc, and the 2018 Audie Award-winning drama Brother Francis: The Barefoot Saint of Assisi.
McCusker first established the world of Hope Springs in his popular first-reader series, The Adventures of Nick & Sam, then expanded the world in The Virtue Chronicles (books for 10–12-year-old readers), and the Gabriel’s Quest and Small Wonders stories for the Augustine Institute’s Word of Life K-8 Curriculum.
“Hope Springs is a universe I’ve been developing over the past ten years through novels and short stories, and this audio drama series, Welcome to Hope Springs, is really a culmination of that work,” said McCusker.
In the development of this “universe,” McCusker was inspired by the mountain towns of Colorado — all the “springs,” if you will (Pagosa Springs, Colorado Springs, etc.). For McCusker, a close-knit small town with a train depot at its heart, surrounded by the Rocky Mountains, seemed like the perfect setting to explore themes of choices, consequences and other topics relevant to children.
The town of Hope Springs, as you’ll discover, is a unique place where there are endless possibilities.
“Audio uniquely invites listeners to participate through their imaginations — with voice, music, and sound creating a world that comes alive in the mind. Through everyday adventures, we encounter deeper truths,” McCusker continued. “That’s why we say Hope Springs is a place to find both everyday wonders and eternal mysteries.”
Unlike screens, audio drama requires imagination instead of replacing it.
When children watch something on a screen, every choice, every creative decision, is already made for them: what the setting looks like or what a character’s appearance is. When they listen to an audio story, however, their minds get to do the work. They create the movie in their minds. As they listen to the dialogue, they picture the setting, the characters and the action.
In a sense, they become co-creators of the story. Instead of passively consuming, kids are actively imagining.
This can be incredibly powerful for children — and it allows them to reclaim their imaginations.
Welcome to Hope Springs can be listened to on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Amazon Music, or Formed, the Catholic streaming platform. You can also go to www.hopesprings.org to learn more about this series.
If you haven't listened yet, check out Season 1 today. Season 2 is coming down the tracks and arrives on May 18, 2026!
Turn off the screen, turn on your imagination and Welcome to Hope Springs.
“Not all are called to be artists in the specific sense of the term. Yet, as Genesis has it, all men and women are entrusted with the task of crafting their own life: in a certain sense, they are to make of it a work of art, a masterpiece.” Pope St. John Paul II, Letter to Artists
