In this special episode we celebrate our 1 year anniversary covering everyone's favorite bird, Big Bird, from the kid's television program Sesame Street. Kristen and Maeve are joined by special guest Sarah (she/they) who is on Maeve's other podcast, Mystics and Mulder.

Kristen tells Sarah and Maeve all there is to know about Big Bird's species, bigus canarius, as well as fun facts about Big Bird and a little about the history of Sesame Street. They also learn about Carol Spinney, who provided the voice of Big Bird as well as the puppetry for most of the history of Sesame Street.

All photos that Kristen showed Sarah and Maeve will be available on our Instagram account, which is linked below.

If you are interested in connecting with Sarah, follow them on medi.okra. Please also check out Mystics and Mulder, a fantastic podcast that Sarah and Maeve do together that addresses the link between faith and popular culture. Kristen has even been on one episode! You can find Mystics and Mulder on many streaming services.

Research for today’s episode came from the following sources: 

-Borgenicht, David. (1998). Sesame Street Unpaved: Scripts, Stories, Secrets, and Songs. Children's Television Workshop.

-Davis, Michael. (2008). Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street. Penguin Books. 

-Itzkoff, D. (2018, October 17). Original Big Bird, Caroll Spinney, Leaves ‘Sesame Street’ After Nearly 50 Years. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/17/arts/television/sesame-street-big-bird.html

-LaMattina, D., & Walker, C. N. (Directors). (2014). I Am Big Bird: The Caroll Spinney Story [film]. Tribeca Film. 

-Muppet Wiki. (n.d.) Big Bird. Fandom. https://muppet.fandom.com/wiki/Big_Bird

-Sesame Street Unpaved

-Throughline. (2022, August 3). Getting to Sesame Street [audio podcast episode]. In Throughline. npr. https://www.npr.org/2023/07/31/1191069674/getting-to-sesame-street-2022

Additional Resources:

-Big Bird deals with Mr. Hooper's death https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxlj4Tk83xQ -Big Bird on SNL, Weekend Update https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dv3tLVxng0

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Twitter: @birdfactspod

Thanks for listening, and happy birding!