Meet Sukie — a story children return to again and again.
Simple stories to end the day well.
From Amazon bestselling author Jan Falconer
Stories from the Mat, with Jan.
Short episodes. Warm stories. Practical ideas.
Helping families make reading time feel calm, connected and confidence building from the very beginning.
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New episodes weekly. available on Sundays at 9am BST
About Jan
I’m Jan Falconer — children’s author and creator of Jan Time reading rituals. I help families and early years settings make reading time feel calm, connecting, and confidence-building — from the very beginning.
Series 3
Why Stories Stay With Us Series 3 Episode 18
Why do some stories survive for hundreds — or even thousands — of years?
Series 3 begins with the familiar tale of The Boy Who Cried Wolf and a journey into the extraordinary power of storytelling. Jan explores how stories have carried memories, history, culture and identity across generations, and why tales from very different places can sometimes contain surprisingly familiar human patterns.
From Aesop's Fables and Romeo and Juliet to the Māori story of Hinemoa and Tūtānekai, this episode opens the door to a new series travelling through traditional stories, folklore and legends from around the world.
Along the way, Jan considers something particularly important: how hearing a story can spark curiosity, and how one question can open an entirely new world of learning.
Coming Next
Earth Mother and Sky Father: The World of Light — Papatūānuku and Ranginui: Te Ao Mārama(#Episode 19)
In the beginning, there was the void — Te Kore. Then came the darkness — Te Pō. And from that darkness came Ranginui, Sky Father, and Papatūānuku, Mother Earth.
In Earth Mother and Sky Father: The World of Light — Papatūānuku and Ranginui: Te Ao Mārama, I return to a Māori creation story I have known for many years: the story of Ranginui and Papatūānuku, their children, and Tāne, god of the forests and trees, who pushes his parents apart and creates the space in which light can enter the world.
Listening to the story again as an adult, I hear and see different things within it.
I see Aotearoa: earth beneath us, sky above us, and great trees reaching from one towards the other. I also hear a story about a family — parents and children, different opinions, a difficult decision, and something gained at the same time as something else is lost.
I also remember standing beneath Tāne Mahuta in Waipoua Forest in the early 1980s, looking up at the great kauri tree and experiencing its extraordinary majesty and silent power.
Creation stories from different cultures explore that enormous human question: how did all this begin? In this episode, I touch on other traditions and on the scientific account of the Big Bang — not because they are the same, but because human beings have approached questions about beginnings in very different ways.
And perhaps an old story can sometimes bring us back to something as familiar as a tree, the earth beneath our feet or the sky above us — and make us look again.
I can tell you what I hear in the story of Ranginui and Papatūānuku.
But what do you hear?
Explore further
Te Ao Māori — New Zealand Ministry for the Environment
This resource offers one telling of the Māori creation story and an opportunity to explore more about Ranginui, Papatūānuku and their children.
https://environment.govt.nz/te-ao-maori/te-timatanga-o-te-ao-maori/
The OER Project — Origin Stories
Explore origin stories from different cultures around the world and follow whichever story catches your curiosity.
https://www.oerproject.com/topics/origin-stories?WT.mc_id=00_00_2026_CONV_CLM_TOP_ROWT2_CK-topics_AK-originstories_OER-SEM_&WT.tsrc=OERSEM&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23936471894&gbraid=0AAAAACd_5E3n0l1D5eMQafRoxtb_fmEEh&gclid=Cj0KCQjw4orUBhCjARIsAIbF3qzIExZY4BNBnBzHHfbr_n16jF7OiNrRIH_IpTC_ORCqx9tVXU28eJwaAtbAEALw_wcB
Hinemoa and Tūtānekai: The Story That Crossed the Water#Episode 20)
Across Lake Rotorua came music.
Hinemoa lived at Ōwhata on the eastern shore. Across the water, on Mokoia Island, lived Tūtānekai. They loved one another, but Hinemoa's family did not consider Tūtānekai a suitable match.
They were so determined to prevent Hinemoa crossing the lake that they removed the hoe, the paddles, from the waka.
Hinemoa found another way.
In Episode 20 — Hinemoa and Tūtānekai: The Story That Crossed the Water, Jan tells the story of Hinemoa tying together six empty gourds to help keep herself afloat before swimming through the darkness towards Mokoia Island and the sound of Tūtānekai's music.
But the story doesn't end at the shores of Lake Rotorua.
Jan remembers how it travelled into her own family. Her brother Richard, a strong swimmer who knew what Hinemoa had done, decided as a teenager to swim Lake Rotorua himself. Years later, the family is still telling that story.
Then there's cousin Vinnie — talented musician, definitely not a gangster — who encountered the story during a family trip to Rotorua, found a nose flute and decided he was Tūtānekai.
Jan also carefully distinguishes that family memory from the tradition surrounding Tūtānekai. The instrument associated with him is a Māori flute, and one treasured kōauau connected with Tūtānekai is Te Murirangaranga. Accounts differ in some details about the flute and even who produced the music Hinemoa heard.
It's a story about Hinemoa and Tūtānekai — but also about what can happen when stories are told again and again, travelling through generations and sometimes becoming woven into our own family memories.
The Selkie: Between the Land and the Sea #Episode 21
Jan travels north to Orkney and down to the shore for a traditional story that belongs to the sea.
A man discovers Selkie women dancing on a beach after shedding their seal skins. He steals one of the skins, leaving its owner unable to return to the water. She remains on land, becomes his wife and has children — but she never forgets the sea. Years later, when her hidden skin is discovered, she finally has a way home.
There isn't only one Selkie story. These tales have been told and retold in different places for generations, with versions of Selkie traditions found beyond Orkney, elsewhere in Scotland and in related stories in Ireland.
Living close to the shore in Orkney, Jan reflects on the landscape in which stories like these have travelled: seals watching from the water, creatures disappearing back beneath the waves and thick seaweed lying along the coastline. She doesn't claim this explains how the Selkie tradition began — we don't know — but it's easy to understand how landscape, animals and imagination might make somebody wonder: what if?
Jan also considers echoes she hears in other stories about land, sea and the human imagination, while being careful not to equate Selkies with The Little Mermaid or the Sirens of The Odyssey.
And underneath it all is a question she keeps returning to:
What did the Selkie want?
Different listeners may hear love, belonging, homesickness, possession or freedom. Others may simply hear a wonderful story about people who become seals.
Perhaps that's part of the reason these stories continue to travel.
Explore further
Scottish writer and storyteller Kenny Boyle is someone Jan thoroughly enjoys listening to. His YouTube channel offers another doorway into Scottish folklore and storytelling:
https://www.youtube.com/@KennyBoyleOfficial
Finn McCool: When the Landscape Tells a Story #Episode 22
Jan travels to Ireland and the Giant's Causeway, where thousands of remarkable stone columns stretch towards the sea.
Today, geology gives us an explanation involving volcanic activity, cooling lava and basalt. But storytellers had another answer: a giant built them.
Finn McCool — the anglicised name many people grew up hearing for the Irish hero Fionn mac Cumhaill — builds a great causeway across the sea to confront the Scottish giant Benandonner. Unfortunately for Finn, when his opponent arrives, he is much bigger than expected.
Fortunately, Finn's wife Oonagh has a plan involving a cradle and a very large “baby”.
It's a story Jan loves because it's ridiculous, clever and funny. But it also opens a much wider reflection on the stories people find within landscapes.
From the Giant's Causeway and a brief visit to Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh, Jan returns to Aotearoa New Zealand and the kōrero of Maunga Taranaki that she grew up knowing.
She is careful not to equate the stories. The kōrero of Taranaki is not a Māori version of Finn McCool. They come from completely different peoples and carry their own whakapapa, meanings and traditions.
What interests Jan in placing them beside one another is something recognisably human: people look at landscapes and wonder why they are there, how they were formed and what happened.
Then somebody begins to tell a story.
And sometimes, once we've heard that story, we never see the landscape in quite the same way again.
The Tortoise and the Hare: Are You Running Your Own Race? #Episode 23
Jan returns to one of Aesop's best-known fables and hears something slightly different in it.
There's nothing wrong with the hare being fast. Speed is useful and natural ability is wonderful. The problem is that the hare thinks being fast is enough. The tortoise, meanwhile, keeps moving towards the finishing line.
That opens a reflection on preparation, practice and the difference between genuine improvisation and simply winging it. Jan turns to Ella Fitzgerald, whose extraordinary improvisation and scat singing came from a deep knowledge of her craft. Preparation didn't make her rigid. It gave her freedom.
Jan also reflects on Tony Hudgell, who suffered terrible injuries as a baby and lost both his legs. At five years old, using prosthetic legs and crutches, Tony set himself the challenge of walking ten kilometres — and completed it step by step.
And then there's Jan's own race.
This is podcast number 23.
She could compare herself with somebody who has made 500 episodes. But why? That's their race.
Perhaps the tortoise understood something important. He wasn't trying to become the hare. He knew his pace and where he was going.
Jan is careful about one thing: preparation doesn't guarantee recognition, applause or success. Sometimes people prepare beautifully and somebody else gets the prize.
But perhaps applause isn't the only measure of accomplishment.
Sometimes the satisfaction is being able to say:
I did that. I finished it. And I did it properly.
So is the tortoise really teaching us how to win?
Or might he be showing us how to finish?
Explore further
Tony Hudgell Foundation — discover more about Tony and his story:
https://www.tonyhudgellfoundation.org/?utm_source=chatgpt.com
Ella Fitzgerald — explore the music and work of the extraordinary Lady Ella:
https://www.ellafitzgerald.com/#/
Matoaka: The Real Story Behind the Name Pocahontas #Episode 24
Jan takes a different approach to storytelling because the person at the centre of this episode was real.
Matoaka was born around 1596. She was also known as Amonute, while Pocahontas was a nickname. She was the daughter of Wahunsenaca, whom the English knew as Chief Powhatan, and she belonged to a world, family, culture and homeland that existed before the English established Jamestown.
Jan examines the famous claim that Pocahontas saved Captain John Smith's life with particular care. Smith later said that she did. Another interpretation suggests he misunderstood a ceremony, while the Mattaponi oral history says Matoaka wasn't present. We don't know exactly what happened.
The surviving history follows Matoaka through changing relations between the Powhatan peoples and English settlers, her capture by the English in 1613, captivity, conversion to Christianity, marriage to John Rolfe and the birth of their son Thomas.
In 1616, Matoaka crossed the Atlantic to England, where she was presented as Lady Rebecca Rolfe. She died at Gravesend the following year, aged only about twenty-one, before she could return home.
But stories continued to grow around her.
Jan follows one particularly uncomfortable part of that legacy into Virginia's 1924 Racial Integrity Act and its so-called “Pocahontas exception”. She then moves forward again to actor Edward Norton, whose family story of descent from Pocahontas was investigated through documentary records on Finding Your Roots.
Throughout the episode, Jan resists filling the gaps in Matoaka's story with imagined thoughts or feelings. What survives comes from accounts made by other people and Indigenous oral history, and those sources sometimes contradict one another.
Perhaps after four hundred years of people telling stories about Pocahontas, it's worth remaining curious about Matoaka — the real young woman underneath them.
Explore further
National Park Service — Pocahontas: Her Life and Legend
Explore the surviving written history and Mattaponi oral history, including the places where the accounts differ:
https://home.nps.gov/jame/learn/historyculture/pocahontas-her-life-and-legend
BBC News — Edward Norton's Pocahontas ancestry discovery
Read about the genealogical research into Edward Norton's family connection to Pocahontas:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64158055
The Stories We Leave Behind #Episode 25
Stories from the Mat with Jan, The Stories We Leave Behind, stories and memories, family stories, storytelling, childhood stories, childhood memories, reading aloud, reading with children, family reading, bedtime stories, favourite childhood books, stories across generations, intergenerational storytelling, family traditions, The Night Before Christmas, Stick Man, The Three Little Pigs, The Day the Crayons Quit, Sukie Queen of Cats, Finding Her Paw-prints, Jan Falconer, stories that stay with us, importance of storytelling, memories of reading
Riverside
What stories have left footprints on your heart?
For the final episode of Series 3 — and Jan's 25th podcast episode — Stories from the Mat with Jan comes home.
After travelling from New Zealand to Orkney, Ireland and North America, exploring stories from different cultures and traditions, Jan reflects on the stories that become part of our own memories.
Series 2
Featuring Linda Murphy Children's Author -Helping Children Understand Value (#Episode 9)
How do children learn what really matters?
Following her conversation with children's author Linda Murphy, Jan reflects on Olli's Cave of Treasures and the gentle lessons it offers about gratitude, possessions, financial literacy and recognising when we already have enough.
Together they explore how stories help children—and adults—think differently about value, contentment and the conversations that happen when families read together.
[Watch on YouTube]
[Listen on Spotify, Apple, Amazon]
What Does Enough Really Look Like? (#Episode 10)
After speaking with children's author Linda Murphy, I find myself reflecting on a surprisingly simple question: What does enough really mean?
Inspired by Linda's picture book Olli's Cave of Treasures, we'll explores gratitude, possessions, financial literacy and the quiet lessons stories can teach children and adults alike. Drawing on Linda's background as an accounting teacher, alongside Carol Vorderman's work on financial literacy and Todd Rose's research on individual learning, the episode considers how children's beliefs about money, value and confidence begin forming long before adulthood.
Rather than prescribing answers, I invites listeners and viewers to pause, notice what truly matters and reflect on the difference between wanting more and recognising when we already have enough.
Featuring Laura Strachan Children's Author (#Episode 11)
In this episode of Stories from the Mat with Jan, I sit down with children's author Laura Strachan to explore the power of stories, imagination and the many ways children experience books.
Drawing on her background in teaching, Laura reflects on what children notice when they read, how illustrations often tell their own story, and why familiar books continue to capture young imaginations. She also shares the experiences that inspired her own writing and discusses the joy of creating stories that children want to return to again and again.
Our conversation is a gentle reminder that reading is about far more than words on a page. It's about curiosity, connection, confidence and the shared moments that stay with children long after the story has ended.
The Story Hasn't Changed (#Episode 12)
Following my conversation with children's author Laura Strachan, I began reflecting on a simple but important question: how do children become confident before they become confident learners?
This episode explores the role that familiar stories, repetition and shared reading play in helping children develop confidence naturally. Drawing on Laura's experiences as a teacher and author, alongside research from Jerome Bruner, Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, Roberta Golinkoff and Todd Rose, I consider why children return to favourite books time and again, and what adults can learn by paying attention.
Rather than rushing children towards the next milestone, perhaps confidence grows quietly through relationships, conversation and the reassuring rhythm of stories shared again and again.
Sometimes the greatest gift we can give a child is simply being willing to read the same story... just one more time.
Featuring Julie Benevento Ball - Wonder Begins with a Gecko (#Episode 13)
Children's author Julie Ball believes some of the biggest adventures begin with the smallest moments. In this episode of Stories from the Mat with Jan, we explore how a tiny gecko hiding behind a cinnamon broom became the inspiration for Tucker the Gecko and the Cinnamon Broom: Tucker's First Adventure.
Drawing on her years as a nanny and teacher, Julie shares why children are naturally curious, how stories help them connect with the natural world, and why following a child's lead encourages imagination, confidence and learning. We also discuss illustrations, bravery, wildlife and the joy of noticing the ordinary moments that so often become extraordinary stories.
Wonder Begins with Noticing (#Episode 14)
Following my conversation with children's author Julie Ball, I found myself reflecting on one simple idea: before children develop confidence or skills, they already possess something extraordinary—wonder.
Inspired by Julie's story of Tucker the gecko, this episode explores how curiosity begins with noticing the everyday moments that adults often overlook. Drawing on the work of Alison Gopnik and Rachel Carson, I reflect on why slowing down, spending time in nature and following a child's lead can nurture lifelong learning.
Perhaps wonder isn't something we need to teach children. Perhaps our role is simply to notice alongside them. Sometimes the smallest moments—a butterfly, a flower or a tiny gecko behind a cinnamon broom—become the beginning of a much bigger story.
Featuring Ruth Don Shevlin - The Stories We Carry Through Life (#Episode 15)
Children's author and illustrator Ruth Don Shevlin has spent a lifetime creating stories inspired by family, teaching and imagination. In this episode of Stories from the Mat with Jan, we explore the experiences behind Rebecca's Dream That Wasn't and Esmeralda and the Lollipop Tree, discovering how childhood memories, puppet shows, photography and everyday family life became the foundation for her books.
Ruth reflects on creativity, illustration, teaching and the importance of encouraging children to imagine, explore and enjoy reading. Our conversation is a gentle reminder that the stories children treasure often begin with the ordinary moments that adults sometimes overlook.
Perhaps We're More Creative Than We Think (#Episode 16)
Following my conversation with children's author Ruth Don Shevlin, I began thinking differently about creativity. Inspired by Ruth's stories of family life, imagination and storytelling, this reflection explores whether creativity is something we practise every day without even recognising it.
Drawing on the work of Sir Ken Robinson and Lev Vygotsky, I consider how creativity grows through relationships, play and everyday experiences rather than extraordinary talent. From baking with grandchildren and painting an old wardrobe to sharing family traditions and favourite stories, perhaps creativity is found in the ordinary moments that bring joy and connection.
Maybe creativity isn't something we discover.
Perhaps it's something we finally recognise.
The Things We Come To Appreciate (#Episode 17)
When I began these reflections, I thought I was simply responding to conversations with four wonderful children's authors.
What I didn't expect was how much they would change the way I saw the world.
Linda Murphy encouraged me to think differently about what "enough" really means. Laura Strachan reminded me that children don't always need new stories – sometimes they simply need familiar ones read with love. Julie Ball showed me that wonder begins with noticing, and Ruth Shevlin helped me recognise that creativity often lives quietly in the ordinary things we do every day.
This final reflection isn't a summary of the series. It's a chance to pause, look back and consider the things we've come to appreciate along the way.
I hope these conversations have encouraged you to notice the confidence, wonder and creativity already present in your own family life.
Thank you for joining me on the mat this series.
And as Julie would say... here's to a little more - (you'll have to watch the episode!)
Start here with other episodes-
Series 1
Episode 1: What Learning Feels Like
Before five, children aren't just learning skills.
They're learning what learning feels like.
And that feeling shapes who they become as learners.
[Watch on YouTube]
[Listen on Spotify, Apple, Amazon]
Episode 2: Confidence Before Curriculum
Why confidence often comes before formal learning, and why feeling safe enough to try matters more than we sometimes realise.
[Watch on YouTube]
[Listen on Spotify, Apple, Amazon]
Episode 3: Small Moments Shape Big Learners
How everyday moments quietly shape confidence, curiosity and learning.
[Watch on YouTube]
[Listen on Spotify, Apple, Amazon]
Episode 4: Is My Child Ready?
One of the most common questions parents and carers ask is:
"Is my child ready?"
We explore readiness drawing on the work of Urie Bronfenbrenner, Carol Dweck, Howard Gardner and Todd Rose, I reflect on why development happens in context, why children grow in different rhythms, and why the "average child" may be far less useful than we imagine.
[Watch on YouTube]
[Listen on Spotify, Apple, Amazon]
Episode 5: More than Just a story
Why do children ask for the same story again and again? we explore what stories do for children, why familiarity can be just as powerful as novelty, and how favourite stories become active learning experiences..
[Watch on YouTube]
[Listen on Spotify, Apple, Amazon]
Episode 6: Why Repetition Builds Confidence
Why do children ask for the same story over and over again?
Perhaps it isn't because they've forgotten.
Perhaps it's because they're becoming more capable each time they return.
In this week's episode of Stories from the Mat, I explore how repetition helps children build language, confidence and understanding, and why familiar stories often become powerful learning experiences. Because the story stays the same. The child doesn't.
[Watch on YouTube]
[Listen on Spotify, Apple, Amazon]
Episode 7: The Power of Ordinary Moments
In this episode we explore why ordinary moments matter and why family life offers so many opportunities for children to build confidence, responsibility and belonging.
Because learning isn't just about information.
It's about becoming.
[Watch on YouTube]
[Listen on Spotify, Apple, Amazon]
Episode 8: What are we really building?
Over eight episodes we've explored confidence, stories, readiness, repetition, relationships and the ordinary moments that shape childhood. And perhaps all of those conversations have been leading us towards the same idea.
Children are not simply learning facts.
They are learning what learning feels like.