By Amy White
The Texas Catholic
Resting at Christ’s feet for the healing of a leper or prancing by his side during the Wedding at Cana, a dog named Bono it a firsthand canine witness to the wonders of the Gospels in the podcast “Bono the Good Boy.”
Created by Kaitlyn Kulda, with the help of her husband, Derek Kulda, the podcast explores the Scripture stories through the eyes of Bono, a lovable pup who accompanies his new master, Jesus, during the preacher’s public ministry.
The concept of the podcast, Kaitlyn said, came to her late last year while she was up with her baby deep into the night. Having recently wrapped a dissertation, she found that her mind — typically bustling with academic deliberations — was uncharacteristically quiet.
“It was very strange all of a sudden to have nothing that I had to think about,” said Kaitly, who had previously studied psychology at the University of Dallas before earning a master’s degree in the psychology of human development from The Catholic University of America as well as a Ph.D. in developmental psychology from CUA. “I was like, ‘What am I supposed to think about right now?'”
Her thoughts soon wandered to her young children, Tripp and Evangeline, and to their faith formation.
“I realized … there’s all these secular characters that kids love, but there isn’t a matching Christian or Catholic character for toddlers,” said Kaitlyn, who attends both St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Parish in Richardson and All Saints Catholic Parish with her family. “I started thinking about what that would be.”
She soon landed on the character of Bono: a dog who could tag alongside the Savior, witnessing his miracles and moments of encounter without interrupting the Gospel scenes.
“The dog was always named Bono. I have no idea where it came from … but it means ‘good’” — a happy etymological accident, Kaitlyn suggested.
The Gospels as guides
Now in its second season, “Bono the Good Boy” has taken its starring pooch through several familiar scenes of Scripture — from the healing of the paralytic to the raising of Jairus’ daughter.
Each five-minute episode is structured around a bouncy set of stanzas, usually following an A-A-B-B rhyming scheme. This format is designed to appeal to the imaginations — and the attention spans — of toddlers and young children, Kaitlyn said; but the fact that the podcast’s target audience is of a toddling variety does not mean that the Gospel stories themselves must be diluted in the telling.
“It has been really important to me to not water down the Bible,” the podcaster shared, noting with some frustration that children’s Bibles so often skip important moments of salvation history, like the Crucifixion, altogether.
To keep her own retelling faithful, Kaitlyn said she has looked to the Gospel texts themselves as her trusty guides.
“I’ll read the Gospels — plural sometimes — and then I rewrite, especially the quotes, all versions of the quotes, in my notebook,” she shared. “It is actually really nice to have the Gospels as my guide. They are like a map.”
Pulling from the holy texts, Kaitlyn forms their contents into lilting lines of storytelling. Once those stanzas are complete and her parts of the script — the voices of the narrator and the female characters — are recorded, she hands the project to her husband, Derek, who spruces up the audio, as well as voicing the male characters. Finding the sound that is “just right” to set the scene, he said, has been a particularly rewarding part of the project for him; he has even trailed the family dog, Birdie, with a microphone to capture the barking and shaking and tail-wagging needed to make the podcast’s pup protagonist come to life.
“Is there mumbling in the background right now? Are we in a busy street? Or are we in an open field and there should be a breeze going by?” Derek asked. “When you find something that really works, that’s definitely when I get a little bit excited.”
‘Play it again!’
Still within its first year, the podcast has already amassed a couple thousand listeners, Kaitlyn said; and according to her analytics, those listeners are enjoying episodes again and again.
“Some of the episodes, the earlier ones, have over 100% listen rate,” she shared, “because all of the listeners, these thousands of kids, are just like, ‘Play it again! Play it again!’”
Rebecca Patton, a mother of two young daughters, said her children number among the many listeners who love to follow Bono’s adventures with Jesus. Each episode, she said, offers a creative, thoughtfully considered perspective on the Gospel stories, planting seeds of faith in young minds.
“I just got really excited that it was something that was age-appropriate and so faithful to these real biblical stories, to the real Gospel,” Patton said. “We’ll listen through all of them, and they’re like, ‘Again!’”
The Kuldas’ own children — now 1 and 3 years old, with a third one on the way — are also loyal listeners, Derek shared.
“They’re our test subject zero,” he remarked. “It’s always fun when they’re like, ‘Let’s listen to Bono!’”
Witnessing the way that God is already using “Bono the Good Boy” to foster faith in young children, including her own, has been moving, Kaitlyn said; but even if no one tuned in, the podcaster shared that she would still be grateful for the way the project has touched her own life by deepening her relationship with Scripture.
“I would just keep doing it even if no one was listening,” she said, “because it’s been so beautiful for my relationship with God.”
Cutline for featured image: Cover art for “Bono the Good Boy,” a podcast by Kaitlyn Kulda, is pictured. The podcast explores the stories of the Gospel through the eyes of a dog named Bono. (Courtesy art)
