When the opportunity to interview Kenny and Jillian crossed my desk, I donned my winged sandals and zoomed to reply. The duo are the creators behind the immensely entertaining Greeking Out podcast from National Geographic Kids and the authors of the popular Greeking Out book series. My eight-year-old grabbed their first two books from the library and quickly requested his own personal copies. For the last year, they have been his constant companions – in the car, at a restaurant, on the couch. Pandora’s Box was opened – except this time, entertaining and enlightening 
Greek mythology flowed forth. Whew! My son has taught me more than a college course could!
It is with this “fan girl” background that I had the opportunity to read GREEKING OUT: TALES FROM THE UNDERWORLD, the newest addition to the series – and just in time for Halloween! The book retells 20 bone-chilling myths about the afterlife with the humor and kid-friendly voice that makes the entire series irresistible.
Let’s hop in Charon’s boat and visit the underworld in all its spooky story glory!
Emily Starr: My son is a huge fan of your first two books: Greeking Out: Epic Retellings of Classic Greek Myths and Greeking Out: Heroes and Olympians. What lead you to choose “Tales from the Underworld” as the theme for this collection? (It is difficult to express how excited my son is to read it!)
Jillian and Kenny: I’m so glad your son is excited! We’ve heard from readers that the Underworld is a fan favorite, so we figured this would be a great theme for our third book. There are a ton of great stories here, not just about the Underworld itself, but also about things like immortality, love, family dynamics, and death, of course.
The podcast regularly features “field trips” where we retell myths from outside of ancient Greece, but this is our first book that includes stories from mythologies around the world. It’s fascinating how every culture has some concept of the Underworld and the afterlife, and we hope readers enjoy learning about these different mythologies.
Emily Starr: My son learned about Greek Mythology in second grade and that is how he came to find your books. Many of our readers are educators, so what are some ways you suggest your books can be used in the classroom? Are there specific read aloud techniques or activities you recommend?
Jillian and Kenny: We love hearing this! We want these books to be used in the classroom as much as possible. National Geographic Kids put together an Educator’s Guide that features discussion questions and activities that would work well for any of the Greeking Out books:
https://books.disney.com/content/uploads/2024/07/GreekingOut-EducatorsGuide-Update-8844-FINAL.pdf
Emily Starr: Authors also frequent our blog. Can you please share with them how you approach retelling a “classic” story with a fresh take? For example, do you use a specific process or ask yourself a set of questions to breathe new life into a story passed down over generations?
Jillian and Kenny: We always start by doing a lot of research. We’ll read as many different versions of the story as we can and then meet with our producer and subject experts to understand the story from a historical perspective. It’s important that we stick to the plot as closely as possible (we want to make Homer proud), but we’ll add fresh takes to the way we portray the characters. We incorporate humor and jokes to try and establish more of a personality for some of these famous characters. And if they make any questionable decisions —which unfortunately, they do a lot —- we’ll comment on that in a humorous way and point out why we now know that’s wrong.
Emily Starr: In the introduction, you joke about asking really big questions like: “What do you call that little metal thing right below the eraser on a pencil?” So, right away readers are clued in that this isn’t going to be a book of stiff retellings. Can you share a bit about how you see the role of humor when exploring themes of death?
Jillian and Kenny: Humor is essential to the way we choose to tell these stories. Especially with scarier topics, humor is a great way to remind readers that this is just pretend. It also promotes a love of learning. Our goal is to make readers fall in love with mythology, and we’ve found humor to be a great way to do that.
Emily Starr: You pack so much rich information into sidebars. Why did you feel it was important to include facts beyond the story?
Jillian and Kenny: That’s part of the beauty of working with National Geographic Kids. These stories aren’t just entertaining, they’re also incredibly educational. We want kids to learn something about the world while reading this book. The sidebars are the perfect way to promote learning in a quick, fun way.
Emily Starr: If you had to choose a favorite story in this book, what would it be and why? (I know that is a difficult question because I had a very hard time choosing. Although, Princess: 1, Death: 0 is a top contender.)
Jillian: I also love Princes: 1, Death: 0! Savitri is such a great role model. But I also love The World’s Worst Love Story. I had a lot of fun writing that one!
Kenny: Those two are also some of my favs! I also like “War and Death: A Love Story”, because it shows how you can sometimes find happiness and love in very unlikely places – and I really like the story of Odysseus and the Sirens.
Emily Starr: Can you share a bit about what’s coming next?
Jillian and Kenny: We’re working on another season of Greeking Out which will debut this month (October) on YouTube Kids, and a 4th book in the Greeking Out series is in the works. Stay tuned!
JILLIAN HUGHES is a professional writer with her heart in the kids and family industry. She’s a writer for National Geographic Kids’ Greeking Out podcast series and has contributed to other platforms including Pinna, Tinkercast, and iHeart. She also works as a copywriter, crafting marketing collateral for numerous industries. While she enjoys working with all her clients, she is especially partial to collaborating with Kenny—who just happens to be her dad.
KENNY CURTIS has more than 30 years in children’s programming as a performer, writer, and producer. He is one of the creators of National Geographic Kids’ Greeking Out podcast series, which he hosts and cowrites alongside his daughter, Jillian Hughes. Together, Kenny and Jillian have helped develop a number of well-known kids’ content offerings for partners and platforms like Pinna, Tinkercast, Kidz Bop, and 8 Pound Gorilla Records. But Kenny may be best known as the human behind the long-running radio program The Animal Farm on SiriusXM’s original family music channel, Kids Place Live.
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As a former fourth grade teacher and founder of StarrMatica, a STEM publishing company, Emily Starr has developed award-winning K-5 science curriculum and professional learning materials for 20 years. She is a member of the Iowa State Science Leadership Team, a peer reviewer for the National Science Teaching Association’s journal Science and Children, and a frequent presenter at state and national education conferences. Her debut middle grade nonfiction book will be released in 2026 from the Iowa Ag Literacy Foundation.
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Emily is a reluctant daredevil, joining her husband in sky diving, cliff jumping, white water rafting, and hundreds of scuba diving adventures including diving with sharks. But, Emily’s favorite thing to do is read and write STEM-themed nonfiction picture books (and middle-grade!) Emily lives in Iowa where she enjoys exploring nature with her two boys, and she holds her library’s record for the most books checked out at one time–185!
Emily is a member of the Iowa State Science Leadership Team and a reviewer for NSTA's journal Science and Children. She has received five highly competitive Small Business Innovation Research grants, the Prometheus Award, District Administration's Top Products Award, and the Iowa Entrepreneur of the Year Award. You can learn more about Emily’s work on StarrMatica.com
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