PODCAST · kids
Compass & Codex
by Reed Sterling
Adventure history and adventure science — fiction stories for boys. Compass & Codex is a serialized storytelling podcast for boys ages 8–14 and the families who read with them. Every episode is a chapter of an ongoing story: fire ant scouts, Roman legions, pirates, and more — told with real biology, real history, and real stakes. We explore the unknown, every time. Current series: - Colony in Danger (fire ant adventure fiction) - Eagle's Edge (Roman historical fiction). New chapters every week. Subscribe and start from Chapter 1. Hosted by Reed Sterling. For fans of Watership Down, Redwall, the Warriors series, Empires of the Undergrowth, and anyone who wants adventure fiction that respects the reader.
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Treasure Island: CH 1 | A Scarred Pirate Moves Into a Cliffside Inn | Classic Pirate Adventure Audiobook
Send us Fan MailJim Hawkins has never left the Admiral Benbow Inn. Then Billy Bones arrives.He’s a weathered, scar-faced pirate who takes the corner table by the window and never takes his eyes off the road. He pays in strange foreign coins, drinks rum from morning to night, and whispers warnings about a seafaring man with one leg. Jim takes his money. And watches the road too.Treasure Island — Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic adventure retold for boys ages 8-14. New chapters weekly. Narrated by Reed Sterling.For fans of pirates, buried treasure, and stories where ordinary kids get pulled into extraordinary danger.Never Stop Exploring Unknown Worlds.Remember: Never stop exploring unknown worlds!
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Colony in Danger: CH 9 | Trapped in Beetle Territory | Fire Ant Adventure Story
Send us Fan MailFire ants don't enter beetle territory. Cinder Marlowe just did — and now his whole team is locked in a hollow log while the beetles prepare to use them as bait at dawn.This fire ant adventure story follows Cinder, Blaze, Thistle, and Silas as they cross the border, face Rook Calder, and discover something nobody expected: the beetles are starving too.For fans of Empires of the Undergrowth and AntsCanada — Colony in Danger is built on real fire ant science. The border marking system, territorial behavior, and colony starvation dynamics in this chapter are all grounded in how fire ant colonies actually work.▶ Start from Chapter 1 of this story: A Colony In Danger📧 Get the Free Ant Codex Field Report: compass-codex.kit.com/ant-codex-subscribe---Colony in Danger follows Cinder Marlowe, a fire ant scout who discovers his colony's food stores are being systematically stolen — and nobody in charge will listen. Every chapter is grounded in real fire ant science: colony structure, forager behavior, territorial marking, predator threats, and the biology of how fire ant colonies actually survive.For boys who love ants, insects, and real-world science wrapped in a story that doesn't talk down to them. New chapters weekly on Compass & Codex.Read by Reed Sterling. Never Stop Exploring Unknown Worlds.#FireAnts #AntColony #ColonyInDangerRemember: Never stop exploring unknown worlds!
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Brickhaven: CH 1 | Boy Wakes Up Inside His Own LEGO World | A LEGO Fan Fiction Adventure Story
Send us Fan MailMax built a LEGO town called Brickhaven. Every wall, every street, every guard. Then he woke up inside it — one-and-a-half inches tall. And they closed the gates.Brickhaven Ep.1 follows Max across the vast landscape of his bedroom floor — now a wilderness at minifig scale — to the walls of the town he built with his own hands. When he gets there, the guards raise their spears.For fans of the LEGO Movie and Minecraft. Fan fiction at it's best.▶ Start the series from Ep.1: You're here!---LEGO fans — if you woke up inside your own build, what's the first thing you'd fix about it?Minecraft players — Max is about to discover his world has expanded beyond what he designed. Sound familiar?---Brickhaven is a LEGO adventure story for boys 8-14. Max, age 10, built a LEGO town called Brickhaven. When he wakes up inside it at minifig scale, he discovers his creation has come fully to life — and locked him out. A story about building things and refusing to be told you don't belong in what you made.New chapters every Monday on Compass & Codex. Read by Reed Sterling.Never Stop Exploring Unknown Worlds.#LEGO #LEGOAnimation #LEGOAdventureRemember: Never stop exploring unknown worlds!
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Colony in Danger: CH 8 | Three Fire Ants Step Outside for the First Time | Boys Adventure Audiobook
Send us Fan MailThey’ve been underground their entire lives. The world outside is enormous. And it is trying to kill them.In this episode, Cinder, Blaze, and Thistle emerge from the maintenance tunnel at dawn into the outside world for the first time. Thistle immediately begins mapping landmarks. Blaze leads through the dense grass. They detour around a colony of black ants defending their territory. They encounter a vast puddle. They build a leaf boat. Then Silas Venn appears behind them — and reveals he planted the shell evidence to make someone investigate. Then a water strider approaches. And the four ants paddle for their lives.Colony in Danger Part One ends here. The adventure continues in Part Two.📖 Buy the full Colony in Danger Part 1 audiobook: Coming Soon!📧 Free Ant Codex field reports: https://compass-codex.kit.com/ant-codex-subscribeThe world is bigger and more dangerous than anything the colony could have taught them. Grass stems become a forest. A puddle becomes an ocean. And trust — built across seven episodes — gets tested when Silas’ secret is revealed. This reluctant reader and homeschool audiobook series concludes Part One with the four ants on open water, a water strider bearing down on them, and a mission that is only just beginning.Fire ant behavior in this episode: real foraging and navigation strategies, includinglandmark mapping and scent-trail use.Part Two of Colony in Danger is coming. Subscribe so you don’t miss it!!Remember: Never stop exploring unknown worlds!
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Colony in Danger: CH 7 | The Colony Healer Was Waiting in the Dark | Boys Adventure Audiobook
Send us Fan MailThey were ready to sneak out before dawn. Then someone stepped out of the shadows. She already knew everything.In this episode, the colony healer Silke Greer reveals she overheard their plans — and instead of stopping them, she helps. She teaches Cinder, Blaze, and Thistle how to mask their scent from predators, how to find water in the dry terrain, and how to approach Moss Wren, the territorial spider that guards the path west. Then she makes them promise to return in five days. At dawn, three young fire ants slip through the maintenance tunnel and emerge into the outside world for the first time.Colony in Danger is a serialized adventure audiobook for boys ages 8–14 and families.Start from Episode 1. New episodes weekly.📖 Buy the full Colony in Danger Part 1 audiobook: Coming Soon!📧 Free Ant Codex field reports: https://compass-codex.kit.com/ant-codex-subscribeSilke Greer was once adventurous too. She shares the knowledge she gained collecting medicinal herbs beyond the colony boundary — scent-masking herb bundles, water sources, the territorial spider Moss Wren. She gives Thistle a salve for emergencies. The scent-masking behavior in this episode is based on real chemical defense mechanisms used by fire ants when navigating foreign territory. This homeschool audiobook and reluctant reader series is built on accurate fire ant biology.Question: What’s the first thing you’d do if you emerged from underground for the first time?Remember: Never stop exploring unknown worlds!
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Colony in Danger: CH 6 | The Ant Colony Has Four Days of Food Left | Boys Adventure Audiobook
Send us Fan MailFour days of food. An injured scout barely alive, whispering about “rolling thieves.” The tunnels sealed. And a maintenance passage just barely wide enough for three young ants.In this episode, hunger grips the Fire Ant Kingdom. An injured scout is carried in — Harper Blackwood, missing two legs, gasping a warning before losing consciousness. Captain Selwick seals the tunnels and declares a colony-wide emergency. That evening Cinder makes his final argument. Thistle and Blaze say yes. They make a pact to leave at dawn.Colony in Danger is a serialized adventure audiobook for boys ages 8–14 and families.Start from Episode 1. New episodes weekly.📖 Buy the full Colony in Danger Part 1 audiobook: Coming Soon!📧 Free Ant Codex field reports: https://compass-codex.kit.com/ant-codex-subscribeThe stakes reach their highest point inside the colony. Three days of rationing havechanged the mood from anxiety to fear. Harper Blackwood’s warning about “rolling thieves” gives the pill bug theory a name. The tunnels are sealed. And Cinder, Blaze, and Thistle make the decision that will change everything. This episode’s ant biology focus: real fire ant emergency responses to food scarcity, including tunnel sealing and colony lockdown behaviors documented in fire ant research.Question: The point of no return. What would you sacrifice to save your colony?Remember: Never stop exploring unknown worlds!
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Colony in Danger: CH 5 | Three Young Ants Plan to Break Colony Law | Boys Adventure Audiobook
Send us Fan MailCinder has a plan. Blaze says it’s suicide. Thistle has done the math. The colony has four days of food left.In this episode, Cinder gathers Blaze and Thistle and proposes the mission: slip outbeyond the colony boundaries to investigate the pill bugs before the food runs outcompletely. Silas Venn discovers their meeting place and refuses to report them. The debate gets heated. Then Etta announces another ration cut — and the trio watches larvae go to bed hungry. The decision becomes inevitable.Colony in Danger is a serialized adventure audiobook for boys ages 8–14 and families.Start from Episode 1. New episodes weekly.📖 Buy the full Colony in Danger Part 1 audiobook: Coming Soon!📧 Free Ant Codex field reports: https://compass-codex.kit.com/ant-codex-subscribeCinder presents his theory and his plan to break the Queen’s decree. Blaze objectsimmediately: the punishment for disobedience is reassignment to the deepest fungus farms. Thistle runs the probability calculations. Silas arrives uninvited and reveals that his mentor — one of the missing scouts — has not been found. Watching young larvae go hungry that evening, Thistle’s resistance begins to crack. This reluctant reader audiobook series builds real decision-making stakes into every chapter — the social penalty system in fire ant colonies for rule-breaking is real.Question: Would you go? Leave your answer in the comments.Remember: Never stop exploring unknown worlds!
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Colony in Danger: CH 4 | The Ant Queen Orders No One Leaves | Adventure Audiobook Boys
Send us Fan MailQueen Aureline addresses the entire colony. The decree is absolute: no ant — especially no young ant — ventures beyond the inner boundaries. Cinder, Blaze, and Thistle have three days before the food runs out.In this episode, the Queen’s announcement sends panic through the Grand Chamber. Cinder sneaks into the record chamber that night to find ancient accounts of pill bug territorial disputes — and what he finds in Note’s scrolls changes everything. The mission is no longer a theory. It’s a race.Colony in Danger is a serialized adventure audiobook for boys ages 8–14 and families.Start from Episode 1. New episodes weekly.📖 Buy the full Colony in Danger Part 1 audiobook: Coming Soon!📧 Free Ant Codex field reports: https://compass-codex.kit.com/ant-codex-subscribeThe Queen restricts all movement. Cinder, Blaze, and Thistle meet in their secret hideout near the eastern tunnels. Thistle maps the surrounding territory from scout stories. Blaze prepares for danger. And Cinder breaks one more rule — entering the record chamber to read Note’s ancient scrolls. What he finds confirms the pill bug theory. And confirms the colony has faced this before. This reluctant reader audiobook series weaves real ant biology throughout — the colony’s food rationing system in this episode reflects actual fire ant survival behavior during resource scarcity.If you were Cinder, would you obey the decree?Remember: Never stop exploring unknown worlds!
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Colony in Danger: CH 3 | Ant Scouts Are Vanishing. No One Can Explain It. | Boys Adventure Audiobook
Send us Fan MailTwo more scouts vanished during the night patrol. The disappearances are moving closer. And Cinder just found a piece of shell that doesn’t belong to any ant.In this episode, the colony wakes to an emergency meeting. Cinder, Blaze, and Thistle eavesdrop from a hidden tunnel junction and learn the food shortage is far worse than anyone is publicly admitting. Then Cinder discovers something in the supply room that Thistle identifies as pill bug shell — a creature that shouldn’t be anywhere near their territory. The investigation is now a mission.Colony in Danger is a serialized adventure audiobook for boys ages 8–14 and families.Start from Episode 1. New episodes weekly.For fans of Watership Down, Empires of the Undergrowth, and AntsCanada.📖 Buy the full Colony in Danger Part 1 audiobook: Coming Soon!📧 Free Ant Codex field reports: https://compass-codex.kit.com/ant-codex-subscribeThe disappearances follow a pattern moving toward the colony. Cinder finds a piece of pill bug shell in the supply room — a creature whose territory is far to the west, beyond the meadow. Thistle identifies it. Blaze wants to take it to Captain Selwick. Cinder wants to investigate themselves. Three young ants, one dangerous idea, and zero authority to pursue it. This reluctant reader and homeschool audiobook series is built on real fire ant biology and colony behavior.What would you do with the shell evidence?Remember: Never stop exploring unknown worlds!
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Colony in Danger: CH 2 | Fire Ant Colony Food Is Vanishing Overnight | Ant Audiobook Boys 8-14
Send us Fan MailA third of the colony’s food has vanished overnight. Nobody knows why. And the keeper in charge of the stores is pretending everything is fine.In this episode of the Compass & Codex ant adventure audiobook for boys, Cinder, Blaze, and Thistle notice the missing food, confront the keeper Etta Lorne, spy on a secret military briefing from a ledge above the Grand Chamber — and learn that three patrol ants never came back last night. Not even a shell.Colony in Danger is a serialized ant adventure for boys ages 8–14, reluctant readers, and homeschool families. Start from Episode 1 — every chapter picks up where the last ended.For fans of Watership Down, Empires of the Undergrowth, and AntsCanada.📖 Buy the full Colony in Danger Part 1 audiobook: Coming Soon!📧 Free Ant Codex field reports: https://compass-codex.kit.com/ant-codex-subscribeThe food stores are depleted and nobody is explaining why. Cinder, Blaze, and Thistle investigate — sneaking through maintenance tunnels to spy on Queen Aureline’s emergency briefing with Captain Selwick. Three scouts are missing. The Queen knows things she hasn’t told the colony. And the Queen has been asking about Cinder by name. This homeschool audiobook and reluctant reader series uses accurate fire ant biology — the colony structure, food storage systems, and patrol behavior in this episode are all real.Who — or what — is taking the food? Leave your theory in the comments.Remember: Never stop exploring unknown worlds!
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Colony in Danger: CH 1 | Fire Ant Scout Dreams of the Patrol | Ant Audiobook Boys 8-14
Send us Fan MailCinder Marlowe wants to be a scout. He’s a food sorter. Today, that changes.In this episode of the Compass & Codex ant adventure audiobook for boys, Cinder sneaks away before dawn to watch Captain Bram Selwick lead the morning patrol through the Fire Ant Kingdom’s main tunnel. He meets his best friends Blaze and Thistle, watches Queen Aureline make her daily inspection, and makes a decision that will set everything in motion.Colony in Danger is a serialized ant adventure series for boys ages 8–14, reluctant readers, and homeschool families. The biology is real. The colony is real. Start here — every chapter picks up where the previous one ended.For fans of Watership Down, the Warriors series, Redwall, and Empires of the Undergrowth.📖 Coming Soon! Buy the full Colony in Danger Part 1 audiobook📧 Free Ant Codex field reports: https://compass-codex.kit.com/ant-codex-subscribeChapter One of Colony in Danger. Cinder Marlowe is a young fire ant worker assigned to food sorting duty in the colony’s storage chambers. He craves adventure and watches with longing as Captain Selwick’s scouts march past in perfect formation. When the stern colony keeper Etta Lorne catches him shirking, she scolds him — but softens when he helps her count rations. His friends Blaze (strong, dependable) and Thistle (observant, analytical) bring him back to earth. This serialized adventure audiobook is designed for boys ages 8–14, reluctant readers, and homeschool families. The biology is accurate. Every antbehavior in this story is drawn from real fire ant colony science.Question for this episode: What does Cinder see at the edge of his patrol route that he wasn’t supposed to find?Remember: Never stop exploring unknown worlds!
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Adventure history and adventure science — fiction stories for boys. Compass & Codex is a serialized storytelling podcast for boys ages 8–14 and the families who read with them. Every episode is a chapter of an ongoing story: fire ant scouts, Roman legions, pirates, and more — told with real biology, real history, and real stakes. We explore the unknown, every time. Current series: - Colony in Danger (fire ant adventure fiction) - Eagle's Edge (Roman historical fiction). New chapters every week. Subscribe and start from Chapter 1. Hosted by Reed Sterling. For fans of Watership Down, Redwall, the Warriors series, Empires of the Undergrowth, and anyone who wants adventure fiction that respects the reader.
HOSTED BY
Reed Sterling
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