SubwayTakes with Kareem Rahma has landed its best guest yet: Ms. Rachel. In the newest uncut episode of the internet talk show, the children’s content creator and activist delivered her five most “controversial” takes — though none of them actually feel that controversial if you believe in basic human decency.
In a perfect introduction for those who weren’t familiar with Ms. Rachel, Rahma opened the video by explaining to his Gen Z producers that she is “essentially the Mr. Rogers of today,” with one of them digging up online that she is “often called the Taylor Swift for toddlers.”
Fittingly, one of Ms. Rachel’s very thoughtful takes broke down how Mr. Rogers was inherently political. She also explained why some nursery rhymes and kids’ songs need to be retired while continuing to speak out against children in ICE detention centers and Israel’s genocide against Palestinians.
On a lighter note, Ms. Rachel extolled the virtues of pigeons and made a case for someone to open a puppet-run coffee shop in New York City.
Watch the full episode below, and read on for a breakdown of her Top 5 takes.
Ms. Rachel’s Top 5 Takes on SubwayTakes
1. Some Nursery Rhymes and Kids’ Songs Need to Be Retired
Ms. Rachel suggested that while some classic children’s songs can be updated with healthier parenting advice, others with racist origins need to be completely retired.
Some, I think, can be changed. I feel like the three little kittens should not be denied the pie. “Three little kittens, they lost their mittens, and they began to cry,” and then the mom’s like, “You naughty kittens, you can’t have any pie.”
I feel like she could give them some strategies for not losing the mittens all the time… and they could retrace their steps together. I’m actually going to do a new version on my show where [it’s like], “Let’s retrace our steps,” and they find the mittens.
“Peter, Peter pumpkin eater,” I’m so against. “Had a wife but couldn’t keep her.” He [keeps] his wife in a pumpkin shell, and she can’t get out. It’s not okay… The ones that really need to be retired are racist ones. We gotta retire “Jimmy Crack Corn,” “Oh! Susanna,” [and] “Eeny, meeny, miny, moe.”
People are like, “What will we do?” And I’m like, you know how many wonderful nursery rhymes and kid songs exist? And there wasn’t like a time when they were made, and like that time’s over. We can make new ones. It’s okay.”
2. Mr. Rogers Was Political
Pushing back against her own critics who say children’s educators should stay out of politics, Ms. Rachel highlighted Fred Rogers’ political statements on both his show and before Senate.
He shared the pool with Officer Clemmons, who’s Black, and at the time, some people were very upset that pools were no longer segregated. Actually, there was this horrific thing that happened. Black people were swimming in a hotel pool with white people, and the hotel owner threw acid in. It was so horrific.
He simply showed that you [could] share a pool with your wonderful Black friend and neighbor, and he shared his towel, and it was wonderful. For that time, it was huge. I’ve read that some people saw it, and in their family it wasn’t okay to share a pool, and they were like, “Oh, Mr. Rogers is doing it. It’s okay for our family now.”
So it did make a difference. People sometimes say to me or in the media, they’ll be like, “Ms. Rachel should be like Mr. Rogers and not be political.” He was political so much on the show. I think maybe they didn’t watch it or maybe weren’t paying attention because he did so many things.
He was against the nuclear arms race, and in his Neighborhood of Make-Believe, he had King Friday building bombs because he thought the other neighborhood, Southwood, was building bombs. So he wanted to have a million and one bomb parts for his bombs.
And then he was like, “Now we don’t have money for the music program ’cause you spent it all on bombs.” Queen Sara, the wife, was like, “Why did you spend the tax money on bombs? We should have spent it on these other awesome things.” And that was in the show.
Mr. Rogers had this huge statement in the show, and he testified before Senate. Nixon wanted to cut $10 million from the PBS budget and he testified in front of the Senate, and he just shared from his heart how much care goes into his show and how he helps [show] children feelings are manageable and mentionable. It was huge, and the very [serious] Senate guy was like, “You got your $20 million.”
It was so touching. It’s the coolest video. People should watch it on YouTube. He went to Senate and was like, “No, government. Don’t cut funding to PBS.” How political is that?
There’s a book called Peaceful Neighbor that I actually have five copies of, and I give it out to people. I love it — it talks all about how political he was. I’m wearing Mr. Rogers socks and… a cardigan as a shout-out to him.
3. No Child Should Be in an Immigration Detention Center — And the Genocide in Gaza Must End
Citing pediatric and UN reports, Ms. Rachel condemned the systemic abuse of children in immigration detention facilities and detailed the horrific impact of the Gaza war on children.
The children tell us it’s harmful. I’ve talked with some children, and the harm is so obvious. They tell us, and then research shows that it’s so harmful. The American Academy of Pediatrics shows… Like, why are we harming kids?
We don’t want to be people who abuse children. The medical neglect is abuse. So, they’re actually abusing children. And some pediatricians I’ve talked to have even said torture. Some autistic children in there, keeping the lights on 24 hours. Just that they’ve been unable to go to the bathroom to poop for nine days.
And as parents, that’s so wrong. Oh my gosh, there was a girl they neglected; she had this respiratory stuff. When they took her to the ICU, she had COVID and RSV. Her oxygen was like 52. So the medical neglect is abuse in there.
I love that quote by James Baldwin: “The children are always ours, every single one of them, all over the globe.” And it’s so true. They are our children. All the children. The adults of the world have a responsibility to take care of all of the kids. It’s one of our most sacred responsibilities, but we just keep killing and maiming and harming kids.
20,000 is the number [of children killed in Gaza] that’s reported, but then in the new report from the UN, there’s 5,000 [that] could be under the rubble. There’s so many children who died because they had preventable things.
There’s this one girl that breaks my heart. She starved to death because she had a wheat allergy. They let her starve to death and blocked the food and the treatment she needed. She died because of celiac.
There’s one girl that was starving to death because of a disorder that’s simply treated. I am so glad that PCRF, me, a few other people advocated and got her out. Now, she’s a regular weight.
There’s a kid with cystic fibrosis who was starving to death. His ribs were just — he was starving to death. And they got him out, and he’s a normal weight now.
There was this crazy argument that was like, but they have pre-existing conditions, so they can starve to death. I got in so much trouble because I said these kids are starving they should have food, and they were like, but they have pre-existing conditions. I’m like, food and medical care.
That was the craziest thing when I saw videos about me that were like, “She wants kids who have pre-existing conditions to get food and not starve to death.” I was like, yes, if a child has cerebral palsy and they’re starving to death, they also need the right care and the right support, and they need food.
It’s still happening. There are these kids with these swollen tummies. Gaza is still — I can’t remember the number of how many kids need to evacuate — but they’re just blocking them from medical care, and the moms are like, I’m watching my child die from something preventable. Sometimes both siblings have the disease and die in front of the parents.
Yeah, and it’s not as simple as, like, I lost a leg; let me get a prosthetic. Like Rahaf, who I met, her legs it’s cut off very high. She’s going to need, I think, most people who have an amputation as a child, they need like 20 surgeries or eight surgeries before they turn 20. Her life was completely changed by that. It’s just not something like, Oh, you know, just get it.
Why would we bomb kids and take their limbs and all of their schools and their hospitals and then say, “We can’t call this genocide,” when the UN said this is an intentional target of children.
Children were shot in the head and chest. I always think, Kareem, that like when this comes out, the world’s going to act. I’m like, “Oh, when the UN says it’s genocide with this report, the world’s going to act.” No. When the UN says in a special report that they’re targeting kids in a genocide, people are going to — And then, there’s two days where some of us say, “Hey, look at this.” And then it goes back to silence.
I’m so frustrated. I’m sorry.
4. We Should Be Nicer to Pigeons
Switching gears, Ms. Rachel defended pigeons by pointing to their parenting skills, intelligence, and street cleaning.
We should do a pigeon song. “Pigeons are our friends and neighbors. They clean the street by eating their crumbs.”
They’re shiny and beautiful. They mate for life, and the mom and dad share the responsibility of watching the egg 50/50. The dads make milk as well as the moms to feed the pigeon. They can count to nine. Pigeons can count. It’s been shown they can count to nine.
Gray parrots are like insane. There’s parrots online, they’ll be like, “What material?” And they’ll be like, “Wood.” “What material?” “Metal.” They answer questions. This guy taught a parrot a gray parrot to read. They’re so smart.
Yeah, that turned to a different take that we need to talk about how parrots talk more.
Guess what? There is a group of parakeets or parrots on Facebook that watch Ms. Rachel. They get lonely during the day and watch Ms. Rachel. They connect about it there.
5. There Should Be a Coffee Shop in NYC Run by Puppets
Wrapping up her list, Ms. Rachel suggested an interactive cafe run entirely by puppets.
We need to bring [puppets] back more ’cause when I was growing up, they were in a lot of shows. We could take kids in, and they would think it was cool. If puppets mess up, it’s more funny than frustrating. And the puppets can communicate what maybe baristas feel and they don’t get to say. One could be like, “Don’t use your phone in here.”
