‘Circle Round’ co-founders leave WBUR after feeling that they were ‘not a priority’

The co-founders of Circle Round, a children’s podcast produced at WBUR, are leaving the show to start an independent podcast company. 

But it’s not a fairytale ending to the nine-year relationship between the Boston station and the show’s co-founders, Rebecca Sheir and Eric Shimelonis.

“Eric and I got the message more and more through the years, ‘You’re not a priority,’” Sheir said in an interview. “… We just never felt like we mattered. And that was really, really hard, because we poured our hearts and souls into this show.”

The podcast features Sheir telling a story in each 15- to 25-minute episode, with celebrity actors voicing the characters. Shimelonis composed original music for the show. 

In a joint email to Current, Sheir and Shimelonis, who are married, say some of their problems with the working relationship with WBUR arose from being in a vendor contract with Boston University, the station’s licensee.

“This arrangement had inherent problems,” they wrote in the email. “… We carried all the responsibility for building Circle Round and developing the culture around it, but had zero authority in the management of the brand.  We persisted through these inherent challenges because we believed strongly in the work that we were doing, and we wanted to continue coming through for our wonderful fans around the world.”

In response to questions from Current, a WBUR spokesperson said the station is “grateful” to Sheir and Shimelonis “for every story told, every child reached and every bit of magic we created together over nine years. WBUR will continue to offer Circle Round with its beloved library of episodes — and we’re developing an exciting new direction for the podcast that builds on that legacy. We’re also deepening our commitment to quality kids’ podcasts, like The Midnight Rebellion, our new pick-your-own-path climate fiction podcast.”

‘Where’s my lion stuffie?’

Circle Round launched in 2017 after WBUR reached out to Sheir and Shimelonis about starting a podcast for kids, according to Sheir. She said that one challenge that later arose with WBUR was poor service to members of the show’s Circle Round Club, a program that started in 2023 to offer sponsor-free listening and other perks. Sheir and Shimelonis say that at last count, the club was grossing $300,000 annually.

“I would watch the Circle Round inbox as people asked, ‘Where’s my welcome box? Where’s my lion stuffie? Where’s my birthday message from Rebecca Sheir?’ The customer service was not happening,” Sheir said in an interview. “I watched helplessly as WBUR would not respond to people’s emails. Not even, ‘I lost my job, I need to cancel my membership.’ It would take ’BUR sometimes weeks to respond to people. And I was told, ‘Stay in your lane. You’re not allowed to respond to them. We’ll take care of the business.’”

“Fan engagement is very important to me,” she said. “And so it was really hard to watch the fans be ignored.”

The connection with fans is different for hosts of a kids’ podcast than for news podcast hosts, Sheir said. When she worked for WAMU in Washington, D.C., “I would have fans approach me and say, ‘Rebecca Sheir, I love the thoughtful, comprehensive, in-depth reporting that you do.’ With Circle Round, it’s like, ‘My kid can’t fall asleep without you.’”

Sheir and Shimelonis said they considered walking away from WBUR in 2023, but a special projects manager at the station helped them make progress on some of their concerns and negotiate a three-year contract, their first contract longer than a year. The project manager helped start the Circle Round Club and create a live events agreement, which had not existed even though Sheir and Shimelonis had already been staging live shows. 

But the special projects manager’s position was eliminated shortly after they signed the three-year contract, which expired at the end of May. 

“This departure compounded our problems, as the infrastructure for the Circle Round Club was lacking,” they wrote.

The founders said the past year was their hardest yet “as the growth of the podcast and our increased aspirations came into even starker contrast with dysfunctional management systems that never worked for us, and that were never remedied.”

In 2024, Circle Round ended live events due to “an ongoing lack of support from WBUR,” the founders said. They said that after restarting events in early 2025, they had to cancel shows after Boston University’s procurement department “was taking months to complete our venue rental contracts,” they wrote. The pair decided not to renew their live-performance contract, which ended in February.

They said that BU’s legal department also froze all Circle Round business from September to the end of January while determining whether the founders were eligible to be independent contractors, despite what they call a “very lengthy” contract that BU drew up when the podcast started in 2017. 

“This process came with zero communication or transparency, and caused significant damage to what feelings of confidence, safety, or security” remained, they wrote.  

A BU spokesperson declined to comment.

‘A new chapter’

Sheir said WBUR also prevented her and Shimelonis from preparing Circle Round listeners for their departure. They gave WBUR notice of their decision not to renew their contract in early March. 

Sheir said she told WBUR that she wanted to share with fans throughout May that she and Shimelonis would be leaving the show. Instead, she said, WBUR locked her out of the show’s email and social media accounts because it didn’t want her to share the news.

In their final episode, released May 26, Sheir briefly said it was her and Shimelonis’ last week at Circle Round. She said the “world of Circle Round will continue to live on here at WBUR” and that she and Shimelonis would be starting “a new chapter.” 

“The number of people who have told me tears have been shed by children and grown-ups alike, it breaks my heart,” she said. “I was hoping to prepare them more.” 

Sheir and Shimelonis do not own the intellectual property to Circle Round, but Shimelonis does own the rights to the music he created, Sheir said. 

Now they are raising money through GoFundMe to start Lions and Legends, a new podcast for kids. They had raised more than $18,000 of their $100,000 goal as of Thursday morning. 

They plan to launch with a trio of episodes Sept. 1, she said.

“Our dream is to have a whole suite of podcasts for kids and families, for listeners of all ages,” she said. She added that some of the familiar voices who played supporting characters in Circle Round will work with them on their new project.  

“It breaks our hearts to leave Circle Round,” the pair wrote on the GoFundMe page. “But we’re determined to give our tale a ‘happily ever after’ ending.”