🚂 Now boarding: The Story Trains Book Club — free classic tales for little kids. Join free →
🚂 About the Story Trains

A whole world,
told with trains.

Made by 3DadsLabs Studios, the Story Trains are gentle picture books — and cozy read-along videos — where every friend is a little engine with a big heart. We tell stories with trains because a train is the perfect little vehicle for a big feeling: it can carry a child somewhere scary and bring them safely home again. Every story is built to help little ones name what they feel, find their courage, and fall in love with reading — and to turn story time into the warmest, most connected part of the day. It's a whole world you can trust: warm books, narrated read-alongs, coloring pages, and gentle lessons, all held together by the kind of storytelling that rewards a second read and sparks a real conversation long after the last page.

What we believe

How we make things

A few simple beliefs shape every Story Train — and, quietly, so does a little early-childhood science.

🚂

Stories are vehicles

A story can carry a child somewhere scary and bring them home safe. That's the whole job of a Story Train.

🤝

Connection over content

The goal isn't more screen time or more pages. It's the conversation a book creates between a grown-up and a kid.

🌱

Safe to feel big feelings

Scared, sad, shy, mad — all welcome on this train. We never rush a feeling; we ride alongside it.

🎓 There's real learning tucked inside every story — a quiet little curriculum shaped with Beth Richman, a Harvard-trained early-childhood researcher who helped make Sesame Street into Sesame Street. Meet the expert →

Meet the makers · 3DadsLabs Studios

The three dads

The three dads of 3DadsLabs, drawn as trains in lab coats

It started the way a lot of good things do — with bedtime. Three dads, a pile of picture books, and a shared hunch that stories are the gentlest way to help a child feel a big feeling and come out the other side. So they built a lab for it — 3DadsLabs Studios — where everything they make is designed to be additive.

Dave Goetsch, drawn as a train in a lab coat

Dave Goetsch

Writer and storyteller. Dave shapes the heart of each story — the warm rhythm meant to be read aloud. An Emmy-nominated writer and producer, he spent twelve seasons writing and executive-producing The Big Bang Theory, the longest-running multi-cam sitcom in TV history.

▸ Learn more

Dave is an Emmy-nominated television writer, producer, and entrepreneur whose work bridges Hollywood storytelling and real-world learning. He's best known for his twelve-season run on The Big Bang Theory — 279 episodes translated into dozens of languages and loved by fans from Los Angeles to Beijing.

He got his start on NBC's 3rd Rock from the Sun, rising from staff writer to co-executive producer and co-showrunner (alongside Jason Venokur) and penning a standout episode that earned Laurie Metcalf an Emmy nomination. Across it all, Dave has made a career of turning complex ideas into stories that resonate with millions — the same instinct he now brings to the Story Trains.

Ross Venokur, drawn as a train in a lab coat

Ross Venokur

Author and idea engine. Ross keeps every story honest about big feelings while making sure it still ends in the light. He's written and directed three independent animated feature films and pioneered high-performing short-form series for partners like Baby Einstein (Kids2) and Crayola.

▸ Learn more

Ross is a writer, director, and creative force working at the intersection of storytelling, innovation, and independent spirit. He has written and directed three independent animated feature films — each made outside the studio system yet rivaling it in ambition, artistry, and heart.

A pioneer of short-form animation, he built high-performing digital series for partners including Kids2 (Baby Einstein) and Crayola, where his reboot of a struggling franchise lifted engagement from under 30% to over 85% and drove viewership into the millions. He also co-created and produced an original animated series with global YouTube phenomenon Walk Off The Earth (arriving 2026), and earlier authored four children's books for Bantam and Simon & Schuster. Through 3DadsLabs and Story Trains, Ross now builds new creative pipelines that fuse AI, data, and human imagination.

Jason Venokur, drawn as a train in a lab coat

Jason Venokur

Builder and studio glue. Jason turns bedtime hunches into books, videos, and activities families can actually hold. A Golden Globe–winning, Humanitas-nominated writer-producer, he's long worked where storytelling meets new technology — from Hollywood's first digital film editor to network TV's first CGI sitcom.

▸ Learn more

Jason is a Golden Globe–winning and Humanitas Award–nominated writer-producer who keeps finding himself where storytelling meets groundbreaking technology. He was Hollywood's first digital editor on a film set, created network television's first CGI sitcom (Game Over), and produced — with Ross — one of the most talked-about NFTs in history when John Cleese "sold" the Brooklyn Bridge.

As a showrunner he helmed hit comedies including NBC's 3rd Rock from the Sun, and has sold feature scripts to nearly every major studio; he attached Spike Lee to direct his Ellis Island drama, has a horror film shooting in Spain, and is set to direct his own romantic comedy, Hire Love. At YouTube he helped revive the Baby Einstein brand for a new generation. With Story Trains, Jason meets AI where it is — as a creative partner, not a gimmick — to reimagine how timeless stories reach kids today.

Why 3DadsLabs? Because everything we make is designed to be additive — it adds something to a child's day, a family's evening, a hard moment. We're a lab: we try, we listen, we make the next thing a little better.

Beth Richman, drawn as a train conductor with glasses, an apple, and books
The education behind the stories

Guided by Beth Richman

Three dads with good instincts is a nice start. But we wanted to be sure — so we brought in Beth Richman: Harvard-trained, and one of the researchers behind the work that made Sesame Street into Sesame Street.

For two decades she's helped the shows you already trust — Sesame, the Fred Rogers folks, PBS — keep the fun stuff and the good stuff as the same stuff. With Beth, we built a quiet little curriculum and tucked it inside every story. So when your child rides along with a nervous Piglet Train through a long, dark tunnel, they're not getting a lecture — they're learning to name a big feeling, try a brave thing, and chug gently forward when the world feels too big. And they'll never once notice they're learning anything.

Harvard-trained Sesame Street research The Fred Rogers Company PBS KIDS
The learning inside

📚 More than a bedtime story

Our books look simple on purpose — but there's real early-childhood thinking under the hood.

🧠

Naming feelings builds regulation

Research shows kids who can name an emotion are better able to manage it. Our stories give feelings a face — and a name — so children have the words when they need them.

💬

The conversation is the lesson

Each book ends with a gentle prompt. That after-the-page moment — grown-up and child talking — is where the real learning happens.

🔁

Repetition that reassures

Repeatable lines and predictable rhythm aren't just fun to read aloud — they help little ones feel safe and in control of the story.

🌍

Gentle, never preachy

We let the characters carry the weight. No lectures, no morals stamped on top — just a story kids want to ride again.

Say hello 👋

Questions, school orders, or a note about how a book landed with your kid? We read every message.

✉️ hello@thestorytrains.com Watch on YouTube