Podcasts

The podcast will deliver the latest insights from researchers and practitioners in early reading. Via a conversational approach, each episode explores a timely topic related to the science of reading.

In this podcast, you will explore the relationship between spoken and written language, including a very important difference: spoken language evolved but writing is an invention: the original information technology. The podcast visits new topics such as how written languages reflect the unique properties of their particular spoken languages and much more.

Scientific research has shown how children learn to read and how they should be taught. But many educators don't know the science and, in some cases, actively resist it. As a result, millions of kids are being set up to fail.

For decades, schools have taught children the strategies of struggling readers, using a theory about reading that cognitive scientists have repeatedly debunked. And many teachers and parents don't know there's anything wrong with it.

This podcast investigates the achievement gap and solutions on how schools can begin closing it. There is a discussion on whether or not school's curriculum is to blame, as well as what schools can do to move forward.

This podcast explores the relationship between spoken and written language, including a very important difference: spoken language evolved but writing is an invention: the original information technology. There is a review of some topics such as how written languages reflect the unique properties of their particular spoken languages, how people learn to read, and human learning.

This podcast explores the intersections of literacy, race, and equity. They talk about the history and current manifestations of literacy as cultural capital and how it is used as a tool to support white supremacy and the white power structure and keep others, mainly Black Americans, in a lowered social class. We also discuss potential solutions as we reimagine a more equitable American society that broadly shares access to power and capital through literacy.

APM Reports correspondent Emily Hanford started wondering how kids learn to read while she was reporting on the large number of college students who aren't academically ready. She was surprised to learn that 40 percent of college students have to take remedial or developmental classes before they even get into a college-level class. Many of the students she talked with told her they had dyslexia, but it had gone unaddressed for years. In this podcast, Hanford discusses reading instruction in the U.S. and why it is not setting students up for success.

A false assumption about what it takes to be a skilled reader has created deep inequalities among U.S. children, putting many on a difficult path in life. This podcast discusses this topic further.