Reach Out and Read

As we know, strong relationships are key to success in personal and professional endeavors. Our next guests combine both: Grace Lin, an award-winning author, and Alvina Ling, Editor-in-Chief at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, join us to talk about their professional success, how as Asian-American women they navigate an industry that still struggles with diversity, and, notably, how they dra...

Trauma in children is shockingly common — almost half of all children have experienced at least one significant traumatic experience.  Yet trauma-engendered behaviors are often met with 'What's wrong with you?', when, as our guest Dr Bruce Perry relates, the question should be 'What happened to you?'  His co-authored book with Oprah Winfrey helps us disentangle trauma, as well understand the power...

We turned our 'author spotlight' on an up-and-coming, engaging, and extremely talented young voice. Liz Montague is a cartoonist, writer, and illustrator who weaves social justice, and personal and political awareness into smart, thoughtful, and deeply resonating cartoons.  She also happens to be one of the first Black female cartoonists to be published in the New Yorker. Liz joins us to talk abou...

Books are magic.  The way they smell, the feel of their pages, illustrations on their covers, weight in your hands - all these elements convey meaning in excess of their verbal content. Our guest, Emma Smith, Professor of Shakespeare Studies at Oxford University, and author of  Portable Magic: A History of Books and Their Readers , joins us to talk about these factors and how, when and why books b...

What is "play", and how hard is it to understand what it really is? Turns out it's more of a challenge to grasp than you'd think, and not everyone understands that play is not merely amusement for children. Dr Susan Linn, psychologist and world-renowned expert on creative play, joins us to talk about the role of play in a child's development — and how children can use creative play to access and e...

Native American education is one of our country's culturally richest areas, but it comes at the expense of a very dark past. We take a closer look at the abuse Native American children experienced at government-run schools in the US in the 19th and 20th centuries, the intergenerational trauma that followed, and how Native American educators address this and move forward now. Francis Vigil from the...

We've turned the spotlight on many gifted authors, but our next guest is the first to win a children's book award  and a Super Bowl ring. Malcolm Mitchell, American football professional, children's author, youth literacy advocate, and CEO of the Share the Magic Foundation, joins us to talk about his journey to literacy, and how he overcame professional and personal adversity in the process.

Stuttering affects approximately 5% of U.S. children—it's very common!  Jordan Scott, poet and author of "I Talk Like a River", and Brooke Edwards, Director of Speech for SAY: The Stuttering Association for the Young, join us to talk about how stuttering affects children, and how all of us — caregivers, professionals, and beyond — can make their interactions with people who stutter a more positive...

Thanks to advances in brain imaging, we can measure reading's structural and functional benefits. Dr. John Hutton, a pediatrician and assistant professor in the Division of General and Community Pediatrics at Cincinnati Children's Medical Center, joins us to talk about what we can learn from neuroimaging about how children's activities can affect their brain structure, and what probably helps — or...

After three years, the annual Reach Out and Read Leadership Conference was finally back in person. More than 150 leaders gathered in Madison, Wisconsin over three days to share their vision, values, and voice - all in the name of ROR's mission. Listen to their conference takeaways, what inspires their work, and what drives our community forward.

Why would someone write a research paper involving puppets?  Well, puppets can not only be a tool for helping children feel more comfortable in medical settings, but more recently have been used to support relational health.  Dr. Gretchen Domek, Associate Professor and the Frankenburg Research Professor in Developmental Pediatrics at the University of Colorado, joins us to talk about her work intr...

Children are uniquely vulnerable to climate change: rising temperatures and poor air quality increase asthma attacks and allergies, and natural disasters can lead to physical displacement, food insecurity, and an increase in mental health concerns. Dr. Jerry Paulson, Professor Emeritus of Pediatrics and of Environmental & Occupational Health at the George Washington University School of Medicine,...

There's a lot of conversation around health equity, and rightly so: research suggests that many disparities in overall health and well-being are rooted in early childhood.  But how can one meaningfully address that in our healthcare system?  Dr. Darrell M. Gray, the inaugural chief health equity officer for Elevance Health, joins us to talk about how to help shift health care from a transactional...

The world of literacy has a dizzying array of systems that go well beyond schools and home — including legislatures, philanthropies, and other NGO's — but they aren't always collaborating well. Munro Richardson, Executive Director at Read Charlotte in North Carolina, reimagined the way these systems could work, creatively connected groups that hadn't done so before, and got community buy-in in the...

Parenting is often tough. While our society has better normalized talking about the highs, lows, and the in-betweens of raising children, there's still a lot that's hard to say publicly. Keith Gessen, author of the new book Raising Raffi , takes on these challenges, asks the many unvoiced questions, and does so as someone not heard as frequently in the parenting book space: the perspective of a fa...

As in other times, women in the late 1910s-20s from all over the U.S. looked for parenting advice.  Who did they ask? The federal government, believe it or not.  They flooded the Children's Bureau, a division of the Department of Labor, with letters about their worries and concerns around raising children. Molly Ladd-Taylor, author of "Raising a Baby the Government Way: Mothers' Letters to the Chi...

What can a piece of clothing tell us about how a child lived?  How can parent interactions be revealed through a pair of gloves? What might a baby's quilt tell us about family dynamics? Dr. Sarah Anne Carter, Executive Director of the Center for Design and Material Culture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's School of Human Ecology takes us on a field trip into the Center's vast collection to...

Using the talents of both writing and illustrating to offer messages encapsulated within compelling stories through children's books is difficult.  Yet, Shabazz Larkin is an artist, author, illustrator, and activist who manages to do just that. He joins us today to talk about his craft, and the unique way he has been able to weave healthy messages surrounding food and nutrition into his work for c...

Is a museum with words and not objects still a museum? Yes! Planet Word, a unique museum in Washington DC, houses immersive experiences dedicated to the celebration of words and language. Ann Friedman, Founder and CEO of Planet Word, joins us to talk about Planet Word's overall mission and atypical design - both of which are deeply grounded in language arts and science.

The human brain doesn't come wired to read. Remarkably, recognizing, decoding, and comprehending a single word takes many different repurposed brain circuits working together.  Dr Maryanne Wolf, Dir. of the Center for Dyslexia, Diverse Learners, and Social Justice at UCLA breaks down the science of the reading brain — from the neuroscientific importance of oral language, to recognizing the alphabe...

Feeding and being fed isn't merely a nutritional transaction — it's also an emotional and relational act inexorably linked to the act of caring. Dr. Natalie Muth, a pediatrician and founder and director of the Children's Primary Care Medical Group W.E.L.L. clinic, joins us to talk about how we can navigate the challenges of eating with children, and how it fits into early relational health.

Young children are born with a natural sense of wonder: an instinctual and powerful drive to explore and learn about their world. Dr. Frank Keil, professor of Psychology at Yale University and author of the new book "Wonder: Childhood and the Lifelong Love of Science", joins us to talk about young children and how to recognize and encourage wonder —and, perhaps even more importantly—not to stifle...

Child poverty is a problem that's much closer to home than many of us realize, with over a third of US children living in poverty at some point in their childhood.  Dr. Benard Dreyer, Director of Pediatrics at Bellevue Hospital and one of the strongest voices in pediatrics on this issue, joins us to talk about the long and short term effects of child poverty and what we can do to alleviate it.

How can we support children? By supporting their parents - particularly during the most critical years of their children's development. Dr. Dana Suskind, author of the new book "Parent Nation", joins us to explain how through a combination of interdisciplinary science and large-scale advocacy we can build a society where parents - and as a result their children - are supported in all aspects of li...

The 'metaverse' is the latest tech buzzword. But what in the world is it? Josh Golin, Executive Director at Fairplay, joins us to take a closer look at what it is, what it means for kids, and how parents can identify and navigate online design that targets kids.