Clay tablets! Printing presses! Old timey audio books! Speed reading strategies! Attention spans! Dyslexia history! Literacy campaigns! Dr. Adrian Johns is an historian, professor, and author of the book “The Science of Reading” and we have a nice mellow chat about when humans started to “read,” what that means, being Hooked on Phonics, Dick, Jane, character languages, audiobooks, e-readers, school segregation, literacy rates, and how long we can focus at a time. He literally wrote the book on it.
Visit Dr. Adrian Johns’ faculty bio at University of Chicago
Shop Dr. Johns’ books including The Science of Reading: Information, Media, and Mind in Modern America (2023) and The Nature of the Book: Print and Knowledge in the Making (1998)
A donation went to 826LA.org and Glioblastoma Research Organization
More episode sources and links
Smologies (short, classroom-safe) episodes
Other episodes you may enjoy: Anthropodermic Biocodicology (HUMAN LEATHER BOOKS), Egyptology (ANCIENT EGYPT), Curiology (EMOJI), Attention Deficit Neuropsychology (ADHD), Witchology (WITCHES & WITCHCRAFT), Quantum Ontology (WHAT IS REAL?), Abstract Mathemetology (UH, IS MATH REAL?), Pedagogology (SCIENCE COMMUNICATION) with Bill Nye
Transcripts and bleeped episodes
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Editing by Mercedes Maitland of Maitland Audio Productions
Transcripts by Emily White of The Wordary
Website by Kelly R. Dwyer
Theme song by Nick Thorburn