Something alarming is happening with reading in America. Leisure reading by some accounts has declined by about 50 percent this century. Literacy scores are declining for fourth and eighth graders at alarming rates. And even college students today are complaining to teachers that they can’t read entire books. The book itself, that ancient piece of technology ... Show More
Jun 12
Old-igarchy: How the Elderly Conquered American Power
Prior to the 1930s, old age in America often meant poverty. But thanks to Social Security, Medicare, medical advances, and rising asset prices, over the past 90 years, older Americans have become one of the wealthiest and most politically powerful groups in the country. In his ne ... Show More
1h 1m
Jun 9
How Modern Fatherhood Is Changing Men’s Brains
Humans are unusual dads. Across the animal kingdom, dads are often absent from child-rearing altogether. But among humans, fatherhood takes many forms, and in the last half century, it has changed dramatically. College-educated American fathers now spend nearly four times as much ... Show More
1h 4m
Jun 5
What 400,000 Essays Reveal About AI and Creativity
For generations, we've defined creativity by its products: the novel, the painting, the song, the breakthrough idea. We look at the work, and from the work we see the creator as “creative.” But AI is getting remarkably good at producing creative work. In some cases, experts now p ... Show More
56m 2s
Dec 2024
The Books We Read in High School (Part 1)
Recently, professors at elite colleges told Atlantic writer Rose Horowitch that their students don’t read whole books anymore. They blamed cell phones, standardized tests, and extracurriculars, and they mostly agreed that the shift began in high school. In this episode of Radio A ... Show More
25m 27s
Nov 2022
This Conversation About the 'Reading Mind' Is a Gift
<p>Every day, we consume a mind-boggling amount of information. We scan online news articles, sift through text messages and emails, scroll through our social-media feeds — and that’s usually before we even get out of bed in the morning. In 2009, a team of researchers found that ... Show More
1h 9m
Mar 2025
Karl Berglund, "Reading Audio Readers: Book Consumption in the Streaming Age" (Bloomsbury, 2024)
What is the future of reading? In Reading Audio Readers: Book Consumption in the Digital Age (Bloombury, 2024), Karl Berglund, Assistant Professor in Literature at Department of Literature and Rhetoric at Upsala University, examines the rise of audiobooks as a new mode of reading ... Show More
36m 42s
Jun 2025
Evan Osnos, Author Talks New Book
Evan Osnos, author and New Yorker staff writer, discusses his new book "The Haves and Have-Yachts." The New York Times bestseller breaks down how the ultra-rich hold more of America's wealth now than they ever did, and how a world of superyachts, luxury bunkers and political dona ... Show More
6m 7s
May 2025
First Steps to Fluency: How Young Learners Become Independent Readers with Virginia Quinn Mooney
<p><b>Episode 226</b></p><p>In this episode, Virginia discusses the importance of fluency in K-2 grades, emphasizing its role in reading comprehension. She shares strategies for teaching fluency, including within partner reading, read-alouds, and shared reading. Virginia highligh ... Show More
39m 26s
Jul 2025
100 Years of ‘The Great Gatsby’
<p>This year, “The Great Gatsby” turns 100.</p><p>A.O. Scott, a critic at large for The New York Times Book Review, tells the story of how an overlooked book by a 28-year-old author eventually became the great American novel, and explores why all of these decades later, we still ... Show More
41m 52s
<p><b>In this episode of </b><b><em>Literacy Talks</em></b><b>, the trio excitedly welcomes Emily Hanford, the award-winning journalist and media producer whose work and </b><a href='https://features.apmreports.org/sold-a-story/'><b><em>Sold a Story</em></b></a><b> podcast have c ... Show More
