An Army of Normal Folks - 43 Million Americans Can’t Read Well Enough to Work (Here’s the Fix)

Episode Date: September 1, 2026

Nearly 2/3 of American kids aren't reading proficiently by 4th grade. And if they don't catch up, - they're far more likely to drop out, struggle to find work, and cycle through a lifetime of limited options. Right now in the United States, 43 million adults can't read well enough to hold a basic job. This week, Bill sits down with Tony Kriz, co-founder of the Children's Literacy Project, who believes the solve for this crisis is normal folks like you. He wants you to give just one hour a week to sit with a struggling kid, read with them, and uplift them. In this episode you'll learn exactly why kids fall behind, what it takes to close the gap, and how normal folks like you can walk into a local school and make a real difference starting this week. ARMY ACTIONS Subscribe to the podcast and rate & review us! Signup to join the Army, visit NormalFolks.org Follow us on social media @ArmyofNormalFolks Join or start an ANF local service club at https://normalfolks.org/service-clubs/ Take The 10 Level Challenge, "the hero's journey for service" at 10LevelChallenge.org Support the show: https://www.normalfolks.us/#joinSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

43 million Americans cannot read well enough to hold a basic job. If you do not read by fourth grade, you will drop out. A literacy is the stupidest problem in America. Because it's so begging to be fixed. Which most kids who never learn to read don't believe they can't, because no one's ever told them they can be smart. I'm a compassion drug dealer, and I want to give them a gateway drug.

And that is reading with a kid once a week. You can reverse the very sociological systems of a neighborhood. I just shown up one hour a week. This is Army of Normal Folks, where our mission is to make service easier for all of us, and together change the country. The music you love. Your favorite radio stations.

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brain replacement to try to understand what this longevity obsession is all about and what it really means to live forever for all of us. I learned about some rad science. I can make a brain for you and then we can test what draw is the best for your brain, as opposed to his brain. Here's some hard truths. I would expect Indians to age faster, but I did not expect it to be almost a four to five five-year acceleration. And get myself into a world of trouble. I'd say probably start bone smashing. That doesn't work.

Make it look more defined. They say it works. I don't know. Listen to Skyline Drive, How to Live Forever on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If your bookshelf and your for-you page are equally important to your personality, welcome home.

This is Pros Society. The weekly podcast, that's part book club, part group chat for thought daughters, pop culture obsessives, and anyone who thinks pride and prejudice and love island deserve the same level of discourse. I'm Eli Rallo and every week we're connecting the dots between books, the internet, and the conversations everyone can't stop having. I'm going to have to look up this story. I'm obsessed.

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them. I'm Elizabeth Smart, and these are the Survivor Files. I just remember this low, taunting voice next to my ear saying, shut up, don't say anything. Every week, I'm with survivors who live through the unthinkable. I knew if he woke up, without a doubt, he was going to hurt me. I started feeling that there was someone at the end of my bed, and I just started screaming. They are abducted. stalked, controlled, and nearly silenced. But these aren't stories about what's taken from them. There's stories about what it takes to make it out alive. Listen to the Survivor Files with Elizabeth Smart

on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, this is Hayes Davenport. And Sean Clements. We host the podcast Hollywood Handbook on the Big Money Players Network. Our show is extremely accessible to first-time listeners. Each week we talk to someone in show business, aka the biz, and try to help them with their careers and see what they have to offer us. Everyone has a good time and no one gets mad at their publicists for letting them do our show.

We've had a lot of great guests like Sarah Sherman, not that great. Actually, can you help me shape this? How about we flip it on his head, right? How about we flip the script? What is the surprise woman? Actually, you think is the straight man is actually the one who's acting weird. Adam Scott This entire time

You've been expecting Adam Sandler to come to visit the show I would never expect I have I would never set expectations for something like that to happen If the universe allows for something like that to happen I'm open to it I'm always going to accept

You know Danny McBride Fine Yeah it's all this fragile masculinity Exuding I could smell it walking on the hallway To be honest with you I was like, is that weed? Nope. It's fragile masculinity.

Ben Stiller, no. Because a lot of times out of context, people don't get it or even know what a circle is. You know what I mean? They're like, oh, it's so stupid. Everyone's so dumb. And fake. Right, fake and also not interested or just like, oh, I've got my life. I don't care about your life.

And a lot of other big shots that wouldn't be where they are without us. Oh, and by the way, Will Ferrell told us personally, he loves the show and he wants to be a guest on every episode, but he's just so busy. Listen to Hollywood Handbook on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Everybody, Tony is an author. He's a filmmaker and he's the co-founder of Children's Literacy Project from Portland. I met Tony when we were both speakers at the Wichita Prayer Breakfast and I'm really excited he's here. The Children's Literacy Project of which Tony is a co-founder makes provocative claims like this one. 43 million, 43 million Americans can't read well enough to hold a basic job.

I got to say that again, 43 million Americans cannot read well enough in the United States to hold a basic job. And yet Tony here thinks he has the answer to the problem. Tony, what's that answer? Yeah, and it's 43 million adults, but the numbers are getting worse. Okay, but you feel like you have an answer. Yeah, yeah. What is it?

Kids who read become adults who read. That's my answer. So we have to change the way that we do literacy in America. So I have read statistics that say that if you don't read on grade level by third grade, you are infinitely more likely to be incarcerated, to not have a job, get a divorce. to have substance abuse problems. It's like this weird, it's weird connecting childhood literacy to all of these downstream problems that our culture suffers with.

And so what your answer is, go downstream and catch them as children. Yeah, yeah. Let's go to the headwaters. Okay. And so, I mean, there's how someone ends up in prison, like, I'm not going to insult your, your people and go like, well, if they could just learn to read, they're not going to go to prison. That's insulting. There's a thousand social issues, a thousand toggles inside a person's soul that lead to wherever they end up, be it addicted, be it working as a sex worker, whatever it happens to be going to prison.

There's a thousand. But there's one toggle we can actually control. There's one toggle where these future prisoners, these future victims of society and systemic injustice, where they will all show up, Monday through Friday and are available to their community. The question is whether community be available to them. That's the question. And we have to catch them by nine or ten years old, or else we lose them.

Statistically, we lose them. If you do not read by fourth grade, you will drop out statistically. In fact, the numbers are almost identical. 1.2 million kids can't read every year in the fourth grade. 1.3 million kids drop out of high school every year. That's interesting. Yeah.

Now that's a really telltale kind of precursor, isn't it? It is. Is that pretty consistent year after year after year? Year after year, except for the numbers are going up. But it is consistent that the one number of the fourth grade is equal to the number that drop out of high school. You know, I know we're going to get into this. Yeah. But as I listen to you, and I've got to believe our listeners and our viewers listening to that have to,

think we have a free education for every single kid in the United States. You know, one, how is 20% possible? Two, how has it gotten almost 10% worse over the last 10, 15 years? Yeah. It's almost unfathomable. Right. But it is certainly a societal ill. Oh, so much so.

No, we peaked in the 1970s. We've lost ground every year since the 70s. We peeped in our literacy. And our literacy rates in the 1970. That's the crazy thing. From the beginning of our country, we get better and better and better all the way up to the 70s. And then boom, it starts dropping off again. Yep.

So before we get deeper into the solution, could you describe or help define that problem of literacy starting in the 70s to today? Yeah, I can. You recently were talking to Seth Kaplan of fragile neighborhoods. Who was hilarious. I love Seths. For everybody listening, I don't know. My endorsement. After you watch and listen to this one, go back and watch Seth Kaplan if you haven't yet, because that cat's hilarious.

I've actually assigned his book for seminary-level classes that I've talked. He's great. He's great. And he was just talking about the lost art of talking to strangers. Right. So yesterday I'm on the plane. I'm flying here from Portland, Oregon

to your beautiful city. And I get in this conversation with Lisa and Luis on the plane. We just get to chatting, we get around to literacy, and they tell me that they're both teachers.

They're both grade school teachers, this couple on the plane. Irony of ironies. Irony of ironies. And Luis tells me that he has 28 kids in his classroom in Hood River, Oregon,

a lovely little hamlet in Oregon, Hood River. And he has 28 kids. He goes, and every year they bump the number up. Simultaneously, the percentage of my kids who are not reading close to benchmarks, the percentage goes up every year. So I'm both fighting more souls that I am responsible for and a larger percentage of those

souls who are actually dragging down the entire class. Why? Well, there's a whole story from the 1970s, but recently we just got our butts kicked by COVID. And so the entire system is taking a huge leap backwards. The at-home study on your computer thing did not work. It was a desperation place. And what else are we going to do? Right.

We had their temperate them. So you can't, no stones there. We can't ignore them. But it certainly hurt. Right. And it hurt the kids who always get hurt. Now that's interesting. It was worse on the kids who was bad for it.

As society does, as systemic evil does, it always hurts the people who are already being. hurt. So the kids who are unsupervised during the day who don't have a mom at home, they're not doing the online stuff. The kids who come from low-income homes and do not have the technology or the technological intelligence in order to engage the technology, they're the most likely to have lost those two years. And it goes on and on and on. Now, we have the situation where kids who are now in the third grade, they weren't a part of the COVID generation. They came in after the COVID generation. But they are, according to Luis, consistently suffering worse than their predecessors before COVID.

Why? Well, it's because education and education culture is infectious. And the kids just above them who had to deal with COVID have basically passed on that hurt. And we have this larger percentage of every classroom that is struggling behind. So what is that teacher spending their time on? trying to pull up the bottom of the class and the top of the, and we were losing the roof because we're trying to pull up the floor. Well, and as I think about that, let's take a class of 28 people.

Right. If you got, let's do the math, 20%, call it 20% of the 28 is five or six kids in that class that aren't reading. And it's 40%. How much? 40, national average. Holy smokes. Okay, so 12 of those kids are,

struggling, right? And the teachers having to spend time with them. Now, there's probably 10, 12 of those kids that are really high-functioning kids that are going to do fine. They're going to do fine. But the middle of that class is probably really suffering, too, because they can't. If they had their normal work, they would be able to kind of advance, because they're not getting it. Right. That's probably what keeps making that number bigger is the middle keeps getting pulled into 12. Absolutely. And the middle is the one that we can affect the most. The middle is the one that we can affect most.

It's the center of the bell curve that I'm most concerned with with our work with Children's Literacy Project. And back to potential solution. Because the middle of the curve really is just a question of time, attention, and compassion. That's what they're lacking in order to catch up. And now a few messages from our generous sponsors. But first, I want to read you a note that we got from Army member Sandy Peterson. Sandy wrote this. I would like to give a shout out to those who, on their daily walks, take the task of making

our neighborhoods look better. This is done simply by bringing a bag and picking up trash along their way. An additional benefit is, every time you've been dope, you're doing a sit-up, which I guess is true. If you're doing something like this in your community or you know somebody who is, we really do want to hear about it. And being a member of the army of normal folks is really about doing what you can, where you can. And the reason I love this note is this isn't something that's going to be on the show. This isn't something anybody's really going to celebrate that much.

This isn't something somebody's going to write a newspaper article about. But it makes your community better. and makes your place to live prettier. And it's clear that very quietly, people appreciate it. It's that simple. How can I better my community? Pick up trash. There's thousands of ways to be a member of the army of normal folks.

And Sandy points out how something so simple can be so meaningful. So if you know of people like this or somebody who's doing things like, this, we really do want to hear about it. Send us your or their story at normalfokes.org. We may read yours right here on the show. Please make sure you sign up to join the army while you're there. We'll be right back. You've heard the chaos. Now you can see it. Do we want to jump right in? Watch all your favorite podcasts from start to finish right inside the free I-Hart Radio app. Make some noise. Woo-ee! Catch every laugh and eye roll on shows like Bestie Listen. Hey Jonas and Los culture, he says. Now with full video. I'll just leave that there. It's the same hosts and the same

chemistry with all the hilarious moments you've been missing right on your screen. Open the free IHard Radio app. Search video podcasts and tap watch. I'm Mungisha together and I'm back with a new season of the podcast Skyline Drive. This time I'm diving into a rabbit hole of peptides, organoids, blood boys, blue zones and brain replacement to try to understand what this longevity obsession is all about, and what it really means to live forever, for all of us. I learned about some rad science. I can make a brain for you, and then we can test what draw is the best for your brain, as opposed to his brain.

Here are some hard truths. I would expect Indians to age faster, but I did not expect it to be almost a four to five-year acceleration. and get myself into a world of trouble. I'd say probably start bone smashing. That doesn't work. To make it look more defined. They say it works.

I don't know. Listen to Skyline Drive, How to Live Forever on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Hey, this is Hayes Davenport. And Sean Clements. We host the podcast Hollywood Handbook on the Big Money Players Network.

Our show is extremely accessible to first-time listeners. Each week, we talk to someone in show business, aka the biz, and try to help them with their careers and see what they have to offer us. Everyone has a good time and no one gets mad at their publicists for letting them do our show. We've had a lot of great guests like Sarah Sherman, not that great. Actually, can you help me shape this? How about we flip it on his head, right?

How about we flip the script? What is the surprise woman who actually you think is the straight man is actually the one who's acting weird? Adam Scott. This entire time, you're. You've been expecting Adam Sandler to come to visit the show. I would never expect. I have. I would never set expectations for something like that to happen.

If the universe allows for something like that to happen, I'm open to it. I'm always going to accept. You know, Danny McBride, fine. Yeah, it's all this fragile masculinity exuding. I could smell it walking down the hallway, to be honest with you. I was like, I was like, is that weed? Nope. It's fragile.

masculinity. Ben Stiller, no. Because a lot of times out of context, people don't get it or even know what a circle is. You know what I mean? Like you're like, oh, it's so stupid. Everyone's so dumb. And fake. Right. Fake and also not interested or just like, oh, I've got my life. I don't care about your life. And a lot of other big shots that wouldn't be where they are without us. Oh, and by the way, Will Ferrell told us personally he loves the show and he wants to be a guest on every episode, but he's just so busy. Listen to Hollywood Handbook on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. When I was 14 years old, I was kidnapped and held captive for nine months.

I survived, and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them. I'm Elizabeth Smart, and these are the Survivor Files. I just remember this low, taunting voice next to my ear saying, shut up, don't say anything. Every week, I'm with survivors who live through the unthinkable. I knew if he woke up, without a doubt, he was going to hurt me. I started feeling that there was someone at the end of my bed, and I just started screaming. They are abducted, stalked, controlled, and nearly silenced. But these aren't stories about what's taken from them.

There's stories about what it takes to make it out alive. Listen to the Survivor Files with Elizabeth Smart on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On the new podcast Solita, we share the messy reality of traveling alone as a woman. I can wait four hours for the next bus or this random dude is offering me a ride on his motorcycle. I chose option B. I'm Julie Pinero, and I travel by myself because it's a rare space where I can say yes without asking anyone else first. I'm on a mission to reclaim the word solita, trading the pity for possibility. Every time I tried to be alone, I kept meeting people, and they were like, you smiled at us.

Not a lot of people smile around here. It's when you're alone that you're most receptive to the world as it is, and not the lies you're sold about it. It can be a time where you push your limits, change your mind, or wake up to a new version of yourself. So whether you're a solo travel veteran or you're too nervous to book your first. trip. I hope you listen to Solita on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Why did this start in the 70s? I still don't understand that. Well, that has to do with not start. Why did it? Why did it leaking? Yeah, peak in the 70s and start a downward trend to today from there. Well, I'm not an expert on educational history in those senses,

but when we established the right to a free education, which happened way back in the 30s, that education was declared a basic human right. At that point, literacy was, you know, terrible. It was 20% or something nationally. Yeah, I've read that it's hard to think in the United States in the 30s, but in the 30s, like, adult literacy was less than 30% of the United States. Right.

Far more people couldn't read than could. So then we were on a huge, like, funding. Let's get it. Let's do it. Let's get it. Reading, write in arithmetic. Let's do it. And that's what we literally built the American school system.

Like, all of us go, you know, I've got this district. I'm in that district. My kids are, you know, whatever is the name of my school. All that happened from that point up until the 70s. We built the American school system basically forced every kid to go to school in a good sense and a hopefully compassionate sense. And that all those efforts peaked in the 1970s. Problem was we sort of declared victory. We're like, we're the strongest country in the world.

We're producing the most. We're the most innovative, whatever. and we started to ask other questions about what we want to do with our funding. And the 80s in particular, we saw a redirection of national funds on a fairly profound level. Social services went way down, and education became deprioritized. And then through the process, classrooms went from 12, 13, 14 kids with, and now we're at 28. and starting with a worst hand. I can't help, but also wonder, oh, this is going to worry, Alex, but I'm going to say it anyway.

And if you cut this out of this. Yeah, you are. You are. You're going to edit this. If you cut this out, this is important. You're going to quit? We have to be honest about this. It's also when desegregation and busing started.

And I know and. my city, and I've got to believe in cities all over the country, that when busing started, white flight started, and white flight often took money and resources out of many of the urban schools, which left urban schools with less assets to deploy for their student basis. And I can't help but wonder if that had an effect. Yeah, I mean, the social and philosophical implications of what you're saying are problematic and a bit of a land, a bit of a minefield. But we cert my, I have a friend named Ron who's just a national expert in literacy.

And there are several things that are determining factors as to whether you're going to grow up being able to read. And he says, one of the national determining factors when we do, our research is what zip code you're born in. What's what? Is what zip code you're born in? It determines whether or not you will learn to read. Is that not incredible? And that's what you're talking about.

It is what I'm talking about. That's what you're talking about. That we have. And that's a societal ill to me. It is. It is. And when we, when we reduce school districts down to their socioeconomic geography, it is an unfair playing field. And that started in the 70s. I believe you. Well, just look at

busing and desegregation and all of that what happened and the white flight to the suburbs and taking assets and money out to private schools and larger suburban private schools and look at the inner city schools. I mean, every city in the country has people in their 60. that graduated from schools that are now either not even operating or some problematic, difficult school. And it's not that people go into the schools that all assets and resources were pulled away from it and from the neighborhoods surrounding it.

And you're not saying that segregation is a good thing. What you're saying is how we responded. Absolutely. And societally, not even on a government level, like societally, how we responded to our discomfort around it was where the evil happened. And our kids are paying for it today. I think that has something to do with it.

Yes. I can't, listen, man, as you know, I've coached and worked in inner city schools for the last 33 years of my life. And I've just watched it. I mean, there is no PTA. There is no booster club. There is so very little parental involvement in these intersea schools. Because not because the parents don't care, but they both are working and oftentimes two jobs. And you go out to suburban schools where the reading.

rates are much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, better. It's a completely different environment. And that speaks to the zip code thing. My kids went to inner city schools. When I watched your documentary, I didn't sit there and go, this can't be true. I was like, no, we live that. We live that. Whatever the history of the problem is, from the 30s to the 70s and downtrend, I think that's an interesting study. I would like to sit and talk about that for 10 hours with a panel of people, but we can't. But the question, the deal is, the data's there, the history's there, for one reason or another. What is the solution?

Right. And you think you have it. Yeah. Yeah. I want to give a new best friend to every kid on the hurting end of that bell curve today. Every first, second, third grader in America, I want to give. give them a new best friend who will come in once a week and sit with them and help them close the gap, who will sit with them and tell them what they're not hearing elsewhere and their teacher doesn't

have time or bandwidth to do. And that is, you're smart. You have a future. You have a hope. I believe in you. You can read and sit with that child and just do the basic work. The grandmothers have been doing with grandchildren for generations. And that is working through the words, sounding them out, doing a little one-on-one attention, giving some more margin to that teacher, so the teacher can be actually solving some of the problems in their classroom, and that kid can get the sort of love and connection they want. And I think the solution to that is the community. And specifically, I want to give a caring, compassion-filled church partner to every hurting school in America, a church that says, we will make sure every kid reads by fourth

grade. That's what we're fighting to do. I'm sitting here thinking one of our greatest callings as faithful Christians is to serve in that regard, right? Yeah. Children, widows, poor. Yeah. I mean, what better calling could there be for a church in each zip code of struggling schools to once a week go be a new best friend to kids? Yeah.

I mean, the... Do schools? Are schools receptive to volunteers coming in like that? Everywhere. Everywhere. Yeah, and had a single school say, ah, we don't want these church people. Well, I'm from Portland, Oregon. Arguably, the least-churched, most liberal city on the planet, right?

It's pretty even- Arguably. Yeah, yeah. When we first went to the local literacy organization, smart, I mean, he's in so much trouble. We say, hey, we'd love to, you know, they've been, they're so overfunded. They do radio ads, and they do all these things trying to volunteers. And they can't grow their, their literacy, their volunteer base by more than a few. percentage points every year. We walked in there, this was five, six years ago. What they're doing wasn't working. We said, we would like to help, we would like to help you recruit volunteers.

He said, great, what do you want to do? Well, just give us some of your, give us some of your most hurting schools, and we'll go find a church partner for that school, and that church will give you, what, however you mean, 40 volunteers, they'll give you for, and their model is one hour a week, read it. And they were like, oh, no, no, oh, no, oh, no, oh, no, oh, no, and I was like, No, churchy. And we have to sit and go, what do you think is going to happen? Like, we're going to get, like, cooties on these kids.

They're going to walk in. They're going to walk in. They're going to sit down. They're going to know where the lines are and what lines are not going to cross. They know. These are smart, loving people. They're not coming in there with Holy Water and a crucifix. They're your most loving neighbors who have been teed up every Sunday to love their neighbor.

And we're going to give them a chance to do that through your organization. Do you want us to do that with you? you. And they had the largest recruiting month they had ever had that month because we just went out and talked to a few pastor friends and said, smarts asking for your help. And they said, we're it. And they had their best recruiting month ever. And six months later, the director came and apologized and said, I was wrong. Church people are the best volunteers we have. They show up. They keep their word. They're compassionate. They're appropriate. I mean, you know, most of them like worked in Sunday school and worked in nursery. They know how to be around kids. They know how to be

appropriate. You know, they're utterly trained to do this. And who are the people in churches that are most underutilized? The older ones. Your retirees? Your stay-at-home moms whose kids have gone off to school and they don't know what to do with themselves. Your rebellious teenagers who want to change the world, they don't know what to do with themselves. You know, these are the groups, business owners who in the middle of the day can go, I'm going to take an hour off and just go help a kid, you know, and I hope we get into the concept of loving the other and how powerful that is. You had the local director of junior achievement. Yes, she's awesome. She's awesome. Fantastic. And she was talking about the power of life on life and the power of engaging the other.

And this idea of the other, Jesus really cared about and wanted to build systems and to promote humanness, humanity, back into society. And so these systems of going, care for, like you were talking about earlier, care for the person who was forgotten, care for the person who's tossed aside, care for the person who was hurting, who was hungry, who was sick, who's in prison, who's a stranger, be with them because you will become human by doing it. That's a different way of saying what we always say is when you do work, you end up getting infinitely more out of it than the person you're helping.

Absolutely. And so the smart thing, so the smart guy came back and said, you know, my bad for running from the churchy people. The churchy people in this specific capacity have been incredible. So your point is, if you can pull it off in Portland. Right. The most unchurchy. And we've done it in hundreds of communities across the country. and there are so few stories of pushback.

And the stories of pushback are short-term stories. Yeah, the people that go and volunteer and have success change perceptions. Change perceptions. And we make sure that they know the rules. Background checks. Of course. How you behave around children. Like I tried this earlier.

You're not showing up with a crucifix in Holy Water and trying to, you're just spending time and volunteer and trying to read. And you have to do it on both sides. Right. I was doing an interview, a radio interview on the end. the guy was like, uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh, as I was talking about what we do. And he goes, but really, when are you going to get around to prayer in schools? When are you going to get around to prayer? Like, because that's what really matters.

Oh, come on. And I said to him, I said, I totally agree with you. He's like, you do. Because he thought it was some, you know, Portland liberal socialist or something. And, uh, and I said, absolutely I do. Because, you know what I do every year? I send tens of thousands of prayers into schools. Now, they can't pray with kids.

But when they go, the aroma of the spirit of the creator goes with them, and that school is filled with living prayer. So yes, I agree with you. I just don't agree with the how. Everybody, Tony Chris, if you wondered why I think he's hilarious and love them, that answer right there is it. And by the way, I'm sure when 90% of those people leave, they pray for the kid that they just spent. Absolutely. But they need to realize that that is powerful. A lot of church people need to be reminded that that is powerful. It is powerful. Powerful presence is powerful, even if you can't verbalize it in the traditional way. And so we do work on both sides. And let me just say, it's not just churches. For your listeners and people don't go to church, we work with businesses we work with. What about synagogues? What about mosques? We work with retirement communities and go, let us help you also do this partnership model. The thing about all of those businesses, retirement communities, I think. sort of thing. They're not being teed up every Sunday morning to love their neighbor. And pastors

come back to me all the time and say, one of the biggest problems I have is my people want to do good, but they don't know how. They want to love a stranger, someone they don't know, someone not like them. They want to love someone like Jesus did. They just don't know how. And kids are easier to love than adults. Absolutely. To tell something like, yes, love your neighbor, become a foster family. Yeah. That's a big ask. I'm a huge proponent of it. But it's a big ask. Love your neighbor. Go lead a Bible study in the local prison.

That's hard. Love your neighbor. Go spend some time at the local immigrant detention center. That's real hard. These things are hard. Go to the projects. But how about this? Go to a school and read to a kid once a week.

And sit with a 10-year-old. There's nothing intimidating about a 10-year-old. And they will think that you walk on water. Yeah. They will think that you are a rock star. You will be their favorite person. And by the third week, when you show up, they will jump out of the chair. They will run to you because they're so thrilled that you are their friend.

And that's what we learn. Like we learn by these little steps. And this is one of the problems of volunteerism, is we ill-defined the problem. We need to give people a gateway drug to volunteerism that they can get their brain around. And they know I could do that. That doesn't scare me. do we want them to hopefully become foster parents and to dig wells and to get involved in the prison system? Absolutely.

But I'm a drug dealer. I'm a compassion drug dealer. And I want to give them a gateway drug. And that is reading with a kid once a week is a way to learn this lifestyle of otherliness. In a minute, I want to get to what that one hour a week actually produces in terms of results. And we will get to that. But first, you call not being able to read a sentencing. Yes.

So what does a child who can't read by fourth grade gets sentenced to? First of all, a child has no vote on the circumstances they are born into. No child ever decides, I want to grow up unable to read. No child ever decides I want to go to an under-resourced school. where the teachers have checked out or the funding is so low that we don't have even basic materials. Like textbooks. They don't, no child has a vote in that. Can I tell you something real quick?

Please. One of the first things that shocked me when I got involved in inner city coaching is that I always had 45-minute study halls after school and before practice started. I've always done that. Because it's one thing as a coach to say, make your grades. It's another thing to say, it comes before football practice. And then all the kids showed up and they sat there. And I'm like, get out your books and do your homework. And they said, what books?

Right. And I was like, what do you mean what books? Right. Did you know that every single one of my students went into a classroom? The textbook sat on the desk. They opened it, did their work, shut it, and left it. because they only had, like, if there were four U.S. history classes, 30 kids each, they only had 30 books.

So the book stayed in the class, so everybody used the book and left. Right. And therefore, there's no homework. So then I went to the teachers and I said, well, why don't you make photocopies of it so they can take it home and do homework? We don't have the paper. Oh, they have the paper. They charge the teacher 15 cents a copy. And the teacher can't afford it.

Yeah. That was the reality. Yeah. It's all over the country. It's all of the country. And I did. I thought, this school is horrible. And then I found out it wasn't just this school.

It was literally everywhere. It's everywhere. It's everywhere. So as you talk about the child doesn't choose to grow up in an under-resourced school, that one picture is what an under-resourced school looks like. And then we wonder why kids can't read. Well, they don't have the materials even take home if they wanted to. So if no one comes in, if there's not some sort of gap-close,

resource to them. They are sentenced. They are sentenced to a life of prison, of addiction, of welfare lines. They are sentenced. The great thing about a sentencing, though, is you can go both ways. You can be sentenced to freedom. And what we want to do is we want to bring in a freedom sentencing into the lives of children by bringing in those resources, those gap closing resources.

It doesn't work every time. It's not a silver bullet, but it is a community solution to what I would argue may be the biggest problem in America because it is a precursor to so many of the other problems. We'll be right back. The music you love. Radio stations. Everywhere you go. The podcasts everyone's talking about all in one place.

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Always free. Grab the free app. I Heart Radio. Every. Download the free IHR Radio app today. I'm Munga shit together and I'm back with a new season of the podcast Skyline Drive. This time I'm diving into a rabbit hole of peptides, organoids, blood boys, blue zones and brain replacement to try to understand what this longevity obsession is all about. and what it really means to live forever, for all of us.

I learned about some rad science. I can make a brain for you, and then we can test what draw is the best for your brain, as opposed to his brain. Here are some hard truths. I would expect Indians to age faster, but I did not expect it to be almost a four-to-five-year acceleration. And get myself into a world of trouble.

I'd say probably start bone smashing. That doesn't work. To make it look more defined. They say it works. I don't know. Listen to Skyline Drive, How to Live Forever, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. On the new podcast, Solita, we share the messy reality of traveling alone as a woman.

I can wait four hours for the next bus, or this random dude is offering me a ride on his motorcycle. I chose option B. I'm Julie Pinero, and I travel by myself because it's a rare space. where I can say yes without asking anyone else first. I'm on a mission to reclaim the word solita, trading the pity for possibility. Every time I tried to be alone, I kept meeting people, and they were like, you smiled at us.

Not a lot of people smile around here. It's when you're alone that you're most receptive to the world as it is and not the lies you're sold about it. It can be a time where you push your limits, change your mind, or wake up to a new version of yourself. So whether you're a solo travel veteran or you're too nervous to book your first trip, I hope you listen to Solita on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, this is Hayes Davenport.

And Sean Clements. We host the podcast Hollywood Handbook on the Big Money Players Network. Our show is extremely accessible to first-time listeners. Each week, we talk to someone in show business, aka the biz, and try to help them with their careers and see what they have to offer us. Everyone has a good time and no one gets mad at their publicists for letting them do our show. We've had a lot of great guests like Sarah Sherman, not that great. Actually, can you help me shape this?

How about we flip it on his head, right? How about we flip the script? What is the surprise woman? Actually, you think is the straight man is actually the one who's acting weird. Adam Scott. This entire time, you've been expecting Adam Sandler to come to this. visit the show. I would never expect.

I have. I would never set expectations for something like that to happen. If the universe allows for something like that to happen, I'm open to it. I'm always going to accept. You know, Danny McBride, fine. Yeah, it's all this fragile masculinity.

Exuding. I could smell it walking down the hallway, to be honest with you. I was like, is that weed? Nope, it's fragile masculinity. Ben Stiller, no. Because a lot of times out of context, people don't get it or even know what a circle is. You know what I mean? They're like, oh, it's so stupid.

Everyone's so dumb except for you. And fake. Right, fake and also not interested or just like, oh, I've got my life. I don't care about your life. And a lot of other big shots that wouldn't be where they are without us. Oh, and by the way, Will Ferrell told us personally he loves the show and he wants to be a guest on every episode, but he's just so busy. Listen to Hollywood Handbook on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast. or wherever you get your podcasts.

If your bookshelf and your for-you page are equally important to your personality, welcome home. This is Prose Society, the weekly podcast that's part book club, part group chat for thought daughters, pop culture obsessives, and anyone who thinks pride and prejudice

and love island deserve the same level of discourse. I'm Eli Rallo, and every week we're connecting the dots between books, the internet, and the conversations everyone can't stop having. I'm going to have to look up this story. I'm obsessed. I'm obsessed.

From bestselling authors and your favorite book talk creators to the latest pop culture moments, nothing is off the table. It's like if you can hide some real messages inside compelling characters, then that is a Trojan horse. Whether you're looking for literary deep dives,

smart pop culture conversations, or a community of readers who love to think a little too much, you're in the right place. Listen to pro society on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your book. podcasts. See you between the pages. So even though, and you're right, the retired, the business owner, the young rebellious

teenagers looking for something to do, you're right, the church is full of potential volunteers, but you are doing something, but even those people have lives, but you're doing something that makes it easier for people to do this work to volunteer. year. Yeah. What is that? Well, we do it on a bunch of sides. So one is first people need to wake up and realize that both the problem exists and that they can do something about it. So we make documentaries and write books and create programs and training materials and short films so that people wake up to those two realities. Second thing we do is we activate. We help put churches in play. I've been spending the last two years writing an entire

church experience that starts with the teachings of Jesus where whether or not you're a Christian, if you don't think Jesus is a top 10, like, communicator, idea guy in the history of humanity, you're not being intellectually honest, starts with the teachings of Jesus. You don't have to believe he was the son of God to at least acknowledge. He's pretty good leader. The guy had a good talk. Guy had his poop together, let's just say. And from out of that walk through how in the 21st century, the applications of the teachings of Jesus, for instance, the Good Samaritan, can be best applied in the neighborhood school. What are the two things that exist in every neighborhood in America? Maybe the only two things that still exist in every neighborhood in America, a school and maybe a fire department?

Oh, let's say a school and several churches. Oh, yeah. In every neighborhood. That makes sense. They were born to be partners. Jesus says when you walked down the road, notice the herding on the side of the road. What happens every day as we go through our life, as we drive to work, as we walk the dog, and what do we walk past, what's there on the side of the road, just waiting for us.

And Jesus doesn't say to the Samaritan, by the way, the question was, how do I inherit eternal life? Jesus doesn't say, okay, here's a story about a guy, and what he did was he went in and he beat up, the robbers and made sure that they got their punishment. He didn't say, go in and change the systemic evil that led to a guy being tossed by the side of the road. He didn't say go in and reform the church because these religious people walked by to do it. He said, all he said was, go in and pass some laws. He didn't say that either.

No, he said, when you notice someone hurting that you happen to be passing by or someone who lives within your space, stop and care for that. You know, that's really well put, Tony. I honestly, we got to take that. I want to take just a second. Yeah. You're absolutely right. The story of the Good Samaritan in go beat the shit of the rock. robbers.

Right. The story of the Good Samaritan and go change the loss of the guy and in the ditch. Right. The story of the Good Samaritan is not go make some massive 501C3 so that the ditch is more comfortable.

Right. The story is simply, go help the guy in the ditch. Yeah. That is so... He doesn't even take him home. He doesn't even like, he doesn't even interrupt his home life.

He just goes, and what does he do? He's like, the guy needs help. I can stop. The guy needs a little transportation. I happen to have a donkey. The guy needs. a little pocket change.

I happen to have it on me. Like, it's the stuff that he has on them. Another thing about literacy, I'm willing to bet every one of your leaders already has qualifications to be a reading buddy. We're not asking people to be rocket scientists. Yeah, that's a really good point, too. Like, they're already experts.

No one needs any training. You're already trained. Yeah. They're picture books. It's sounding out words. Once again, what grandmothers have been doing for generations with their grandkids. It's all we're asking people to do.

For one hour a week. One hour week. For a lunch hour. Talk about the national literacy database as it pertains to this and sentenced. Okay. I'll quickly do the next. Because this helps. This makes it easier for these folks.

So national literacy, so we have been building out a one stop. I go, I put my zip code in, and it gives you 10 opportunities to do literacy within your geographic area. How much easier can you make it? You literally type in your zip code that says, here's where you go to it. And we've built it out with like 18 factors.

So, because what we think the ideal is, is you accept literacy partners. You don't force them to go through a bunch of unnecessary training. They can show up once a week. They can kind of choose the time that's best for their calendar. Like all that stuff is ranked within our system. So you get into something. And if you're just a guy who's like, you know what, I could do this.

You can go in there, find the place, make a phone call, and say, I want to be a reading partner. That easy. Or you can be a church. And you can go in and go, okay, where are the opportunities within our city and we'll help you find it? And the opportunities are always, there's a few factors we talk about. We talk about geography. What's close to you? Now, there's a lot of U.

There's a U at home. There's a you at work. There's a U where you play. There's a you where you recreate. Like, there's several U's. Let's find a place close to one of the U's that happens to be one of the more hurting schools. And every kid could use a new best friend. Absolutely. But we want to prioritize those kids that are least likely

to have the resources that they need. So that's what that's for. How do we get them there? Well, we make world-class media. And one of the things that we made, with the help of Stefan Curry, the NBA superstar, we made a documentary called Sentenced. How of the world did you get?

How did he and you broke up on this? We were just talking about this before the podcast. Because, I mean, he shoots a hell of a jump shot, but you and literacy in him? I mean, in Portland and Golden State Warriors, y'all should hate each other. Yeah, yeah. So here's the story.

So sentence is our... one, two, three, five, fifth, fifth feature-linked documentary. We actually made a documentary called Undivided about a church that adopted an interstate of school and went through much of what you went through in your documentary that I think you might enjoy. But, so where is it? It's online. I'll give it to you. You can find it on our website or you can find it on YouTube.

Okay, go ahead. Undivided. But sentenced. But sentence. So sentences we made, and we really went for it, more than we've done on any of our documentaries. Well, I mean, you had Seth Curry, well, not yet. Oh. So we hired this young

filmmaker named Connor Martin, who's unbelievable. And we hired another filmmaker named Mark Johnson. And we basically said we want to show the impact of literacy on real Americans.

It's very hard to film children. And it's very hard to film impact on children. So you show adults, and then you demonstrate what would have happened if the headwaters had been different. So we went in and we did it. We made this beautiful film. It became the featured film at the Justice Film Festival in New York City. We had it in the can.

We go, we show it. It's unbelievable, like all the, like, educational leaders from New York show, full-packed room. We got this huge panel, unbelievable conversation. Well, little do we know that in the audience is the assistant to, the assistant to the assistant to Steph Curry. Somebody. Somebody. Right.

The organization is there. And apparently, and I'm sure I'm getting the details, not perfect, but apparently, Steph had been on his team. I want a real, I want to make a real film, not one of these puff pieces on how people are being harmed because of poor education in this country. You're kidding. that was a thing he had anyway. Yes, because he had the assistant, the assistant assistant.

I want to make a real film and they were like, okay, we got to find it and, you know, somebody out there and is there a script and is there a plan and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And they're searching the country. And she jumps on the, runs out of our film, jumps on the phone and goes, I found our film. It's already made. Steph comes back and says, are you willing to take it out of the camp? And let me get involved and narrate it to bring my gravitas to it if that would be helpful. if.

And we'll release it in a year. And we're like, well, we can't really afford to wait a year because we needed to do our work and to raise money and to do all things you do in a nonprofit. But we're like, we can't miss this opportunity. So Steph got on board. We pulled it out. We went back in and asked some really hard questions about it and how to improve it. And then I had to go and write a narration for Steph because I'm the writer on the film. and then we got a time,

I flew down to the Bay Area, went into a studio like this one. Can you not? Up to this point, I hadn't met the guy. I hadn't spoken to him on the phone. He hadn't spoken to any of us. We're working with middlemen this whole time.

Yeah, the assistant to the assistant. Yeah, it's all that we're working with. The assistant to the assistant assistant, turned it over to the assistant assistant. That's right. So we're in the studio like this one. Steph walks in, I stand up,

sticks out his hand, shake his hand, and he looks at me, he pulls me in and he goes, I love coaching. You say jump, I'll say how high. You correct me, and I will do every line over again. Make me do it right.

Make me right. And I was like, yes, Mr. Curry. And he sat down and was amazing, professional, banged it out, and we ended up with a better film. That's incredible. I always thought there was a relationship that developed it. He found it through an assistant to us. assistant, and then you brought him into it after. And then we reworked it.

And he was genuinely a part of the reworking. I don't want to pretend like he just used our film. Yeah, no. I want to be accurate, and he was unbelievable. The film's better now. All the animation was his idea and his team's idea that you'll see in it. There's a ton of animation in it that's beautiful, artistic. And so we're pretty proud of it.

So where do our listeners find it? You can find it on our website, Children's Literacyproject.org. And just go up to the top, and you'll see, sentence, click on it, and it'll take you to a portal where you can watch it. The portal will open with, would you like to give a donation to Children's Literacy Project? If you don't want to give a donation No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. When you read that, say yes. Now go ahead. But if, but I don't want that to be a hurdle. You can put in zero dollars and it'll still give you full access.

One thing about our organization, we give everything away. We give everything away, including credit. You'll go around the country and you won't see Children's Literacy Project on any of the thousands or very few of the thousands of literacy organizations we've affected over the years because we give our stuff away use our films to raise you money so you can do the work you take credit for the number of kids who are reading this year who weren't reading last year take it because that's again back to jesus like we're just believe that we'll we'll be that our our best legacy will be humility and generosity and that's that's the way we try and live And while that is such a cool story, to the nuts and bolts of it,

there's a database that if you type in your zip code, it'll tell you where you can go. You know what? At the end of sentence, you just have to click on the QR code. It'll take you. To the database. Yeah. All right.

And there's films on your website that if you just watch them, it tells you what happens if you can't read. Right. So one, you're incentivizing. Two, you're educating. And three, you're empowering with where to go. Right. So down to the question, why wouldn't anybody who has an hour a week that could change the world with that one hour a week?

Right. What if we had an army of normal folks doing this? Absolutely. Seriously. I mean, I don't want to be goofy with the Army of Normal folks, but truly, this is a calling to a million-member Army of Normal folks that literally can change all the downstream issues that we talked about at the top of the show of what happens when kids can't read.

Yes, 100%. I mean, honestly, if this is not a tailor-made Army of Normal Folks initiative, there isn't one. So when we made Undivided, it was a story about a single church that adopted actually my kids high school believe it or not really cool um and you'll see some famous folks in it but mostly it's just everyday people helping this high school turning this high school the worst high school in Oregon that was that was slated to be closed is now one of the most thriving high schools in Oregon partially because of the partnership with this church just a story just a

story but the story spread is you know documentaries do and out of that story I can only get maybe 10,000 churches adopted schools because of that. And this particular documentary was not like sentence. It wasn't specifically about literacy. It was just about, hey, go love a school. You got people show up, pull weeds, scrape gum, paint over graffiti, fixed windows. And 10,000 churches says we want to do that. Great.

We were thrilled. But what we found was, and this is when I think we're misdiagnosing the problem with volunteerism is after three years, almost most of those churches stopped serving that school that they had committed to. They'd build a friendship with, got to know the administration, became that school's best friend. They just stopped doing it. Why? Because one of the reasons is because the gum comes back every year and the weeds come back every year and the graffiti comes back every year and slowly start to feel like I'm not making any difference. Oh, yes, you are. You just got to be consistent.

Well, it's hard to feel it, but you know what you can feel? Relationship. But life on life is where we feel, we feel the change, and we see the change when that kid started out two grades behind in reading. And by the time our friendship is over, by the time fourth grade rolls around, they're up to grade level, not only up to grade level, they're raising their hand in class. And they're excited about math because suddenly they found one thing that they're good at. So why can't they be good at everything? Which is a great segue. I get to see that. I get to feel that.

Which is a great segue. Give us a couple of great sex stories and helping kids go from ill-literacy to letters. Okay. Okay. You're tossing this on me, so you're putting me on the spot. Okay. Two weeks ago, I have a friend in my neighborhood

named Pastor Herman Green. Herm Green. Herm Green. And his wife. Herm Green from Portland. And his fact. Oh, I got a better one. Doesn't somebody named Herm Green?

have to come from Portland. Herm Green. Herman Green and his wife, Pastor Nike Green. What is it? Pastor Nike. Nike from Portland is this woman's name? And they are...

I love Herman Nike. Oh, they are a force of nature. They are a storm of benevolence. They are something to behold. And they're in my neighborhood, beautiful African-American church, walking distance from my house, and because of our friendship, I mean, they're involved in everything.

They're one of those pastors that's got their hand in everything. And in that same school, we were talking about earlier, where my kids went to high school. They realized that literacy is the best thing they could give their energy to, as much as they're involved in everything. They realized that in the summer, this was two weeks ago. The greatest need of their neighbors was someone to care for their kids during the day so that they could go to work. work. Instead, they started what they call lit camp because it's lit, lit, lit, lit. They started lit camp. And this is the second year in a row that they've done it. They brought in 40, 15-year-olds, 15-year-olds from the neighborhood taught them how to read with a kid. Oh, they taught, oh, they taught

the 15-year-old to read with a kid. And then they brought in a kid. And then they brought in a kid. in maybe 80, but I think 60 youth from the neighborhood, first through third graders. And every one of those kids in six weeks, being coached by 15-year-olds, every kid went up at least one grade level and some went up two. Those 60 kids are being returned to their classrooms caught up when before they were a drag on the teacher. Now they are wind in that teacher's sales. That is lit. It is lit, lit, lit. That is lit.

So there's a story from two weeks ago. This is what I mean, anybody can do it. And what the data in demographics say is that the work those 15-year-olds did for those work, did for those 60 first, second, third graders changes the trajectory of those 60 kids' life. Literally does. Absolutely. Absolutely. It's awesome.

And you know what they do? They just move all the children. at a sanctuary and set up little reading groups all around their sanctuary in their little church. Their church isn't huge. It's not some big suburban church with tons of space to. They just make it work. They're like, we're going to make it work. So they brought in 15-year-olds, taught them how to teach young kids. Then the 15-year-olds taught the young kids out of read, and they all came up a grade level or two and will return to school now with a fighting chance. Yes. And the first year they did it last summer. One of the things that they were amazed to

learn is that some of their 15-year-olds were still struggling. with reading. And through being a mentor, through being a mentor, they actually elevated their own reading and became more excited about school because of it. That is so cool. We'll be right back. You've heard the chaos. Now you can see it. Do we want to jump right in? Watch all your favorite podcasts from start to finish right inside the free IHart Radio app. Make some noise. Wee! Catch every laugh and eye roll on shows like Bestie Listen, Hey Jonas, and Las Culturistas. Now with full video. I'll just leave that there. It's the same hosts and the same chemistry with all the hilarious moments you've been missing right on your screen. Open the free IHard Radio app. Search video podcasts and tap watch.

I'm Munga Shat Together and I'm back with a new season of the podcast Skyline Drive. This time I'm diving into a rabbit hole of peptides, organoids, blood boys, blue zones, and brain replacement to try to understand what this longevity obsession is all about and what it really means to live forever for all of us. I learned about some rad science. I can make a brain for you and then we can test what draw is the best for your brain, as opposed to his brain. Here's some hard truths. I would expect Indians to age faster, but I did not expect it to be almost a four to five.

your acceleration. And get myself into a world of trouble. I'd say probably start bone smashing. That doesn't work. Make it look more defined. They say it works. I don't know. Listen to Skyline Drive,

How to Live Forever on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If your bookshelf and your for-you page are equally important to your personality, welcome home. This is Proz Society, the weekly podcast that's part book club, part group chat for thought,

daughters, pop culture obsessives, and anyone who thinks Pride and Prejudice and Love Island deserve the same level of discourse. I'm Eli Rallo and every week we're connecting the dots between books, the internet, and the conversations everyone can't stop having. I'm going to have to look up this story. I'm obsessed. So I'm obsessed. From bestselling authors and your favorite book talk creators to the latest pop culture moments, nothing is off the table. It's like if you can hide some real messages inside compelling characters, and that is a Trojan horse. Whether you're looking for literary deep dives, smart pop culture conversations, or a community of readers who love to think a little too much, you're in the right place.

Listen to Pro Society on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. See you between the pages. On the new podcast Solita, we share the messy reality of traveling alone as a woman. I can wait four hours for the next bus. or this random dude is offering me a ride on his motorcycle. I chose option B. I'm Julie Pinero, and I travel by myself

because it's a rare space where I can say yes without asking anyone else first. I'm on a mission to reclaim the word solita, trading the pity for possibility. Every time I tried to be alone, I kept meeting people, and they were like, you smiled at us. Not a lot of people smile around here.

It's when you're alone that you're most receptive to the world as it is and not the lies you're sold about it. It can be a time where you push your limits, change your mind, or wake up to a new version of yourself. So whether you're a solo travel veteran or you're too nervous to book your first trip, I hope you listen to Solita on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hey, this is Hayes Davenport. And Sean Clements. We host the podcast Hollywood Handbook on the Big Money Players Network. Our show is extremely accessible to first-time listeners. Each week, we talk to someone in show business, aka The Biz, and try to help them with their careers and see what they have to offer us. Everyone has a good time, and no one gets mad at their publicists for letting them do our show.

We've had a lot of great guests like Sarah Sherman, not that great. Actually, can you help me shape this? How about we flip it on his head, right? How about we flip the script? What is the surprise woman? who actually you think is the straight man is actually the one who's acting weird. Adam Scott, this entire time you've been expecting Adam Sandler to come to visit the show. I would never expect.

I would never set expectations for something like that to happen. If the universe allows for something like that to happen, I'm open to it. I'm always going to accept. You know, Danny McBride, fine. Yeah, it's all this fragile masculinity exuding. I could smell it walking down the hallway, to be honest with you. I was like, I was like, is that weed? Nope, it's fragile masculinity.

Ben Stiller, no. Because a lot of times out of context, people don't get it or even know what a circle is. You know what I mean? Like, they're like, oh, what's a state. Everyone's so dumb except for you. And fake. Right, fake and also not interested or just like, oh, I've got my life. I don't care about your life.

and a lot of other big shots that wouldn't be where they are without us. Oh, and by the way, Will Ferrell told us personally he loves the show and he wants to be a guest on every episode, but he's just so busy. Listen to Hollywood Handbook

on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What is the single greatest predictor of a child's academic success? There's been several studies on it. One of them is, quite frankly, the academic acumen of their mother.

That's a... interesting because this, to me, gets into the generational issue of the literacy. So talk about that a little. Yeah. Which is... I can't even believe that we just got to generational poverty and systemic injustice. Because that is what we're trying to break. The first chapter by book is called breaking systemic injustice.

And the link between literacy and systemic poverty, generational poverty, is a one-to-one. That's a bit of exaggeration, but you understand the point out. No, but it's pretty close to one-to-one. And according to studies, it is the most excellent predictor that that generational poverty will be broken. The reason this is important is, and I want you to talk about what I'm about to say to, is one of the, and you have to answer this question, and it's an uncomfortable question. But one of the things I have heard in having conversations around dinner tables with people about this very issue, because it is near and dear to my heart, believing around. have a friend that's involved in literacy and everything else, is one of the home predictors is that children who are read bedtime stories and sung lullabies are far, far, far, far, far, far,

far more likely to be on reading level by third grade. And so really it's, there's a problem in the home of many of these kids that are illiterate by second, third, fourth grade. And I think that's, I think it's just, the truth is, the truth bears out that that is fact. But it ignores this. When the child is being raised by a parent who was never read to or sung lullabies, who was never on grade level,

who was also raised by a parent, all of a sudden for children to be read to, because it's, it's not something that you do, it's not something that you know as a parent, It's not something we've ever done for you as a parent. And that in and of itself, that is the definition of systematic issues. Right. Yes.

So it's easy to blame a third grader's today's lack of being able to read on their parent, but that is really superficial and doesn't go deep enough into a problem of the systematic issues that existed before this current eight-year-old ever got to third grade. 20-26 in the first place. Just as that child had no vote into the circumstance that they were born into, Oz, their mom did not have a vote in their system, probably their grandmother and their great-grandmother, and so on and so forth.

We have a film on our website called How to Build a Brain, a lovely animated film about how to build a healthy brain and how to build an unhealthy brain. It talks about exactly what you're talking about. I don't like to use words like problem or mistakes in the home. I think there's an absence

in homes. There's an absence. There's an absence of words. And words take so many different forms. I struggled in school. I was dyslexic. There was never a worry for me. I have two sons who struggled early on in school. Scary struggled some. There was never a worry that they weren't going to learn to read and go to college where they are now. Now. Why? Because we had dinner at the dinner table every night. We had erudite conversations. They have vocabularies and imaginations and belief. They have seen the world. They believe they're a part of the world. Hope. They have all of that. So they're going to figure it out. And they have community resources to help them close the gap because we are integrated in our community. They have uncles and uncles, uncles that they've been surrounded by their entire lives.

that is what so many kids don't have. And I would argue, yes, there's the behavioral things. Mom didn't get it when she was young, so she doesn't know how to give it to her child and so on and so forth. Yes, it's behavioral things. But I also believe that there's a spiritual thing. There's a very emoting of belief in what is that we capture from those who are most responsible for us

and from our communities. Call it to spirit. But we enter into a belief system. And these children that we're talking about these 40% are never learned to read, they don't believe they have a future. Not because mom did something wrong or mom is bad or mean.

Mom's working three jobs and bringing home food. And the kids are already asleep. and the oldest child is taking care of the younger ones just to get through the day. And mom is doing more than I have ever done as a parent. And she's a hero, but she just doesn't have enough. Yeah, so quit blaming her for her kids.

Stop blaming her. And here's the thing, even if it's her fault. Who cares? We still have an eight-year-old that can't read. Right. That's all we should worry about. And if we really want to break the chain, if we really want to stop this,

the downhill ball of systemic issues in this regard, why do we even give a, of why it's there? Let's just fix it. Right. Yeah, let's get involved. Let's get involved. And here's the secret. When you get involved, you actually get blessed.

You know? Jesus doesn't say, I was hungry. You gave me something to eat. I was thirsty. Give me some drink. It was strange you invited me in, you know, and so on and so forth. He doesn't say, and if you do this, the stranger's going to be blessed.

He says, as much you've done is the least of these, you've done it under me. I met Tony Campolo for the first time. Tony Campolo is a famous pastor and justice teacher. When I met him the first time, I was a seminarian. I was 30 years old. I got invited to this small group event. Tony Campolo's, I'm sitting at this boardroom table with about 15 people, and he's at the head, and I'm at the foot. He and I just met briefly outside, and he learned that I was going to

seminary. So all this badgers is going on among these church leaders, I shouldn't have been in the room. And at one point in the conversation, Tony Campolo asked, he goes, and he dings his glass, and he goes, I want to, I need to ask a question of the table. Okay, you're Tony Campolo. And he says, what is your theology of the poor? No one answered. Ding the glass again. I ask you, what is your theology of the poor? No one answered. So he stares at me with his fat Italian finger and he points down the table and he goes, you, young seminarian, what is our theology of the poor? And I looked at him, I said, Dr. Campolo, no one teaches us that.

And Tony said, when you look into the face of the poor, you stare into the face of Jesus. When you look into the face of the poor, you stare into the face into the eyes of Jesus. For as much as you've done it to the least of these, you've done it unto me. And when we offer people this generous life, we're giving them the opportunity to experience the divine, to be with the eternal story, to walk with it. I mean, I think most of us just want to take the hand of God and go on the journey. And this is all we're asking people to do. This is all you're asking people to do.

That's so well put. What did you learn from the people in the documentary on sentence that statistics don't teach? So when you watch Fuji, who's the opening character, Fuji and I are the same age. I was going to say Fuji's, what, mid-40s? when we were making the documentary, he was 50. Okay. Fuji died during the making of the film in his early 50s.

Fuzzi's a father. He's a husband. He's lived in the same neighbor at his whole life except for the time he spent in prison. You watch it, and first of all, all you want to do is root for him. Every moment he's on screen, all you want to do is go,

I want good things for this good, man, second thing you feel, he does not deserve the life that he has as he communicates the lack of options. For an illiterate man, 50-year-old man, he has no options. And he says it with such tenderness and bad grammar. And you sit there and go, he does not deserve this. and is children are destined for the same thing. And you can't help but think that. There are other characters we follow that are even more tragic where you just go, there's a word I want to use that I can't use.

It's why storytelling, in my opinion, is so important because we can hear the statistics and cereally we say, 40% can't read, wow, that's horrible. We should do something about that. And then we go on to McDonald's and get a burger and go to work. Right. But when you connect and feel the emotion and the sadness and the depth of what these statistics actually look like in a real human sense, I think it has a much greater impact on an army of normal folks who needs to get involved.

Yeah. It doesn't just say, here are the stats. It's here's what the stats look like. Yeah, and you don't have to change the world. No, just one. When you walk down the road and you see something, stop. Fuji and I have something in common. Yeah.

We're a subject of a documentary at one time in our lives. Okay. And I remember being asked about, you know, hey, do you want to be filmed and all this? And honestly, initially, it's like, that's cool being on camera. And then you start thinking about you. I really want people, you know, I mean, I've had trauma in my life. We all have.

Do you really want to open your life to a camera? And that was about something positive in my life. The people you were talking to were having to open up some real, probably the negative of their lives. How did you convince people to, share their stories the way that they did and so tender raw and honestly yep you and Fuji also are loving fathers you both love your wives you know you have a lot in common yeah this is this is a great

answer I know where you're going with it already but go ahead no um so we started to make a a traditional documentary the way that we've made them in the past illustrate the problem, show a solution, big happy ending, applause, applause, try to get people to cry. And once we got into what, we realized that that was, that that was too cheap for the topic we were doing. Yeah, it's not a story arc thing, is it? It's not. Right. In fact, it's kind of a cruddy story arc. Yeah, it's a terrible story arc, but it works. No, but in a traditional sense, for this subject matter, that doesn't work. So, Connor Martin knew this guy, Mark Allen Johnson, who Mark had been producing reality TV in some of the most freakish, you know, end of your cable box kind of reality television stuff. And I love Mark. Mark would be okay with me saying this. Mark and I went round and around about God a hundred times because he doesn't want anything to do with having God in one of his films.

But this guy, it's like magic. He, like, speaks the language. He naturally wants to, like, battle with me. But you put him among the porn spirit, and he becomes this unbelievable, attractive, bald, white, tatted up gangbanger. Right. And he knew Fuji a little bit.

So Fuji was the first. Each one of our characters, a member of our team or multiple members of a team, basically lived with them for weeks before we turned a camera on. This is the difference. So one of my jobs in the film as the writer is I was also the lifeguard. Not the lifeguard on the content. That's for the directors. I'm the lifeguard on we will not do poverty porn. excuse my terminology, but that's what we call it.

No, you don't want to, I mean, there's... Exploitive. Show the dirt, show the nasty, for the sake of the nasty. Right. We do not do poverty porn. I probably said that a hundred times during the filming. So you get in and you wait until they say,

I want to participate in your project. And they saw themselves as partners in the storytelling because they wanted a better future for the next generation. and each one got involved for that reason. They were not paid, although after the documentary was done, we did find ways to care for them. That's cool.

In very, very specific ways to their story. There's four main illiterate characters we follow, them and their children. Of those four characters, two died basically during the filming. Yeah, which is illiteracy. like I said, literacy is a health issue. Kind of explain that and through the lens of those two characters. Wow.

Yeah. Oh, great. So it's a massive health issue. $230 billion additionally spent every year on illiteracy related illnesses. I was going to ask you that. It costs $230 billion. Taxpayers, $230 billion. Not just in people.

That's literally. like healthcare costs, right? Yeah, that's like programs that people have to go into because of whatever condition there in there's a lot of conditions where... 230 billion. 230 billion. Okay, but... That's from like five years ago, so I'm sure it's larger than that now.

And that doesn't include the lack of what would be tax base and revenue if illiterate people were able to contribute to society. So it's much greater than that number. You can't even qualify those dollars. Right. So it's a health care issue and a drag on the thing, but how is it a health care issue? There's a chapter in the book read just on the economic impact at how much it's affecting everyone's wallet. So if you want to do this for selfish reasons, that's okay.

I'm a mercenary about this. If you want to become a reading buddy for mercenary reasons so you can help save your pocketbook, fine. Get involved because I know your heart will be changed in the process. Kids are incredible evangeless. And they will change your heart. But to your point, illiteracy is absolutely connected to hope. hopelessness and futurelessness. What does hopelessness lead to?

Depression, anxiety. Numbing out. Numbing out. Addiction. What do the communities where literacy is most concentrated? What are those communities? What drives those communities? What are the economies of those communities?

So we're talking about depression. We're talking about diet related. If you can't read, odds are your diet stinks. So anything from diabetes to whatever goes up massively because of illiteracy. Again, addiction and the impact of addiction, all of sorts, and then depression and the psychological impacts. And how psychology does affect physiology. It absolutely does. Absolutely does.

So we're not just talking about they need counselors. No, they need a reboot that they're never going to get. and we're going to pay for it. We taxpayers. Taxpayers. And society. And we pay for it in a hundred other ways. See, that's the thing is there's been other issues and I've said this.

You know, to every issue, there's an idealistic side and there's a pragmatic side. And sometimes they join and sometimes they don't. But there are, to any issue, think there's this idealism of what should be in the pragmatism of what is. And I love what you just said. Absolutely love it. We want people to engage with your project to teach children how to read, to stop the systematic cycle, and to increase the odds of children becoming having great lives and to reduce this 40% number and all of it. We want people idealistically to say, based on my human beings, humanity, that is the person of the ditch that I need to stop and help.

And one hour, but okay, fine. Idealistic. But I love what you said. Who cares? It is costing you a fortune to continue to let kids come up illiterate. Yes. And that's just one of the silos. Let's talk about the cost of the prison system on taxpayers.

That's the beautiful. So you got the cost of healthcare. You got the cost of, all right, let's take the illiterate adult that can't hold a job and has to be cared for by social services and the drag on our treasury for that versus if that person had a job in a home and was paying property taxes and paying sales tax, that's a double reversal of what it does for society. So even if you don't care about this idealistic and pragmatically, this single issue cost hundreds of billions of dollars a year. Okay.

Yes. We'll be right back. You've heard the chaos. Now you can see it. Do we want to jump right in? Watch all your favorite podcasts from start to finish right inside the free IHard Radio app. Make some noise. Oohie!

Catch every laugh and eye roll on shows like Bestie listen. Hey Jonas and Las Culpurasas. with full video. I'll just leave that there. It's the same hosts and the same chemistry with all the hilarious moments you've been missing right on your screen. Open the free IHard Radio app. Search video podcasts and tap watch. I'm Munggisha together and I'm back with a new season of the podcast Skyline Drive.

This time I'm diving into a rabbit hole of peptides, organoids, blood boys, blue zones and brain replacement to try to understand what this longevity obsession is all about. and what it really means to live forever for all of us. I learned about some rad science. I can make a brain for you, and then we can test what draw is the best for your brain, as opposed to his brain. Here are some hard truths. I would expect Indians to age faster,

but I did not expect it to be almost a four-to-five-year acceleration. And get myself into a world of trouble. I'd say probably start bone smashing. That doesn't work. To make it look more defined. They say it works. I don't know. Listen to Skyline Drive,

How to Live Forever on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Hey, this is Hayes Davenport. And Sean Clements. We host the podcast Hollywood Handbook on the Big Money Players Network. Our show is extremely accessible to first-time listeners. Each week, we talk to someone in show business, aka the biz, and try to help them with their careers

and see what they have to offer us. Everyone has a good time and no one gets mad at their publicists for letting them do our show. We've had a lot of great guests like Sarah Sherman, not that great. Actually, can you help me shape this? How about we flip it on his head, right? How about we flip this around? What is the surprise woman? Actually, you think is the straight man is actually the one who's acting weird.

Adam Scott. This entire time, you've been expecting Adam Sandler to come to, to visit the show. I would never expect. I would never set expectations for something like that to happen. If the universe allows for something like that to happen, I'm open to it. I'm always going to accept.

You know, Danny McBride, fine. Yeah, it's all this fragile masculinity. Exuding. I could smell it walking down the hallway, to be honest with you. I was like, is that weed? Nope, it's fragile masculinity. Man Stiller, no. Because a lot of times out of context, people don't get it or even know what a circle is.

You know what I mean? They're like, oh, what's a state? Everyone's so dumb except for you. And fake. Right, fake and also not interested or just like, oh, I've got my life. I don't care about your life. And a lot of other big shots that wouldn't be where they are without us. Oh, and by the way, Will Ferrell told us personally he loves the show and he wants to be a guest on every episode, but he's just so busy.

Listen to Hollywood Handbook on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcast. or wherever you get your podcasts. If your bookshelf and your for-you page are equally important to your personality, welcome home. This is Prose Society, the weekly podcast that's part book club, part group chat for thought daughters,

pop culture obsessives, and anyone who thinks pride and prejudice and love island deserve the same level of discourse. I'm Eli Rallo, and every week we're connecting the dots between books, the internet, and the conversations everyone can't stop having. I'm going to have to look up this story.

I'm obsessed. I'm obsessed. From bestselling authors and your favorite book talk creators to the latest pop culture moments, nothing is off the table. It's like if you can hide some real messages inside compelling characters, then that is a Trojan horse. Whether you're looking for literary deep dives,

smart pop culture conversations, or a community of readers who love to think a little too much, you're in the right place. Listen to pro society on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your book. podcasts. See you between the pages.

When I was 14 years old, I was kidnapped and held captive for nine months. I survived, and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them. I'm Elizabeth Smart, and these are the Survivor Files. I just remember this low, taunting voice next to my ear saying, shut up, don't say anything. Every week, I'm with survivors who live through the unthinkable. I knew if he woke up, without a doubt, he was going to hurt me. I started feeling that there was someone at the end of my bed, and I just started screaming. They are abducted, stalked, controlled, and nearly silenced. But these aren't stories about what's taken from them.

There's stories about what it takes to make it out alive. Listen to the Survivor Files with Elizabeth smart on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Early on, you ask, why is it getting worse? I'm going to give you another reason why it's getting worse. Okay. It's because our society is becoming increasingly, I'll use this term again, siloed. It's being increasingly siloed. That's just a fact.

The odds that any person we pull off the street has any friendships with anyone who doesn't look like them, act like them, church like them, read like them, vote like them, vote like them, spend like them. The chance that they have any friends look like them, right, let's be honest. Right. Spend like them. Yeah. Bank like them.

Right. The chance they have anybody in life is lower today that's ever been before. Not only are we siloed from actual face-to-face-face-to-face-person relationships, I'm siloed from every kind of relationship. Odds are I'm being fed in information stream that reinforces. is the way I look, the way I spend, the way I church, the way I read, the way I vote. Right? So my entire life is siloed to where I had never encountering the other. The other.

Back to the story of the Good Samaritan. Say what you want about the two, and pastors love to like take that story and give a narrative to it. The only thing Jesus makes sure we know is that the Samaritan and the guy inside the road are different. They actually are kind of enemies. Kind of. Like, that's where pastors want to go. And you may, in some ways, but really, at the very base, they're just different. They're culturally, probably economically different. Yeah.

One's a Republican, one's a Democrat. Whatever they are. They're different. One voted for Trump. One voted for Kamala. If you want to inherit eternal life, know someone who's different. No someone who's different. How about love and help?

Absolutely. Somebody who's different. But we don't have the capacity to do it. Like, left to ourselves. we will take the path of least resistance, and right now society is forcing us into a siloed life. We will never know anybody who is other, and that is we are living a less than human life.

But that's to your point, is what's making this illiteracy problem worse, is because the people in the silo of the under-resourced because there's a greater chasm between those that have and those that have not, those that have not, that those numbers continue to get worse. Right. And when you come from a discarded community,

you are taught to live in the shadows. It is hard to find them. And it's hard to befriend them. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. When you come from a discarded community, you are taught how to exist live and function in the shadows, and therefore, because they're taught how to live, function, and exist in the shadows, it's hard to find them.

It's hard to find. That is really interesting. And to know them, and hopefully to love them. Now, where's the one place where discarded communities show up at 9 o'clock every weekday morning? School? Great school. Particularly the grade school. Because that is healthcare, that is childcare in this country.

It's also where you get your food. Often. It's the one place where they show up. They're going to show. Society has created a place, a stage for us to live out the great play of humanity. Because they're going to be there. It shows in the show up from 9 to 3.30, Monday through Friday, and society just lays the stage out and goes, come join the play of humanity. And every day we don't engage and teach kids to read some missed opportunity. I can just show up and you'll get one buddy.

You might get two buddies. Odds are they're going to be culturally, economically, ethnically, different than you. Odds are. And you get to be the new best friend and they're going to love you for it. And suddenly you're a part of the great play as well as giving a future and a hope to a child. It's unbelievable. And it's just laid out. It's just set up.

You don't have to do anything. You don't have to create a program. You don't have to buy a book. You don't have to pay a fee. You don't have to go to training. Often you don't. You just have to show up, and it's all laid out for you. This is why we say,

illiteracy is the stupidest problem in America. That's kind of a double thing, but funny. Yeah. Because it's so begging to be fixed. It's the most destructive, and it's begging to be fixed, And it can be fixed by who? I'll let you say it. Ordinary folks.

It's the one societal issue that ordinary folks can fix. And I'm just, let's just let me preach for a second. Yeah, go. In Luke chapter four, I'm sorry, Acts chapter four. But if you're going to preach, get the chapter in birth, right? I apologize. Acts chapter four, the disciples are getting their feet under them. Jesus is gone, descended, ascended.

And they've gotten defeated, and they're starting to do, it says, acts of kindness. For which acts of kindness do you hate us? They ask the power leaders of their society who are confronting them in the streets, power, systems of power. He said, stop, stop doing what you're doing. They said, for what acts of kindness are you against us? and the accusation that those leaders bring against the disciples says,

who are these ordinary, uneducated men? That's the accusation, because the structures don't want the solution to be ordinary, uneducated people. And that's exactly who in that scene that Jesus wants in the center of the action. We just got to take it back. We got to be willing to walk out in the streets and say, we're not going to be removed from the story. And this happens to be one story that the stage is set.

As we're having this calling for ordinary people to get involved to do this work that would fix so much of what else was. So many times we put, I think, a too large burden of this issue on the teacher who's inheriting these kids. Could you explain to me why we should not do that? The classroom teacher? Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, the number of ways a teacher has an impossible job in America today. I mentioned yesterday on the plane, I became short-term friends with Lisa and Luis. Two grade school teachers. They're lovely people. They come from a lovely town, a town where we holiday in, their town. And yet, the priority of our children is becoming lower and lower every year in our society. It's represented in where we spend our money. It's represented in how we prioritize providing additional resources for classrooms.

And these teachers feel it. I mean, I was talking to these two teachers, and I thought they were going to cry. because it's like we just need a little more help. They're just standing there on the plane waiting to debark, disembark, and they're looking at it. If we could just have a little more help. You know, you say that, and I'm interested, do you think a teacher would rather have a little extra money for school supplies

or three people show up every week and help teach? You know, it feels like, yeah, it feels like the real assets are the, is the army you're trying to mobilize and just. schools. Well, I think on the front end, the teacher would know I'd answer that question, and they might go either way. On the back end, they would always say, give me the people. Because with the people, you get margin. I get hours added to my week. Because kids I was having to worry about, those kids are being taken care of by someone else, and suddenly those hours are free for me to do the other things I need to do. Great. But

here's a whole other side to it. When community members get involved in local school, they start to spread the story of the local school. Suddenly the community starts to care about the local school in a way, didn't before. Suddenly the community starts to hear the story of the local school. Suddenly, and again spiritually, the spiritual energy of the community

starts to shift away from selfishness to otherliness. And it multiplies. It is. It's contagious. You said it earlier. It is contagious. I've seen that. For example, my first game I coached at Bonassas. There were four people in the stance. Yeah. It was the principal, the athletic director, the bus driver, and Miss Guy. Miss Guy was the one alum from Manassas that went to everything. And by the time we got 70 kids and started winning games and kids were taking ACT prep classes and they were learning how to read better and everything else, Our stands were from four, literally four, the first game, I'm not exaggerating, the first game of every coached from now, four people on our sideline to 600, 1,000, 1,500 in the stands. And people started caring about the school and doing things around the school. And to your point, it absolutely really is contagious for a whole community when things start going right, that more and more people start getting involved. And they can snowball down hill and make it. And how's that going to change how people?

respond when they go to a city council meeting. That's interesting. How is it going to change when people think through how am I going to, or am I going to contribute my funds, my extra funds, charitable funds that I have? You know, that starts to change mentality a lot. And we believe, so we believe that if a school, if a church takes on a school, I make sure every kid can read by fourth grade. And if they would commit to a decade, that means those eight-year-olds will have graduated

from high school. That's a great point. Eight-year-olds, then, will have grads from high school. That's a damn near a generation. It is a generation. Sociologically, it is a generation. That means that for the first time,

every kid is able to get a job. It means every kid can fill out a job app. It means every kid can fill out a college app. It means every kid from that neighborhood because grade schools are defined by a neighborhood. You're changing. All of the headwater structures of an entire neighborhood, if you'll commit to 10 years,

that we'll make sure every kid can read. You can reverse the very sociological systems of a neighborhood by just showing up one hour a week. For parents listening right now that feel anxious when they hear all these stats, what compares to to make sure the kids don't fall into this world in the first place? Honestly, I would encourage people to read my book, read. that talks about... Read my book, read.

Yeah. Read by Tony Chris and Jeff Martin. So to make sure your kids don't fall into this, there are basic things that are common sense things. What does it look like

for a kid to be healthy? For a kid to be healthy, I'm not talking about helicopter parents who follow their kids around 24-7 and make sure they never bump their knee. That's what I'm talking about.

I'm talking about vegetables twice a day. I'm talking about consistently going to bed at 8.30 and getting a full night's sleep. One of the greatest challenges to kids who are illiterate in American classrooms is they're not getting enough sleep. That happens because of a disoriented household. That's just because parents just, they don't have time to be disciplined about those simple little things. And it's because of trauma, honestly. So why don't you not bring trauma to your own? your kids' lives. Stop arguing with your spouse.

In front of them. Please don't. Yeah. In front of them. And argue well and respect each other when you do. And don't throw around the house. And then words. Lots and lots of words.

What words? Good words. And encouraging words. And one fish, two fish, red fish, bluefish words. and dinner at the dinner table every night and initiate a conversation about something. It doesn't matter. Practice words.

Use big words. Do not talk down to your children. Do not use only one syllable words. Use four syllable words. They won't know what they mean, but they will know that that word exists. The children who come from impoverished homes have something like three million less words

when they go to first grade. New Year of like that. Then kids that come from middle class homes. And you believe that. Three million. million last words. And we're just talking about words that they come in contact with.

We're not talking about words that they're able to use in conversation. But that is how the architecture of a brain is built. I'm so glad you said that because I was hoping you would say that. I was going to ask you about it. But I'm so glad you said that.

It's one of the things that I learned in developmental psychology years ago that I think is fascinating is adults and parents who use normal vocabulary around their children. their children by sixth grade will have three million more recognizable phonetics in their vocabulary than children who are talked to like their children, like they're babyed.

Yeah. Yeah. That's incredibly interesting. And invite your kids into the conversation. Yeah, that's another great point. And don't correct them. Be curious. When they have an opinion, even if you think it's bad crazy.

I am fascinated by that. Instead of, hey, that's stupid, don't ever say that again. It is, say more. I'm not sure that I understand where you're coming from. Could you explain why you're saying that? Yeah, it's called reloading. It's an art form. It's called reloading.

And reloading is as simple as just saying, uh-huh. And then shutting up. And then you can also say at the end of their Asinon explanation, because they're seven or eight or nine and they're not fully formed and maybe the way they think is crazy, you don't say, you say, hmm, have you ever thought about, sure, blank, black, black, black, blah. Or don't even do it. Just say, I love hearing your thoughts.

Yeah, that's also good. I love hearing your thoughts. It's incredible that these things right here help kids to be literate, but it creates, right, creates intellectual curiosity, creativity, all of it. Because most kids are built to believe there's only two answers, the right answer and the wrong answer. And that's an incredibly linguistically limiting false dichotomy. There's a whole world between right and wrong. That's why kids' answers tend to be one to four words on average.

Because they believe that their only choice is to get it right or be told that they got it wrong. So the answer is yes or no or I don't know. But that's all the far they're willing to go because they haven't been given permission to just be linguistic. Be wordy. Love words. Watch mom love words. Yeah, I'm glad you said, Mom, because our kids grew up understanding there's a right thing, a wrong thing. And neither of those matters because at the end of the day, it's Lisa's thing.

Oh. I'm kidding. We do not endorse the last statement. We do not endorse the last statement with the, with, The Children's Literacy Project. Tony, sir. I'm not going to do it.

I usually do it. I usually do this kind of call-out beseeching thing. I think in this regard, you're more equipped to do it. We got an army and normal folks listening to us. They're going to hear you. What do you want to tell them to do? If they're listening to you right now and actually engaged, what are we begging them to?

today. There is in almost every community the infrastructure exists to say, yes, I want to be a reading partner to a child. And within 60 days, you're sitting in a classroom or in the library or in the hallway or in the lunchroom with a kid. The structures already exist. There are literacy nonprofits that already have set up all the ways to do it. You just have to say, I'm willing to do it, do a background check, watch a couple videos on how we engage children, and you get to show up. is in the vast majority and the places where they don't have that, we can help you set that up. But selfishly, go watch Sentenced. Go to children's literacy project.org and start to explore the issues.

Watch how to build a brain. Watch how we got here, the U.S. literacy story telling what you and I were talking about. How did we end up in this terrible place where 28% of American adults, are unable to read well enough to fill out a job application. Learn about these things. Heck, buy my book. Read about it. Why this is a fantastic application of the teachings of Jesus.

Whether or not you believe in Jesus, it's a fantastic application of that great wisdom teacher's advice on life. And then, if you're a part of the army, You already want to be a compassionate, generative, engaged human being. Literacy in a local grade school is the easiest, most accessible. You're already an expert. You will get more reward than what you give and the biggest tangible, visible, experiential impact you can have. I just go it's a no-brainer.

And the data says this can change so much of what ills our culture across the landscape of our entire nation, regardless of that's singularly. Because you're not only giving that child reading practice, which is so helpful, you're giving them emotional stability, belief in themselves, social skills, the ability to interact, and the ability to believe that they can learn, which most kids who never learn to read don't believe they can, because no one's ever told them someone that they trust, somebody that they believe has their best, has never told them they can.

Be smart. Alex, you got anything else? Yeah, I'll try to keep it quick, but on a practical level, can you talk about how people have used screenings to help get local movements going in any record for folks? Also, I'd be curious, too,

what you're just a little bit more about what your four-week series is like. I'm sure, you know, some churches may be interesting. What is the nature of that? Love this. I love this. So, first of all, sentence. So sentence is literally, we give it away. So where you and I met in Wichita, two days before we met, we did a screening in Wichita for people to watch sentence.

I think I remember you told me that. And then to have a conversation about it. We do that every month around the country. There are places where we get the literacy organizations or the local churches involved. We all show up, do a panel discussion just to talk about it. So you can eventize sentence anytime we want to. We hope you do it. We have a whole press kit on how to eventize it.

And we just, we release it. We literally just give you the file. Show it. And here's some ideas on how to effectively do it. We find that people who show up, of the people who show up who are not already involved as literacy partners, we find that as many as 70% of the people in the room sign up that day to become, even people walked in with, desire to do it. They watch the film. They get to the end. They go to the table. They sign up their name

and go, I want to be, I want to be a reading partner to a kid. The numbers are unbelievable. And you can use it. You can also use it on a local level if you want to just stream it online and stuff. You want to do it showed your church group. And by the way, church is out there. Sentence is very raw. It is PG-13. It is an adult film. We have made a G-version of it. So you can show it in any church and feel good about it. We also have a 30-minute sermon version where the film follows the story of the Good Samaritan showing how your church can get involved in the issue.

So we have all three versions that are open and free to use in order to put it out. So if you want to make it your Sunday evening service to watch a 30-minute version of the film, meet all the characters, learn about the impact you can do that. Then we're just completing what we call the church literacy kit.

And it is all the resources of church needs to put together a month of literacy, learning, and experience. So it is for sermons, it is for small group curriculum. It is a 21-day devotional that you can do with your child that includes questions for your children. So you can read the chapter together using all the big words. And then at the end, some suggested questions to get your child talking and using words as part of the experience. It has multiple films that we've produced that's a part of it. It has a prayer app where you can adopt schools in your neighborhood right on the app, and that app will remind you to pray for them.

And then you can see where everybody in your group is praying and follow that every week. It is a fully immersive four-week experience with all the tools you need in order to become a literacy church. And that is my biggest dream, is to release literacy churches into the world because we've got to start being a neighbor again. Tony Chris. He's an author. He's a filmmaker. He's co-founder of the Children's Literacy Project. He's from Portland, Oregon, and he's cool. Thanks, man. And the work you're doing, it's near and dear to my heart. I absolutely do believe this is one of the easiest things. Every pair of ears hearing us today. It's one of the easiest things you can do that has a potential to have just a substantive impact across the landscape for our country.

And thanks so much for sharing all of this and thanks for the work you do. And I really do have a sincere prayer that people hear your call. I think it can change communities and change our country. All right. Thanks, Pam. And thank you for joining us this week. If Tony Chris has inspired you in general or better yet to take action by becoming a reading mentor, hosting a community screening of his documentary sentenced or something else entirely, let me know about it. I really do want to

hear about it. You can write me anytime at bill at normalfolks. us. If you enjoyed this episode, share friends, share it on social. Subscribe to the podcast wherever you're watching or listening to it. Rate and review it. Join the army at normalfolks.org. Join or start one of our local service clubs. take the 10-level challenge. Buy our merch, any and all of these things that will help us grow. An army of normal folks. I'm Bill Courtney. Until next time, do it you can.

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