An Army of Normal Folks - HIGHLIGHTS: 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. I heart radio.

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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 peptide 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 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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 Wichdall 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, to end up divorced, to have substance abuse problems.

It's like this weird, it's weird connecting childhoods. 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. So. And so, I mean, there's how someone ends up in prison, like, I'm not going to insult 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 tell-tale 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. 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 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? Yeah. 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? Everywhere. everywhere.

Yeah, and had a single school say, we don't want these church people. Well, I'm from Portland, Oregon. Arguably, the least church, most liberal city on the planet. Yeah, it's pretty, even... Arguably. Yeah, yeah.

When we first went to the local literacy organization, smart, I mean, he had in so much trouble. We said, 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 litters, they're volunteer based by more than a few percentage points every year.

We walked in there, this was five, six years ago. We said, we would like to help, we would like to help you recruit volunteers. She said, great, what do you want to do? Well, 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, how many mean, we need 40 volunteers, you need 50 volunteers,

they'll give you for, and their model is one hour a week, read it. And they were like, oh, no, oh, no, no. Oh, no, no. No, churchy. No, churchy. And I was like, No, churchy. 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? 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, Smart's asking for your help. And they said, we're in. 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 have, 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?

Retirees. Your stay-at-home moms whose kids have gone off to school and they don't know what to do with themselves. You're 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. just go help a kid, you know, and I hope we get into the concept of loving the other and how powerful that is. 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 bend over, 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.

It 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 normalfolks.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. The music you love. I heart radio. Your favorite radio stations.

Everywhere you go. The podcasts, everyone's talking about. All in one place. And it's free. I heart radio. Whatever you want to hear. Listen anytime. Anywhere.

Music, radio. Podcasts. Unlimited audio. It's on the free. One app. No subscription. Always free. Grab the free app.

I heart radio. Everywhere. I'm Munga Shat Together and I'm back with a new season of the podcast Skyline Drive. This time I'm, 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 bones 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 podcasts.

When I was 14 years old, I was kidnapped and held captive for 9. 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 message. 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 this around? Okay. 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 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? Like, you're like, oh, what's a state. 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. So the smart guy came back and said, you know, my bad for running from the churchy people. The churchy people in this, in this specific capacity have been incredible.

So your point is, if you can pull it off in port. Right. The most unchurchy. We've done it in hundreds of communities across the country. And there are so few stories of pushback. And the stories that push back 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 just merely. You're not showing up with the crucifix in Holy Water and trying to, you're just, spending time, 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? 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 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 him, that answer right there is it. And by the way, I'm sure when 90% of those people leave, they pray for the, 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 social clubs? 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, that 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 better.

Absolutely. To tell something. I really like it. 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. 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. Early on, you asked, 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. 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-to-face-to-face-to-face of personal relationships, I'm siloed from every kind of relationship. Odds are I'm being fed an information stream that reinforces 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. But that's to your point is what's making this a literacy 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. It's hard to befriend them. Whoa, 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 health care. That is child care 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 a 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. It's a 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. 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 verse right, right? I apologize. Acts chapter four, the disciples are getting their feet under them. Jesus is gone, ascended. and they're getting 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've 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. We'll be right back. The music you love.

I heart. Radio stations. Everywhere you go. The podcasts everyone's talking about. All in one place. And it's free. I heart radio. Whatever you want to hear.

Listen anytime. Anywhere. Music. Radio. Podcasts. Unlimited audio. It's on the free. IHurt Radio app.

One app. No subscription. Always free. Grab the free app. I heart. Video app today. I'm Mungausha 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 bones 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 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, okay? 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 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, what's a state. 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 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 Pinheiro. 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. 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 survivors. 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 lived 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. As we're having this calling for ordinary people to get involved to do this work that would fix so much of what else is, 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 class classes. trims.

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 to go, 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, it feels like the real assets are the army you're trying to mobilize into 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. 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. 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 graduates from high school. If you'll make a commitment. That's 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 won't 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? 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 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, redfish, 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. Children who come from impoverished homes have something like 3 million less words when they go to first grade. I knew you were like that. Then kids that come from middle class. Can you believe that?

Three 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. But we want to prioritize those kids that are least likely to have the resources that they need. 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 did he and you broke up on this? We were just talking about this before the podcast.

So, because, I mean, he shoots a hell of a jump shot, but you and literacy in him, I mean, that in Portland

and Golden State Warriors, y'all hate each other. Yeah. Yeah. So here's the story. So sentence is our fifth, fifth feature link documentary.

We actually made a documentary called Undivided about a church that adopted an interstated 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 sentenced. So sentence we made, and we really went for it. More than we've done on any of our documentaries. Well, I mean, Seth Curry, around you said. 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 detail. 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. And the assistant, the 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? 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 can? And let me get involved and narrate it to get 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 need it 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. 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 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. We got an army and normal folks listening to us that are 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 do? 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. That is in the vast majority. And 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. 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 recommendations for folks?

Also, I'd be curious, too, like 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 Sentenced.

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 help you do it. We have a whole, like, press kit on how to eventize it to, 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 no 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 kit. 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. 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,

I'm near and dear to my heart. I absolutely do believe this is one of the easiest things. Every pair of ears here in 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 of 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, ma'am.

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, posting 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 normalfokes.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. Dancing with the Stars is looking for a new pro. And since last season, I came in eighth place. I'm basically an expert. I'm Danielle Fischel.

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