Podcast

Reach Out and Read is On the Air

Engaging conversations with experts in childhood health and literacy.

An award-winning podcast centered on the belief that children’s books build better brains, better family relationships, and happier, healthier children and societies. Join us as host Dr. Dipesh Navsaria, a pediatrician with a children’s librarianship degree dives into a wealth of varied early childhood health and literacy topics with expert guests examining the many facets of supporting the parent-child relationship as key to early success.

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Latest Episode

“The Hedgehog’s Dilemma” | May 29, 2025

How can one discuss topics such as social exclusion, anxiety, paranoia, human intimacy, affection, and our need to bond with others? A brilliant book, “The Hedgehog’s Dilemma” by Dutch author Toon Tellegen, is a “metaphor for the dilemma humans are faced with in their intimate relationships with others,” exploring all this in an accessible manner for adults and children alike. Its English translator, David Colmer, joins us to explain how. View the transcript here.

  • David Colmer

    David Colmer has translated more than 60 book-length works of Dutch-language literature and won many prizes for his translations, including the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize (precursor to the International Booker Prize), both with novelist Gerbrand Bakker.  

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Research shows reading physical books together brings the strongest benefits to children. That’s why we’re happy to have Boise Paper – a responsible paper manufacturer – as founding sponsor of this podcast. Through their Paper with Purpose promise, Boise Paper looks for ways to make a difference in local communities. Thank you to Boise Paper for investing in our Reach Out and Read community.

Award Winning
Two-time winner of an Anthem Award in the Health category.
> Complete list of winners
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We are continually inspired by stories that encourage language, literacy, and positive moments and we would love to hear yours.
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Meet the Host

To the best of our knowledge, there is only one pediatrician anywhere who got a master’s in library science in the middle of his medical training, all to learn more about children’s literature. That is our host, Dr. Dipesh Navsaria. A practicing pediatrician in Wisconsin, Dr. Navsaria is the Medical Director of Reach Out and Read Wisconsin, Chair of the Early Literacy Subcommittee of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Council on Early Childhood, and many other initiatives involving the psychosocial world of children, their families, and society, from policy to parenting support. A professor of pediatrics and of human development and family studies at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, he lives in Madison, Wisconsin, with his wife, two children, two cats, a dog, and backyard chickens. He has a deep-seated dependence on wearing bowties, of which he owns far too many…but all of which he can tie without a mirror, in under a minute!

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Meet the host of the ROR Podcast