Reach Out and Read Podcast

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.

Season 6

Season 5

Latest Episode

“On the Origin of Picky Eaters” | May 28, 2026

Many families today have a child who is a “picky eater,” but before the 1930s, the concept of a picky eater didn’t even exist. What’s responsible: changes in parenting, psychology, food manufacturing, and advertising technology? As it turns out … all the above. Helen Zoe Veit, author of “Picky: How American Children Became the Fussiest Eaters in History,” joins us to explore this puzzle by looking to the past — when children ate completely differently than they do today and with vastly more pleasure.

View the transcript here.

Helen Zoe Veit

Helen Zoe Veit is an award-winning historian and writer and an associate professor of history at Michigan State University. She’s the director of the “What America Ate” and “America in the Kitchen” projects and was an advisor for HBO’s “The Gilded Age.” Her new book is “Picky: How American Children Became the Fussiest Eaters in History.”

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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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All Episodes

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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!

Listen to the trailer

Latest Episode

“On the Origin of Picky Eaters” | May 28, 2026

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