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

“Words with Wings” | June 12, 2025

Poetry is often perceived to be “hard” or inaccessible, but as our next guests illustrate, poetry can offer an “uplifting journey through everyday moments, moods and experiences” for kids at any age or stage of development. Author Matthew Burgess and illustrator Doug Salati join us to talk about “Words with Wings,” their magical new book of poems for children and families. View the transcript here.

  • Matthew Burgess

    Matthew Burgess is a poet, educator, and the author of many picture books, including “Enormous Smallness: A Story of E. E. Cummings,” “Drawing on the Walls: A Story of Keith Herring,” and “The Bear and the Moon.” His books have received starred reviews, a Eureka gold award for excellence in nonfiction and been featured on best–of lists from the New York Public Library, Chicago Public Library, Boston Globe, Washington Post, and many others. 

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  • Doug Salati

    Doug Salati is the author and illustrator of “Hot Dog,” which won the 2023 Caldecott Medal and the 2023 Ezra Jack Keats Illustrator Award and was named one of the best books of the year by Washington Post, Publishers Weekly, and the New York Public Library, among others. 

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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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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