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.

Season 6
Season 5
Season 4
Season 3
Season 2
Season 1
All Episodes

Latest Episode

“Do Audiobooks Count as Reading?” | March 5, 2026

For a question that brings up strong feelings on both sides, try asking: Do audiobooks qualify as “reading”? Brian Bannon, the Merryl and James Tisch director of branch libraries and education and chief librarian at The New York Public Library, joins us to talk about the rise of — and stigma around — audiobooks, and why the environment in which we read might matter more than the modality. 

View the transcript here.

  • Brian Bannon

    Brian Bannon is the Merryl and James Tisch Director of branch libraries and education and chief librarian at The New York Public Library, overseeing the Library’s 88 neighborhood branches and leading its citywide reading and learning strategies. He guides teams that support more than a million New Yorkers each year through early literacy, school-age, teen, and adult learning programs. Before joining NYPL in 2019, Bannon served as commissioner and chief executive officer of the Chicago Public Library, leading one of the country’s largest urban public library systems.

    Close window 'close

Subscribe Today

Listen on iTunesspotify subscribestitcher subscribe

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
Share Your Story
We are continually inspired by stories that encourage language, literacy, and positive moments and we would love to hear yours.
> Connect with us
All Episodes
To catch up on back episodes click on the link below.
> Apple podcasts


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
Meet the host of the ROR Podcast