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

“Building Resilience in Caregivers” | May 15, 2025

Approaching families with a “resilience lens” is a relatively new practice but might turn out to be one of the most impactful tools in our pediatric toolbox yet. Dr. Gretchen Pianka, author of “Coaching Families for Resilience: How Pediatricians Can Support Caregivers and Prevent Burnout,” joins us to talk about how this manner of thinking can help parents and pediatric care clinicians better approach childcare challenges. View the transcript here.

  • Dr. Gretchen Pianka

    Dr. Gretchen Pianka is a primary care pediatrician. She has been practicing in Maine since 2004 and is currently caring for immigrants and children entering the foster care system. She is the author of a new book by the American Academy of Pediatrics called “Coaching Families for Resilience: How Pediatricians Can Support Caregivers and Prevent Burnout.” 

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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