Eyes on Reading with Emily Hanford at Planet Word

Unlocking the secrets of language at Planet Word

Sold a Story host Emily Hanford is curating the Eyes on Reading speaker series at the museum of words and language in Washington, D.C.

Sold a Story fans,

I'm thrilled to share an exciting project with you. As the inaugural journalist-in-residence at Planet Word, a museum of language arts in Washington, D.C., I'm curating a new speaker series that promises to be fascinating and important.

Emily Hanford

Planet Word is a unique museum dedicated to the power and beauty of language. There's a 22-foot-tall talking word wall that tells the history of the English language and a whispering willow tree that murmurs in hundreds of languages as you pass beneath its branches. It's a cool place.

Our speaker series, called Eyes on Reading, brings together brilliant minds from across the globe, including:

Cognitive scientists unraveling the mysteries of how reading works in the brain
Policymakers reshaping how schools approach reading instruction
Educators doing the hard work of teaching every child to read

This is more than a series of talks — it's a journey into the heart of what makes us human: our ability to read, to understand, to communicate. Whether you're an educator, a parent, or simply curious about the power of language, these events offer insights that will change how you think about reading and learning.

Stay tuned for more updates, and I hope to see you at Planet Word soon!

These events are live and in-person at Planet Word, but don't worry if you can't make it — the videos will all be available here.

-Emily

EVENT ARCHIVE

MARCH 2025

What's next in the science of reading with Mark Seidenberg and Maryellen MacDonald

The "science of reading" has become something of a buzzword over the last few years. States are passing laws requiring schools to adopt curricula based on it. Publishers are advertising teaching materials based on it. But there are also important questions about the body of research and how it's being applied in classrooms. Mark Seidenberg (you've heard him on Sold a Story) and Maryellen MacDonald are leading scientists who study reading and language, and they joined me at Planet Word. We dove into what excites them about the science of reading movement — and what concerns them. With decades of research and sharp insights, Mark and Maryellen are passionate about ensuring the science is applied in a way that benefits children.

JANUARY 2025

Transforming reading instruction with Carey Wright

As an education reporter, I've watched with great interest as Mississippi — historically at the bottom of state education rankings — has made historic gains. While most states saw declining or flat reading scores over the past decade, Mississippi's fourth graders showed steady improvement, climbing from 49th in the nation to 21st. The woman behind this remarkable story is Carey Wright, who was the state superintendent of education in Mississippi from 2013 to 2022. Wright is now the state superintendent of schools in my home state, Maryland, where she faces a new challenge. Despite being one of the nation's wealthiest states, Maryland's reading scores have been declining. In fact, fourth graders from poor families in Maryland now do worse than their peers in Mississippi.

NOVEMBER 2024

Supporting African American children's reading success with Julie Washington

I first heard Julie Washington talk about her research years ago when I was on a reporting trip in Mississippi. Her work focuses on the challenges that many African American children face when learning how to read. She opened my eyes to the ways that accent and dialect can affect reading development. In this presentation at Planet Word, she will talk about how to distinguish between language differences and language disorders, explain why reading assessments often fail to accurately measure the reading ability of Black children, and provide practical strategies for identifying and supporting struggling readers.

SEPTEMBER 2024

What screens are doing to your brain with Maryanne Wolf

When was the last time you truly lost yourself in a book? I've got to admit that deep, sustained reading is harder for me than it used to be. The tug of the phone is real — but at least I remember what reading was like before the world was full of digital distractions. Younger generations never had that experience. Maryanne Wolf, author of Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World, explores how our increasingly screen-based lives are affecting our capacity for "deep" reading. She talks about how digital devices are affecting our perception of beauty and the development of empathy. And we discuss what this means for children and schools.

APRIL 2024

The wonders of the reading brain with Stanislas Dehaene

In a laboratory outside Paris, the world's most powerful MRI machine has helped to reveal what happens inside our heads when we learn to read. Stanislas Dehaene's research has led to groundbreaking insights on how different parts of the brain collaborate during reading. His book, Reading in the Brain: The New Science of How We Read, is a must for anyone interested in how we process language (I put it on the Sold a Story recommended reading list). In this talk, he showed us how learning to read changes our brains and discussed emerging research on dyslexia. One thing he said that surprised me — and got an audible response from the audience — is that when someone reads braille, they still activate the brain's "visual word form" area. It's really captivating stuff that challenges long-held beliefs about how people learn to read. And it's relevant for educators. Dehaene told us about how his work is reshaping reading instruction in French schools right now.