Reach Out and Read Reach Out and Read

Season 5 of our podcast kicks off with highlights from expert voices in early relational health, pediatrics, and publishing, captured live at the Reach Out and Read Leadership Conference in New York City in May 2024.

The Gretchen Hunsberger Medical Champion Award honors a clinician whose exemplary personal and professional medical leadership has helped to make delivery of the Reach Out and Read program model all it can be. Meet this year's winner!

Recent data shows that in school, by almost every metric, boys of all ages are doing worse than girls. How did this happen, how can we thoughtfully approach it, and turn the situation around? Ruth Whippman, author of "BoyMom: Reimagining Boyhood in the Age of Impossible Masculinity" joins us to talk about raising boys in the US — how our boys are being shaped by society, how they’re reacting, and how we can help.

Racism and discrimination affects the health of children, and can have lifelong consequences.  Dr. Ashaunta Anderson, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Southern California and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, has been studying this, and in particular the concept of racial socialization.  We discuss with her how ‘positive childhood experiences’ – such as embracing and enhancing cultural pride, can help mitigate these challenges.

Eat with the funniest person in the office; when you wake up, give yourself a high five; turn off screens one hour before bed, and demand a bedtime story.  These are just a few of the secrets to a happier life that our guest, Dr. Hasan Merali, author of "Sleep Well, Take Risks, Squish the Peas: Secrets from the Science of Toddlers for a Happier, More Successful Way of Life", says we can and should learn from both the young children in our lives…and from our past younger selves.

In this special 'double feature' podcast recorded in front of a live audience, the Early Relational Health Funders Summit hear from four speakers with different experiences of building and maintaining a robust Early Relational Health ecosystem.  We’re looking at the practices, programs, and policies that need to work independently, and also together, to fully benefit families with young children.
Individual interviews can be found at the following timecodes:
Dr. Dipesh Navsaria: 01:43
Hope Williams-Burt: 23:06
Allison Logan: 36:00
Dr. Corey Williams: 48:40
Deborah Brown: 56:39
Ira Hillman: 01:08:25