Sold a Story

What People Are Saying

Sold a Story (does) such a beautiful job explaining what is so messed up with how we teach reading in this country and how it got that way. You can't listen to that show without just feeling infuriated by the end!

A riveting podcast.

I am a school psychologist. Your work has been a game changer for me!

Your work gives me the encouragement I need to keep pressing forward as a public school educator.

You have opened many eyes on this subject where others have tried and failed. You are inspiring!

Emily Hanford has impacted so many teachers and their students. Her ability to distill lots of information into brilliantly clear messages amazes me. She is generating attention where many of us have not been able to for decades.

I teach Kindergarteners how to read. That is my passion. Thank you for opening my eyes to a world of information I didn’t have. You ignited the fire in me to read and listen to many brilliant and interesting podcasts, articles, and conferences.

The most significant body of work produced by an education journalist in the last few decades.

Sold a Story is essential listening.

Sold a Story is worth every moment.

Groundbreaking reporting.

Everyone should listen to Sold a Story!

A distressing and enraging piece of reporting…unfolds like a true-crime narrative.

As a former struggling reader, Sold a Story was more healing for me than therapy.

Sold a Story is the best, most important podcast I’ve ever heard.

Sold a Story may be the best work of reporting, writing, and audio production I've ever encountered.

If American education is having yet another Great Awakening on reading instruction, much of the credit is due to Emily Hanford.

[Emily Hanford] might very well go down as one of the most consequential journalists of our time.

A thrilling story with villains and heroes galore. I’ve urged everyone - not just teachers - to listen to it.

Truly some of the most consequential reporting of our time.

The most important 12 hours (I listened twice) I have spent for my kids in forever. Must listen for all parents.

History may record that journalist Emily Hanford did more to promote literacy than the combined might of American philanthropy.

Gripping, painstakingly researched & hard hitting.

Everyone needs to listen to this podcast.

A magnificent piece of journalism!

I was sobbing in my car.

Revelatory work.

Emily Hanford has systematically peeled away the layers to show how we got reading instruction so wrong for so long.

I think that it should probably be a requirement of every primary teacher trainee to listen to Sold a Story. Heartbreaking and enraging.

This is a must listen for everyone — even if you aren't in education. Be warned — you are about to experience a roller coaster of emotions.

I. Cannot. Get. Enough. Of. This.

It's heartbreaking to think of how many children we let down who were struggling to read. I cannot recommend this podcast highly enough.

Until Hanford, balanced literacy’s shortcomings did not make headlines.

One of the most amazing things I have listened to.

Just finished this podcast with tears in my eyes.

Her reporting was a light in the dark for our family. I finally understood.

It's a high-stakes accountability tale. And it's beautifully told.

At once gripping storytelling and impactful journalism.

I spent an extra 1/2 hour at the gym and the dog got an extra-long walk because I could not stop listening to this podcast.

We’re all listening to Sold a Story – join us?

Emily has the distinction of being a person who has really changed the national debate on a matter of importance to everyone.

So eye-opening. Must listen.

Sold a Story unfolds with crystal clarity, emotional anchors and dramatic cliffhangers to spotlight why many students struggle to read.

Beautifully weaves together the narrative on why so many kids can’t read. You’ll grit your teeth, feel complicit and ultimately be so grateful for her storytelling.

This podcast is eye-opening and validates things many of us felt/noticed over the years.  Hope the right people listen with an open mind.

Emily Hanford has probably done more than any educator, official, or researcher to drive the contemporary reading revolution in America’s classrooms.

It’s mind blowing in a million ways.

Emily is masterfully telling the very difficult story of generations of people...so profound.

I'm hooked.

Hanford’s reporting helped launch a movement.

Take time to listen. Please for the sake of our kids and their learning how to read.

Thank you for blowing the doors open on the dysfunction!

This is massive.

At the end of an episode, you can't wait for the next one to drop (like an HBO Max show).

Few reporters in education journalism have had greater impact in recent years than Emily Hanford.

I listened to the first episode and cried. This was my daughter.

I’m currently listening to a podcast. It’s chilling. It’s shaking me. It’s making me feel overwhelming grief. I’m a teacher.

[Emily Hanford] will be remembered as the catalyst for change in literacy instruction in the US.

I emailed my kid’s teachers to make sure they were listening to this.

This podcast is so good that I have listened to each episode twice — and my early reader sons are both hooked on it too.

Stop what you’re doing right now and go listen to this podcast!!!

Once you hear it, you can’t unhear it.

With every episode you are piecing things together and healing so many of us who’ve been hurt.

Thank you for explaining so clearly how we got to this terrible place.

This is the most important podcast of the year!

I’m both mesmerized and enraged.

Listen while you drive, cook, lay in bed, you choose — just listen.

Basically a detective story.

A must listen! It will break your heart and make you furious at the same time.

I’m inspired by the Hanford Effect.

[Emily Hanford] is doing the country a powerful service.

I’m only 15 minutes in and I have goosebumps.

I couldn’t stop listening. Finished in one day.