Sold a Story 2: What Happened to Teaching
December 10, 2026, 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM
Planet Word
Washington, District of Columbia
Sold a Story 2: What Happened to Teaching
Presented by APM Reports
Planet Word, 925 13th St NW, Washington, DC 20005
Thursday, December 10, 2026, at 6:00 p.m.
Join Emily Hanford, recently heralded as America’s “most consequential education journalist,” for a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the new season of her highly influential podcast Sold a Story on Thursday, December 10, at Planet Word. The first season of the podcast sparked a revolution in the way schools across the country teach reading, because it showed that many of them had been using a technique that had been debunked by cognitive science. In the years that followed, twenty-six states passed laws aimed at addressing that problem.
Sold a Story’s new season goes beyond reading to examine teaching more broadly. It investigates why a teaching method with a remarkable record of success has struggled to gain traction in mainstream education. Don’t miss this timely, thought-provoking look at the ideas and systems shaping how America’s children learn.
Emily Hanford is the creator, lead producer and host of Sold a Story. The groundbreaking podcast investigates how kids learn and why scientific insights about effective teaching often fail to make it into schools. Sold a Story’s first season revealed why so many children struggle with reading and inspired a wave of legislation, changing how schools across the country teach this fundamental skill. In Season 2, Emily broadens the investigation to examine teaching itself. One of the most-shared shows on Apple Podcasts for three years running, Sold a Story was named by TIME as one of the 100 Best Podcasts of All Time and has received numerous honors, including a duPont-Columbia Award, an Edward R. Murrow Award and a Peabody nomination.
Emily is a senior correspondent and producer at APM Reports. Her career in journalism began with an internship at WFCR, the public radio station in her college town. She went on to work as a reporter and host at WBEZ in Chicago and as news director at WUNC in Chapel Hill, where she won her first duPont Award for a series on poverty in North Carolina. She has been at APM Reports and its forerunner, American RadioWorks, since 2008. Her writing has been published by The New York Times, NPR and other national publications. Emily has earned awards from the Education Writers Association and the American Educational Research Association, among others. She is a graduate of Amherst College and holds an honorary doctorate from La Trobe University in Australia. She is journalist-in-residence at Planet Word, the museum of words and language, and is based in Washington, D.C.