A is for Apple… Or is it AI?

Curiosity Weekly

Warner Bros. Discovery

Self-improvement, Science, Astronomy, Education

4.6 • 935 Ratings

🗓️ 20 August 2025

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Literacy is murkier than we think. This episode, as a part one of our literacy series, we explore recent research related to one of the most important milestones in our academic lives: learning to read. Host Dr. Samantha Yammine is joined by Emily Wood, a speech language pathologist who studies the methods we use for testing literacy in kids. She speaks with Sam about how we can better address gaps in reading among children and what options are available for multilingual kids in the classroom. Sam also looks into a study that reports on the benefits of handwriting vs typing while learning to read and a study about how using AI in the classroom might not be the best idea.

Link to Show Notes HERE

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Transcript

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0:00.0	My name is Josh Gates, with a degree in archaeology and a passion for exploration.
0:06.2	I have a tendency to end up in some very strange situations.
0:10.0	There has got to be a better way to make a living.
0:13.6	My travels have taken me to the ends of the earth as I investigate the greatest legends in history.
0:18.9	We're good to fly, let's go.
0:20.5	This is Expedition Unknown. This is Expedition Unknown.
0:23.5	Listen to Expedition Unknown on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
0:32.3	In 2024, the National Center for Education Statistics published a survey where they found a substantial
0:41.1	increase in American adults ranking at the lowest literacy levels. In the last decade, fewer
0:47.3	and fewer people are able to read at a proficient level. Literacy is more than just reading,
0:52.9	though. It's a key that opens up a world of opportunities.
0:56.5	Over the course of the next two episodes, we explore literacy, the challenges and some fresh
1:01.2	approaches, like from Emily Wood, a speech-language pathologist. She's developing more equitable
1:06.8	reading assessment practices for bilingual kids. She gets into her work later in the episode.
1:12.0	There's also a recent study that found that when students use AI to write essays,
1:16.0	they tend to think less deeply.
1:18.5	Plus, why handwriting improves literacy in kids more than typing.
1:23.2	So if you could kindly, for the briefest of moments, get your nose out of a book.
1:27.8	Let's break it down.
1:29.0	I'm Dr. Samantha Amin, and welcome to Curiosity Weekly from Discovery.
1:34.9	It's really easy to take for granted how amazing it is to be able to read.
1:39.7	At one point or another, the words on a page just started to make sense.
	...

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