{"podcast":{"title":"Say More","slug":"say-more-6418113","podcast_index_feed_id":6418113,"rss_url":"https://feeds.megaphone.fm/TPG4149271018","website_url":"https://art19.com/shows/say-more","image_url":"https://megaphone.imgix.net/podcasts/bae4de04-10e4-11f0-bd10-c32d7595fd60/image/6266b3c40a6d3b295936c156494aca4f.jpeg?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&max-w=3000&max-h=3000&fit=crop&auto=format,compress","author":"Jim Dao","episode_count":170,"summary":"Big ideas and big debates, explained through intimate conversations with the compelling personalities who shape them. AI and biotech. Higher education and health care. Climate and sustainability. Politics and the media. Culture and culture wars. Hosted by Boston Globe columnist Shirley Leung.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-30T16:18:37.021410+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/say-more-6418113"},"episode":{"title":"US Literacy Rates are Shocking. Will AI Save Us? or Make it Worse?","slug":"us-literacy-rates-are-shocking-will-ai-save-us-or-make-it-worse","published_at":"2026-03-12T07:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/say-more-6418113/us-literacy-rates-are-shocking-will-ai-save-us-or-make-it-worse","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/say-more-6418113","url":"https://pdst.fm/e/mgln.ai/e/51/tracking.swap.fm/track/tcQd6Q6C0RUUlOHq1Ytj/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.megaphone.fm/TPG4377905354.mp3?updated=1773243778","audio_url":"https://pdst.fm/e/mgln.ai/e/51/tracking.swap.fm/track/tcQd6Q6C0RUUlOHq1Ytj/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.megaphone.fm/TPG4377905354.mp3?updated=1773243778","summary":"Literacy rates in the US are shocking. Nearly half of the nation’s fourth graders cannot read at a basic level. Even Massachusetts, a leader in public education, reading scores have been falling. These disappointing results have fueled a bitter debate over how best to teach reading. And now that debate is fueled by another factor: artificial intelligence. Could tech tools help save more of our kids from illiteracy? Or will it simply expand the use of junk science? This week on Say More, opinion page editor Jim Dao talks to Ola Ozernov-Palchik, a cognitive neuroscientist at Boston University. She specializes in understanding how the brain learns how to read. Her lab is working to ensure that new tools using AI are also backed by good science, which history shows, is not something you can take for granted in literacy education. Email us at saymore@globe.com.","meta_description":"Literacy rates in the US are shocking. Nearly half of the nation’s fourth graders cannot read at a basic level. Even Massachusetts, a leader in public edu…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":1776,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/say-more-6418113/episodes/us-literacy-rates-are-shocking-will-ai-save-us-or-make-it-worse/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/say-more-6418113/us-literacy-rates-are-shocking-will-ai-save-us-or-make-it-worse.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}