Sold a Story 2 is slated to become available 15 October 2026. It is about instruction, about teaching. Therefore, as Dear Readers of Special Education Today can guess, it is of particular interest here at SET. We shall be watching it and providing alerts about the releases of episodes.
Those who would like to get the scoop directly from the proverbial horse’s mouth should visit the page for the show from American Public Media: Sold a Story. Here is a description of season 2:
Sold a Story is an investigative podcast about how kids learn — what works in the classroom, the science behind those insights and why that research often doesn’t make it into schools. Season 1 revealed why so many kids are struggling to learn how to read, and it sparked a wave of change across the country. In Season 2, we go beyond reading to look at teaching itself.
As Ms. Hanford discussed in an interview 9 October 2026 with Alexander Russo, the second season of Sold a Story examines “What happened to teaching.” In the interview, she explained how she sees the episodes of season 2 as examining cultural-philosophical perspectives on direct or explicit teaching—and Direct Instruction. (Kurt Engelmann of the National Institute for Direct Instruction cataloged a batch of observations about DI in the interview.) I also enjoyed how she repeatedly mentioned research; she said that lots of journalism has been about aspects of education but not teaching; she spoke about how important teachers are in effective instruction. Thus, you may understand why I am eager to have these podcasts disseminated.
The release of the SaS2 episodes comes almost exactly 5 years after the first season of Sold a Story. During that first season, which focused on the reading (and the dismal directions that reading instruction had taken in the 2000s), SET published posts about those podcasts. Here is a partial catalog many of those posts from SET about the earlier work by Ms. Hanford and her colleagues.
17 October 2022—E. Hanford’s Podcast on reading education is coming soon;
21 October 2022—Episodes 1 and 2 of “Sold a Story”;
27 October 2022—Episode 3 of “Sold a Story” dropped;
4 November 2022—“Sold a Story” episode 4;
10 November 2022—Sold a Story—Episode 5;
20 November 2022—What have you heard people say about E. Hanford’s Sold a Story;
12 May 2023—Another installment in “Sold a Story”;
19 May 2023—Sold a Story: “Bonus 2” dropped;
10 October 2023—“Sold a Story” received a Murrow award;
24 March 2024—Sold a Story in Español
