Sold a Story 2 sweepstakes has begun

Who said what about the second season of E. Hanford’s podcast?

Sold a Story 2, a series of podcasts from American Public Media and featuring reporting by Emily Hanford, launched 15 October 2026. Given the success of the first “season” of Sold a Story, which focused on how and why reading instruction in the US went wrong, Ms. Hanford’s second series was widely anticipated…and immediately discussed in the educational commentariat.

The starting points

Ms. Hanford and her team published two episodes on the launch as well as supplements. Here is a list of links:

1. Episode 1: It’s Not Just Reading

2. Episode 2: The Remedy is Always Teaching

3. Supplements:

   1. What is Direct Instruction (YouTube)

   2. Who was Direct Instruction creator Zig Engelmann? (YouTube)

Could the fog be lifting, revealing a spectacular view? Photo by Liana S on Unsplash

Some early commentaries

Here are selected¹ examples of education writers’² treatments of SaS2 after the launch.³ (The order of items in the list should not be interpreted as having meaning.)

• From The Next 30 Years by Robert Pondiscio—Can “Sold a Story” Change How America Teaches?: Emily Hanford helped transform how schools teach reading. Now she’s challenging what teachers believe about teaching itself.

• From The Bell Ringer with Holly Korbey—Experts react: Sold a Story Season 2, Episode 1: Listen along with The Bell Ringer and policy analysts Chad Aldeman and Liz Cohen

• From Minding the Gap with Natalie Wexler—Sold Another Story

  The second season of “Sold a Story” expands the focus from early reading instruction to teaching--period.

• From Linda Diamond Educator with Linda Diamond—

  Beyond the Phonics Wars: Why Zig Engelmann Was Always Building Knowledge: How critics of Sold a Story 2 confuse pedagogical method with content—and miss the deep knowledge and logic built into Engelmann’s curricula.

• From Science of Reading Classroom with Kata Solow—Sold a Story Season 2: Hopes, Dreams, and Questions: Yet another Sold a Story response...

• From SoL in the Wild Notes—Teach Smarter: The Science of Learning is officially official on Apple Podcasts and Spotify!

I encourage readers to follow these links and read the authors’ takes on the the early episodes in the new Sold a Story 2. Also, where they are available, be sure to read the comments on these posts.

I anticipate that people will publish additional commentaries in the coming days. Shoot, I expect to write a couple of notes myself. If you write something (or find something) that others should read, please drop a comment here.

Footnotes

1. I make no assertion that the list that follows is exhaustive. It’s just what I found searching the Intertubes. If you know of additional sources, please add them in a comment or send me a note (with permission to cite your help in identifying the links!).

2. Something that makes me feel good: It’s really cool that most of these authors are members of the SET community.

3. Please note that I have not included publications that appeared before 15 October 2026. There are additional citations of SaS2 predating the launch from folks who were responding to the trailer for the series, interviewed Ms. Hanford in the pre-launch publicity effort, etc.