Index of Interviews and Available Transcripts

Transcripts Available
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Transcripts Coming*
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A Social Education Project and 
Public Television Documentary Series

See "Interview Notes" for background on conducting, editing and navigating interviews.

Brain/Mind/Behavior 

Language/Code/Orthography

Policy/Teaching

Advocacy/Services

Grover (Russ) Whitehurst  
Director of the Institute of Education Sciences & Assistant Secretary of Education, U.S. Department of Education

Jack Shonkoff
Chair, The National Scientific Council on the Developing Child; Co-Editor: From Neurons to Neighborhoods

Edward Kame'enui
Commissioner for Special Education Research, U.S. Department of Education; Director, Institute for the Development of Educational Achievement (IDEA), University  of Oregon

G. Reid Lyon
Past Chief of the Child Development & Behavior Branch of the National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD) at the National Institute of Health (NIH)

Timothy Shanahan
Chair National Early Literacy Panel, President (2006) International Reading Association, Member of National Reading Panel; Director, Center for Literacy, University of Illinois at Chicago

Mel Levine
Co-Chair and Co-Founder, All Kinds of Minds; Author: A Mind at a Time, The Myth of Laziness & Ready or Not Here Life Comes


Louisa Moats
Reading Scientist, Sopris West; Author: Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling

Marilyn Jager Adams 
Senior Scientist, Soliloquy Learning; Author: Beginning to Read: Thinking and Learning About Print

Maryanne Wolf
Director, Center for Reading & Language Research; Professor of Child Development, Tufts University

Keith Stanovich        
Chair, Applied Cognitive Science, University of Toronto; Author: Reading Matters: How Reading Engagement Influences Cognition

Sally Shaywitz
Neuroscientist, Department of Pediatrics, Yale; Author: Overcoming Dyslexia  

Charles A. Perfetti
Professor of Psychology & Linguistics; Senior Scientist and Associate Director, Learning Research & Development Center, University of Pittsburgh

Paula Tallal
Board of Governor's Professor of Neuroscience, Rutgers University; Co-Founder of Scientific Learning Corporation

Christof Koch
Professor of Computation and Neural Systems,  Caltech - Author: The Quest for Consciousness: A Neurobiological Approach


Zvia Breznitz
Professor, Neuropsychology of Reading & Dyslexia, University of Haifa, Israel

Mark T. Greenberg
Director, Prevention Research Center, Penn State Dept. of Human Development & Family Studies; CASEL Leadership Team

Michael Merzenich
Chair of Otolaryngology, Integrative Neurosciences, UCSF;  Member National Academy of Sciences; Co-Founder of Scientific Learning Corporation & Posit Science Corporation

Keith Rayner
Distinguished  Professor, University of Massachusetts; Author: Eye Movements in Reading and Information Processing

Pat Lindamood & Nanci Bell  Principal Scientists & Co-Founders of Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes  

Anne Cunningham 
Director, Joint Doctoral Program in Special Education, University of California- Berkeley; Historian of the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading

Donald L. Nathanson
Clinical Professor of Psychiatry & Human Behavior at Jefferson Medical College; Founding Executive Director of the Silvan S. Tomkins Institute; Author: Shame and Pride & Knowing Feeling

Richard Olson
Past
President, Society for the Scientific Study of Reading; Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Colorado

Steve Reder
Professor & Chair, Department of Applied Linguistics, Portland State University  

Robert Kail
Professor of Psychological Sciences, Purdue University, Indiana

Susan H. Landry 
Director of the Center for Improving the Readiness of Children for Learning & Education (CIRCLE);  Chief, Division of Developmental Pediatrics, University of Texas at Houston

Siegfried Engelmann
Professor of Instructional Research, University of Oregon; Creator of Direct Instruction

Nancy J. Cohen
Director of Research, Hincks-Dellcrest Institute; Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto; Author: Language Impairment and Psychopathology in Infants, Children, and Adolescents

Ruth Ann Atchley
Assistant Professor, Brain & Behavior, Cognitive Psychology & Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Kansas

Kathryn Au
Professor of Education, University of Hawaii at Manoa

   

Richard Venezky
Past Unidel Professor of Educational Studies & Professor of Computer, Information Sciences & Linguistics, University of Delaware; Author: The American Way of Spelling: The Structure and Origins of American English Orthography

John Searle
Mills Professor of the Philosophy of Mind & Language, University of California-Berkeley; Author: Mind, A Brief Introduction

Todd Risley
Professor Emeritus of Psychology, University of Alaska; Co-Author: Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children

Thomas Cable         
Professor of English, University of Texas at Austin; Co-Author: A History of the English Language

Johanna Drucker       
Chair of Media Studies, University of Virginia; Author: The Alphabetic Labyrinth

Terrence Deacon
Cognitive Anthropologist, University of California-Berkeley; Author: The Symbolic Species:The Co-Evolution of Language and the Brain  

John H. Fisher
Medievalist; Retired Professor Emeritus of English, University of Tennessee; Leading authority on the development of the written English language;  Author: The Emergence of Standard English

Malcolm Richardson  
Chair, Dept. of English, Louisiana State University; Research: The Textual Awakening of the English Middle Classes, 1380-1520

Guy Deutscher
Professor, Department of Languages and Cultures of Ancient Mesopotamia, University of Leiden in Holland; Author: Unfolding Language - an evolutionary tour of mankind's greatest invention

Leonard Shlain
Physician; Best-Selling Author: The Alphabet vs. The Goddess

David Olson 
Professor Emeritus, Applied Cognitive Science, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto; Author: The World on Paper: The Conceptual and Cognitive Implications of Writing and Reading

Doug Engelbart
2000 National Medal of Technology, Computer & Internet Pioneer, Inventor of the 'Mouse'

David Abram
Ecologist and Philosopher; 
Author:
The Spell of the Sensuous

Ray Kurzweil
1999 National Medal of Technology, Inventor, OCR & Speech Recognition

Selmer Bringsjord
Director, Rensselaer AI & Reasoning (RAIR) Laboratory - Dept. of Cognitive Science (Chair), Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 

Robert Logan
Professor of Physics,  University of Toronto; Author: The Alphabet Effect

Frank Moore Cross, Jr.
Professor Emeritus of Hebrew & Other Oriental Languages, Harvard University

Bruce Thornton
Professor of Greek History; Author:  Greek Ways: How the Greeks Created Western Civilization 

Naomi Baron
Linguist; Director, TESOL, American University;  Author: From Alphabet to Email: How Written English Evolved and Where It's heading

Walter Isaacson 
CEO, Aspen Institute; Author: Benjamin Franklin: An American Life

John Gable
Past Executive Director, Theodore Roosevelt Association

Steve Bett
Linguist; Editor, Simplified Spelling Journal

Peter Krass
Author: Carnegie

R. Kent Rasmussen
Mark Twain scholar; Author: Mark Twain A to Z, The Quotable Mark Twain

Edward Rondthaler
Chairman, American Literacy Council; Author:  Alphabet Thesaurus - A Treasury of Letter Design






 

James J. Heckman
Nobel Prize Winner in Economic Sciences 2000; Professor, University of Chicago; Lead Author: The Productivity Argument for Investing in Young Children

Chris Doherty
Former Director, Reading First Program, U.S. Department of Education

Alex Granzin  
School District Psychologist, Past President, Oregon School Psychologists Association

Peter E. Leone         
Director, National Center on Education, Disability & Juvenile Justice

Arthur J. Rolnick
Senior Vice President & Director of Research,  Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis;  Co- Author: The Economics of Early Childhood Development


Robert Sweet
Co-Founder, National Right to Read Foundation; Retired Professional Staff, U.S. House of Representatives
 

E. D. Hirsch, Jr.
Distinguished Visiting Professor, Hoover Institution; Co-Founder, Core Knowledge Foundation; Professor Emeritus of Education and Humanities at the University of Virginia; Author: Cultural Literacy, The Schools We Need and Why We Don’t Have Them, The Knowledge Deficit.

George Farkus
Professor of Sociology, Demography & Education, Penn State

Eric Hanushek
Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution of Stanford University; Chairman, Executive Committee for the Texas Schools Project; Member, Koret Task Force on K–12 Education

Richard Allington
Reading Researcher; President,  International Reading Assoc.; Author: Big Brother and the National Reading Curriculum: How Ideology Trumped Evidence

John Strucker
Research Associate, National Center for the Study of Adult Learning & Literacy, Harvard University

Sandra Feldman
Past President, American Federation of Teachers

Brenda L. Welburn
Chief Executive Officer,  National Association of State Boards of Education; Author: The American Tapestry: Educating a Nation

Norton Hadler
Professor of Medicine & Microbiology/Immunology, Attending Rheumatologist, University of North Carolina Hospitals; Author: The Last Well Person

Sam Redding
Executive Director, Academic Development Institute; Lead Author: The Effects of Comprehensive Parent Engagement on Student Learning Outcomes 

Susan Neuman
Former Assistant Secretary,  U.S. Department of Education

Martin Haberman
Distinguished Professor, Department of Curriculum & Instruction, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Creator, National Teacher Corp.

David Bloome
Professor of Literacy, Language & Culture, Ohio State University; Past President, National Council of Teachers of English 

Madhu Viswanathan
Director, Marketplace Literacy Project, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Patrick W. O'Leary
Employee Relations Manager, UPS Airlines

Patrick Groff 
Professor Emeritus, San Diego State University;  National Right to Read Foundation Board Member & Senior Advisor; Author:
Private Sector Alternatives for Preventing Reading Failure 

Stephen Krashen
Professor Emeritus, University of Southern California; Author:
The Power of Reading, Second Edition: Insights from the Research

Earl B. Oremus
Headmaster,
Marburn Academy

Lesley M. Morrow
Past President, International Reading Association

 

 

 

Nancy Hennessy 
President (2003-2005), International Dyslexia Association

James Wendorf
Executive Director, National Center for Learning Disabilities

Robert Wedgeworth 
President, ProLiteracy

Rick Lavoie
Learning Disabilities Specialist, Creator: How Difficult Can This Be?: The F.A.T. City Workshop & Last One Picked, First One Picked On: The Social Implications of Learning Disabilities
 

Barbara Kapinus 
Senior Reading Policy Specialist/Analyst, National Education Association

Mark Ginsberg
Executive Director, National Association for the Education of Young Children

Sharon Darling
President, National Center for Family Literacy

Sue Stepleton
President, National Center for Parents as Teachers

Carol H. Rasco
President, Reading is Fundamental

Nancy Tidwell
Founder and President, National Association for the Education of African American Children with Learning Disabilities

Jimmy Santiago Baca
Award winning poet, author and literacy advocate; Author: The Importance of a Piece of Paper

Mark Weist
Executive Director, Center for School Mental Health Assistance

Sarah Greene
Executive Director, National Head Start Association

Gwedolyn Cartledge
Professor of Special Education, Ohio State University; Author: Teaching Urban Learners

Judy Wurtzel
Former Executive Director, Learning First Alliance; Senior Fellow, Aspen Institute

Kimberly Thompson
Director, Kids Risk Project; Associate Professor of Risk Analysis & Decision Science, Department of Health Policy & Management,  Harvard School of Public Health

Claiborne Barksdale
CEO, Barksdale Reading Institute

Robin Willner,
Director, Corporate Community Relations, Reinventing Education, IBM

Brock and Fernette Eide 
Physician-parents with a national referral practice for children with learning difficulties. Their book, The Mislabeled Child, is due out Fall 2006.

Krista Kafer
Senior Education Policy Analyst, The Heritage Foundation

Jones Kyazze
Past Director, UNESCO Literacy

Bruce Perry
Senior Fellow, Child Trauma Academy

Daniel Wagner
Director, International Literacy Institute

Sylvia O. Richardson,
Past President, International Dyslexia Association;
Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Communication Sciences & Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the University of South Florida

Thomas Viall
Past Executive Director, International Dyslexia Association

David W. Kirkpatrick
Senior Education Fellow,
U.S. Freedom Foundation

Susan Sandler
President, Justice Matters

Susan Carrell
Adult Learning Center Coordinator, Goodwill Industries of Kentucky

Monty Neill
Executive Director, The National Center for Fair & Open Testing (Fair Test)

Nayo Watkins
Founder & Director, Mekye Center

 

*Interviews in grey have been taped but not yet transcribed and edited -  send us an email and tell us which interview(s) you would like to read next) In addition to the interviews listed above, new interviews are in the works. They include children and adults who are struggling to learn to read, the parents of struggling readers, some of America's finest teachers, literacy institution leaders, brain scientists, linguists, psychologists, sociologists, phonics and meaning-centric reading specialists, reading teachers, code technologists, education leaders, government leaders, language historians, writing historians, archeologists, anthropologists, and others. Join our notification list for future transcript releases

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Note about interviews: Participation in the preceding Children of the Code interview does not constitute or imply an endorsement of the Children of the Code project or documentary by the interviewee. Conversely, including an interview does not constitute or imply an endorsement of the views, organizations, books or products of the interviewee, other than as explicitly stated, by the Children of the Code Project and documentary.  

 


"The Code and the Challenge of 
Learning to Read It"
talks, seminars, workshops, and conference presentations

Dr. Grover (Russ) Whitehurst  Director, Institute of Education Sciences, Assistant Secretary of Education, U.S. Department of Education
Dr. Jack Shonkoff Chair, The National Scientific Council on the Developing Child; Co-Editor: From Neurons to Neighborhoods
Dr. Edward Kame'enui Commissioner for Special Education Research, U.S. Department of Education; Director, IDEA, University  of Oregon
Dr. G. Reid Lyon  Past Director, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Dr. Keith Stanovich  Canadian Chair of Cognitive Science, University of Toronto
Dr. Mel Levine Co-Chair and Co-Founder, All Kinds of Minds; Author: A Mind at a Time, The Myth of Laziness & Ready or Not Here Life Comes
Dr. Alex Granzin  School District Psychologist, Past President, Oregon School Psychologists Association 
Dr. James J. Heckman Nobel Laureate, Economic Sciences 2000; Lead Author: The Productivity Argument for Investing in Young Children
Dr. Timothy Shanahan President (2006) International Reading Association, Chair National Early Literacy Panel, Member National Reading Panel
Nancy Hennessy  President, 2003-2005, International Dyslexia Association
Dr. Marilyn Jager Adams Senior ScientistSoliloquy Learning, Author: Beginning to Read: Thinking and Learning About Print
Dr. Michael Merzenich Chair of Otolaryngology, Integrative Neurosciences, UCSF;  Member National Academy of Sciences
Dr. Maryanne Wolf Director, Center for Reading & Language Research; Professor of Child Development, Tufts University
Dr. Todd Risley  Emeritus Professor of Psychology, University of Alaska, Co-author: Meaningful Differences
Dr. Sally Shaywitz  Neuroscientist, Department of Pediatrics, Yale University, Author: Overcoming Dyslexia
Dr. Louisa Moats  Director, Professional Development and Research Initiatives, Sopris West Educational Services
Dr. Zvia Breznitz Professor, Neuropsychology of Reading & Dyslexia, University of Haifa, Israel 
Rick Lavoie Learning Disabilities Specialist, Creator: How Difficult Can This Be?: The F.A.T. City Workshop & Last One Picked, First One Picked On
Dr.Charles Perfetti Professor, Psychology & Linguistics; Senior Scientist and Associate Director, Learning R&D Center, U. of Pittsburgh, PA
Arthur J. Rolnick Senior V.P. & Dir. of Research,  Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis;  Co- Author: The Economics of Early Childhood Development  
Dr. Richard Venezky  Professor, Educational Studies, Computer and  Information Sciences, and Linguistics, University of Delaware
Dr. Keith Rayner  Distinguished  Professor, University of Massachusetts, Author: Eye Movements in Reading and Information Processing
Dr. Paula Tallal  Professor of Neuroscience, Co-Director of the Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience, Rutgers University
Dr.John Searle  Mills Professor of the Philosophy of Mind and Language, University of California-Berkeley, Author: Mind, A Brief Introduction
Dr.Mark T. Greenberg Director, Prevention Research Center, Penn State Dept. of Human Development & Family Studies; CASEL Leadership Team
Dr. Terrence Deacon  Professor of Biological Anthropology and Linguistics at University of California- Berkeley
Chris Doherty  Ex-Program Director, National Reading First Program, U.S. Department of Education
Dr. Christof Koch Professor of Computation and Neural Systems,  Caltech - Author: The Quest for Consciousness: A Neurobiological Approach
Dr. Guy Deutscher Professor of Languages and Cultures of Ancient Mesopotamia, Holland; Author: Unfolding Language
Robert Wedgeworth  President, ProLiteracy, World's Largest Literacy Organization
Dr. Peter Leone  Director, National Center on Education, Disability and Juvenile Justice
Dr. Thomas Cable  Professor of English, University of Texas at Austin, Co-author: A History of the English Language
Pat Lindamood and Nanci Bell  Principal Scientists, Founders, Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes
Dr. Anne Cunningham  Director, Joint Doctoral Program in Special Education, Graduate School of Education at University of California-Berkeley
Dr. Donald L. Nathanson  Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at Jefferson Medical College, Director of the Silvan S. Tomkins Institute 
Dr.Johanna Drucker  Chair of Media Studies, University of Virginia, Author: The Alphabetic Labyrinth
John H. Fisher  Medievalist, Leading authority on the development of the written English language, Author: The Emergence of Standard English
Dr. Malcolm Richardson   Chair, Dept. of English, Louisiana State University; Research: The Textual Awakening of the English Middle Classes  
James Wendorf  Executive Director, National Center for Learning Disabilities
Leonard Shlain Physician; Best-Selling Author: The Alphabet vs. The Goddess
Robert Sweet  Co-Founder, National Right to Read Foundation

FULL LIST OF OVER 100 COMPLETED INTERVIEWS

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The Children of the Code is a Social Education Project and a Public Television Series intended to catalyze and resource a social-educational transformation in how we think about and, ultimately, teach reading. The Children of the Code is an entertaining educational journey into the challenges our children's brains face when learning to read. The series weaves together archeology, history, linguistics, developmental neuroscience, cognitive science, psychology, information theory, reading theory, learning theory, and the personal and social dimensions of illiteracy. 


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