Stossel - 1 John Stoffell: My Adventure in Television – Part I Andy Johnson, Ph.D. Minnesota State University Substack: The Reading Instruction Show * This is an excerpt from my book, ‘Making Sense of the Science of Reading: Teachers Matter published by Guilford Publishing’. It will be out sometime in 2027. The Invitation On August 8, 2025, I was in my basement writing my next New York Times best-selling book about reading instruction, when the email in Figure 33.1 popped up with a ping in my box. Figure 33.1. Invitation for an in-person interview. Hi Dr. Johnson, My name is Dan DeStefano, I’m a producer with John Stossel for Stossel TV. We’re doing a story on the literacy crisis in America and came across your advocacy for whole-word reading instruction and would like to get your take on the subject. If you’re interested, we do in-person interviews at our studio here in New York City. Ideally, we’d do it on the 20th, 21st or 22nd of August. But first, we’d set up a preinterview where you and I would talk via zoom, where I could get your thoughts on the issue. Please let me know if you’re interested, and we can work out the details. Thanks, Dan DeStefano Producer, Stossel TV I am often very naïve about things, but I am not naïve enough to think that John Stossel really wanted my “take” on anything. He didn’t really want to understand the “literacy crisis” or anything related to literacy. And he had no real interest in my thoughts on any issue. He was looking for good TV. And because I drink 15+ cups of coffee a day and I tend to be a bit “over- excitable”, I am good TV. And when I really get excited, I wave my arms in the air, twitch a lot, and my voice goes up. Picture an over-caffeinated Barney Fife. “Nip it in the bud!” Good TV. It was obvious from the messages that the sender (Dan) didn’t know much about reading instruction. This is not an uncommon occurrence for those entering into Science of Reading discussions from the outside. Figure 33.2 shows my very polite response with a slight correction.