Clay tablets! Printing presses! Old timey audio books! Speed reading strategies! Attention spans! Dyslexia history! Literacy campaigns! Dr. Adrian Johns is an historian, professor, and author of the book “The Science of Reading” and we have a nice mellow chat about when humans started to “read,” what that means, being Hooked on Phonics, Dick, Jane, character languages, audiobooks, e-readers, school segregation, literacy rates, and how long we can focus at a time. He literally wrote the book on it.

Visit Dr. Adrian Johns’ faculty bio at University of Chicago

Shop Dr. Johns’ books including The Science of Reading: Information, Media, and Mind in Modern America (2023) and The Nature of the Book: Print and Knowledge in the Making (1998)

A donation went to 826LA.org and Glioblastoma Research Organization

More episode sources and links

Smologies (short, classroom-safe) episodes

Other episodes you may enjoy: Anthropodermic Biocodicology (HUMAN LEATHER BOOKS), Egyptology (ANCIENT EGYPT), Curiology (EMOJI), Attention Deficit Neuropsychology (ADHD), Witchology (WITCHES & WITCHCRAFT), Quantum Ontology (WHAT IS REAL?), Abstract Mathemetology (UH, IS MATH REAL?), Pedagogology (SCIENCE COMMUNICATION) with Bill Nye

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Transcripts and bleeped episodes

Become a patron of Ologies for as little as a buck a month

OlogiesMerch.com has hats, shirts, hoodies, totes!

Follow @Ologies on Instagram and X

Follow @AlieWard on Instagram and X

Editing by Mercedes Maitland of Maitland Audio Productions and Jacob Chaffee

Managing Director: Susan Hale

Scheduling Producer: Noel Dilworth

Transcripts by Aveline Malek

Website by Kelly R. Dwyer

Theme song by Nick Thorburn

Pointy heads. Spiked arms. Tragic romance. It’s a whole episode about praying mantises with a real life Mantodeologist, Lohit Garikipati. Do they really eat hummingbirds? Are they endangered? Invasive? Smart? Extraterrestrial? Get your fill of mantid mythology, evolutionary gossip, sexual cannibalism, mantis motherhood, their alien egg cases, huge eyes, pet advice, and why they can show you the way to hell with this delightful entomologist, UC Davis entomology graduate and longtime keeper of mantids. You’ll lose your mind, but not your head.

Follow Lohit on Instagram and iNaturalist

A donation went to the World Wildlife Fund

More episode sources and links

Smologies (short, classroom-safe) episodes

Other episodes you may enjoy: Entomology (INSECTS), Spheksology (WASPS), Melittology (BEES), Native Melittology (INDIGENOUS BEES), Myrmecology (ANTS), Etymology (WORD ORIGINS), Mythology (STORYTELLING)

Sponsors of Ologies

Transcripts and bleeped episodes

Become a patron of Ologies for as little as a buck a month

OlogiesMerch.com has hats, shirts, hoodies, totes!

Follow @Ologies on Instagram and X

Follow @AlieWard on Instagram and X

Editing by Mercedes Maitland of Maitland Audio Productions and Jacob Chaffee

Managing Director: Susan Hale

Scheduling Producer: Noel Dilworth

Transcripts by Aveline Malek

Website by Kelly R. Dwyer

Theme song by Nick Thorburn

A short little episode to tell you about a change we're making to Ologies that I am genuinely very pumped about, as well as some weird secrets I did not intend to tell. But my point is that you can now have a kid-safe show and feed that is safe for kids and classrooms and a road trip with your shy parents.

Subscribe to Smologies on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Pocket Casts, Castbox, Podcast Addict, or wherever you get podcasts.

Sponsors of Ologies

Transcripts and bleeped episodes

Become a patron of Ologies for as little as a buck a month

OlogiesMerch.com has hats, shirts, hoodies, totes!

Follow @Ologies on Instagram and X

Follow @AlieWard on Instagram and X

Editing by Mercedes Maitland of Maitland Audio Productions, Jacob Chaffee, and Jarrett Sleeper of MindJam Media

Managing Director: Susan Hale

Scheduling producer: Noel Dilworth

Transcripts by Aveline Malek

Website by Kelly R. Dwyer

Theme song by Nick Thorburn