Kamal Ghorui
Second Lady of the United States of America, Usha Vance recently launched her own podcast ‘Storytime with the Second Lady’ under her larger campaign to increase child literacy rates and encourage reading among kids. In a video shared by the White House, the SLOTUS shared that each episode would have a special reader come in to read a book, have a very short conversation, and invite children to pick up books on their own.
When asked why the issue was of interest to her, she added that she had young children herself and while she was teaching them to read, she was finding out the low statistics of literacy rates. “It’s a really long-term trend and it’s worrisome,” added Vance. Vance served as the inaugural reader narrating the Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter, followed by racing legend Danica Patrick who read ‘Cars’ and Paralympian Brent Poppen who read his book ‘Playground Lessons’. Each episode is expected to range between 10 and 15 minutes and the first three will be available to stream on YouTube and Spotify. Vance’s husband and US Vice President JD Vance took to X to appreciate his wife’s initiative, tagging the White House with the caption: “Very proud of my wife, Usha, for launching her podcast today!”However, numerous netizens were quick to troll the VP blaming him for ‘defunding’ the department of education at a time when the literacy rates in the country were low. “You know what promotes better literacy? Spending less money on forever wars and more money investing in the USA” wrote one user on X. “Does she feel the need to promote child literacy since you defunded the department of education?” asked one.“Erika’s podcast wasn’t enough? Oops. JD Vance is rolling out the Second Lady storytime special. Because when NAEP scores are tanking, the real solution is more podcasts from the VP’s mansion,” added another. In March 2025, Trump signed an executive order to dismantle the Department of Education, initiating plans to eliminate the agency and return control to states. As per the National Assessment of Educational Progress report for 2024-2025, only 31% of fourth and eighth-grade students are proficient in reading. According to the National Literacy Institute, in 2024, 54% of US adults read below the equivalent of sixth-grade level. The report also cited a nationwide shortage of teachers as a “critical issue” in education along with retention challenges and an ageing workforce. Recently, the FLOTUS Melania Trump proposed the use of a humanoid robot Plato as a “personalised” educator for American children. As per the 55-year-old FLOTUS, the robot would provide an “instantaneous access to literature, science, art, philosophy, mathematics and history.” According to a 2023 Pew Research Center survey, about 3.8 million public school teachers work in America’s classrooms. Replacing these teachers with robots would affect the literacy rate even more among students. The podcast forms another part of the Second Lady’s ongoing initiative to increase childhood literacy rates and inspire a love for reading among children. In June 2025, she launched a Summer Reading Challenge, which received tens of thousands of submissions from across all 50 states. “If I was going to do anything, this would be the thing to focus on at this moment in time,” she said. “There’s just a lot that people can do in their family home without a ton of resources or effort.”
