Season 6, Episode 5: Let's Get LITerate! feat. Corinthian Kelly

October 16, 2026

In this episode, podcast hosts Daniel Pewewardy and Jenny Durham sit down to talk with Corinthian Kelly, Director of Partnerships and Community Impact for Wichita Public Schools, about the national literacy crisis, how it has impacted Wichita, and what we can do in our community to help foster a love of reading at all ages.

This transcript was generated using Adobe Premiere Pro and was reviewed for accuracy by a member of the Library's Digital Services team before publishing. If you find a transcription error, please contact us with any corrections and we will make those corrections as quickly as possible.

[music]

Daniel, voiceover Hey. Welcome back to Read Return Repeat. I'm your co-host, Daniel Pewewardy.

Jenny, voiceover And I'm Jenny Durham.

Daniel, voiceover So, Jenny, like, I've kind of like, noticed, like, we don't really talk about our librarian positions, but me and you are both literacy, adult literacies librarians. Like, it's in our title. I'm the inspiration librarian. And you're the—

Jenny, voiceover Enrichment librarian.

Daniel, voiceover Enrichment librarian. And so, like I thought, honestly, like, this was actually your idea, but I was like, I'm kind of glad we're doing this episode because, like, we're literacy librarians. And just to have an episode dedicated to literacy.

Jenny, voiceover Oh, yeah. And I thought of it because there is this big article in The Atlantic that came out, I think, over the summer, early summer, about how 54 percent of the population in the U.S. is at a sixth grade reading level or below.

Daniel, voiceover Oh, wow.

Jenny, voiceover Which is like jarring. I got a journalism degree, and I remember like 20 years ago, we were being trained to write for an eighth grade reading level, which was what the national average was then, and this was probably like 2002 or something.

Daniel, voiceover Yeah. I mean, like I, I'm on Facebook, I know people just read the headlines. So I guess it kind of makes sense, you know, like, but I think, let's, let's go ahead. So today we're talking to Corinthian Kelly. He's a community organizer and literacy advocate in Wichita and works with USD 259. So let's go ahead and jump over to that.

Daniel Hello and welcome. You're listening to Read Return Repeat. We're here with Corinthian Kelly, literacy expert. And he's here to talk to us about literacy and Kansas.

Corinthian Daniel, you give me too much credit saying literacy expert. But I really appreciate it. Thank you.

Jenny He's a big community... I don't want to use the word advocate, but works with the community. You work with USD 259.

Corinthian You can, you can use advocate.

Daniel Miracle worker.

Corinthian Miracle worker.

Jenny Yeah!

Corinthian I won't be turning any water to wine, but I appreciate it. To introduce myself, my name is again, Corinthian Kelly, and I have the privilege of serving as the Director of Strategic Partnerships and Community Impact for Wichita Public Schools. And I tell folks, that's a fancy way of saying I'm like the chief dot connector for the district.

So my main goal is to connect dots, bridge gaps. How do we effectively collaborate with businesses, nonprofits, awesome resources like the library, community leaders, the faith-based community, McConnell Air Force Base, and everyone in between to set all 45,000 of our students up for success? So I love what I get a chance to do. I'm a firm believer that success is a team sport, so I'm just a community advocate and a collaborator.

Jenny Wonderful. Well, thank you so much for being here. And we wanted to bring you on specifically because this episode we're going to talk about literacy.

Daniel Yes.

Corinthian Okay.

Jenny And literacy in general, not just early literacy, though that is in credibly important, but into adulthood. It affects, you know, families. And since you work with families—

Corinthian Yes.

Jenny—we thought that you would be an excellent person. So I am really excited what kind of knowledge you are, you'll have to share with us and insight. And we already had you talk a little bit about yourself.

Daniel So you have a lot of experience working in education. As you said, USD 259, and with community engagement with spinning plates over there, connecting the dots. So, like, what inspired you to pursue this kind of work?

Corinthian Wow. Well, I'll start off by saying education changes lives. And it definitely changed mine. So a little context, start from the beginning. My mother was a teacher. She taught for close to 20 years in my hometown of Newport News, Virginia. She was a social studies teacher, so fostered a love of learning there. With that said, when I think about education in relation to literacy, first we learn to read, then we read to learn.

So, thinking about education and community engagement, they are linked, in my opinion. The more literate readers we have, the stronger community we have. Going back to some of my time, so I went to went to school, was fortunate and blessed enough because I did pretty good in school. I got some scholarships. I was able to go to Virginia Tech to do my undergrad, and I thought I was going to go into the United States Air Force. Virginia Tech is a senior military college, many folks don't know. But I tell folks God had other plans. After I graduated from Virginia Tech, I actually did a year with AmeriCorps, and I was working in a town, Williamsburg, Virginia, right next door. And that got me into education and youth development. I was working with a after school K through 12 tutoring mentoring program.

So that opened my world to youth development. Then fast forward, after my time with AmeriCorps, I took a job, with a after school program called Higher Achievement. And for the next eight years, I directed an after school program in Baltimore, Maryland, and in Richmond, Virginia. And I'm a firm believer that talent is everywhere. Opportunities are not. So literacy opens—unlocks potential, opens a whole new world. So fast forward, I tell folks my time directing the after school program work with 5th through 8th graders, they kept me young. They definitely kept me on my toes.

Jenny I can imagine.

Corinthian Yeah, but it was a great time. Then I got to a point where I knew if I wanted to progress in my career, I had to go back to school. That's how I got to Wichita. I came out to Wichita for grad school. I got my master's in public administration at Wichita State University. So go Shocks.

Daniel Yeah.

Corinthian But after I graduated, I had time to work with preschool students at USD 259 as my first job with the little, little babies. Then I got hired by Wichita State University to work with TRIO Educational Opportunities Center program that was work with adults interested in going back to school. After I graduated with my master's, I got a chance to work with Sedgwick County government, out of the Sedgwick County manager's office.

Seeing how policy, all things contribute to the wellness of a city, which was an amazing experience. Then I got hired back by the university and worked with the Public Policy and Management Center, where I've had a chance to actually work with the Library, helping develop a strategic plan, doing a lot of cool stuff. Then fast forward, after my time with the Public Policy and Management Center, I got hired by Stand Together Foundation as a community initiatives manager, doing philanthropic grant making to awesome programs and community. And that landed me to my current job now with Wichita Public Schools. So a lot of different touch points along the way. But I said all that to say knowledge is power. And being well read has helped me throughout my career.

Daniel Yeah.

Jenny That's a lot. [laughter]

That's different.

Daniel So that's, that's really cool. I yeah, I kind of feel like at grad school there is a lot of reading. And I remember like after I got done with grad school, my library science degree, I was like done for, like two years.

Corinthian Oh my goodness. [Daniel laughs]

I can relate, then.

Jenny That's actually, I didn't really learn to properly study until I went to grad school. I realized my, my study abilities from my undergraduate. I was like, oh, if I had had these skills at that age.... So yeah, you do so much reading and, having to comprehend and critically think it's so important.

Corinthian Absolutely.

Jenny Not learning those skills until grad school is, is something.

Corinthian Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jenny That actually, talking about literacy kind of brings us into our next question. How do you define literacy in your own words? What are some of the things you've noticed in terms of literacy while working with the community in your various positions? And how—it's kind of a two-part question.

Corinthian Mm-hmm.

Jenny And then finally, how would... based on that experience, how would you describe the current state of literacy in Wichita?

Corinthian That, that's a great question, Jenny. So I'll start off by saying, literacy is more than just reading words on a page. Literacy is the ability to access, understand, and effectively use information. So I think that's critically important. And then I'll use the counter, why it's so important. If your literacy skills are low, you're limited. It's easier to be taken advantage of. It's easier to be consumed by misinformation. So you're, you're closed off in a way from ideas. So this is why the, stress the importance of literacy. Literacy unlocks a whole new world of potentials. I would say there... so again, literacy isn't just about reading, it's about unlocking potential and opportunities.

Daniel There's a lot of different—there's media literacy, there's cultural literacy. There's like just like... My parents made a—

Jenny Financial.

Daniel My parents, like, really made an effort to take us places just to like, experience other parts of the country and museums and like, just get those experiences because, like, even though we didn't, like, have a lot of money, they wanted to make sure that, like, we had that stuff ready.

Corinthian Absolutely. I love what you just said. Because we grew up in, in similar, in a similar situation. We didn't, we, we didn't have a whole lot of money. But books, you can travel the world.

Daniel Yeah.

Corinthian You know, from your living room through books. You can explore Africa through books. You can explore space. You know, growing up, I used to love Reading Rainbow. Growing up, I mean, just—

Daniel Yeah.

Corinthian The old school Reading Rainbow. I'm older. So old school the butterfly in the sky—

Daniel LeVar Burton.

Corinthian Yes, yes, exactly. I mean, just, just those kind of things. It unlocks a whole new world. Also, the correlation between being well read, it helps your writing. You know, it helps in a lot of—it helps your vocabulary. So it's just so many benefits to it. Going to your, the third part of your question, Jenny, I think there is a crisis in literacy. And I will say, even though I work for the school system, literacy can't just be a school problem. It has to be a community problem for us to fix it. So we have to be thinking, how can we help develop confident readers at any point, whether it's at the church or the mosque that you attend? How can I identify folks that might be having struggles so we can practice more? It affects everything: financial literacy, computer literacy. So you need literacies for life.

Jenny And like if you look into health literacy, this is something that I thought of. I saw an article, I don't know, a month or two ago that talked about the reading level that like instructions on taking medication or the kind of health information that you might get from a doctor about a condition is way, it's like beyond a college reading level. Your average American, even Native English speaker is not going to be able to decipher.

Corinthian Absolutely.

Jenny Even me being able to read at a college level. Still, I have to really focus and sometimes, you know, look up words and stuff.

Corinthian Absolutely.

Jenny Yeah. There, that's one area where I think the system needs to, in a way, make stuff like that a lot more straightforward. And I know there's organizations out there that are trying to do that.

Corinthian Yeah. I—now, don't quote me on this exact statistic, but I read an article somewhere discussing the literacy crisis in America and it said close to 50 percent of adults are reading below a sixth grade level.

Daniel Yeah, yeah, that's, that's actually my next question.

Corinthian Okay.

Daniel I have the statistics. I have them. So the United States ranks 36th globally in literacy. More than half the country are at a sixth grade reading level. And then roughly 20 percent of Americans are considered functionally illiterate.

Corinthian Wow.

Daniel I didn't add this, but, like, can you kind of describe what functionally illiterate means?

Corinthian Yeah. So it's one thing to... well, I'll use this analogy. I heard a quote, say that some people can't read the sign that says toilet, but they know how to use it.

Daniel Yeah.

Corinthian There are folks here that have been getting by throughout life not being able to read, but they can still comprehend or, I, I think about non-native speakers or English as a second language, you know, some of the challenges that you have to, that you're facing to, to not only read but comprehend. But functionally illiterate, I would sum it up in that kind of, that kind of quote.

Daniel Yeah. My dad was kind of like in lower literacy growing up. And he actually took classes at the Rockwell Branch Library to like, help with adult literacy and, like, reading and stuff, and like to help better take care of his family. And, like, I think what's like, interesting about the crisis is just like, how do we get, how do we get here? Like you kind of mentioned, like the toilet thing. I always wonder how, like, kids that can't read know how to use YouTube.

Corinthian Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Daniel It's like, what are the factors you feel that are contributing now? And do you feel like maybe technology is a big part of it because it just makes it too easy to like, avoid reading, especially with like TikTok, YouTube and other like things?

Jenny There's been a lot of discourse online from teachers actually about students. Like they're like high school level teachers and they're having students coming in and not just a few, but like over half of their students that are at about a third grade reading level. And so they're having to like, you know, teach them the basics. But at the same time, they have these standards that they're having to hit.

Corinthian Yeah.

Jenny And so it's, it's very interesting to see this. And I know whenever I see stuff on like social media, I try to take it with a grain of salt because that could be like a handful of people's experience and...

Daniel Yeah, and I know—yeah.

Corinthian So Jenny and Daniel, I don't want to oversimplify here. There are, there's no single one cause. It's a variety of different factors. Thinking about the educational disruptions we had, especially during COVID, right?

Daniel Yeah, I was going right about that.

Corinthian So that. I also think about increased screen time. It's, it's—and decreased reading time. I remember a time where we had drop everything and read in school, you know? So think about screens and how prevalent TikTok and all that, all that short media content is. Also think about economic pressures on one families, limited access to books in some households.

So learning loss can compound over time. So I would sum this up by saying like literacy is influenced by family support, early childhood experiences, the school system, economic conditions, technology, access to books. But I'll end off by saying solving this crisis requires us all. So again, like I said earlier, it can't just be a school problem. It has to be a community problem, and we all have to work together.

I'll use this example. Imagine if in your doctor's office, your checkups, your, your doctor had you read something, but what they're doing is screening to see could there be some reading issues, dyslexia, things that, things that you can't kind of see. It's just giving another touch point and opportunity to say this kid might need some help or some practice, or I think about the times we've had to stand up and, and read something out loud. Well, it's not just at school that you do those. It's—I think about faith-based community. There's a variety of different places. What I hope that does is it helps other caring adults identify this child might struggle, let's get him some help.

Daniel Yeah. And I guess, like I think yeah, I just think it's interesting because we kind of talk about, like, access to books. Like books are kind of expensive. So, like, libraries are important. And then you kind of think, well, Dolly Parton had just passed.

Corinthian Oh my goodness, rest in peace Dolly Parton.

Daniel Yeah, and like—

Corinthian Oh man.

Daniel And her wanting to provide books for like younger children through her, was it—

All three Imagination Library.

Corinthian Yes.

Jenny And the fact that it's during like the first five years of a child's life, which are very important, like the same reason why libraries, we do summer reading programs and even though we do them through adult, like having those early literacy initiatives, there's also a thousand books before kindergarten.

Corinthian Wow.

Jenny That's just encouraging parents to read with their children, read to them. Because that's so important, like getting that early love of reading.

Corinthian The early love of reading. But I love what you said, Jenny, by seeing your parents are in the household, it being modeled, it makes it easier for you to do it. If it's—it's one thing for you as a family to sit down and watch a movie. So you're, you're accustomed to sitting down watching movies together.

It's another thing if you're sitting down and reading a book for 20 minutes together and where mom, dad and everybody sit, then you, you, you develop that muscle, that reading muscle. So by the time you get in school, it's common. When someone says read a book, you're not intimidated by it. And I love the... by, by reading early, you develop an imagination. You have thoughts, you can picture things where a person described it in text, but how you interpret it or how you see it in your mind is totally different from how I might see it. That's, that's the beauty.

Jenny Yeah. And there's also a lot of research out there. This is particularly with fiction. It helps develop empathy.

Corinthian Wow.

Jenny Because especially if you're reading about people that are from a different background than yourself, whether it be from a different, like religious background, ethnic background.

Corinthian Yeah.

Jenny And, you know, you can kind of empathize with those people, like when you see people that are part of that group in real life and you can learn a little bit about it as well, which is why having like a authors from diverse population is super important.

Corinthian It is, it is so important. In school language, we say S.E.L., socio-emotional learning. But I, I love efforts to put students together with mixed ability so students might have a physical disability and them playing with other students, they learn, like you were saying, that empathy is important. Awareness leads to activation. So if you if you've never worked with anyone that has visual problems or hearing problems and never had to interact with them, you wouldn't know. But by, by exposing folks to that via a book or in person, it helps.

Daniel It's, I think yeah, I think that's another aspect. You talked about hearing and visual. Like, like I talk about my dad's literacy issues, and a lot of it was attributed to the fact that he had like these, like, severe eye issues. And it was like, do you feel it like—and so, like, I, the doctor's like, yeah, he wasn't, he's not able to see. So he's kind of like functionally—being that, it's like a, it's a physical impairment that affects him cognitively because you can't read things. And do you feel that having access to health care is a big part of like helping them with literacy too?

Corinthian It's so important. They go hand in glove. I remember stories in one of the after school programs I worked with in Baltimore. We had a young lady that was struggling grade wise. Well, come to find out she had visual, she had seeing issues.

Daniel Yeah.

Corinthian It was a mentor of hers that was able to identify she was squinting, couldn't see. Got her some glasses. That totally changed her. But imagine if you can't verbalize the problem. You see what I'm saying? So you need multiple folks screening. It can't just be the teacher that has 25 kids in the class identifying the visual issue. It has to be in, in your, you know, your, your Girl Scouts club or your other caring adults that can help see and screen issues if that makes any sense.

Daniel That's, yeah.

Jenny Especially if they're seeing it too, like different people in the community. I know that we see it here like in the library. There's certain signs when adults might be struggling with reading. And it gets more challenging with an adult because there's a lot of shame—

Corinthian Absolutely.

Jenny—that's associated with it. And I'm always surprised when people are willing to disclose, like, I can't read.

Corinthian Absolutely.

Jenny But that's very rare that somebody will come out and actually say that. And I think unfortunately, part of it is that going back to what you were talking about, like if somebody has a vision problem when they're younger, if there isn't like adaptations made, their experience with it is going to be negative. So that's going to push them away from wanting to read. I have a friend that has dyslexia—

Corinthian Yeah.

Jenny—that mentioned that they hated reading all through school, and it was because they were dyslexic and it was just too challenging.

Corinthian Yeah.

Jenny And when they discovered audiobooks, it like changed things. So having those adaptations in place, too.

Corinthian Jenny, I love what you just said. For a long time in education, we were reading based off of phonics, but that doesn't account for things like dyslexia, other neurodivergent kind of, kind of kind of things. The district adopted, a curriculum called LETRS [pronounced "letters"]. It's based on the science of reading. So it covers a whole gamut of different ways to attack reading, starting with letter identification, and it's a whole science behind it.

But to your point, I would say as a community, we definitely have to destigmatize, destigmatize illiteracy. It's not a shame. We have to identify a problem to fix a problem.

Daniel Yeah.

Corinthian We want folks to say, you know, if I do struggle with reading, there's places you can get help because by, by you being able to read to your highest capability, it opens up, it opens more opportunities for you. Think about job applications that you have to apply for. Think about grants that you could be eligible for. If you can't read it in that language, you're not applying or you're... you're on the outside looking in. But if you can read and comprehend that information, it's opened up different opportunities for you.

Daniel I always think it's, I always kind of like pause when, like, I see, like, like not to be political, but I, I always pause when, like, if someone's, like, addressing one political party, let's say, like conservatives oftentimes I kind of like when it starts, like a comedian, like Daily Show and it starts turning into, they're like, oh, they're uneducated hicks or something like. At some point, it's like, say like, I kind of like pause. It's like, let's not punch down.

Corinthian Yes. Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. It's one of those issues that, that doesn't discriminate. It's folks regardless of your affiliation, regardless of your, your level. It can affect anyone.

Daniel Yeah.

Corinthian What we should be trying to do is how can we identify folks that need help and how can we direct them to the right amount of help?

Daniel So let's go and take a break real quick. And then we will be back, ask Corinthian some more questions.

Jenny Yeah.

Corinthian Awesome.

Jenny Thank you.

Daniel Hey. And we're back with Corinthian Kelly. So Corinthian, let's kind of like, talk about let's break down the economic impact of education and literacy. Like, how does educational literacy affect economic opportunity and upward mobility? Not just for individuals, but also communities.

Corinthian So I would say literacy is one of the strongest predictors of economic mobility. And I want to make sure I say this correctly. When people can read well, they have greater access to education, employment, higher wages, and the ability to participate fully in their communities. And I love that particular quote, because again, you're removing barriers. You don't know how far you can climb. So to me, being literate for life, that's the, that's the, that's the foundation. That's the basis. If you can read and comprehend, there's grants. Well, it tends to have better success in school.

Daniel Yeah.

Corinthian When you, when you have your high school diploma, you earn more than a person that doesn't.

Daniel Yeah.

Corinthian You have your bachelor's, studies show that you earn more throughout a lifetime than, than folks that don't. Going up the, going up the list.

Daniel I used to have those numbers like drilled in my head, but I'm sure they're not accurate. [laughs]

Corinthian Yes. Yes. Yeah, yeah I, I don't want to misquote anything.

Daniel I think it was like at some point probably 20 years ago was like $1 million if you had a, more in your lifetime with a bachelor's than if you didn't kind of thing.

Corinthian Yes.

Daniel Yeah. And, yeah. And so do you feel that like... have you, have you seen success with that? Do you feel like we're like, were these like, were you like part, the like the initiative is even a part of like, are they affecting those communities and...?

Corinthian Absolutely. So Wichita Public Schools serves 45,000 students. When I say that Wichita Public Schools is the largest school district in the state of Kansas, and we serve 10 percent of the kids across the state of Kansas. So we are the largest district, the most diverse district. There's over 100 languages spoken amongst families in our district. We have 88 school buildings or attendance centers, over 50 elementary schools, and so on and so forth. With that said, we're so proud because, this past year, we had our highest graduation rate. Over 85 percent of our students have graduated, which is excellent.

But again, at Wichita Public Schools, our motto is every student future ready. So being able to graduate high school is an important stepping stone. We want our young people to persist. Wichita Public Schools has 25 career and technical education pathways. Wichita Public Schools has three awesome what we call future ready centers. We have one in manufacturing, one in health care, and our newest one we opened, is the HACK, the Hub for Advanced Computer Knowledge. But with all those awesome future ready forward-thinking places, you have to be literate.

Daniel Yeah.

Corinthian The, your employer wants a highly trained, highly skilled workforce because that helps them. So literacy, you can trace all these things back to literacy.

Daniel Because like all computers was a coding language. And yeah, it's, it's like, I'm very illiterate in that. [laughs]

Jenny Being able to communicate even in like more manual labor jobs or whatnot. They're still like, a lot of it still involves even just to the point to get the job of being able to communicate.

Corinthian Absolutely.

Jenny Either it's through email—

Corinthian Yes.

Jenny—or filling out the application and all the paperwork that they have you fill out. And that goes back to like, you know, even when you get like a house.

Corinthian Absolutely.

Jenny All those papers you have to sign.

Corinthian You need literacy for life. Just like, just like what you're saying. And I would say being literate, it gives you a confidence. It definitely gives you a confidence. I love what you just said. Think about even working a manual job. There are safety instructions that you have to read, that, you know, if, if, if you're not operating according to those safety guidelines, you could get hurt.

Daniel Yeah.

Corinthian Right? So it's no way scaping, you know, you know.

Jenny Yeah. That's a big one, too. I used to work in worker's compensation. [laughter]

So yeah, that's super, super important.

Corinthian Yeah.

Daniel Like, have you driven a car that's been built in the last...? [laughs]

Corinthian Oh, goodness.

Daniel So, so like so, anything with a screen that's like telling you stuff and like...

Corinthian All the bells and whistles, when something doesn't go right in that futuristic Jetsons car, you know, you got to pull out the manual to figure out how to get it to work. Yeah, yeah.

Daniel I still do, I, I'm still pulling out the manual. [laughter]

Jenny Yeah, I have to read the manual sometimes.

Corinthian Yeah.

Jenny And I actually have a whole folder of manuals. I'm one of those people. I could probably find it online, but I'm old school. I still have to look for it. Keep the printout.

Corinthian Yeah. I understand. I'm, I'm the same way.

Daniel I will say it real quick for the listeners, if you ever like, need a manual, get the model number of like a printer, for example, and just put that like your search engine and then put dot-P-D-F. That's the fastest way to get that manual.

Jenny So many of those are online for free anymore.

Daniel Yeah.

Corinthian That is a helpful tip.

Jenny Yeah. Kind of going into the community aspect again that you were talking about earlier with like, this can't be a problem that's solved strictly by the schools. You have collaborated with individuals in the community that are also doing amazing things, especially in terms of literacy.

Corinthian Yes.

Jenny A couple that I, one that comes up right away, Storytime Village, for example.

Corinthian Oh my goodness.

Jenny Then I think there's a StoryWalk. There's Little Free Libraries.

Corinthian Yes.

Jenny I believe we were, collaborated with you on that. Can you talk a little bit about some of these organizations or individuals you've collaborated with and how has those experiences informed your own work?

Corinthian Well, Jenny, I'm so glad that you shouted out Storytime Village. I want to give a shout out to Dr. Prisca Barnes Simmons, the phenomenal executive director there. I used to, before I joined Wichita Public Schools, with the Public Policy Management Center I worked with the Wichita Collective Impact initiative, bringing together nonprofits, a variety of different community players to address kindergarten readiness and third grade literacy, with the idea that having a strong foundation helps a student persist and be successful long term. So it's about the foundation.

So in addition to awesome places like Storytime Village, think about places like Child Start, Head Start, all those preparatory places from zero to school age. Wichita Collective Impact has created a, a kindergarten readiness manual, something that can be given to parents. That might not be a teacher, but they can have something to work with their students zero before they start school, which is outstanding. That manual is free in collaboration with the awesome YMCA here, shout out to Miss Shannon Benoit who put that together. But again, those are resources to get into the hands of parents, daycare providers. But that information could be given to hospitals or pediatricians because, again, going back to my point about screening or being able to identify if a kid needs a little extra help, you want to know that early. You don't want to know that when the kid is in the eighth grade, you know?

Jenny Yeah. That makes me think of when I was, I started kindergarten in the late '80s. So I know that ages me. And back then, like, I mean, you had your prescreening that you have to do for kindergarten and part of that included a screening for dyslexia. And this might have been specific to where I lived, like autism. Hearing difficulties. But a lot of this stuff was actually done through the schools, which was seems like now like an extra burden. And this was like almost 40 years ago.

Corinthian Yeah. Yeah.

Jenny So yeah, I feel like it would make sense to have that be part of if they have the vaccinations, if they have to get or the different screenings before they can register for kindergarten, adding on, you know, is there anything there that would make reading a challenge before they're even taught it?

Corinthian So Jenny, I'm so glad. So you elevated one of the challenges that we face. The ideal is we want kids to show up kindergarten ready for school, meaning potty trained, able to know rules, regulations, can sit and self-regulate. With all that being said, we have students who show up ready, some further ahead. Then we have students who show up very far behind, all starting at the same point.

So and if you can imagine in a district that has 45,000 students, if you have 100, 200, 300 kids sitting in classrooms, that we have to start from square one.

Daniel Yeah.

Corinthian And then over time that compounds. That's the challenge. So this initiative, again, shout out to Wichita Collective Impact, that kindergarten readiness initiative is trying to center set or give some common language around things folks can do before they get to school.

Daniel Yeah.

Corinthian You don't want the only place kids are reading to be school.

Daniel Yeah.

Corinthian You want stuff to happen in the home before you even arrive.

Daniel So, and speaking about how other kids are at a different point, I know paraeducators do a big part of helping us get those kids to like where they need to be.

Corinthian Yes, yes.

Daniel Like teachers are great, but also everyone's—it's a community. It's like it takes everybody.

Corinthian It takes everyone. Yes, sir.

Daniel Yeah.

Corinthian Yes, sir.

Jenny There is so much on teachers right now too that like it can—I mean, it's such an amazing job but it could feel thankless at times, I imagine.

Corinthian Absolutely.

Jenny Just because of the amount of pressure they're under. So, you know, any help that we can provide as a community, it's, it's part of, it makes me think of that saying it takes a village to raise a child.

Corinthian Absolutely.

Jenny So if you have a classroom full of children, we are all—

Corinthian Thank you. Thank you for that plug. So shout out to our awesome teachers, our paraeducators and support staff. It takes that full village to the point that you were making, Jenny. I would also say there's ways that community can help. So we've partnered for years with United Way. They have a read to succeed program, Literacy Champions, where folks come in and read to students 20 minutes a week. Well, data shows that folks that have that literacy champion, when they take tests and things like that, they do markedly better because of that intentional practice consistently.

So their entry points, if you say, hey, I have some time, I want to help, there's ways you can get on Wichita Public Schools website to sign up to be a volunteer. Of course, we do all the background screening checks and things like that to make sure everyone is clear to work in our buildings. But those are entry points that folks can help. Also, another organization, Wichita Rotary Club, partners with our schools, so they have a reading day.

In my role as Director of Strategic Partnerships, I partnered with Wichita State University's alumni engagement foundation, and they do a Shocker alumni reading day on Dr. Seuss day for our students. So we have Shockers that come in and read in their black and yellow. So again, there are entry points. And I love what you said, Jenny. Literacy or this lift can't just be the teacher's responsibility. There are entryways that community can help. I don't need the volunteer to come in and try to teach a kid how to read. That's what our teachers can do. But you can help reinforce that.

Jenny Thank you. That actually kind of makes me think of another question I have because—and you've probably partially answered it already, but what changes would you like to see in Wichita in terms of addressing the literacy crisis that that nation is facing right now?

Corinthian Well, the cool thing, I'm old enough to remember Book It and I had my Book It button from Pizza Hut. So shout out to Pizza Hut. And I saw recently that's coming back, right? So those are cool ways that—Pizza Hut is a business. But they saw a way to encourage and incentivize kids that are reading the book to go in and get the personal pan pizza. I still got to go home to my mom's house and dig out my, my button because—[Daniel laughs]

I love that thing. The blue button.

Jenny I loved—we did a Book It-like thing a couple years ago for the adult summer reading program, and we—I don't remember which pizza place it was that we partnered with for the prizes, but oh, it was so popular.

Corinthian Yeah.

Jenny And I yeah, I think we need to bring it back.

Corinthian Yes, yes. I'm, I'm excited to see Book It is coming back. And I want to find my button. Mom, if you're listening, I need you to find it for me. Also, I'm excited. In my role with partnerships, we've had some collaborative meetings with Spangles. So we're going to be collaborating with Spangles to do some incentives.

So shout out to Spangles. We're excited about that. But to that point, Spangles, Pizza Hut, they're businesses. But they see that they can help support the work in encouraging, incentivizing kids, to persist in school. Tie it back into reading. So we're excited about that.

Daniel I think that kind of ties in, this, this next thing I want to talk about, which is like, kind of like we're not... the disappearance of like, like online versus... I'm a big comic guy, right? So there's a lot more online booksellers, and there's this guy out in New York. He's been working in comic shops like 40 years. Does all these like TikToks. And he was talking about how important he thinks physical brick and mortar comic book stores are is because, like, if you're selling online, you're not creating new readers, you're selling to collectors. And like, we talked earlier about when you were, which I'm this is where I'm getting do with the question, but... Wizard's Alley.

Corinthian Yes.

Daniel Bam. He, when I, when he, he put a dollar rack into his comic book store, and it's like, I'm doing this because, like, kids can have it. It's getting kids to read because a kid can get a dollar. He can't get maybe not money for like a 5 or $10 comic book.

Corinthian Absolutely.

Daniel He gets to take home something to read. And I think that's really interesting. Like how important, like brick and mortar stores and businesses are to helping with literacy. And like, I guess that you have some involvement with, Kansas's only black owned bookstore.

Corinthian Yes.

Daniel Your wife, Dr. Latasha Eley Kelly, owns Wichita's Left On Read bookstore.

Corinthian Yes sir.

Daniel What's your involvement with the store?

Corinthian Yeah, yeah. So, thank you so much for elevating that. So I want to give a shout out to my lovely wife, Dr. Latasha Eley Kelly. Tasha and I are co-owners of Left On Read. Again, the only Black-owned bookstore in the state of Kansas. And we recently just celebrated our ribbon cutting at our new location. We are now at 2721 East Central, right in front of Revolutsia. So check us out if you can. But having a brick and mortar space, it is something about watching not only adults, but kids walk into our space. And loving the space, loving the environment, being able to browse, put their hands on books, touch actual books. So that's different from online experience, which is phenomenal. For context, the title Left On Read is based off of text language. So if you leave somebody on read, that means you're ignoring them.

Daniel Yeah.

Corinthian Well, my wife's idea, she wanted to call it Left On Read. She said Black authors and authors of color have been Left On Read in the literary space, so she's trying to flip that. So you're going to see centered and elevated, Black authors and Black voices in their own words, which we think is important. The reason why we set up the store is to amplify connections and cultivate perspectives. So our store's open to all folks.

We love Wichita because Wichita has so embraced the work that we're doing. We first opened November 30th of 2024. So, in November will be on two years. But it's just been such a blessing because the diversity of folks that come in, into to our store, the diversity of community partners we've collaborated with. We've collaborated and had an independent bookstore crawl with Wizard's Alley, Watermark Books, Blush Books, Eighth Day Books. So just the collaborative spirit of we're not competing, we're collaborating. The goal is we want more folks walking into some awesome locally owned businesses right in Wichita. And it's just amazing to see.

Daniel Have you noticed a difference—like you kind of talk about kids walking in. And so before, the store was in Old Town, which is kind of an industrial area, it's not... but now you're kind of in a neighborhood.

Corinthian Yes.

Daniel It's like I was like, wondering, are you noticing a positive impact? Younger or older, people that just don't have access to cars or, well, transportation.

Corinthian Yes. Yes. Well, well, the great thing about our location at Revolutsia, there is parking. Which is, which is awesome, where you don't have to pay for it, which is great, but we are close. We are proud to be in District One. So shout out to Council Member Joseph Shepard. But we're near a residential neighborhood, so we've had folks that live right down the street walk into our space. We're close to businesses. Shout out to Hope Net. So we have folks from Hope Net that walk down and just want to use the space as a third space to do work, emails. We, we are so happy to see things like that. So it's, it's become a lot more accessible and we're able to get a lot more foot traffic where we are. There's also awesome businesses in that Revolutsia corridor, and they have a great outdoor space as well. So as soon as it cools down, because it's now like a hundred, 100 degrees.

Daniel I like it. It kind of like also looks like it'd be a really cool place to play paintball. [laughter]

Corinthian Oh yeah. Yeah. That's, yes, it does look well-fortified. Yes.

Jenny I don't know if it's still over there but there's this really cool German market.

Corinthian Prost. I think they, I think they moved, I think they recently moved.

Daniel Yeah, they moved over to where you guys used to be. They're over there by Norton's Brewing.

Jenny It was right above Prost. It was like called—like it has a weird name. It was a good German grocery store.

Corinthian Okay.

Jenny Like, right... yeah, it was on the upper level in the corner.

Corinthian Yeah.

Jenny And I haven't been there in a while, but I remember it was right in there. It's really cool.

Corinthian But we're, we are so excited to be in that space because not only do we have our indoor portion, we're able to use the outdoor space. So we've had a number of book talks in collaboration with Child Start. We've also collaborated with Mulberry Arts. So shout out to Anthony Joyner, local artists.

Jenny I love them.

Corinthian So it's just, we're so excited about the, the other opportunities to collaborate. And when it cools down, we're going to do story time outside, have a fire pit, we're going to try to roast marshmallows and have readings out there.

Daniel That's awesome.

Corinthian Yeah.

Jenny That sounds like so much fun.

Corinthian Yeah.

Daniel So we've kind of talked about like the community, effort to help improve literacy in our community and in America. We talked about nonprofits, we talked about educators, libraries, businesses. So, like, for people that are just listening and that, you know, like, we want to help but don't necessarily know how to, like, do you like, what can just like your regular person, like, do, like help?

Jenny Maybe if they don't have time to dedicate to volunteering long term either. Are there other things they can do to help support like literacy?

Corinthian Absolutely. Well, I would say if you don't have time, you might have resources. So there are a plethora of nonprofits that nonprofits need support, funding to keep the work going. So even if you can't go out and read personally, your donation can help support the mission of getting books into kids' hands. Y'all, y'all mentioned so many great ones.

Storytime—Sedgwick County has 3,000 nonprofits, so there are awesome nonprofits doing great work and there are a lot of nonprofits that are focusing on literacy. So I would say do a scan. If you can't, you know, devote that time there, you can still affect that by supporting, I would also say just working in the school system again, in a district as large as we are, having 88 school buildings, there's the time volunteering, there's the treasure donating, but also the talent.

Having guest speakers at our school. So you can't come every week. We don't need you to. But if you have a fascinating job story, or if you come in and just read one day on certain days, our kids love it. And if, if, if you want the feel goods I encourage folks like—if you want an energizer or a pick-me-up, being a guest reader at an elementary school is an instant shot in the arm of excitement, pure love and adrenaline. I do it every year. The young people will treat you like a rock star. One year I went in, read to a school, and they asked for my autograph. I felt so happy. So it's just really cool.

Daniel If you have teacher friends, like, at any level, talk to them or like, they might reach out to you, like, here's a good example. I like in... in my spare time I make memes and I'm an internet comedian. Like I make, have an account. People follow it. My friends are college professors. They've both reached out to me, and I've guest lectured at, like, a couple of my friends' courses on media literacy and, like, talking about my experiences. Like, like a couple years ago, I made a fake Facebook event, and it was like a, Sugar Ray concert at Applebee's.

Jenny I remember.

Daniel And it's like I at the time was just a joke, but then it's like ten years after the fact, like I'm talking about it because it's like, how did this affect people? And why did the people actually believe this? And like how that happened and stuff. So and one thing I did notice talking to like, college kids is like ten years ago is a long time ago. [laughs]

Corinthian It's ages ago, yeah.

Daniel Like I'm like, you guys, like, I remember we're talking about the Standing Rock protest. And I kind of remember talking—I was like, and my friend was like, you're going to have to tell them about that. Because that was like, I was like, because I organized a protest here in town for like the Standing Rock, like the Lakotas. And it was like ten years ago and it was like, they don't know about that because it's like so long ago, even though it's fresh in my head.

Corinthian Yeah.

Jenny Once you hit 30, 10 years just—

Corinthian Oh my goodness. Like warp speed.

Jenny Yeah. And then it's like, whoa, 2016 was ten years, ago?

Corinthian Yeah.

Jenny Feels like it was like maybe three?

Corinthian Yeah. But what you all elevated, because we are in a 24/7 information news cycle, like those things... I mean, what's current? You know, out of sight, out of mind. You know, because we're old enough, we remember things like September 11th and things like it's yesterday.

Daniel Yeah.

Corinthian The kids we're serving weren't born then. It's like... you know, so yeah.

Daniel And it's kind of a thing where when you were working with, like I helped someone recently and she was retired, she wanted to start, doing para or tutoring at USD 259. And she's like, I don't know computers. And those, and she was taking tech training classes because she's trying to like, give back to the community. But it's like so it's like I thought that was like an interesting thing. Just like she's learning so she can help others learn.

Corinthian Absolutely. And I'll say this as well, with A.I., A.I. now has added a whole new layer. And Daniel, I'll use a comic book term. Like in Spider-Man when they say with great power comes great responsibility, right? I'm, I'm a progressive thinker, so we can't put the genie back in the bottle. AI is not going anywhere, but we should be teaching and training our young people how to use it responsibly, how to vet sources, how to know how... I'll use a math analogy. You need to know how to do long division with a paper and pencil before you get the calculator. And that's the same thing with A.I. to me.

Jenny And also be able to like differentiate what it's good at and what it's not as good at.

Corinthian Absolutely.

Jenny And still like be able to exercise those critical thinking muscles and not do that, what do they call it? Like mental offloading.

Corinthian Yes. Yes.

Jenny Like being able to be like, okay, I can use this as a tool, but I don't want to depend on it. And that's where I think there's some of those issues some people are having is they're depending on it and not able to, you know, continue to critically think and evaluate stuff.

Daniel I think it's interesting, the A.I. debate right now, because I've always been a staunch like, supporter of technology being a tool to democratize, like democratizing skill sets and giving people tools that they could, that were their barrier. So, like say a local business. And they just there's like, like local businesses struggling. And it's like a lot of immigrant-owned businesses, for example, that like a I think of a Himalayan like...

I won't name the, there's a restaurant. I think it's like Indian food. That was like getting bashed for using A.I. posters and stuff. And it's like, I struggle with that because I understand, like, yeah, they could have hired a graphic designer and that's the—but it's also like, did they have the money for a graphic designer? And it's like, I don't know how to fall on that debate because it's like A.I. is like... like A.I. is like is replacing jobs. But it's also giving people like tools that they had no access to. And it's hard to like, figure out where...

Jenny Probably do a whole podcast on this.

Daniel Yeah, a whole episode about it, yeah.

Corinthian You could, you could so do a whole podcast and I would encourage you, talk with my, my wife as a small business owner because there's times we have to use that because it helps. We don't have the margins to hire that talent.

Jenny I mean, we still... it gets utilized here at the Library too. I mean, we're within strict City policy.

Corinthian Guidelines, yes.

Jenny But you know. Yeah, I can't say that it's not, you know, part of a lot of people's work anymore. One final thought I had about things we could do. Something, this is just my personal thing is that I think just gifting books to people.

Corinthian Oh.

Jenny Like, I always like to buy books for children that are in my, you know, life, people's kids and stuff that I know. And I think even just gifting books can also open that up. So even something as simple or even just giving books that you no longer read if you... sharing your love of reading.

Daniel So funny thing, I go mall walking at Towne East Square every Sunday morning and they have a Little Free Library in the food court. And it was looking neglected today, I kind of made a joke. And it's like... it's a, it started out as a joke. I was like, I'm going to go drop off a bunch of witchcraft and Stephen King books in there for all the mall goths that hang out in the mall food court. [laughter]

And it's like, that's a joke, you know, like I was like, but I actually I want to do it because I have all that stuff laying around and I want to take a picture because it's funny, but also it's like, I don't know who's going to get those books.

Corinthian Yeah.

Daniel Like, like, like it could be someone that just doesn't have access to books. So it's like even like me think, thinking about that, just like, like a one-off joke with my friends, it's like, like I won't actually do it. And then it's like it has an impact. And it's just that simple. Like I used to, like, remember in college, there used to be like a kind of like... I would, I picked up a book and it was like Robert H. Heinlein book, like a sci-fi. And there was a stamp, and it was some kind of like initiative where people just kind of like, you stamp it with a U.S., like a website, and then you track where the book goes.

Corinthian Oh, wow.

Daniel Yeah. And it was like I was like, that's—

Corinthian That's so cool.

Daniel It's like people are just doing it for a fun project. So it's like, I bought this book. I'm going to leave it in the public. I just want to see who gets it next. And then it's like...

Jenny Kind of like a really basic form of geocaching.

Corinthian Yes.

Daniel Yeah, It's kind of... like dollar bills do that. There's like, where's George at? And I thought it was like interesting because it's like that's just like you're, you're, you know, like you're sharing a book with someone and it's like, that's one little thing we could do.

Corinthian I love that concept.

Daniel I'll look it up and see if it's still going and see—

Corinthian Please do. And you know, maybe, maybe we can include our students in some kind of project because that, that'd be phenomenal.

Daniel Flat Stanley. Remember Flat Stanley? That was always the, how they move, like it was kind of like that. Yeah.

Jenny That sounds like fun. Well, now that we're kind of on that topic of, like, sharing reading and stuff, we're just going to ask a couple final fun questions.

Corinthian Yeah, yeah.

Jenny And the first one is, do you have a favorite memory or book from your childhood that made you fall in love with reading?

Corinthian Yes, yes, yes. I was in kindergarten at Dutrow Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia, and we had a guest reader and that reader read Jump Frog Jump. And to this day, it's one of my favorite books because they were expressive. They had us participating, yell jump when the fish was coming to get the frog. And I remember that to this day. And I was in, you know, I'll tell my... I was in elementary school or kindergarten in 1990. So it was, it's still seared in my head.

I always love Dr. Seuss. All the Places You Will Go was one of my favorite books. Then I was around and remember when R.L. Stine and Goosebumps was huge. Again, we mentioned Book It earlier. Book It is seared in my, in my head. I remember the personal pan pizza I got for reading. Also, growing up, we had a lot of Boxcar Children books and had so many different series. Also Oliver Twist, so those are seared in my head around some of my favorite memories around reading. Then when I got in middle school, Scholastic and National Geographic and Time magazine had periodicals geared towards teens, and I was just amazed by photography, the colors, the interesting points. So I really loved that and transitioned to that in middle school.

Daniel My parents were big magazine supporters and I read a lot of Newsweek. I remember they—I read a lot of Newsweek and I, I don't know what happened, but they just didn't like, I know, they felt like I knew way too much about like, like whatever true crime—I think it was like the Menendez brothers trial. [laughter]

Corinthian Yeah. I remember that.

Daniel They were like, they were like, why does he know about all of that true crime? Then he's reading the Newsweek. So then like, like they ended up getting like, let's get him Disney Adventure. [laughter]

Jenny That makes me think of my parents had the complete collection of, mysteries of the times, mysteries of the unknown, which are all like, you know, the occult and ESP.

Daniel Yeah.

Jenny And so I'm like, everything you need to know about me is that I grew up reading Time-Life's—

Daniel If you leave it around, kids will read it.

Corinthian Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness.

Jenny So that is how I know all about witchcraft.

Corinthian Did you all have the World Book encyclopedias in your house?

Jenny I remember those.

Corinthian Yeah, yeah. Just—

Jenny Loved those.

Corinthian Loved those, too. Yeah.

Daniel So, what are some books that you would recommend your, to our listeners? Are you reading anything right now you like? And, fiction and nonfiction. You know, it doesn't have to be about literacy.

Corinthian Yeah. So a book that I read every day is the Bible. With a name like Corinthian, you gotta, gotta do it, I guess. But outside of that—

Daniel What version? [laughter]

Corinthian That's a good one. The King James, the New King James version typically. But, you know, it's all good. And I would say a book that I recently read that I love, around leadership, self-grow, James Clear, Atomic Habits. Phenomenal, phenomenal book. I'm also reading, I started reading Dr. Joy DeGruy has a book entitled The Post-slave Syndrome. That's just educational. And I'm reading that. But even if you're reading a little bit or a lot, like I said earlier, first we learn to read, then we read to learn.

So it's a whole different world that's exposed to you by reading and I want to give a huge shout out to Jaime Nix and Wichita Public Libraries, you all are such a tremendous asset in this community. And I always say books are the gift that keeps on giving. And you all are one of the last free third places in this country. You know, you think about other places, even just to sit inside, sometimes you have to buy something, right?

Daniel Yeah.

Corinthian And so you all being that kind of space where, where folks can just come and be is, is outstanding. And then lastly, I would say a phenomenal resource here at the Library, there's so many: you can rent out, you know, equipment and all kinds of cool stuff. But you all's ask a librarian or be able to book time or book a librarian, it is phenomenal because I've used it and it helped me tremendously.

Jenny Yeah, we started recently doing a research Book a Librarian, and so if people want just book recommendations, like if they're kind of like, you know, I really like Stephen King, but I kind of want to branch out into other horror authors and if they're kind of overwhelmed, they can make an appointment. We can help find some titles for that.

Daniel Yeah, we've been doing a lot of, like, I do like the... we branched out Book a Librarian not to just tech stuff but like research. And then I've been doing stuff like all the way from like, business resources to like, laws, helping people... like, I taught someone the other day about, like, what, like Freedom of Information Act thing is, and... I can get that doc, I get the—yeah, that's like, your right to get it. So I showed them how to like, like, fill out the form and stuff, like where to get the form for Freedom of Information. I was like, this person's going to, like, cause a lot of mischief. [laughter]

Corinthian That, that's cool.

Jenny I'm actually doing one tomorrow, I'm talking to a student about what librarians do and what kind of, you know, education you need and all the requirements to, you know, get a master's of library science. And I love being able to talk about my job. And that's another example. Anything research related that we can help provide some sources and, you know, help.

Corinthian That is so, so cool.

Daniel Speaking of third places, we're—the Library, we've been doing third place programs, like, started Third Place on Second Street a couple of years ago and now it's systemwide. So shout out to, like, look up like, third place programs at your library. That's just a chance to, like, come to the library and hang out and meet your neighbor. And Spooky Stories is, going to be our October, I think, third place program, where we're going to be doing spooky stories for grown ups. And we're, the podcast is, I've been doing that, this will be our fourth year, and the on the podcast team is going to have, we have people submitting short stories that are like spooky or poems. And then that'll be at Wizard's Alley, actually, on October 23.

Corinthian Very nice. Are—

Jenny Yeah, it'll be an evening thing.

Daniel Yeah.

Jenny It'll be fun.

Daniel Yeah.

Corinthian Are you all still going to do the adult spelling bee? I know you all did—

Jenny Yes, I do that. We moved that into the spring.

Corinthian Okay.

Jenny So yeah, we are still doing it. And yeah, shout out to Dr.—well, yeah, Dr. Fran Connor from WSU.

Corinthian Yeah.

Jenny And Ti'Juana Hardwell from Mamarazzi.

Corinthian Yeah, communication, yeah, yeah.

Jenny Yes. She's amazing. So they, they host it for us and we decided to move it to the spring because it's like before the Scripps National Spelling Bee and it's just a little bit better time of year for people, too. So we will, as far as I know, we plan on still doing it. It's a lot of fun. I love doing it.

Corinthian Very, very nice. Before I forget, one more, one more book that I'm currently reading, Protect... the Protect Your Mind workbook series. And that was written by actually my mentor, the late, great Dr. William Polite, whose role I currently sit in now that's modified and it's also written in conjunction with his awesome sons, Brandon and Will Polite. So that's another book that I'm currently reading. It's awesome.

Daniel And we'll have all these recommendations in our show notes, so make sure you check that. And thank you again, Corinthian. It's been a really awesome time listening to you talk about all the stuff you've been doing and, like, just learn about you. Good luck with everything. And I'm excited to check out Left On Read as well.

Corinthian Oh, we, we would we would love to have you all. Thank you all so much for taking time out and finding me interesting enough, I guess, to... to do a podcast. This was really fun. Thank you for the work you all are doing for this community.

Jenny You're welcome. I've worked with Latasha, so I'm like, okay, now it's Corinthian's turn. [laughter]

Thank you again.

Daniel Thank you again.

Jenny, voiceover That was a great interview. Corinthian is so well-spoken.

Daniel, voiceover You know, like I was, I've seen him around town at different events and stuff, and I like, I'm glad I got to meet him and talk to him And that was really cool., great guy. I can't wait. Actually, I haven't been into Left On Read yet, but I'm definitely going to go. It makes it sound like a really cool store.

Jenny, voiceover Yeah, I want to check out their new location. I saw where they were previously, and I actually got to know Corinthian a little bit last year when I did a bunch of programs with his wife, and he was always there supporting her, which is awesome, I love that.

Daniel, voiceover That's really cool. That's awesome to see.

Jenny, voiceover And he's just a great person and I've ran into him in public too, and he still remembered my face. And I imagine the amount of people he talks to on a daily basis. And I was like, he's just a really cool person. And he had a great amount of knowledge, too.

Daniel, voiceover Yeah, I yeah, I hope to see what he does next. He's doing big things in Wichita, helping a lot of people. Speaking of bookstores, we have exciting news. We're actually going to be at Wizard's Alley, which we mentioned in the episode, for Spooky Stories for Grown-ups. You can, this is our fourth time doing Spooky Stories for Grown-ups.

And we're taking it out on the streets this year. It's going to be awesome, Jenny and I, and we're gonna have some guests. We're going to read spooky stories that you guys all submitted through the short story portal. And it's going to be a fun, spooky time.

Jenny, voiceover Yeah. And it will be on October 23rd from 7 to 8:30 p.m.. Will be, I don't know, did you say it was at Wizard's Alley?

Daniel, voiceover It's at Wizard's Alley, which is 114 North—North Saint Francis Street in Old Town or like Old Town adjacent. Yeah. It'll be a lot of fun and we will record that episode. This is like our first time doing a live recording, with an audience in, like 2 or 3 seasons. So, excited. If you like the show and want to see us, come out, it'll be a fun time. And make sure you come a little early because seating is limited for the space.

Jenny, voiceover But it's free.

Daniel, voiceover Alrighty, I think this is the end of the show. I want to thank everyone for listening. Also shout out to Corinthian, the production team: Kyle, Ian, Greg, everyone that helps put these episodes together. And again, thank you for all that have been listening. And when you tell us that you like the podcast or hear a new episode or share it on Facebook, I see that and thank you.

Jenny, voiceover Yeah, we really appreciate it. That's why we, we keep coming back.

Daniel, voiceover Yeah.

Jenny, voiceover Oh, also, if you haven't heard, we have a new app now for the Library. So if you haven't had a chance to download it yet, you can check on either—

Daniel, voiceover All your app stores. Apple—

Jenny, voiceover Yeah, just search Wichita Public Library and it should show up.

Daniel, voiceover Yeah.

Jenny, voiceover It's really cool.

Daniel, voiceover So check it, check us out on the app. We have a little podcast button on there. And again, thank you so much for listening. You can listen to us on any podcast app: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube. Yeah. Thank you so much, guys.

Jenny, voiceover Yeah. Can't wait. We'll see you guys next time.

Daniel, voiceover See you next one for a spooky episode.