The Second Lady of the United States of America, Osha Vance, recently launched her podcast, “Storytime with the Second Lady,” as part of her larger campaign to increase child literacy rates and encourage reading among children.
In a video shared by the White House, SLOTUS shared that each episode will bring a special reader to read a book, have a very short conversation, and invite the kids to pick up the books themselves.
He watches
‘Eat S**t!’: Trump’s Vice President Vance loses his temper over personal attacks on wife Osha, says ‘enough’
When asked why she was interested in this topic, she added that she had young children and while she was teaching them to read, she was discovering that statistics for literacy rates were declining. “It’s a really long-term trend and it’s concerning,” Vance added. Vance served as the inaugural reader for Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of Peter Rabbit, followed by racing legend Danica Patrick who read “Cars” and Paralympian Brent Bobin who read his book “Pitch Lessons.” Each episode is expected to be between 10 and 15 minutes long and the first three episodes will be available for streaming on YouTube and Spotify. Vance’s husband and US Vice President, JD Vance, took to X to express his appreciation for his wife’s initiative, tagging the White House with the comment: “So proud of my wife, Osha, for launching her podcast today!”
However, many netizens were quick to blame the vice president for “defunding” the Ministry of Education at a time when literacy rates in the country were low.
“You know what encourages better literacy? Spending less money on forever wars and investing more money in the USA,” one user wrote on X. “Do you feel the need to promote children’s literacy since you defunded the Department of Education?” one asked.Another added: “Wasn’t Erica’s podcast enough? Oops. JD Vance is doing a special on the Second Lady’s story. Because when NAEP scores are down, the real solution is more podcasts from the VP’s mansion.” In March 2025, Trump signed an executive order dismantling the Department of Education, initiating plans to abolish the agency and return control to the states. According to the 2024-2025 National Assessment of Educational Progress, only 31% of fourth- and eighth-grade students are proficient in reading. According to the National Literacy Institute, in 2024, 54% of adults in the United States are reading below the sixth-grade equivalent level. The report also cited the nationwide teacher shortage as a “critical issue” in education along with the challenges of teacher retention and an aging workforce.
Recently, Melania Trump proposed using the humanoid robot Plato as a “personal” tutor for American children. According to the 55-year-old FLOTUS, the robot will provide “instant 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 further impact the literacy rate among students. The podcast forms another part of the Second Lady’s ongoing initiative to increase children’s literacy rates and inspire a love of reading among children. In June 2025, it launched the Summer Reading Challenge, which received tens of thousands of entries 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 is a lot that people can do in their family home without a lot of resources or effort.”