Literacy Now, Together Podcast
E5: Build Like Champions; Betrayed by Schools
October 23, 2025
This Dyslexia Awareness Month, we bring you a powerful conversation with two nationally recognized literacy advocates: Ameer Baraka has been a leading voice in national criminal justice reform; similarly, former Detroit Lion Deon Butler became a champion for Michigan’s literacy legislation. Both men were failed by schools that never taught them to read. In adulthood, they reclaimed their stories — Ameer in Undiagnosed: The Ugly Side of Dyslexia, and Deon in The Gift & Curse: One Man’s Journey with Dyslexia. Their voices matter not because they’re rare, but because most like them never get the chance to speak, let alone lead. Parents for Reading Justice has teamed up with FULCRUM’s Kareem Weaver to bring you “Literacy Now, Together,” a podcast mini-series that takes a closer look at the reading crisis and explores real solutions with literacy leaders and families across the country. In this powerful episode, Kareem Weaver (FULCRUM) and Brett Tingley (Parents for Reading Justice) sit down with Ameer Baraka, actor, author and dyslexia advocate, and Deon Butler, former NFL player and author of The Gift & The Curse, for a deeply honest and moving conversation about overcoming illiteracy, breaking the pipeline of poor schooling to incarceration, and reclaiming ownership of their futures through learning to read. Ameer shares how he turned his experience with undiagnosed dyslexia and time in prison into a mission to teach literacy and pro-social values to incarcerated men, while Deon recounts his journey with hidden dyslexia through college and the NFL, and finally learning to read through Orton-Gillingham instruction. Together with their hosts, they spotlight how children in marginalized communities are especially vulnerable to low academic outcomes when early reading difficulties go unnoticed or unaddressed at school, emphasizing the urgent need for trained teachers, early intervention, informed families, and equitable access to evidence-based instruction. Above all, this dialogue reminds us to keep fighting for every child's right to learn to read, and to never give up on the transformative power of reading to change lives.
Watch: YouTube
Listen: Spotify
