Books That Look Like Us: Storytime AI and the Future of Literacy

In this episode of Old Soul, Matthew Millstein chats with Brian Carlson, co-founder and CEO of Storytime AI, about reimagining early literacy in the age of artificial intelligence. What began as a personalized storybook app with 85,000+ downloads is now evolving into a classroom-ready tool built to meet the needs of real teachers—and the real kids they serve.Brian explains how Storytime AI leverages personalization, multimodal design, and AI-powered storytelling to make reading more engaging, culturally relevant, and effective for students across reading levels. He also shares how his journey from physics major to Peace Corps educator to edtech entrepreneur shaped his belief that stories—especially stories students see themselves in—can change lives.This episode dives into the literacy crisis, the promise and peril of AI in classrooms, and what it takes to build education tools that actually work for teachers and kids alike.What We Cover in This Episode:What is Storytime AI? A platform that empowers students to create personalized, leveled books and videos—designed to match their interests, identity, and academic needs.From App Store to Classroom: How Storytime AI is now building pedagogically aligned classroom tools for special education and differentiated instruction.Why Personalization Matters: The connection between identity-based learning materials and reading engagement.Teaching Prompt Engineering to Kids: How Storytime is helping K–6 students understand the logic behind AI by creating stories through structured inputs.Brian’s Journey from Teacher to Founder: A personal story that spans South Pacific classrooms, open-source learning systems, a successful edtech exit, and an unexpected new chapter in AI.The Literacy Crisis—and a Scalable Solution: Brian’s vision to inspire reading through technology and bring student-centered storytelling into every classroom.Timestamps00:22 "Personalized Books That Reflect Every Child"01:39 Addressing the Special Ed Content Gap03:13 "Why Personalization Fuels Reading Engagement"03:57 Teaching Prompt Engineering Through Storytelling04:54 From Vanuatu Classrooms to EdTech Startup08:16 "Inspiring a Love of Reading at Scale"Connect with Brian CarlsonLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/briancarlson2020Company LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/storytime-aiIf you care about literacy, personalized learning, or the responsible use of AI in education, this episode offers a fresh, hopeful take on what's possible when storytelling meets technology.