Banned Camp: Banned Books, Comedy, and Free Speech vs. Censorship
Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where hosts Jennifer Davis and Dan Schulz read banned books out loud, cover-to-cover, and explore why they were challenged. Each season focuses on a different controversial book, with the current season covering Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. The show combines irreverent humor with serious discussion about censorship, free speech, and the political motivations behind book banning. It aims to entertain while defending the right to read challenged literature.
Episodes
The Handmaid’s Tale Ch. 9-10: Someone Lived Here Before Me | Why Books Get Banned
The Handmaid discovers a message scratched into her cupboard floor by someone who came before her — four Latin words left for a stranger who might never find them.
Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapter — we don't read ahead, so you're discovering the story with us.
Things To Listen For:
The moment Jennifer identifies the passage that becomes the episode's
The Handmaid’s Tale Ch. 8: The Smell That Almost Broke Her | Banned Books Comedy
A funeral procession carries a jar small enough to tell the age of what was inside it. A dish towel almost breaks someone who's already survived a public execution wall. And the most powerful man in the house breaks his own rules just to stand outside a door. Chapter 8 of The Handmaid's Tale somehow makes a kitchen feel as dangerous as a checkpoint.
Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read ba
The Handmaid’s Tale Ch. 6-7: Bodies on the Wall | Banned Books Podcast
In Chapter 6, the Handmaids walk past a wall where six bodies hang from hooks — doctors executed for performing abortions that were legal when they did them. In Chapter 7, the only freedom left is inside her own head at night, where she drifts between memories she didn't choose and can't control — until one of them ends with her daughter being handed to a stranger.
Banned Camp is a comedy podcast
The Handmaid’s Tale Ch. 5.2: She Doesn’t Even Know It Happened | Banned Books Comedy
Japanese tourists walk through Gilead with cameras and smiles, and our protagonist can't stop staring at a woman's painted toenails. She used to dress like that. She used to be that. And somewhere between then and now, her mind changed... and she doesn't even know it happened.
Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapter... we don't read ahead, so you're discoverin
The Handmaid’s Tale Ch. 5: Freedom To and Freedom From | Banned Books Podcast
The handmaid walks through a neighborhood that looks like an architecture magazine came to life, except there are no children and no people. The stores have pictures instead of words. A movie theater is now a dress shop. And Aunt Lydia delivers six words that might be the crux of the entire book: "Freedom to and freedom from. Don't underrate it." Also: Dan reached into a urinal for a $10 bill and
The Handmaid’s Tale Ch. 4: She Still Has One Power Left | Banned Books Comedy
Chapter 4 takes the Handmaid outside the house for the first time — past a winking guardian washing a car, through checkpoints guarded by boys with guns, and alongside a walking partner who may or may not be a spy. By the end of the chapter, she's found the one thing Gilead forgot to take from her. It's small. It costs nothing. And it works.
Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned boo
The Handmaid’s Tale Ch. 3: Everything Looks Normal From a Distance | Banned Books Comedy
Chapter three of The Handmaid's Tale introduces Serena Joy — the Commander's wife — and she is not happy to see the handmaid. She has a garden, a knitting basket, and a diamond ring. She also has thin lips, a clenched-fist chin, and flat hostile eyes. From a distance, it looks like peace.
Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapter — we don't read ahead, so you're
The Handmaid’s Tale Ch. 1-2: Welcome to Gilead, It’s Worse Than You Think | Banned Books Comedy
Margaret Atwood opens with a gymnasium that smells like bubblegum and decades of girls who passed through it — and within three pages, you understand that everything familiar has been stripped away and replaced with something much darker. Chapters 1 and 2 introduce us to Gilead: a world of color-coded clothing, cattle prod-wielding aunts, suicide-proofed rooms, and a woman who refuses to call anyt
Catcher in the Crosshairs: When a Banned Book Gets Blamed for Murder | Banned Books Podcast
🎉 Season 11 begins Tuesday, June 9th — The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood.
Three high-profile crimes. One banned book. Mark David Chapman shot John Lennon with a copy of The Catcher in the Rye in his pocket. John Hinckley Jr. attempted to assassinate Ronald Reagan with a copy in his hotel room. Robert John Bardo murdered actress Rebecca Schaeffer with one in his backpack — and threw it
The Catcher in the Rye Ch. 26: Don’t Ever Tell Anybody Anything | Banned Books Podcast
🎉 Season 11 begins Tuesday, June 9th — The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood.
The final chapter is half a page long. It takes about two minutes to read. The discussion takes considerably longer. Beowulf joins Dan and Jennifer for the first time during the actual reading, and what they discover in those few sentences changes how they see the entire book. Also: a flashback to a wigwam, an organ rec
The Catcher in the Rye Ch. 25.3: If They Fall Off, They Fall Off | Banned Books Comedy
🎉 Season 11 begins Tuesday, June 9th — we're reading The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. Robot has been promoted to official composer.
Phoebe throws the hunting hat in Holden's face. They walk to the zoo on opposite sides of the street. They watch the sea lions, the bears, and go through a tunnel that smells like somebody took a leak. Then they get to the carousel, and something happens on a b
The Catcher in the Rye | Ch. 25.2: She Showed Up With a Suitcase | Banned Books Podcast
Holden goes back to Phoebe's school and sees something on the wall that drives him crazy. Then he sees it again. And again. He visits the museum, plays tour guide for two kids who want to see mummies, passes out in the bathroom, and then Phoebe shows up wearing his hunting hat and dragging a suitcase. She packed her bags. She's coming with him. And what happens next might be the most important mom
The Catcher in the Rye Ch. 25.1: The Kid Who Asked a Ghost for Permission to Keep Existing | Banned Books Comedy
🎉 SEASON 11 ANNOUNCED: Banned Camp will be reading The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, starting June 9th. The scary book people have spoken.
Holden has nowhere to go. He sleeps at Grand Central, reads a magazine that convinces him he has cancer, walks down Fifth Avenue at Christmas, and starts begging his dead brother Allie not to let him disappear. Then he builds the most detailed escape fant
The Catcher in the Rye Ch. 24.2: Then Something Happened | Banned Books Comedy
Old Mr. Antolini finishes his speech about the size of your mind, makes up the couch, and calls Holden "handsome." Then something happens that readers and scholars have been arguing about since 1951. Jennifer's reaction is immediate. Dan's is complicated. Robot refuses to say a word about it.
Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapter — we don't read ahead, so yo
Banned Camp Season 11 Book Vote: You Pick What We Read Next | Banned Books Comedy Podcast
We're handing the show over to you. The scary book people have nominated the books they want us to read for season 11, and we've narrowed it down to five finalists. All banned. All books someone doesn't want you to read. Now it's time to vote.
Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapter — we don't read ahead, so you're discovering the story with us.
The Five Final
The Catcher in the Rye Ch. 24.1: Holden Flunks the Art of Staying on Topic | Banned Books Podcast
Holden shows up at Mr. Antolini's swanky apartment in the middle of the night to find his old teacher in a bathrobe with a highball, his wife heading to bed, and a living room that looks like Don Draper decorated it. What starts as cocktails and small talk turns into Holden's passionate defense of a kid named Richard Kinsella who got an F for being too interesting, and ends with Antolini warning h
The Catcher in the Rye Ch. 23: The Safest Place He’s Ever Been | Banned Books
Holden dances with Phoebe in the dark with the radio turned low — maybe the only moment in the entire book where he's truly happy. Then the parents come home and everything shifts to scripted pleasantries. Then Phoebe gives Holden her Christmas money, he cries, he gives her his red hunting hat, and he walks out into December heading for Mr. Antolini's apartment.
Banned Camp is a comedy podcast whe
The Catcher in the Rye Ch. 22: James Castle, the Sweater, and the Cliff | Banned Books Podcast
Phoebe asks Holden to name one thing he likes about anything in the world. He can't do it. His mind drifts to a boy named James Castle who was brutalized at Elkton Hills, refused to take back what he said, and jumped out a window — wearing Holden's turtleneck sweater. Then Holden finally answers, and what he says changes everything you thought this book was about.
Banned Camp is a comedy podcast w
The Catcher in the Rye Ch. 21: Holden Sneaks Home to Phoebe | Banned Books Podcast
Holden finally goes home... but he has to break in like a burglar to do it. Fake name, fake bad leg, holding his breath past his parents' door. When he finds Phoebe asleep in DB's oversized bed wearing blue pajamas with red elephants on the collar, he feels good for the first time in twenty chapters. Then she wakes up, figures out he got expelled in about ten seconds, and puts a pillow over her he
The Catcher in the Rye Ch. 20: Drunk Dials, Broken Records & Central Park at 1AM | Banned Books Podcast
Holden closes out one of the longest nights of his life alone at a bar, drunk-dials Sally Hayes at 1 AM to ask if he can trim her Christmas tree, and ends up wandering Central Park in the freezing cold looking for the ducks. What finally gets him off that bench and walking home might surprise you.
Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapter — we don't read ahead,
Banned Camp Presents: They Came After the Librarian
Martha Hickson is a school librarian featured prominently in the PBS documentary "The Librarians." She's also a Banned Camp fan. On National Library Workers' Day, we talk with Martha about why book banners consistently target librarians, the coordinated "Lawn Boy" setup that made her one of the first librarians in the country attacked by this organized movement, the personal toll of standing up, a
The Catcher in the Rye Ch. 19: The Loneliest Kid at the Bar | Banned Books Comedy
Holden heads to the Wicker Bar to meet Carl Luce, an older former student advisor from his Wooten days who knows a suspicious amount about everyone's private life. What follows is one long, uncomfortable bar conversation where Holden can't stop asking the wrong questions — and Luce can't wait to leave.
Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapter — we don't read ah
The Catcher in the Rye Ch. 18: The War Behind Every Page | Banned Books Comedy
Holden kills time before a bar date by going to Radio City, where he watches the Rockettes, debates whether a roller-skating comedian is a little person, and sits through a movie so bad he recaps the entire plot just to prove how terrible it is. But this chapter takes a hard turn when Dan asks a simple question — was Salinger in the army? — and the answer changes everything they thought they knew
The Catcher in the Rye Ch. 17.2: The Date That Was Already Over Before It Started | Banned Books Comedy
Holden and Sally hit the ice at Rockefeller Center, where Sally rents a "little blue butttwitcher of a dress" and Holden discovers he's the worst skater on the rink. What starts as an awkward date turns into something much heavier when Holden starts lighting matches in a bar and asks Sally the question that's been eating him alive: "Did you ever get fed up?"
Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where w
The Catcher in the Rye | Ch. 17: Girl Watching, Phonies, and the Love You Don’t Mean
Holden arrives early to meet Sally Hayes, watches girls in the lobby, and realizes he wants to marry her the second she walks in — even though he doesn't even like her. What follows is a date full of cab rides, bad theater, and a guy named George who takes up way too much space in a checkered vest. By the end, Holden hates everyone, including himself, and Sally has a marvelous idea.
Banned Camp is
The Catcher in the Rye Ch. 16.2: The Museum That Never Changes | Banned Books Podcast
The Catcher in the Rye Ch. 16.2 | Banned Books Comedy Podcast
Holden goes to Central Park looking for Phoebe, helps a little girl tighten her skate, walks all the way to the Museum of Natural History remembering every detail from his childhood field trips, and then does something nobody expected — he won't go inside. This is the chapter where Salinger finally shows you what the whole book is about
The Catcher in the Rye Ch. 16.1: If a Body Catch a Body Coming Through the Rye | Banned Books Comedy
The Catcher in the Rye Ch. 16.1
Holden walks through New York on a Sunday morning still haunted by the nuns, buys a record for his little sister that makes him happier than anything in sixteen chapters, finally calls the girl he's been afraid to call, and hears a six-year-old kid singing a song on a curb that changes everything. This is the chapter where the title of the book finally shows up.
Ban
The Catcher in the Rye Ch. 15.2: Holden Talks Romeo and Juliet with a Nun | Banned Books Podcast
The Catcher in the Rye Ch. 15.2 | Banned Books Comedy Podcast
Holden finishes his conversation with the two nuns at the lunch counter, gives them ten dollars he can't really afford, discusses Romeo and Juliet with an English teacher in iron-rimmed glasses, accidentally blows smoke in their faces, and then watches them leave. It's one of the warmest scenes in the book, and it ends with one of Salin
The Catcher in the Rye Ch. 15.1: Holden Meets Two Nuns at Grand Central | Banned Books Podcast
Holden finally sleeps, checks out of the hotel (while avoiding the pimp who punched him), and calls the one girl he doesn't actually want to talk to instead of the one he does. Then he sits down at a lunch counter next to two nuns with cheap suitcases, and something quietly shifts.
Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapter—we don't read ahead, so you're discover
The Catcher in the Rye Ch. 14: Maurice Returns and Holden Gets Hit | Banned Books Podcast
Holden Caulfield starts this chapter talking to his dead brother Allie in an empty hotel room at dawn, and it only gets heavier from there. Maurice the elevator pimp and Sunny come back for the money Holden insists he doesn't owe, and what follows is a confrontation that leaves Holden on the floor in his pajamas imagining a revenge movie that will never happen.
Banned Camp is a comedy podcast wher
The Catcher in the Rye Ch. 13.2: Holden Meets a Prostitute Named Sunny | Banned Books Podcast
The Catcher in the Rye Ch. 13.2 | Banned Books Comedy Podcast
The prostitute finally shows up, and Holden Caulfield does the most Holden Caulfield thing possible: he asks if she wants to talk. She does not. What follows is one of the most awkward, sad, and unexpectedly human scenes in the book, ending with a made-up surgery, a price dispute, and a green dress that quietly breaks your heart.
Banned
The Catcher in the Rye Ch. 13.1: Holden Calls Himself Yellow | Banned Books Podcast
The Catcher in the Rye Ch. 13.1 | Banned Books Comedy Podcast
Holden Caulfield walks 41 blocks back to his hotel in the freezing cold calling himself a coward the entire way — all over a pair of gloves he never confronted anyone about. By the time he gets to the elevator, he's so depressed he can't think straight. That's when things get complicated.
Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we
The Catcher in the Rye Ch. 12: Holden's 2 AM Cab Ride & the Duck Debate | Banned Books Podcast
Holden Caulfield climbs into a late-night cab that smells like vomit and strikes up a conversation with his driver, Horwitz — who has very strong opinions about fish. Meanwhile, New York City feels lonesome and enormous, and Holden still won't go home.
Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapter — we don't read ahead, so you're discovering the story with us.
Thing
The Catcher in the Rye Chapter 11: Jane Gallagher and the Checkerboard Tear | Banned Books Podcast
The Catcher in the Rye Ch. 11 | Banned Books Comedy Podcast
Holden can't sleep. He's sitting in a vomit-looking chair in the hotel lobby thinking about Jane Gallagher — the girl who lost eight golf balls that first afternoon and never made him feel like his hand was sweating. This chapter is one long, tender flashback to the summer they spent together, and the moment a tear landed on a
The Catcher in the Rye Ch. 10 Part 2: You Just Missed Him + Book Banning News
The Catcher in the Rye Ch. 10 Part 2 | Banned Books Comedy Podcast
Holden Caulfield dances with all three women from Seattle, buys them drinks he can't really afford, tricks one of them into thinking she just missed Gary Cooper, and feels terrible about it immediately. Then they leave to get up early for Radio City Music Hall — and somehow that's the thing that breaks him.
Banned Camp is a comedy
The Catcher in the Rye Ch. 10 Part 1: What Is Holden So Afraid Of? | Why Books Get Banned
The Catcher in the Rye Ch. 10 Part 1 | Banned Books Comedy Podcast
Holden Caulfield can't sleep, so he does what any reasonable teenager would do — puts on a clean shirt and heads down to the hotel nightclub alone in the middle of the night. But before he goes, he spends a few minutes thinking about his little sister Phoebe. It's the warmest, most unguarded moment in the book so far. Then he goes
The Catcher in the Rye Ch. 9: Holden Checks Into the Edmont Hotel | Banned Books Podcast
The Catcher in the Rye Ch. 9 | Banned Books Comedy Podcast
Holden Caulfield arrives in New York City in the middle of the night with cash in his pocket and absolutely no one to call. He stands in a phone booth for twenty minutes going through his entire list — and comes up empty every time. What follows is one of the loneliest chapters in the book, dressed up as comedy.
Banned Camp is a comedy pod
The Catcher in the Rye Ch. 8: The Most Honest Liar on the Train | Banned Books Comedy
The Catcher in the Rye Ch. 8 | Banned Books Comedy Podcast
Holden Caulfield hates phonies. He's been cataloguing them for seven
chapters. So why does he spend an entire train ride lying through his
teeth to make a stranger feel good about her bully son? Chapter 8 is
where Salinger quietly reveals that Holden is more complicated — and
more kind — than anyone gives him credit for.
Banned Camp is
The Catcher in the Rye Ch. 7: Holden Leaves Pencey in the Middle of the Night | Banned Books Podcast
Holden can't sleep. He's lying in Ackley's stinky room, torturing himself thinking about Jane and Stradlater in that car. So he does the only logical thing—packs his bags, sells his typewriter for a fraction of what it's worth, and screams "Sleep tight, ya morons!" down the hallway before disappearing into the night. He's 16 and heading to a hotel in New York City alone.
Banned Camp is a comedy po
The Catcher in the Rye Ch. 6: Blood on the Floor and He Still Won't Shut Up | Banned Books Comedy
The Catcher in the Rye Ch. 6 | Banned Books Comedy Podcast
Stradlater comes back from his date with Jane and rejects Holden's composition about his dead brother's baseball mitt. What follows is a fight that leaves Holden bloody on the floor—but he still won't stop calling Stradlater a moron. Turns out this was never really about Jane.
Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chap
The Catcher in the Rye Ch. 5: The Brother He Couldn't Save | Banned Books Comedy
The Catcher in the Rye Ch. 5 | Banned Books Comedy Podcast
Holden writes a homework assignment about the one thing that matters most to him—his dead brother Allie's baseball mitt, covered in poems written in green ink. We learn that when Allie died of leukemia at eleven, Holden broke every window in the garage with his bare hands, and his hand still doesn't work right. Dan and Jennifer discuss gri
The Catcher in the Rye Ch. 4.2: Caring Too Much While He Cares Too Little
The Catcher in the Rye Ch. 4.2 | Banned Books Comedy Podcast
Stradlater's date is Jane Gallagher—Holden's childhood friend and crush. Holden nearly drops dead when he hears her name. He remembers everything about her: she practiced ballet in the summer heat, played checkers keeping all her kings in the back row because she liked how they looked, had a bad childhood with an alcoholic stepfather. St
The Catcher in the Rye Ch. 4.1: Friendly But Friendless | Banned Books Comedy
The Catcher in the Rye Ch. 4.1
Holden hangs out in the steamy bathroom while Stradlater shaves with his disgusting rusty razor (secret slob). Stradlater asks Holden to write his English composition for him—no compensation, just "be a buddy." Then Holden starts tap dancing and performing "I'm the governor's son!" before jumping on Stradlater in a half nelson just because he felt like it. Dan notic
The Catcher in the Rye Ch. 3.2: Why Ban a Book That Shows People Are Complicated? | Why Books Get Banned
Ackley barges into Holden's room and proceeds to do everything wrong: picks up personal items, clips his toenails on the floor after being asked 50 times to use the table, and laughs when Holden gets hit in the head with a tennis racket. But instead of just calling him an asshole, Holden says "I felt sort of sorry for him in a way." Then he defends Stradlater—the conceited guy—by pointing out he'd
The Catcher in the Rye Ch. 3.1: Holden Calls Out Phony Bastards | Banned Books Podcast
Holden admits he's "the most terrific liar you ever saw," then proceeds to spend the entire chapter calling out every phony around him. Meet Ossenburger: a businessman who made his fortune streamlining death at five bucks per body, then stood in chapel telling students to think of Jesus as their buddy while he's probably asking for a few more stiffs. Plus: Ackley the interloper who won't take a hi
The Catcher in the Rye Ch. 2.2: Holden Shoots the Bull While Thinking About Ducks | Banned Books Podcast
Holden wrote a kind note at the bottom of his failing essay so Mr. Spencer wouldn't feel bad about flunking him. Spencer repaid this kindness by reading it out loud like he'd won a ping-pong match. So Holden did what any smart kid would do: shot the bull, told Spencer exactly what he wanted to hear, while his brain escaped to Central Park wondering where the ducks go when the lagoon freezes over.
The Catcher in the Rye Ch. 2: Why Do Good Kids Get Punished? | Why Books Get Banned
Holden Caulfield climbs a freezing hill to say goodbye to his sick 70-year-old teacher, Mr. Spencer. What does he get for his kindness? A lecture, a humiliating public reading of his failing essay, and the question "what's the matter with you?" Sometimes being polite doesn't protect you from cruelty.
Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapter—we don't read ahead,
The Catcher in the Rye Ch. 1: Why Did This Depressed Teen Scare America for 21 Years?
Holden Caulfield got kicked out of his fourth prep school and refuses to tell us his whole "David Copperfield kind of crap" autobiography. Instead, he stands on a freezing hill watching a football game he's not allowed to play in anymore, trying to feel some kind of goodbye before heading to see his old teacher. It's December, it's cold as hell, and Holden keeps feeling like he's disappearing ever
Season 10 Book Reveal: The Catcher in the Rye | Starts Jan 15
Season 10 Book Reveal: The Catcher in the Rye | Banned Books Comedy Podcast
The votes are in, scary book people. After a nail-biting finish where Kite Runner seemed like the clear winner, Catcher in the Rye surged past overnight to claim the Season 10 spot. Dan's never read it. Jennifer's ready to find out if there's a lighthouse involved.
Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books
Brave New World Ch. 18.3: The Final Chapter - How the Book Ends | Banned Books Podcast
The season finale is here. John has retreated to his lighthouse seeking solitude, but solitude isn't what he finds. A filmmaker captures his self-flagellation and turns it into entertainment. Helicopters descend. Crowds gather demanding "the whipping stunt." And when Lenina arrives with tears in her eyes, everything falls apart. This is how Brave New World ends... and it's not what you expect.
Ba
Brave New World Ch. 18.2: John’s Lighthouse Self-Punishment | Banned Books Podcast
John has finally escaped to his lighthouse—complete freedom, everything he wanted. So naturally, he spends his time making weapons, planning a garden, and whipping himself bloody every time he accidentally feels happy. When he catches himself singing while carving a bow, he punishes himself with mustard water and a knotted cord. The World State doesn't need to control him anymore. He's doing it to
New Year’s Special: Reviews, Rants & VOTE for What We Read Next | Banned Books Comedy
Happy New Year! Dan's sick, 2025 can go straight to hell, and we're taking a break from Brave New World to read your reviews—the good, the bad, and the "keep politics out of it" crowd who somehow missed the entire point of a banned books podcast.
**VOTE NOW: We're finishing Brave New World in 2-3 episodes and YOU get to decide what we read next!** Email your vote to pod@bannedcamppodcast.com with
Brave New World Ch. 18.1: Is Suffering the Price of Being Human? | Why Books Get Banned
We start the final chapter of Brave New World and John immediately decides civilization has poisoned him… so he purifies himself the old-school way. Then he heads off to a lonely lighthouse “hermitage,” where he tries to earn the right to beauty through pain, shame, and some extremely intense main character energy.
Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapter, we d
2025 Banned Camp Christmas
In this festive holiday episode, Jennifer and Dan celebrate Christmas Banned Camp style. The episode’s highlight is a surprise guest reading ofa special Holiday poem favorite poem. Expect a lively discussion about its meaning and political undertones.
Jennifer and Dan wish all listeners a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a restful break from the chaos of the world. They sign off with gratitud
Brave New World Ch. 17.2: The Right to Be Unhappy | Banned Books Podcast
John and Mustapha Mond go head-to-head over the weirdest argument of all, whether a “perfect” life is worth the price of your soul, your freedom, and your right to feel anything real. Along the way we detour through King Lear, religion, pleasant vices, and the phrase “Christianity without tears,” which is either brilliant… or horrifying… or both.
Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banne
Brave New World Ch. 17.1: Why would a ’perfect’ society ban God? | Why Books Get Banned
Mustapha Mond opens his literal vault of “smut”… and it’s the Bible, William James, and a bunch of old religious philosophy that the World State treats like porn. John tries to argue for God, solitude, and death, and Mond basically says: we engineered a world where you never have to be alone, lose anything, or grow old… so God becomes “incompatible.”
Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read b
Brave New World Ch 16.2: The Cost of Stability | Banned Books Comedy
In Chapter 16.2 of Brave New World, the World Controller finally explains the system without euphemisms. Truth is dangerous. Science has to be restrained. And happiness, especially other people’s happiness, comes at a cost someone has to pay.
Jennifer and Dan unpack the idea that stability matters more than meaning, that pleasure replaces happiness, and that a society can function smoothly as long
Brave New World Ch. 16.1: Why Ban Shakespeare? | Banned Books Podcast
The Controller finally steps into the room, and everything shifts. John speaks his mind, Bernard panics, and Mustafa Mond lays out the tradeoffs that built this so-called perfect world. Shakespeare, happiness, censorship, and the entire machinery of the World State collide.
Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapter, we don't read ahead, so you're discovering the
Brave New World Ch. 15.2: John’s Revolt at the Hospital | Banned Books Podcast
John the Savage storms into the hospital and starts a one-man revolution, flinging soma into the courtyard while screaming about freedom. The Deltas lose their minds, the police show up with drug mist and lullaby propaganda, and Bernard once again proves he’s the world’s most indecisive liability.
Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapter—we don’t read ahead, so
Brave New World Ch. 15.1: John Confronts the Soma Mob | Banned Books Podcast
John leaves his mother’s deathbed only to walk straight into a crowd of Deltas lining up for their Soma ration. Surrounded by identical khaki-clad twins, grief turns into fury, and he snaps... interrupting the Soma handout with a desperate plea for freedom.
Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapter. We don’t read ahead, so you’re discovering the story with us.
Brave New World Ch. 14.2: Linda’s Death & Savage Grief | Banned Books Podcast
John sits at his mother’s deathbed in a hospital designed to make dying as cheerful and efficient as possible. Linda drifts in and out under a haze of soma while a group of tiny khaki Deltas wander through the ward eating éclairs like it’s a field trip. John can’t find a moment of dignity or privacy… even at the end.
Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapter...
Brave New World Ch. 14.1: When Comfort Replaces Humanity | Banned Books Comedy
In this chapter, John visits his dying mother in a 60-story hospital that looks more like a high-end spa than a place where anyone should be facing the end of their life. Linda is drugged, the twins swarm like a nightmare daycare field trip, and the World State’s approach to death gets more disturbing the longer you sit with it.
Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by
Brave New World Ch. 13.2 : Purity Culture Meets Panic | Banned Books Comedy
Lenina finally makes her move and John… absolutely implodes. What should’ve been a tender moment spirals into rage, Shakespeare, slapping, terror, and a near-homicidal meltdown. It’s the chapter where everyone realizes John is not the tragic outsider... he’s the actual walking red flag.
Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapter, reacting in real time and trying
Brave New World Ch. 13.1: Lenina’s Meltdown and John’s Confusion | Banned Books Podcast
Lenina is quietly falling apart and John is loudly falling in love. Chapter 13.1 puts two people raised in two completely different emotional universes into the same room… and the results are chaotic, awkward, and very funny.
Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapter, discovering the story right along with you.
Things To Listen For:
Dan and Jennifer try to decod
Brave New World Ch. 12.2: Bernard Spirals, Shakespeare Lands | Banned Books Podcast
Bernard’s crash back to reality continues as jealousy, insecurity, and Shakespeare all collide. John and Hemholtz bond hard over forbidden ideas, Bernard sulks, and Jennifer and Dan try to untangle what friendship even means in a society terrified of individuality.
Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapter, discovering the story with you as it unfolds.
Things To
The America That Raised Me is Gone
Today’s episode is something different — an essay written and narrated by Jennifer. It’s about growing up believing America was the good guy, watching that belief crack, and trying to hold on to hope anyway.
If you’ve ever looked at someone you love and wondered how they became a stranger, this one’s for you.
We’ll be back next week with the usual literary troublemaking and dystopian nonsense.
Brave New World | Ch. 12.1: The Party That Broke Bernard | Banned Books Podcast
In this chapter of Brave New World, everything falls apart for Bernard. The Savage refuses to attend his party, Lenina wrestles with rejection, and the façade of happiness starts to crack. Meanwhile, Mustapha Mond quietly decides which ideas are too dangerous for the public to read.
Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapter. We don't read ahead, so you're discov
Brave New World | Ch. 11.2 - When Pleasure Feels Wrong | Banned Books Comedy
Death gets candy, love gets awkward, and everyone gets soma.
In Chapter 11, Lenina tries to connect with John after a night of “feelies,” while Bernard basks in borrowed fame and Robot fact-checks everything from chocolate-cream conditioning to Clarence Thomas’s butter-dish rumors.
Banned Camp is the comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapter... we don’t read ahead, so you’re dis
Brave New World Ch. 11.1 : When Grief Meets a Soulless Society | Banned Books Comedy
Linda returns to “civilization,” but comfort comes at a cost. While Bernard basks in sudden popularity, Linda disappears into her drug-induced haze...and her son John the Savage starts to see what happiness looks like when it’s manufactured.
Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapter—we don’t read ahead, so you’re discovering the story with us.
Things To Listen F
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark — Halloween Spooktacular ft. Liz Gotauco | Banned Books Podcast
It’s our third annual Halloween special, and this year we invited librarian, author, and cosbrarian extraordinaire Liz Gotauco to read two classics from Alvin Schwartz’s notorious collection. Liz gives “The Hook” a modern twist, then serves up “Just Delicious,” a grim little tale with perfect spooky-season karma.
Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapter… and so
Brave New World | Ch. 10: The Mother of All Scandals | Why Books Get Banned
The Director plans to humiliate Bernard in front of thousands of workers… until his own secret explodes in public. Meanwhile, Linda makes her shocking return, John calls someone “father” in a world where that word doesn’t exist, and the whole society short-circuits from embarrassment.
Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapter—we don’t read ahead, so you’re disco
Brave New World Ch. 9: Love, Lust, and the Right to Say No | Banned Books Comedy
Lenina crashes on a Soma holiday while Bernard hatches a plan... and John breaks into her room in a lovesick spiral that’s equal parts Shakespearean and creepy. Robot fact-checks the chaos, Jennifer calls out Huxley’s lazy racism, and Dan coins “the shark rule” for slur warnings.
Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapter—we don’t read ahead, so you’re discoveri
Brave New World | Ch. 8.3 – Alone, Bleeding, and Dreaming of a Better World
In this emotional finale to Chapter 8, Jennifer and Dan follow John the Savage through the painful moment that defines him. Rejected by his tribe for being different, stoned and bleeding under the moonlight, John realizes he belongs nowhere — not in the World State, not in the Reservation.
When Bernard finally offers him and Linda a chance to go “home,” the stage is set for the book’s biggest col
Brave New World | Ch. 8.2 – John Found Shakespeare (and a Knife)
In this episode of Banned Camp, Jennifer and Dan continue Chapter 8 of Brave New World, where John discovers a tattered copy of The Complete Works of Shakespeare — and it changes his life forever.
Things to Listen For
The scene where he tries to stab Pope — and what it reveals about Huxley’s view of violence and emotion.
Jennifer arguing that reading is what makes us dangerous and human.
The tran
Bonus Catch-Up: Brave New World in Ten Minutes
hey scary book people — happy sunday. our hosting provider glitched last week, and a bunch of you didn’t get the full episode (or it cut out halfway through). so we pulled together a quick ten-minute highlight to get you caught up before tuesday’s new chapter.
this mini-episode hits the key moments from last week’s brave new world — the chaos, the heartbreak, and yes, the weird singing part that d
Brave New World | Ch. 8 – The Boy Who Learned to Read from Pain
In this episode of Banned Camp, Jennifer and Dan unpack Chapter 8 of Brave New World, where John the Savage’s backstory finally comes to light.
Raised by his mother Linda in the Savage Reservation, John grows up between two worlds — neither accepted by the locals nor able to forget the stories his mother tells about the “civilized” one she came from.
Things to Listen For
John’s childhood memorie
Brave New World | Ch. 7.3 – Civilization Is Sterilization (and Other Lies We Tell)
In this episode of Banned Camp, Jennifer and Dan tackle Chapter 7.3 of Brave New World, where Bernard and Lenina finally meet Linda — the woman who vanished years ago from the Director’s life. What they find isn’t a romantic reunion story but a tragedy wrapped in tequila, dust, and lost teeth.
Things To Listen For
Linda’s shocking reappearance — the missing teeth, the booze, the heartbreak.
Lenina
Brave New World | Ch. 7.2 – The Whipping, the Blonde, and the Big Reveal
In this episode of Banned Camp, Jennifer and Dan finish Chapter 7 of Brave New World—and things get weird fast. The reservation’s drums, dances, and whips turn into a full-blown spectacle of blood, snakes, and sacrifice. Lenina, off her Soma for the first time, spirals into panic, while Bernard watches with equal parts horror and fascination.
Things To Listen For
Lenina’s first true breakdown with
Brave New World | Ch. 7.1 – Snakes, Smells, and Savage Reservations
In this episode of Banned Camp, Jennifer and Dan reach Chapter 7 of Brave New World, where Bernard and Lenina finally arrive at the Savage Reservation — and instantly regret it. Lenina hates the smells, the dust, and the people; Bernard tries to stay philosophical, and Robot ends up the only one keeping his composure.
The two witness poverty, age, motherhood, and death — everything their sanitized
Brave New World | Ch. 6.4: Blockheads, Fences, and Fishnets
In Chapter 6.4 of Brave New World, Bernard and Lenina finally make their way toward the Savage Reservation. Along the way, they meet a blockheaded warden obsessed with random facts, fences, and electrified borders, while Bernard just worries about leaving his cologne tap running. Jennifer and Dan debate whether the Reservation is really a museum, a prison, or both — while Robot loses patience with
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