Banned Books Week

I would say a good example of this is the banned books industry.

Every September, publishers and librarians stage banned books week.

You get tote bags, you get displays, you get reading lists.

These books are freely available on Amazon.

Happy Banned Books Week, Dorothy! Thank

you!

Welcome, listeners, to a bonus episode of Rogue Librarians, a podcast in which two librarians drink wine and read banned books.

And my alias is Dorothy Gale.

Why the rogue names? Because discussing censorship, it's a tricky business.

So our Banned Books Week celebration is

continuing.

I know, I know.

Last October at Northwood School in Field Township, Minnesota, a rural school district's library assistant was fired following parental complaints over displays featuring challenged books.

Quinn Krebsbach, who has a master's degree in library and information science, purchased books for a display for Banned Books Week with a whiteboard illustration of the top 10 banned books with the prompt, How many have you read? written on the display.

Quickly after the 2025 display was put up, parental complaints rolled in, objecting to specific titles and library displays, leading to Krebsbach being fired and 80 books he purchased being removed from the library, circumventing the formal review and challenge process.

Now, more than a year later, the ongoing fallout highlights how indefinite administrative holds continue to restrict student access in rural schools.

Right.

So this came out right around the 1st of October, which was Banned Books Week.

And we're always hearing about banned books.

And so what I say in my article promoting my book as it came out was, well, you know, we're always hearing about the efforts to ban books.

And, you know, you go back earlier, you know, oh, this film was banned in Boston, you know.

Oh, I just did a talk at the Boston Public Library for the beginning of Banned Books Week.

I did it together with my friend and colleague, Randy Kennedy, Harvard Law School professor I mentioned earlier.

And the title of our event was Banned in Boston.

If instead of dismissing it out of hand, we listen and reach to the root causes and failures that push women to seek refuge in the places that dehumanize them the most, we might actually get somewhere.

Next up, given the rise in book challenges and bans in the U.S. the past few years, Banned Books Week should be extended to every week.

Building on the Banned Books Week work that Project Censored has done already this year, my co-host Mickey Huff sits down and speaks with Kasey Meehan, director of the Freedom to Read at PEN America, to discuss her recent co-authored report, A Spotlight on School Book Bans, published just in time for Banned Books Week.

That's coming up this week on Project Censored.

We'll see you next time.

Welcome to the Project Censored Show on Pacifica Radio.

I'm Mickey Huff with Eleanor Goldfield.

Recently, we celebrated the 44th annual Banned Books Week with the Banned Books Week Coalition and the many members of it, celebrating the right to read and raising awareness around why we need to protect First Amendment rights, academic freedom, and students' rights.

But still, it was just comical.

Oh, and I have to tally how much we're sending to PEN America for Banned Book Week.

I had to do that today because we donated 5% of sales last week to Banned Book Week.

People loved it.

Everyone came in.

Music by Chris.

Special thanks to Alana the Lioness, our co-founder and forever host, Lizzie, the obstinate headstrong girl that taught us all about sound editing, and our loyal Patreon supporters who help keep things running with their financial support.

We couldn't have done this podcast without any of you.

And finally, thanks to all of you for reading with us, because in the words of Isaac Asimov, any book worth banning is a book worth reading.

I am your co-host, Eleanor Goldfield.

In this segment of the radio show, my co-host, Mickey Huff, sits down with Kasey Meehan, the director of the Freedom to Read at PEN America, to discuss her most recent co-authored report, A Spotlight on School Book Bans, published just in time for Banned Books Week that was just October 4th through October 8th.

And given the rise in book challenges and bans in the U.S. the past few years, Banned Books Week should really be every week.

So be sure to tune in to my other segment from this week's program where I sit down with writer and journalist Madeline Peltz to talk about the trad wives phenomenon.

And right now, over to Mickey and Casey.

Welcome to the Project Censored Show on Pacifica Radio.

I'm Mickey Huff with Eleanor Goldfield.

Recently, we celebrated the 44th annual Banned Books Week with the Banned Books Week Coalition and the many members of it, celebrating the right to read and raising awareness around why we need to protect First Amendment rights, academic freedom, and students' rights.