Banned Camp: Banned Books, Comedy, and Free Speech vs. Censorship
Love banned books? Hate censorship?
Same. You’re our kind of people.
Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books and try to figure out why they were banned in the first place.
Each season, we tackle a new banned book, reading it chapter by chapter and asking: What made someone clutch their pearls and scream, "BAN IT!"? (Spoiler: It’s rarely what you’d expect.) One thing is clear—the people banning these books often haven’t read them. While we uncover some eyebrow-raising moments, nothing truly justifies censorship.
Join us—and our listeners, "The Scary Book People"—as we explore the strange, hilarious, and sometimes baffling world of banned books.
Past seasons have featured classics like To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz, Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, and 1984 by George Orwell.
This season, we’re diving into Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. It's a dystopia built on pleasure, not fear. People are engineered, drugged, and distracted into obedience, and they’re taught to love the system that controls them. It’s funny, creepy, and disturbingly familiar. And like all great banned books, it makes you question the world you're living in.
By reading these books, we ask big questions: Why are banned books important? What does “banned” mean? What does “challenged” mean? How do book bans affect students? Are book bans constitutional?
Come hang out with us and have some laughs while we dig into the drama behind banned books—you might even learn something cool along the way!
- Update frequency
- every 3 days
- Average duration
- 27 minutes
- Episodes
- 247
- Years Active
- 2023 - 2025
Brave New World | Ch. 4.1 – The Lift Man Who Saw the Sky
In this episode of Banned Camp, Jennifer and Dan begin Chapter 4 of Brave New World. Lenina publicly makes plans with Bernard, much to his discomfort, while a Simeon-like lift man discovers the beaut…
Brave New World | Ch. 3.4 – Bandoliers of Condoms and the Conscription of Consumption
In this episode of Banned Camp, Jennifer and Dan wade through Chapter 3.4 of Brave New World. Mustafa Mond explains how war, anthrax, and economic collapse gave way to a society where everyone is com…
Brave New World | Ch. 3.4 – Locker Room Talk and Other Acts of War
In this episode of Banned Camp, Jennifer and Dan tackle Chapter 3.4 of Brave New World. Between locker room banter, state-mandated promiscuity, and Mustapha Mond’s lecture on “stability,” they pull a…
Brave New World | Ch. 3.3 – Everyone Belongs to Everyone Else
In this episode of Banned Camp, Jennifer and Dan continue chapter three of Brave New World, where intimacy without consequences defines society, and the idea of monogamy earns disapproval. They puzzl…
Brave New World | Ch. 3.2: Vacuum Massages and Mar-a-Lago Face
In this episode of Banned Camp, Jennifer and Dan continue through Chapter 3 of Brave New World. We move from sterile conditioning centers into a bizarrely mechanical “dressing room,” where women are …
Brave New World | Ch. 3.1: History Is Bunk, Apparently So Are We
In this episode of Banned Camp, Jennifer and Dan dive into Chapter 3 of Brave New World, where sunshine, roses, and children’s games quickly give way to dystopian creepiness. From naked playgrounds t…
Brave New World | Ch. 2.2: Elementary Sex Ed and Sleep Obedience
In this episode of Banned Camp, Jennifer and Dan dive deeper into Chapter 2 of Brave New World, where sleep is for indoctrination and moral education must never be rational. From creepy nursery whisp…
Brave New World | Ch. 2.1: Why the Babies Hate Books Now
In this episode of Banned Camp, Jennifer and Dan read Chapter 2 of Brave New World, where things get... uncomfortably real. Babies are conditioned to hate flowers and books. Khaki-clad infants get el…
Brave New World | Ch. 1.2: Genetically Engineered to Love Capitalism
In this episode of Banned Camp, Jennifer and Dan finish Chapter 1 of Brave New World, where dystopia smells like formaldehyde and sounds like conveyor belts full of bottled babies. From mass-produced…
Brave New World | Ch. 1.1: Twins, Test Tubes, and the Dystopia Next Door
In this episode of Banned Camp, Jennifer and Dan kick off Season 9 by opening the cold, clinical doors of Brave New World. Chapter 1.1 takes us into the Central London Hatchery, where humans are mass…
Banned Camp Season 9 Preview. Welcome to the future.
Season 9 starts Tuesday, August 5th... and we’re finally ready to tell you what book we picked.
It’s big. It’s banned. iIts disturbingly relevant.
Click play to hear the reveal, the why, and a little o…
1984 | Special Episode – Orwell’s Final Warning
Episode Summary:
In this special season finale, Jennifer and Dan unpack the viral clip known as Orwell’s Final Warning—a dramatic video that looks real but isn’t. Robot breaks down the truth behind t…
1984 | Appendix - The Last Joke Orwell Ever Told
In this episode, Jennifer and Dan tackle the appendix. No, not their appendices — Orwell’s. The “Principles of Newspeak” is often skipped, rarely understood, and strangely… hopeful?
After three failed…
1984 | Ch. 23.2 - You Don’t Even Notice You’ve Lost
Winston sits quietly in the Chestnut Tree Café, haunted by what he’s lost… and what he’s learned to live without. In the final chapter of Orwell’s 1984, Jennifer and Dan reflect on what it means to g…
Robot will explain
Today’s episode is a little different.
There’s no chapter of 1984, but robot has something to say.
We’ll be back next week with the finale.
Thank you for listening.
Thank you for staying.
1984 | Ch. 23.1 - Broken People, Broken World
In Chapter 23.1 of George Orwell’s 1984, Winston sits alone with his gin, Julia’s ghost, and the hollow comfort of surrender. Jennifer and Dan explore how totalitarian control doesn’t always end in v…
1984 | Ch. 22 - The Day Winston Chose Survival Over Love
In Chapter 22 of George Orwell’s 1984, Winston meets Room 101. This is the place where censorship stops being an idea and starts gnawing on your face. Jennifer and Dan break down how totalitarian reg…
1984 | Ch. 21 - To Die Hating Them Was Freedom
In this episode of Banned Camp, Jennifer and Dan tackle Chapter 21 of 1984 by George Orwell—a banned book that keeps feeling uncomfortably familiar.
Winston has been broken, rebuilt, and fed just enou…
1984 | Ch. 20.2 – Freedom Is Slavery, Ignorance Is Bliss, Humor Is Survival
In this episode of Banned Camp, Jennifer and Dan tackle Chapter 20 of 1984 by George Orwell—a banned book that never stops feeling relevant. As Winston faces the ultimate gaslighting, O’Brien insists…
1984 | Ch. 20 – Freedom Is Slavery (And Other Lies)
In this episode of Banned Camp, the comedy podcast where we read banned books and try to understand why they were censored, Jennifer and Dan dig into the first part of Chapter 20 of 1984 by George Or…