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
- 249
- Years Active
- 2023 - 2025
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…
1984 | Ch. 19.3 - You Do Not Exist (But Big Brother Does)
In Chapter 19.3 of 1984, things go from bad to flesh-zombie worse. O’Brien continues Winston’s psychological beatdown with Orwell’s signature brand of state-sanctioned gaslighting. Jennifer has a the…
1984 | Ch. 19.2 - The Price of Truth Is Pain
Winston says four. The Party says five. The pain dial says... crank it to 90.
This chapter is Orwell at his most brutal, and Dan and Jennifer are not okay.
Gaslighting gets an upgrade, truth gets memor…
1984 | Ch. 19.1 – Confess Everything, Even the Stuff You Didn’t Do
Winston’s torture officially begins, and it’s brutal. Dan and Jennifer read through Orwell’s stomach-churning description of physical beatings, psychological torment, and Orwell’s scarily precise und…
1984 | Ch. 18.2 – Loudly, Abundantly, and Very Strongly
In this episode of Banned Camp, Jennifer and Dan finish Chapter 18 of 1984, and it’s a brutal one. Winston meets a series of broken people—including the tragically loyal Parsons—and we get a chilling…
1984 | Ch. 18.1 - Welcome to the Place with No Darkness
Winston’s in the Ministry of Love now—where the lights never turn off, the telescreens scream at your pockets, and your cellmate might be a footnote from Rudyard Kipling. Jennifer tracks the collapse…
1984 | Ch. 17.7 - No One Escapes the Iron Voice
Winston and Julia thought they had a secret — a room, a routine, a bit of freedom. But the telescreen was listening the whole time. In this brutal end to Chapter 17, Orwell rips away the last illusio…
1984 | Ch. 17.6 - The Party Makes You Forget You Forgot
In this episode of Banned Camp, Jennifer and Dan read the next section of Goldstein’s manifesto—and it gets bleak. Orwell explains how the Party rewrites reality so often that people forget they ever…
1984 | Ch. 17.5 - The Dumb Masses vs. the Baby Elephants
Jennifer and Dan return to Orwell’s nightmare to decode the Party’s obsession with eternal control. This chapter dives into the rigid social hierarchy, the myth of Big Brother, and the dark genius of…
They Fired the Librarian. We Called a Children’s Book Legend.
Dr. Carla Hayden—America’s first Black woman Librarian of Congress—was just fired by Trump’s goons.
So we called Jon Scieszka.
Yes, that Jon Scieszka—author of The Stinky Cheese Man and the first natio…
1984 | Ch. 17.4: - Big Brother Is... AI?
In this episode, Jennifer and Dan continue rteading Goldstein’s Manifesto and wrestle with the mind-melting logic of 1984’s most infamous slogan: "War is peace." Jennifer proposes Big Brother might b…
1984 | Ch. 17.3 - Obedience by Design
In this episode of Banned Camp, Jennifer and Dan dive into Chapter 17.3 of Orwell’s 1984, where Goldstein’s manifesto outlines how perpetual war preserves power, not peace. From floating fortresses t…
1984 | Ch. 17.2 - The War That Never Ends (On Purpose)
In this episode of Banned Camp, Jennifer and Dan read more of Emmanuel Goldstein’s forbidden manifesto. Enjoy (?) Orwell’s vision of endless war, oligarchical control, and labor as a weapon. From la…
1984 | Ch. 17 - When Reality Changed Mid-Sentence
On this episode of Banned Camp, Jennifer and Dan wade into the madness of Chapter 17 of 1984—where Hate Week hits its sweaty, propaganda-drenched climax. Winston works 90 hours in five days, people r…
1984 | Ch. 16.2: Resistance in the Dark
n this episode of Banned Camp, Jennifer and Dan dive into Chapter 16.2 of 1984 by George Orwell. O’Brien lays out the grim reality of resistance, reminding Winston and Julia that their fight is desti…
1984 | Ch. 16.1 - The Brotherhood or the Bait?
In this episode of Banned Camp, Jennifer and Dan dive into Chapter 16 of George Orwell's 1984. O’Brien welcomes Winston and Julia into his inner sanctum, leading to tense revelations about the Brothe…
1984 | Ch. 15 - She Had a Face Like a Monkey… and Then She Was Gone
Winston remembers the moment he stole chocolate from his starving little sister—and the moment she disappeared. Jennifer calls it one of the darkest scenes in the book. Dan agrees, then spirals. Juli…
1984 | Ch. 13.2–14 - Woke Winston and the Meat Modems
Winston realizes the past has been erased—and the future might be, too. Jennifer wonders if anything even matters anymore. Dan points out that Project 2025 might not take 30 years... more like 30 mon…
1984 | Ch. 13 - How to Disappear Your Best Friend (and Everyone Else)
In this episode of Banned Camp, Jennifer and Dan read Chapter 13 of George Orwell’s 1984.
Winston watches friends vanish, propaganda ignite, and a world of fear tighten its grip. Jennifer and Dan unp…