The Beautiful and Banned

Is George Orwell psychic? In this emotional season finale, Christine and Jessica discuss the rise of totalitarianism and Orwell's eerily accurate predictions. In prepping for the episode, they saw fi…

In this short interlude, Jessica and Christine are together at the Creative Writing MFA program Wilkes University, where they met and they both teach. They tell you why there will be a one-week delay…

Christine and Jessica discuss Red, White, and Royal Blue, one of the most banned books in recent history: a royal romp with political overtones and a heart of gold. Jessica's life goal of getting Chr…

For the first time on this podcast, we're reading a book that is not banned: Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin is controversial and challenging, but not challenged--at least not yet. But it's su…

In this short interlude, Jessica talks about why there's not an episode this week, what next week's episode will hold as we discuss our first book that has NOT been banned, and what's happening at th…

To talk about ACOTAR, Jessica is joined this week by special guest Alyssa Morris, whose popular Romancing the Phone newsletter demystifies into BookTok trends and digs into the publishing industry. A…

Read, Review, and Recommend! These are the suggestions by today's guest, children's book author, Rob Sanders, about how to support writers of challenged and banned books. Join us for this delightful …

Is this the funniest episode about The Satanic Verses ever recorded? We like to think so! Join us as Christine and Jessica finish their discussion on this controversial book. Jessica loved it, Christ…

Christine and Jessica discuss one of the most controversial books in the world since its publication in 1988. Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses caused an immediate uproar; after the Ayatollah Khome…

Whew, Christine has THOUGHTS in today's episode as she and Jessica discuss All Boys Aren't Blue by George M. Johnson, one of the most frequently banned books in the country. Christine makes the point…

In the first episode of season 3, Christine and Jessica ask the question that is on everyone's lips: WTF, USA? They look at the state of the country and book banning in these deeply unprecedented tim…

In this season finale, Christine and Jessica reflect on the first two seasons of "The Beautiful and Banned" in a year in which book banning has exploded in our country--more than 10,000 books were ba…

Christine and Jessica discuss Kindred by Octavia E. Butler. This seminal work explores the idea that we are always connected to our national and familial past--in this case, literally. As they discus…

Carolyn Foote, co-founder of Texas FReadom Fighters joins Christine and Jessica in a riveting conversation about the recent history of book banning in the US, and what's about to come. This discussio…

Jessica and Christine discuss THE HANDMAID'S TALE, a shockingly relevant book for our current political moment. As Margaret Atwood says in her 2017 introduction to the 1985 books, times of political …

GO VOTE! On this Election Day, Christine and Jessica talk about The 1619 Project by focusing on two essays in particular: "Capitalism" by Matthew Desmond and "Politics" by Jamelle Bouie. These essays…

In a continuation of last week's episode, Christine and Jessica discuss THE 1619 PROJECT by Nikole Hannah-Jones, the New York Times Magazine, and others, especially "Democracy" (by Hannah-Jones), "Th…

In this mini-episode, Christine and Jessica have a live conversation at the Brooklyn Public Library's first ever Freedom to Read Rally at the Grand Army Plaza! On October 19, the BPL organized a nati…

ON SATURDAY, OCT. 19, JOIN CHRISTINE AND JESSICA AT THE BROOKLYN PUBLIC LIBRARY! Stay tuned for the end of the episode for all the details about Saturday's "Freedom to Read Day of Action Rally," and …

THIS EPISODE, y'all. Christine and Jessica have an absolutely fascinating conversation with Courtney Gore, a school board member from Granbury ISD. Courtney ran on a campaign to change what was happe…