The Beautiful and Banned

Christine tells Jessica about Fahrenheit 451 the Musical...oh, wait, no, that's just what she invented on the spot. This is about the 1953 novel by Ray Bradbury, a staple of high school and college c…

Jessica interviews Charley Rejsek, the CEO of BookPeople, the largest independent bookstore in Texas (and Jessica's hometown bookstore in Austin). This incredible conversation sheds light on what is …

In Episode 3, Jessica tells Christine about Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo. This fast-paced book--which shows "what life might have been like for a queer Asian American girl who dream…

Christine is joined by special guest, actor Kelly AuCoin, who plays "Dollar" Bill Sterns on Billions and Pastor Tim on The Americans (among many other roles!). They discuss "Life of Brian," the 1979 …

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In Episode 1 of Season 2, Christine and Jessica discuss I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. This book has been deeply influential in Jessica's life since her 10th grade tea…

In this special bonus episode, Christine and Jessica recorded a conversation with NPR's Maureen Corrigan live at Wilkes University! Listen in to this incredible, wide-ranging conversation as Maureen-…

In Part 2 of the season finale, Christine and Jessica watch and discuss the second half of Birth of a Nation (screenplay by D.W. Griffith and Frank E. Woods). Part 2 is...well, bonkers doesn't cover …

In Part 1 of the season finale, Christine and Jessica watch and discuss the first half of Birth of a Nation (screenplay by D.W. Griffith and Frank E. Woods). The movie, which was the catalyst for the…

Jessica tells Christine about Fun Home by Alison Bechdel, an utterly beautiful graphic memoir about Bechdel's coming of age as a queer artist and the death of her father. The layered narrative is fun…

Christine tells Jessica about A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen. The groundbreaking play premiered in 1879, and yet it's shockingly relevant today. Christine goes into the history of the play, the fasci…

Jessica tells Christine about The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown, and the wild number of rabbit holes she went down in researching this fast-paced, often bonkers thriller: she's never seen so many papyru…

Christine tells Jessica about Brokeback Mountain, the 2005 film based on a short story by Annie Proulx, with a screenplay written by Diana Ossana and Larry McMurtry. Often reduced to being called the…

In this teaser, you can hear the first 18 minutes of the rich conversation we had with Patty McCormick, author of SOLD, about a banned book that had a big impact on her. Tobias Wolff's THIS BOY'S LIF…

Jessica tells Christine about Sold by Patricia McCormick, a 2006 National Book Award finalist about a young girl who was sex trafficked from Nepal to India. The book, which is told through a series o…

Christine chats with special guest, Lucie Tiberghien, about the works of Molière, who was banned 350+ years ago in France, what he did that got the church in France so angry, and why his work still s…

Jessica tells Christine about The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman, the remarkable graphic memoir written by the son of Holocaust survivors about his family's experiences, and the shocking reason why …

Christine tells Jessica about A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry and they geek out about Hansberry's genius and the way she manages to write about so many core issues of her time in one single…

Jessica tells Christine about The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie and why it's been one of the top ten most banned books of the last decade, as well as the controversy a…

Christine tells Jessica about The Exorcist film (with a screenplay by William Blatty, based on the book by Blatty), including why it was banned, its effects on the audience at the time, and the real …

Jessica and Christine discuss the images and controversial parts of Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe in this second episode of a two-part series; they also lay out the fears and worldviews that are leadin…