
Ep7: Why are we seeing increasing efforts to ban books?
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A wave of book restriction and removal from library and classroom shelves has swept across America in recent years. These efforts are growing at an alarming rate, and that should concern everyone who values free thought and democratic principles.
In this episode, we dig into the disturbing reality behind these numbers: while historical book challenges typically came from concerned parents, today approximately 70% of bans originate from organized political pressure groups with specific ideological agendas. Their targets? Books discussing racial justice, LGBTQ+ experiences, mental health challenges, and even historical atrocities. Titles like Maya Angelou's "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale," and Khaled Hosseini's "The Kite Runner" have been systematically removed from shelves, not just in schools but in public libraries and even military academies.
Franklin D. Roosevelt once said, "Books cannot be killed by fire. People die, but books never die. No man and no force can put thought in a concentration camp forever." Join us in taking action—support your local library, volunteer, start a banned book club, or simply speak out. The fight for literary freedom is, at its core, a fight for the health of our democracy itself.