Episodes

Japanese tourists walk through Gilead with cameras and smiles, and our protagonist can't stop staring at a woman's painted toenails. She used to dress like that. She used to be that. And somewhere between then and now, her mind changed... and she doesn't even know it happened. Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapter... we don't read ahead, so you're discovering the story with us. Things To Listen For: Dan discovers that "All Flesh" is a meat market, not a...

The handmaid walks through a neighborhood that looks like an architecture magazine came to life, except there are no children and no people. The stores have pictures instead of words. A movie theater is now a dress shop. And Aunt Lydia delivers six words that might be the crux of the entire book: "Freedom to and freedom from. Don't underrate it." Also: Dan reached into a urinal for a $10 bill and has no regrets. Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapter — we ...

Chapter 4 takes the Handmaid outside the house for the first time — past a winking guardian washing a car, through checkpoints guarded by boys with guns, and alongside a walking partner who may or may not be a spy. By the end of the chapter, she's found the one thing Gilead forgot to take from her. It's small. It costs nothing. And it works. Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapter — we don't read ahead, so you're discovering the story with us. Things To Li...

Chapter three of The Handmaid's Tale introduces Serena Joy — the Commander's wife — and she is not happy to see the handmaid. She has a garden, a knitting basket, and a diamond ring. She also has thin lips, a clenched-fist chin, and flat hostile eyes. From a distance, it looks like peace. Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapter — we don't read ahead, so you're discovering the story with us. Things To Listen For: Dan compares the Commander's wives to Fred ...

Margaret Atwood opens with a gymnasium that smells like bubblegum and decades of girls who passed through it — and within three pages, you understand that everything familiar has been stripped away and replaced with something much darker. Chapters 1 and 2 introduce us to Gilead: a world of color-coded clothing, cattle prod-wielding aunts, suicide-proofed rooms, and a woman who refuses to call anything hers. Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapter — we don't...

🎉 Season 11 begins Tuesday, June 9th — The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood.Three high-profile crimes. One banned book. Mark David Chapman shot John Lennon with a copy of The Catcher in the Rye in his pocket. John Hinckley Jr. attempted to assassinate Ronald Reagan with a copy in his hotel room. Robert John Bardo murdered actress Rebecca Schaeffer with one in his backpack — and threw it on a rooftop while running from police. This is the episode where Dan and Jennifer try to figure out what actually happened, and whether J.D. Salinger's novel deserves any of the blame. Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapter — and occasionally go down rabbit holes that make us question everything we thought we knew about literature, murder, and Yoko Ono. Things To Listen For: The inscription Mark David Chapman wrote on his copy of the book the morning of the murder — and what he did with it at sentencing Why one of the three cases may have had nothing to do with…

🎉 Season 11 begins Tuesday, June 9th — The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. The final chapter is half a page long. It takes about two minutes to read. The discussion takes considerably longer. Beowulf joins Dan and Jennifer for the first time during the actual reading, and what they discover in those few sentences changes how they see the entire book. Also: a flashback to a wigwam, an organ recital, and the origin story of a podcast that almost was. Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we ...

🎉 Season 11 begins Tuesday, June 9th — we're reading The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. Robot has been promoted to official composer. Phoebe throws the hunting hat in Holden's face. They walk to the zoo on opposite sides of the street. They watch the sea lions, the bears, and go through a tunnel that smells like somebody took a leak. Then they get to the carousel, and something happens on a bench in the rain that might be the most important moment in the entire book. Banned Camp is a come...

Holden goes back to Phoebe's school and sees something on the wall that drives him crazy. Then he sees it again. And again. He visits the museum, plays tour guide for two kids who want to see mummies, passes out in the bathroom, and then Phoebe shows up wearing his hunting hat and dragging a suitcase. She packed her bags. She's coming with him. And what happens next might be the most important moment in the entire book. Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapt...

🎉 SEASON 11 ANNOUNCED: Banned Camp will be reading The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, starting June 9th. The scary book people have spoken. Holden has nowhere to go. He sleeps at Grand Central, reads a magazine that convinces him he has cancer, walks down Fifth Avenue at Christmas, and starts begging his dead brother Allie not to let him disappear. Then he builds the most detailed escape fantasy you've ever heard — complete with a cabin, a deaf-mute wife, and children hidden in the woods. ...

Old Mr. Antolini finishes his speech about the size of your mind, makes up the couch, and calls Holden "handsome." Then something happens that readers and scholars have been arguing about since 1951. Jennifer's reaction is immediate. Dan's is complicated. Robot refuses to say a word about it. Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapter — we don't read ahead, so you're discovering the story with us. Things To Listen For: Jennifer's question before anything bad...

We're handing the show over to you. The scary book people have nominated the books they want us to read for season 11, and we've narrowed it down to five finalists. All banned. All books someone doesn't want you to read. Now it's time to vote. Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapter — we don't read ahead, so you're discovering the story with us. The Five Finalists: Animal Farm by George Orwell Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor The Handma...

Holden shows up at Mr. Antolini's swanky apartment in the middle of the night to find his old teacher in a bathrobe with a highball, his wife heading to bed, and a living room that looks like Don Draper decorated it. What starts as cocktails and small talk turns into Holden's passionate defense of a kid named Richard Kinsella who got an F for being too interesting, and ends with Antolini warning him he's heading for "a terrible, terrible fall." Then Holden accidentally says the most honest thing...

Holden dances with Phoebe in the dark with the radio turned low — maybe the only moment in the entire book where he's truly happy. Then the parents come home and everything shifts to scripted pleasantries. Then Phoebe gives Holden her Christmas money, he cries, he gives her his red hunting hat, and he walks out into December heading for Mr. Antolini's apartment. Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapter — we don't read ahead, so you're discovering the story w...

Phoebe asks Holden to name one thing he likes about anything in the world. He can't do it. His mind drifts to a boy named James Castle who was brutalized at Elkton Hills, refused to take back what he said, and jumped out a window — wearing Holden's turtleneck sweater. Then Holden finally answers, and what he says changes everything you thought this book was about. Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapter — we don't read ahead, so you're discovering the story...

Holden finally goes home... but he has to break in like a burglar to do it. Fake name, fake bad leg, holding his breath past his parents' door. When he finds Phoebe asleep in DB's oversized bed wearing blue pajamas with red elephants on the collar, he feels good for the first time in twenty chapters. Then she wakes up, figures out he got expelled in about ten seconds, and puts a pillow over her head. Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapter... we don't read ...

Holden closes out one of the longest nights of his life alone at a bar, drunk-dials Sally Hayes at 1 AM to ask if he can trim her Christmas tree, and ends up wandering Central Park in the freezing cold looking for the ducks. What finally gets him off that bench and walking home might surprise you. Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapter — we don't read ahead, so you're discovering the story with us. Things To Listen For: Holden's 1 AM drunk-dial to Sally ...

Martha Hickson is a school librarian featured prominently in the PBS documentary "The Librarians." She's also a Banned Camp fan. On National Library Workers' Day, we talk with Martha about why book banners consistently target librarians, the coordinated "Lawn Boy" setup that made her one of the first librarians in the country attacked by this organized movement, the personal toll of standing up, and most importantly—what you can do right now to fight book bans and support librarians in your comm...

Holden heads to the Wicker Bar to meet Carl Luce, an older former student advisor from his Wooten days who knows a suspicious amount about everyone's private life. What follows is one long, uncomfortable bar conversation where Holden can't stop asking the wrong questions — and Luce can't wait to leave. Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapter — we don't read ahead, so you're discovering the story with us. Things To Listen For: Holden describes the Wicker B...

Holden kills time before a bar date by going to Radio City, where he watches the Rockettes, debates whether a roller-skating comedian is a little person, and sits through a movie so bad he recaps the entire plot just to prove how terrible it is. But this chapter takes a hard turn when Dan asks a simple question — was Salinger in the army? — and the answer changes everything they thought they knew about this book. Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapter — we...

Holden and Sally hit the ice at Rockefeller Center, where Sally rents a "little blue butttwitcher of a dress" and Holden discovers he's the worst skater on the rink. What starts as an awkward date turns into something much heavier when Holden starts lighting matches in a bar and asks Sally the question that's been eating him alive: "Did you ever get fed up?" Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapter — we don't read ahead, so you're discovering the story with ...

Holden arrives early to meet Sally Hayes, watches girls in the lobby, and realizes he wants to marry her the second she walks in — even though he doesn't even like her. What follows is a date full of cab rides, bad theater, and a guy named George who takes up way too much space in a checkered vest. By the end, Holden hates everyone, including himself, and Sally has a marvelous idea. Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapter — we don't read ahead, so you're di...

The Catcher in the Rye Ch. 16.2 | Banned Books Comedy Podcast Holden goes to Central Park looking for Phoebe, helps a little girl tighten her skate, walks all the way to the Museum of Natural History remembering every detail from his childhood field trips, and then does something nobody expected — he won't go inside. This is the chapter where Salinger finally shows you what the whole book is about. Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapter—we don't read ahea...

The Catcher in the Rye Ch. 16.1 Holden walks through New York on a Sunday morning still haunted by the nuns, buys a record for his little sister that makes him happier than anything in sixteen chapters, finally calls the girl he's been afraid to call, and hears a six-year-old kid singing a song on a curb that changes everything. This is the chapter where the title of the book finally shows up. Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapter—we don't read ahead, so...