Episodes

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...

The Catcher in the Rye Ch. 15.2 | Banned Books Comedy Podcast Holden finishes his conversation with the two nuns at the lunch counter, gives them ten dollars he can't really afford, discusses Romeo and Juliet with an English teacher in iron-rimmed glasses, accidentally blows smoke in their faces, and then watches them leave. It's one of the warmest scenes in the book, and it ends with one of Salinger's most devastating lines. Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter b...

Holden finally sleeps, checks out of the hotel (while avoiding the pimp who punched him), and calls the one girl he doesn't actually want to talk to instead of the one he does. Then he sits down at a lunch counter next to two nuns with cheap suitcases, and something quietly shifts. 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 asking the question everyone's been thinking: wh...

Holden Caulfield starts this chapter talking to his dead brother Allie in an empty hotel room at dawn, and it only gets heavier from there. Maurice the elevator pimp and Sunny come back for the money Holden insists he doesn't owe, and what follows is a confrontation that leaves Holden on the floor in his pajamas imagining a revenge movie that will never happen. 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 wi...

The Catcher in the Rye Ch. 13.2 | Banned Books Comedy Podcast The prostitute finally shows up, and Holden Caulfield does the most Holden Caulfield thing possible: he asks if she wants to talk. She does not. What follows is one of the most awkward, sad, and unexpectedly human scenes in the book, ending with a made-up surgery, a price dispute, and a green dress that quietly breaks your heart. Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapter—we don't read ahead, so yo...

The Catcher in the Rye Ch. 13.1 | Banned Books Comedy Podcast Holden Caulfield walks 41 blocks back to his hotel in the freezing cold calling himself a coward the entire way — all over a pair of gloves he never confronted anyone about. By the time he gets to the elevator, he's so depressed he can't think straight. That's when things get complicated. 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. Thi...

Holden Caulfield climbs into a late-night cab that smells like vomit and strikes up a conversation with his driver, Horwitz — who has very strong opinions about fish. Meanwhile, New York City feels lonesome and enormous, and Holden still won't go home. 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 asks cab driver Horwitz about the Central Park ducks — Horwitz doesn't ca...

The Catcher in the Rye Ch. 11 | Banned Books Comedy Podcast Holden can't sleep. He's sitting in a vomit-looking chair in the hotel lobby thinking about Jane Gallagher — the girl who lost eight golf balls that first afternoon and never made him feel like his hand was sweating. This chapter is one long, tender flashback to the summer they spent together, and the moment a tear landed on a checkerboard and changed everything. Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by ch...

The Catcher in the Rye Ch. 10 Part 2 | Banned Books Comedy Podcast Holden Caulfield dances with all three women from Seattle, buys them drinks he can't really afford, tricks one of them into thinking she just missed Gary Cooper, and feels terrible about it immediately. Then they leave to get up early for Radio City Music Hall — and somehow that's the thing that breaks him. Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapter — we don't read ahead, so you're discovering...

The Catcher in the Rye Ch. 10 Part 1 | Banned Books Comedy Podcast Holden Caulfield can't sleep, so he does what any reasonable teenager would do — puts on a clean shirt and heads down to the hotel nightclub alone in the middle of the night. But before he goes, he spends a few minutes thinking about his little sister Phoebe. It's the warmest, most unguarded moment in the book so far. Then he goes downstairs and tries to give all of that to three strangers from out of town who aren't really li...

The Catcher in the Rye Ch. 9 | Banned Books Comedy Podcast Holden Caulfield arrives in New York City in the middle of the night with cash in his pocket and absolutely no one to call. He stands in a phone booth for twenty minutes going through his entire list — and comes up empty every time. What follows is one of the loneliest chapters in the book, dressed up as comedy. Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapter — we don't read ahead, so you're discovering th...

The Catcher in the Rye Ch. 8 | Banned Books Comedy Podcast Holden Caulfield hates phonies. He's been cataloguing them for seven chapters. So why does he spend an entire train ride lying through his teeth to make a stranger feel good about her bully son? Chapter 8 is where Salinger quietly reveals that Holden is more complicated — and more kind — than anyone gives him credit for. Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapter — we don't read ahead, so you're ...

Holden can't sleep. He's lying in Ackley's stinky room, torturing himself thinking about Jane and Stradlater in that car. So he does the only logical thing—packs his bags, sells his typewriter for a fraction of what it's worth, and screams "Sleep tight, ya morons!" down the hallway before disappearing into the night. He's 16 and heading to a hotel in New York City alone. Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapter—we don't read ahead, so you're discovering the ...

The Catcher in the Rye Ch. 6 | Banned Books Comedy Podcast Stradlater comes back from his date with Jane and rejects Holden's composition about his dead brother's baseball mitt. What follows is a fight that leaves Holden bloody on the floor—but he still won't stop calling Stradlater a moron. Turns out this was never really about Jane. 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...

The Catcher in the Rye Ch. 5 | Banned Books Comedy Podcast Holden writes a homework assignment about the one thing that matters most to him—his dead brother Allie's baseball mitt, covered in poems written in green ink. We learn that when Allie died of leukemia at eleven, Holden broke every window in the garage with his bare hands, and his hand still doesn't work right. Dan and Jennifer discuss grief, terrible institutional food, and why Holden invites the most annoying guy he knows on a Saturda...