Brought to you by Jessica Goudeau and Christine Renee Miller, The Beautiful and Banned Podcast is an exploration of banned books, plays and films. The podcast hosts weekly conversations and deep dives on the political climate and art that leads to bans – and why it happens.
“We wanted to start a podcast about banned books, plays, and films because we really don’t understand what’s going on in the world and in our nation right now. Bans are up exponentially around the country. It’s affecting authors and publishers and libraries and school boards and classrooms and booksellers. There are politicians involved from the local to the national level. This has become a ban-happy time. And we wanted to understand what in the world is going on.
For me, this is also personal: After the Last Border was challenged in some libraries around the country. And the chances that We Were Illegal—about my white family’s migration to Texas—will NOT be banned when it comes out in June are, well, zero. This is an issue I’m interested in as a scholar but care about deeply as a writer.
Plus I really like talking to my smart, fun friend.
So we decided to launch this podcast together. It’s not two people who have all the answers, but who are asking big questions together. Because we both come from families and backgrounds that are politically complicated, we want to have discussions that are nuanced and thoughtful. This is not one-sided; we care about critical thinking and compassion. We want to understand what’s actually happening, what’s at stake, what the views are on every side, and why this issue matters.”
You can access the podcast here.
