In this spring semester episode, Deborah Caldwell-Stone, Director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom and Executive Director of the Freedom to Read Foundation, discusses the drastic increase in book banning and challenges in recent years. Alexia Hudson-Ward, podcast host and editor in chief of Toward Inclusive Excellence, chats with Deborah about why these current challenges demand such attention. Indeed, the concerted and highly-organized efforts have garnered not only high-profile media coverage, but also, in some troubling cases, praise and legislative support from politicians. Alexia and Deborah dive into the topics and themes under attack—particularly books by LGBTQ+ and Black authors—and the weaponization of critical race theory by censorship groups.

In addition, Deborah walks through the importance of institutions implementing robust and transparent policies for dealing with and addressing demands for book bans and challenges. She also provides actionable steps that advocates can take in their communities to resist book bans, including the work of organizations like PEN America, the National Coalition Against Censorship, the ACLU, Red Wine and Blue, and the Freedom to Read Foundation. Despite the dismaying trends, Deborah closes with encouraging and hopeful anecdotes on the reinstating of books after initial opposition, and the bravery of today’s youth for standing against censorship and for their freedom to read.

Episode theme music: Black is the Night by Jeris (c) copyright 2014 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial (3.0) license. Ft: DJ Vadim (djvadim), NiGiD