You’ve probably heard the news out of Texas, Missouri, Michigan, Idaho and more— sudden and inexplicable protests against books and demands that they be removed from libraries. And you’ve also probably noticed that the books getting banned seem to have things in common with one another, like the prominence of LGBTQ+ characters, or themes that explore racial justice—or the lack thereof—in America. Could this seemingly “spontaneous” movement represent something more?

Hightower welcomes Emily Drabinski, incoming president of the American Library Association, and Nadine Farid Johnson, managing director of PEN America Washington and and Free Expression Programs, to discuss… and talk about actions you can take to protect your local library.

Links we discussed:

* Unite Against Book Bans: https://uniteagainstbookbans.org/

* American Library Association: https://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks

* PEN America’s Banned Books resources: https://pen.org/issue/book-bans/

* Boundary County, Idaho’s ban of books it didn’t own

* People of Llano County, Texas, supporting their library

* Queer Northshore in St Tammany Parish, LA

* More on running for your local library board from Emily

* The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish

* Freedom from Religion Foundation’s full list of sexual references in the Bible

* Author George M Johnson’s mother testifies before a local board on their behalf

We’re working on a full transcript of the show! We’ll update the show page when we have it ready.

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