Explore every episode of the podcast Borrowed & Returned

When Silent Spring came out in 1962, it was an instant best-seller and led to the establishment of the EPA, as well as the ban of harmful pesticides such as DDT. But Rachel Carson’s seminal work also shifted our way of thinking about nature. For the first time, the environment was not just something out there that could be tracked and measured, but something that lived inside all of us. 

You can read a transcript of this episode on our website, and visit learn more about the topics brought up in this episode.

• Check out our booklist with books recommended for this episode.
• This episode was a collaboration with the podcast Thresholds. You can listen to Jordan Kisener’s full interview with Ayana Elizabeth Johnson here. And check out Johnson’s new book, What If We Get It Right? 
• Read Bob Musil’s book, Rachel Carson and Her Sisters, and learn more about the Rachel Carson Council. 
• Read Rachel Frazin’s book, Poisoning the Well, which she co-wrote with Sharon Udasin.
• Watch Rachel Carson’s full speech to the National Women’s Democratic Club in 1962.

Molly Crabapple is an artist and writer who documents the extremes, from nightclubs to war zones. She’s also the author of several books, including Drawing Blood and Brothers of the Gun, a memoir of the Syrian War co-written with Marwan Hisham. We sat down with Crabapple to talk about the difference between words and images, making art in the world, and the power of cartoonists to disrupt fascism.

You can read a transcript of this episode here. And check out the following links:

• Check out our booklist with books recommended for this episode.
• Read Molly Crabapple’s Drawing Blood, and you can pre-order her new book about the Jewish Labor Bund.
• See Molly’s drawings and articles about the Dallas Six and the NYC taxi driver strike. You can also read Molly’s interview with Art Spiegelman.
• Art Spiegelman’s comic collaboration with Joe Sacco was published in The New York Review of Books earlier this year. You can check out Sacco’s Palestine and his more recent War on Gaza from the library.

Art Spiegelman is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the graphic novel Maus, the story of his parents’ experience during the Holocaust. We got to sit down with Spiegelman at Brooklyn Public Library’s recording studio earlier this month to talk about Maus almost forty years after it first came out, about censorship, about the war in Gaza, and about what it means to stand up for others.

You can read a transcript of this episode on our website, and check out these further resources:

• Check out our booklist with books recommended by Art Spiegelman, and more.
• Art Spiegelman’s comic collaboration with Joe Sacco was published in The New York Review of Books earlier this year. You can check out Sacco’s Palestine and his more recent War on Gaza from the library.
• Watch Art Spiegelman discuss MetaMaus with Dan Nadel at Brooklyn Public Library.

Art Spiegelman’s Maus almost single-handedly elevated comics from throw-away inserts in newspapers to a serious literary art worthy of winning the highest award in book publishing. But it’s not an accident that this book is coming back to us now. Maus was swept once again into the public eye three years ago, when the conservative movement to target marginalized stories took aim at the beloved graphic novel. In this episode, we examine how comic book censorship in the 1950s led to the creation of Maus, and eventually shifted the way we tell stories about resistance, memory, and authoritarianism.

You can read a transcript of this episode on our website. Further resources:

• Check out our booklist with books recommended by Art Spiegelman, and more.
• Read Amy Kurzweil’s Flying Couch and Molly Crabapple’s Drawing Blood. You can read more about both of them on their websites.
• Art Spiegelman’s comic collaboration with Joe Sacco was published in The New York Review of Books earlier this year. You can check out Sacco’s Palestine and his more recent War on Gaza from the library.
• Learn more about the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and the history of comic book censorship.
• Listen to our interviews with Maia Kobabe, author of Gender Queer, and Mike Curato, author of Flamer from our previous series, Borrowed and Banned.
• Watch Art Spiegelman discuss MetaMaus with Dan Nadel at Brooklyn Public Library.

This episode comes to us from our friends at Book Riot! In this segment, you'll hear Book Riot’s Erica Ezeifedi speak with Rodney Freeman, a librarian and producer of the forthcoming documentary, Are You a Librarian? The Untold Story of Black Librarians. This is part of their Reading and Resistance series, which looks at the relationship between reading and the pursuit of freedom in America. 

Subscribe to Book Riot: The Podcast wherever you listen!

Matt de la Peña is the Newbery Medal-winning author of seven Young Adult novels and five picture books. We talked with him about writing small stories and what it means to write a book that is, as he calls it, “Diversity 2.0.”

You can read a transcript of this episode on our website.

• Check out our booklist with books by Matt de la Peña and more!
• Learn more about de la Peña on his website, and see more illustrations by Christian Robinson.
• Protect the freedom to read by getting involved with Books Unbanned.

Meg Medina is an award-winning author of books for kids and young adults, and she was the 2023-2024 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. We talked to her about what it meant to be the first Latinx author in that role, about the need for more diverse kids books, and the importance of reading in families.

You can read a transcript of this episode on our website.

• Check out our booklist with books by Meg Medina and more!
• Learn more about the We Need Diverse Books movement. 
• Read about the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature at the Library of Congress.

The Snowy Day wasn’t the first picture book to feature a Black child as its beloved protagonist, but it might be the most visible. When it came out in 1962, it challenged the publishing industry to champion books that depict kids of color. Today, we find ourselves in a moment not so different from the one Ezra Jack Keats was in when he sat down to create The Snowy Day. We are, once again, fighting for the right to let kids read the books they love, and we’re still reminding each other that the characters kids see in those books really matters. 

Read a transcript of this episode on our website and check out these great links:

• Check out our booklist with titles related to The Snowy Day
• Learn more about the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation, the EJK Award, and the yearly bookmaking competition for kids in NYC public schools.
• Check out these digitized copies of The Brownies’ Book, books by Black creators
• Read about diversity in children’s book publishing, from “The All-White World of Children’s Books” (1965) to more recent history, like this 2018 graphic that compiles data from the Cooperative Children’s Book Center.
• Learn more about the most frequently banned children’s books in schools (PEN America) and, as always, check out our Books Unbanned initiative for ways you can help.
• Attend an in-person event with Art Spiegelman at BPL’s Central Library on September 10th. 

When Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States came out in 1980, it literally rocked the boat. Instead of starting where most histories of the Americas start — on the deck of Columbus’s ship as it approached land — Howard Zinn flipped the script, focusing instead on what the people standing on the shore would have seen. In this episode, we look at the ripple effects of Zinn’s radical take on history. 

You can read a transcript of this episode on our web page.

• Check out our booklist with titles related to A People’s History of the United States.
• You can find Nick Witham’s book Popularizing the Past at the University of Chicago Press.
• Learn more about the ReVisioning History series from Beacon Press.
• Read more about Howard Zinn, and visit the Zinn Education Project for tons of resources for teachers and students.
• History books are one of the subject areas targeted for censorship right now. Learn what you can do to help by visiting our Books Unbanned homepage, or listening to Borrowed and Banned, our previous series about the state of book banning in America.

Reginald Dwayne Betts is a poet, a lawyer, and the founder and CEO of Freedom Reads, an organization with the goal of bringing a library to every cell block in America. We talked with him about what he read – and wrote – while he was incarcerated, and what it taught him about what it means to be free, to be loved, and to be part of a community.

Read a transcript of this episode on our website, and find books by Betts in our library catalog.

There are so many reasons to read – and reread – The Autobiography of Malcolm X. But for this episode, we’re revisiting the book with the perspectives of readers who are, or were, incarcerated. Malcolm X’s story isn’t just radical for its narrative of change and self-improvement; it also encourages readers to think more critically about the prison system itself. 

You can read a transcript of this episode on our website.

• Check out our booklist with titles related to The Autobiography of Malcolm X.
• Learn more about the work that BPL’s Justice Initiatives does for patrons who are incarcerated. You can donate recently-published paperback books to the jail and prison collections at Williamsburgh Library or Central Library only during drop-off times. Please contact librarian Claire Mooney (cmooney [at] bklynlibrary [dot] org) for guidance on what to donate, and when.
• Learn about Reginald Dwayne Betts’s Freedom Libraries
• Watch Inside Story, a video series produced by BPL’s Donald Washington and others who are formerly-incarcerated.
• Read about censorship in prison libraries and other radical ways to read with Book Riot’s Reading and Resistance series.

N.K. Jemisin is a New York Times-bestselling science fiction and fantasy writer. She’s a Brooklynite, the recipient of a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, and the first author to win three Best Novel Hugos in a row. We talked to her about Octavia Butler’s influence on her writing, and how she processes the present moment in her own fiction.

You can read a transcript of this episode on our website, and check out our booklist with titles from Octavia Butler, N.K. Jemisin, and more! 

In these unfathomable moments, when the world seems to be falling apart—we often turn to stories for guidance. For the folks in Southern California earlier this year, that story was Parable of the Sower. Readers are returning to the book today because it shows us how speculation – and Afrofuturism in particular – can help us move through the world with our eyes open. 

Read a transcript of this episode on our website.

• Check out our booklist with titles from Octavia Butler, N.K. Jemisin, and more! 
• Learn more about how you can help Octavia’s Bookshelf in Altadena by supporting their Patreon. And, you can check out the Altadena Community Land Trust.
• If you’re in California, check out Ode to ‘Dena: Black Artistic Legacies of Altadena,’ an exhibit at the California African American Museum that features Nikki High and others.
• Listen to Octavia’s Parables, a podcast from adrienne maree brown and Toshi Reagan that follows the Parable books, or Jessica Bethel’s League of Extraordinary Readers podcast. You can also check out her virtual book club, Literature Noir, or Toshi Reagan’s opera based on the Parable books.

Borrowed and Returned is a new podcast series that examines what our reading public borrowed in the past, and what we’re all reading now. In conversations with library workers, authors and readers across the country, we’ll return to the books that changed us, and changed America, too. 

First episode drops July 8, with new episodes coming out weekly. Spend your summer re-reading with us! 

A new exhibit at BPL's Center for Brooklyn History explores the history and legacy of slavery here in Brooklyn. The team at CBH gathered documents and accounts from people who were touched by slavery in Brooklyn, and traced the descendants of both the enslaved and enslavers. 

"Trace/s" is up at the Center for Brooklyn History (128 Pierrepont Street) through August 30, 2025. This audio story is a companion to the exhibit, and it was produced by audio journalist and historian Ula Kulpa. 

Trace/s is supported as part of the Dutch Culture USA FUTURE 400 program by the Consulate General of the Netherlands in New York, and by the Alvin and Fanny B. Thalheimer Foundation in memory of Bill Coleman. You can find more information about the exhibition, and listen to Part 2 of Finding Traces here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/exhibitions/traces

As 2024 comes to a close, we wanted to share with you an episode that we produced all the way back in 2020. That year, we went to Coney Island to record the Coney Island Polar Bear Club, the group of swimmers that congregate on Coney Island every Sunday in winter to swim in the frigid ocean as a way to renew themselves. It’s a fun one, and we hope you enjoy!

Further resources:

• Look at historic photos of the Polar Bear Club and Coney Island.
• Take the plunge with the Polar Bear Club this New Year's Day.
• Help us shape our next podcast series! Fill out this survey and let us know what books you think changed America. 
• Check out the books we loved in 2024.

Graphic novels, Haitian-American book bingo, and The Power Broker. These are just a few of the book clubs happening at Brooklyn Public Library! This episode, we take a tour around the borough to listen in on our patrons' reading habits and ask why we still read together.

Read a transcript of this episode here.

Further resources:

• Check out our book clubs happening across the borough!
• Want to read The Power Broker? You can join the club at Macon Library or follow along with the podcast 99% Invisible.
• Read books by Haitian authors for our Haitian Heritage Book Bingo, or comics in Chinese. 
• Join a quiet reading party or an anime club for teens.

Check out what our staff are reading in “The Cover Is Blue” book club.

We're pulling out all the stops for the first annual Freedom to Read Day of Action on Saturday, October 19th! Hear from libraries in Los Angeles, San Diego, Hoboken, NJ and Austin, TX about what they're doing to promote the freedom to read. And, if you're in Brooklyn, meet us on the steps of Central Library this Saturday for a book rally!

You can read the transcript here. 

Further resources:

• Join Brooklyn Public Library on October 19th for our Freedom to Read Day of Action! Or check out events across the country.
• Visit San Diego Public Library and LA County Library online to learn about their Freedom to Read Day of Action events. And you can brush up on the California Freedom to Read Act. You can read the New York Times story about SDPL’s LGBTQ+ book displays
• Learn more about Hoboken Library and the book sanctuary movement. 
• Austin Public Library has events planned for October 19th, and a new podcast called Save the Books!

For Banned Books Week this year, we’re returning to our award-winning series, Borrowed and Banned. Because the fight isn’t over. In 2023, the American Library Association documented a 65% increase in the number of book titles challenged across the country.

Listen to the first episode of the series about what happened in one Oklahoma town when their freedom to read was challenged. And how one teacher’s response caught the nation’s attention.

Read the transcript here, and check out the following resources:

• Like what you hear? Listen to the rest of Borrowed and Banned, our award-winning podcast, series by visiting this page.
• We’ve got a week of programming around Banned Books Week this year. Check out our calendar and attend an event in Brooklyn!
• On October 19, 2024, libraries across the country are coming together for a Freedom to Read Day of Action. Learn more about how you can join!

Bedford-Stuyvesant is perhaps one of Brooklyn’s most iconic neighborhoods. Its tree-lined streets and grand brownstones have been here for over 150 years. This episode, a re-broadcast from 2019, tells the story of Bed-Stuy through the lives of three women who set down roots here in different ways: activist Hattie Carthan, writer Paule Marshall, and novelist Naomi Jackson. 

Read a transcript of this episode here.

Further resources:

• Check out our list of books curated for this episode.
• Learn more about Hattie Carthan on our Brooklynology blog, or check out the Magnolia Tree Earth Center archive at the Center for Brooklyn History.
• Visit Magnolia Tree Earth Center. You can also attend their new art exhibition opening on September 7th.
• Read Paule Marshall's Brown Girl, Brownstones, or her 1983 essay, "From the Poets in the Kitchen."

Splitting her time between Athens, Georgia and Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, Nicole A. Taylor is a food writer and author of several cookbooks. She sat down with BPL’s Bed-Stuy Tea podcast to discuss finding and preserving her Southern voice, the pleasures of restaurant research, and her favorite local spots to eat and drink.

Read a transcript of this episode here.

Further resources:

• Listen to more episodes of Bed-Stuy Tea on our website, or subscribe to BKLYN Community Audio on Spotify or Apple Podcasts so you never miss an episode.
• Check out the cookbooks and books mentioned on this episode.

It's summer and school's out! No matter what age you are, you can spend your summer at the library with book lists and activities galore. We go over the facts and stats of BPL's popular Culture Pass program, which has helped thousands of New Yorkers visit museums and performance spaces in the city ... for free!

Read a transcript of the episode here.

More resources:

• Reserve free passes to museums and performance sites across NYC with Culture Pass (and your library card)!
• Is there a kid or teen in your life? They can spend their summer at the library with fun events, activities and book lists.
• Visit Brooklyn Botanic Garden or New-York Historical Society and 100 other cultural institutions and performing arts spaces this summer with Culture Pass.
• Summer is a great time to get out and visit our libraries! If you haven't started the challenge yet, read about our new prizes for Browse the Branches, the initiative inspiring New Yorkers to visit all 62 BPL branches by the end of the year. 
• Check out these "Explore Your City" summer reading lists for adults, teens and kids of all ages.

Brooklyn Public Library has been hosting Drag Story Hours since 2016. It's one of our most popular, colorful, and well-attended events for kids. In this episode, we explore why Drag Story Hour is important, and how it’s had to change in recent years in response to an increasingly tense political climate.

More resources:

• June is Pride Month! Celebrate at the Library with crafting, story times, film screenings and more!
• Learn more about Drag Story Hour and explore their resources for parents and caregivers.
• Have a kid? Attend a story time at a library branches across Brooklyn and check out out our recommendations for new LGBTQ+ books to read with your kid.

Outside of Brooklyn, Arthur Miller's name has largely faded from memory. On this episode, we tell the story of the Black community leader who was killed by NYPD chokehold in 1978, the movement pushed forward as a result of his death, and the ways that Brooklyn Public Library’s Center for Brooklyn History helps to keep the story alive.

Further resources:

• Listen to the "Voices of Crown Heights Oral History Collection" or visit the Center for Brooklyn History in person. 
• Check out our list of books created specifically for this episode.
• Watch a recording of the June 2023 public program "Say His Name, Arthur Miller: A Death By Police Chokehold 45 Years Ago."
• Listen to the 2018 episode about Arthur Miller on Flatbush + Main,the podcast from the former Brooklyn Historical Society.
• Visit CBH's online exhibit, "Brooklyn Resists," to learn more about Brooklynites responding to systemic racial injustice over the years, and see photos of the 2020 protests in Brooklyn, contributed by community members.

Listen in on one of BPL's most popular art programs: a theater workshop where, once a week, budding thespians come together to read plays, talk about character motivations, and dig into some surprisingly emotional and political topics.

• Read a transcript of this episode on our website.
• Join fellow thespians at Central Library's theater workshop. Or, find a creative writing workshop at branches across BPL.
• Read along with the theater workshop by checking out the plays on our booklist.

The Library needs your help to protect our funding or risk losing over 16 million dollars. Send a letter to your elected officials. 

We revisit an episode from January 2021 in honor of National Library Workers Day, and ask: what do librarians do all day? When they're not planning programs or working the reference desk, these librarians are also obscure trivia players, birders and ... sword fighters! 

Read a transcript here.

• Have a minute? Vote for Borrowed and Banned in the Webby's! We were nominated for an award in the "Best Writing for Podcasts" category. 
• Celebrate National Library Workers Day by thanking your favorite library worker or attending one of BPL's National Library Week events.
• Listen to "On the Frontlines," an episode from our Borrowed and Banned series about library workers fighting for the freedom to read.
• Check out these lists of hobby books for adults and for kids.
• Read our blog posts about birding with kids and historical birding in Prospect Park.
• Not for the faint of heart: Learned League.

Teens and older adults are perhaps the two age groups you might think have the least in common. But a new program at BPL seeks to bring the two generations together ... by having them debate.

Read a transcript of this episode on our web page.

Resources mentioned on this episode:

• Learn more about services for older adults at BPL and programs for teens!
• Listen to "Bridging the Gap," a podcast series on our BKLYN Community Audio feed and check out these books about debate.
• Take this very short survey to let us know what you think about Bridging the Gap: Intergenerational Debate at BPL.

Brooklyn has 62 neighborhood libraries, each with a distinct architecture, culture, and soul. To kick off the new season and to celebrate our audio stories coming home to Brooklyn, we'll take a tour of the borough with the help of our neighborhood libraries and some of our stalwart patrons who visited all 62 of them ... in a matter of days!

• Read a transcript of this episode.
• Take our Browse the Branches challenge! Not in New York City? You can read your way through the branches with this book list.
• Help us keep our libraries open by fighting for our city funding. Write to your city leaders! Or, send a letter on behalf of Queens Public Library and New York Public Library.
• Did you miss our dedicated series about book bans? Never fear. You can binge every episode of Borrowed and Banned now. Start with our first episode.

Student activists in York, Pennsylvania organized a silent protest when hundreds of books were banned from their classrooms, paving the way for lasting change in their community. In this final episode of the series, we tackle the challenge head-on: from encouraging open dialogue about the books on our shelves to the ongoing work of protecting the freedom to read. 

Read the transcript here.

Our call to action for this episode:

How will you use the stories you’ve heard over the course of this series to protect the freedom to read? Send a voice message to podcasts [at] bklynlibrary [dot] org and tell us what you’re seeing in your community, or what you want to see. We might play your voice on an upcoming bonus episode, so be sure to introduce yourself with your name, your age, and your location. 

More resources:

• Watch Edha and Christina's TEDx Talk and follow their advocacy organization, EmpowerED. 
• Read about the new "Fight Book Bans Act" introduced in Congress. 
• Learn about PEN America's work to catalog book bans, including a recent report that identifies a culture of fear and intimidation and cumulative book ban data from 2021 to 2023.
• Writer George M. Johnson wrote about BPL's Chief Librarian Nick Higgins as a 2023 TIME100 Next Person of the Year.
• Check out every book mentioned on our Borrowed and Banned series! (Psst. You can check them out with a Books Unbanned library card.) And, listen to our 2022 episode about the launch of Books Unbanned and the history of book challenges at BPL.

Library workers often risk their livelihoods when they speak out against censorship, spurring community members to pick up the fight for intellectual freedom. We tell the story of how one Louisiana parish came together to defend their library amidst book challenges, tip lines, and even sign burning.

Read the transcript here.

Our call to action for this episode:

• Find the people in your community who care about public libraries and get together with them.

More resources:

• EveryLibrary Institute is an organization that seeks to build voter support for libraries. Learn more about their support of St. Tammany Library Alliance here. 
• Book Riot and EveryLibrary teamed up to survey parents about their perceptions of public libraries and book bans. Read the full results of the survey here.
• Read Emily Drabinski's essay about St. Tammany Library and a report in the Louisiana Illuminator about the chaotic regularity of book challenges in the parish. 
• Most people oppose book bans, according to surveys from the American Library Association and CBS.
• Check out this list of challenged and banned children's books.

Maia Kobabe's debut memoir, Gender Queer, was the most frequently banned book in 2021 and 2022. We talked with em about what it's like to be on the recieving end of so many challenges, and the importance of public libraries.

Read the transcript here.

More resources:

• Check out Gender Queer.
• Find Maia's resources for defending Gender Queer, and eir recent comic about book bans and libraries.
• Read The Washington Post's article on book bans.

Despite being one of the most frequently banned authors, Toni Morrison’s work has inspired countless others to tell stories outside the mainstream. We take a closer look at Morisson's writing, her legacy, and her impact on the anti-censorship movement.

Read the transcript here.

Our call to action for this episode:

• Learn how you can support and defend public libraries at Libraries for the People.

More resources:

• Read Toni Morrison's books. If you're a young person, you can apply for a Books Unbanned card to check out digital library books for free.
• Listen to Toni Morrison's full 2016 talk that was part of the BPL Presents series Brooklyn by the Book, co-curated by Community Books, BPL Presents & Congregation Beth Elohim.
• Watch Toni Morrison's speech when she accepted PEN America's PEN/Borders Literary Service Award in 2008.
• Learn more about the National Coalition Against Censorship's Student Advocates for Speech program.

George M. Johnson talks about their debut Young Adult memoir All Boys Aren't Blue, the support of their family, their love of Toni Morrison, and the importance of standing against book bans. 

Read the transcript here.

Resources:

• Check out All Boys Aren't Blue by George M. Johnson. 
• Read about Johnson's family supporting their book when it was challenged in Glen Ridge, New Jersey.
• Access other banned books with our free Books Unbanned library card for teens.

Our call to action for this episode:

• Talk about the books that are important to you, even if they aren’t challenged.
• Stay informed about what books are being challenged in your area by subscribing to Book Riot's Literary Activism Newsletter. Each week, journalist Kelly Jensen writes about the latest in book banning trends, stories, and reports from across the country. 

More resources:

• Read the new "classics," selected by teens. 
• If you're a young person, you can join the Intellectual Freedom Teen Meetup, BPL's monthly virtual meeting to talk about the freedom to read.
• Check out Dr. Emily Knox's Book Banning in 21st Century America and her research on challenges to diverse books.
• Listen to our full interview with Mike Curato.

Read the new "classics," according to teens.

Mike Curato talks about his award-winning graphic novel Flamer, his writing practice, and how it feels to have his story vaulted into national headlines as parents, politicians, and school boards campaign to remove his book from school and library shelves.

Read the transcript here.

Resources:

• Check out Flamer from BPL, or other books by Mike Curato.
• See what books were most frequently challenged in 2022, according to the America Library Association.
• This conversation touches on suicide. If you or someone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts or is in crisis, you can talk to someone at the suicide and crisis lifeline. Just call 988. It’s free, and it’s available 24 hours a day.  

Over the past few years, school board races have become more heated and more political — and books have become the center of that political storm. We look at what happened in Keller, Texas when an ultra-conservative group took over the school board.

You can read a transcript of this episode here.

Our call to action for this episode:

• Find out when the next school board meeting is happening in your community, and show up.
• Unite Against Book Bans has an Action Toolkit with advice for how to talk about book bans, and how to contact your local officials about the freedom to read.

More resources:

• PEN America has been tracking states with "educational gag orders" in place or pending. Read their anyalisis here.
• Read ProPublica's investigation into chaos at school boards, and Nicole Carr's reporting on one school board in Cherokee County, Georgia.
• Submit an anonymous testimonial to help us document how teens, parents, educators and community members are fighting for their freedom to read.
• Check out some of the books mentioned on this episode.

It’s an off-week for Borrowed and Banned, but we do have something special to share. We’re doing a collaboration with PRX’s Radiotopia, and they sent along an episode from one of their shows that is really relevant to our series.   

This Day in Esoteric Political History is a podcast that tells the story of one moment from US history that took place on a particular day -- and discuss what it might have to teach us about our current moment. Back in 2020, the hosts did an episode about the banning of James Joyce’s Ulysses <

The birth of obscenity laws in the 1870s provides a cautionary tale for the present moment, when far-right conservatives incorrectly label books “sexually explicit” as a way to provoke outrage in communities nationwide. This episode, we delve into the parallels that history can reveal and hear from students in Texas fighting for their freedom to read. 

You can read a transcript of this episode here.

Our calls to action for this episode:

• Be an ally and an advocate for the teens in your life. Start a conversation about what matters to them, and how you can help.
• Support getting more LGBTQ+ affirming books into classrooms: Rainbow Library is a program created by GLSEN that allows school staff to request a set of 10 free LGBTQ+ books for their own classrooms. 

More resources

• Check out some of the books mentioned in this episode. If you live anywhere in the US and are between the ages of 13 and 21, you can check out those books (and many more!) with a Books Unbanned library card. 
• Learn more about Cameron Samuels, Da'Taeveyon Daniels, and their organization SEAT: Students Engaged in Advancing Texas.
• Read the PEN America reports about book bans in schools for the 2021-2022 school year, and 2022-2023.
• Delve into the history of censorship with Amy Werbel's book Lust on Trial and read her article about the parallels to today, co-authored with PEN America's Free Expression and Education Director Jonathan Friedman

When a high school teacher in Norman, Oklahoma shared a QR code with her students that would grant them access to BPL’s digital collection, she took a stand against a restrictive state law. That act of resistance made her first day of school ... also her last. 

Our call to action for this episode: Get a library card! Wherever you live, sign up for a library card in person or online. If you're between the ages of 13 and 21, you can apply to our free Books Unbanned e-library card. Plus, Seattle Public Library and Boston Public Library now also have Books Unbanned cards that you can apply to up to age 26. And, if you live anywhere in California, you can apply to LA County Library's Books Unbanned program if you are between the ages of 13 and 18.

If you'd like, you can read a transcript of this episode. Borrowed and Banned is a production of Brooklyn Public Library and receives support from the Metropolitan New York Library Council’s Equity in Action Grant and Goat Rodeo.

More resources:

• October 1 - 7 is Banned Books Week! There are lots of events you can attend in Brooklyn and across the country. On October 4th, join our social media campaign by posting a picture of yourself reading in public (a banned book, or any book) and tell everyone that you protect the #FreedomtoRead. 
• Read new reports from PEN America about book bans in schools, and the American Library Association's stats on bans in libraries across the country.
• Read some of the most frequently-challenged books (many of which will be featured on this podcast series)!
• Start your own movement by wearing BPL's Books Unbanned QR code on your T-shirt or hoodie (and  support the library while doing it!)
• Sign up for our newsletter to get every episode delivered to your inbox. 

Last year, over 2,500 unique titles were challenged in libraries across the country. That’s the highest number in over 20 years. On Borrowed and Banned, we tell the story of America’s ideological war with its bookshelves by talking with the people most impacted: the students on the frontlines, the librarians and teachers whose livelihoods are endangered when they speak up, and the writers whose books have become political battleground. 

Read the transcript and find resources: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/introducing-borrowed-and

Over 14,000 patrons have signed up for their first library card since Jay-Z's exhibit came to Central Library in mid-July. We talk to Brooklynites traveling around the borough to collect all 13 Jay-Z library cards, and ask what The Book of HOV means to them. 

Learn more about the exhibit and our signature library cards: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/jay-z-library 

Kesha Powell and Amen Emile have been working at BPL for over 20 years in various roles, from public safety to circulation manager. Thanks to BPL's Pathways to Leadership program—a scholarship and mentorship initiative designed to diversify the field of librarianship—they will soon be fully-certified librarians. 

Read the transcript and find further resources here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/pathways-leadership 

If you ask Hannah Jean what would be her greatest wish, she will say running Brooklyn Public Library. Last month, she got to do just that. 

Read the transcript and check out our book list: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/meet-our-almost-six-year 

Meet the Luddite Club, a group of library-loving, flip-phone-toting teenagers in Brooklyn who come together every week out of a shared sense that social media and smart phones just aren't working for them. 

Asylum seekers continue to arrive in New York City. We look at how one faith-based organization is responding to the continuing crisis in the hope that these personal narratives offer a window into the experience of migrants in Brooklyn today.

For a transcript of this episode in English and links to resources, visit: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/seeking-asylum 

Este episodio es sobre los solicitantes de asilo en la ciudad de Nueva York. Estamos compartiendo estas narrativas personales con la esperanza de que escucharlas devuelva la humanidad a esta crisis. 

Para leer el episodio en inglés y más recursos: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/buscando-asilo 

Last year, New York City began to see an increase in the number of migrants seeking asylum. The library is a small part of the city-wide response to help those seeking refuge. This episode, we'll talk about library and city efforts with Manuel Castro, the Commissioner at the Mayor's Office for Immigrant Affairs.

Links to resources and the epiosde transcript are here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/place-refuge 

Did you know there are some public libraries that loan out snowshoes? And cement mixers? And Santa suits? This episode, we try to calculate what your public library is worth, and ask how you can give back to support public libraries.

With tablets, Legos, and coding, these fourteen teams from library branches across Brooklyn met at Central Library to compete in the final championship of Brooklyn Robotics League — resulting in what is surely one of our loudest stories ever. 

Read a transcript and check out our book list here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/go-robots-go