Episode Details

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 you're discovering the story with us.

Things To Listen For:

• Robot's stunned reaction when Jennifer remembers something from season one without flashcards
• The Katherine Heigl charity dog rescue tangent that ends with Dan's greatest verbal stumble of all time (you'll know it when you hear it)
• Holden finally calling Jane after sixteen chapters of excuses — and what happens when her mom picks up
• The moment Jennifer and Dan read the line the entire novel is named after and has no idea what it means
• Robot refusing to explain it "You'll get there."
• Dan's insight that Holden performs realness as his own kind of phoniness — which might be the smartest thing anyone's said about this book all season

Why was The Catcher in the Rye banned?
Sixteen chapters in and there's still nothing ban-worthy in the text. What there is: a teenager who notices that charity can be performance, that actors are phonier than the people they play, and that the only authentic moment in Hamlet was a girl horsing around with a dagger while nobody was watching. The real threat of this book is a kid who can tell the difference between what's real and what's for show — and who keeps choosing real.

If this is your first episode, you're fine starting here. Our fact-checking Robot catches you up fast, then we read the next chapter (spoilers).

Banworthy to Bingeworthy:
If you're looking for more great podcasts, check these out:

• Dateline Presents: Trace of Suspicion — A young Marine and the woman who didn't care about convention made a life together. Then one night the Marine died, and the death investigation took a wild, unexpected, and utterly bizarre turn.
• MS NOW Presents: Clock It — Simone Sanders Townsend positions herself at the intersection of culture and politics, breaking down what's happening in the news so you can start to clock it too. New episodes drop Thursdays.

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