Episode Details

🎉 SEASON 11 ANNOUNCED: Banned Camp will be reading The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, starting June 9th. The scary book people have spoken.

Holden has nowhere to go. He sleeps at Grand Central, reads a magazine that convinces him he has cancer, walks down Fifth Avenue at Christmas, and starts begging his dead brother Allie not to let him disappear. Then he builds the most detailed escape fantasy you've ever heard — complete with a cabin, a deaf-mute wife, and children hidden in the woods.

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:

• Jennifer's theory about why Antolini married an older wealthy woman — and what it might mean about what happened on that couch
• Dan's observation that Holden's first instinct is to protect the man who may have violated him
• The moment Holden starts talking to Allie at every crosswalk — and thanking him on the other side
• Holden's ridiculously detailed escape fantasy vs. Dan and Jennifer's 10-year-old plan to become lumberjacks
• Jennifer's bathroom pass observation about the space between being told what to do and having to decide for yourself

Why was The Catcher in the Rye banned? The curriculum sanitizers will complain about the language. They always do. They'll miss the part where every adult institution in a teenager's life collapsed — and the kid kept walking. A book that shows children the system can fail completely, and you survive it anyway.

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 liked Banned Camp, check out these podcasts we think you'll enjoy:

• Why Is This Happening? The AI End Game — Chris Hayes speaks with leading experts about artificial intelligence, what it is, what it isn't, and what the end game looks like. A special miniseries from MS Now.
• Here's the Scoop: Supreme Court Edition — NBC News senior legal correspondent Laura Jarrett talks to legal experts about the biggest Supreme Court cases still left to be decided this term. New episodes every Saturday.

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