Episode Details

The handmaid walks through a neighborhood that looks like an architecture magazine came to life, except there are no children and no people. The stores have pictures instead of words. A movie theater is now a dress shop. And Aunt Lydia delivers six words that might be the crux of the entire book: "Freedom to and freedom from. Don't underrate it." Also: Dan reached into a urinal for a $10 bill and has no regrets.

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 observation that the neighborhood is "a facade with a dead heart"
• The moment Jennifer reads "freedom to and freedom from" and her brain breaks
• Robot's fact-check on whether fentanyl-laced money is real or an urban myth
• Dan's urinal story from TJ's Pub & Grill in Marinette, Wisconsin
• Pregnant Janine showing up at the store and the other Handmaids lose their minds
• Dan's PPP theory: Moms for Liberty would secretly be down with this lifestyle

Why was The Handmaid's Tale banned? The Handmaid's Tale has been challenged or banned in American schools and libraries every single year since its publication in 1985. It was the most challenged book in the United States in 2023. It has been targeted for profanity, sexually explicit content, and content deemed "offensive to Christians." But the deeper reason is that Margaret Atwood showed what happens when a government uses religion, tradition, and "protecting families" as justification for stripping women of their rights, their names, and their autonomy. That's the part that actually scares book banners, because it looks a lot like Tuesday.

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).

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