0:03

You're listening to a Podglomerate

0:05

original. Please

0:10

note that today's episode includes

0:12

sexual references. We

0:21

had groups that were circulating information on

0:23

social media about going to a library

0:26

and not just our library specifically and

0:28

checking out all LGBTQ plus books. That's

0:31

Jason Pinshower, who works at the

0:34

Public Library in Barrington, Illinois. I

0:36

am the executive director of the Barrington Area

0:38

Library. I've been here about five years, but

0:41

I've been working in libraries for nearly 20

0:43

years now. I've

0:45

done almost everything that one can do in

0:47

a library and truly libraries have been a

0:50

space for me to explore and engage and

0:52

communicate with people. But over

0:54

the past year, that communication has

0:56

become hostile. We had folks

0:58

calling, asking questions. I took a call

1:00

from a customer who wanted to know

1:03

what our policy was on pornography and

1:05

if we had pornography. Obviously

1:08

public libraries don't carry

1:10

material deemed pornographic. In

1:12

the last episode, we covered the

1:15

long history of obscenity laws and

1:17

how they've been used to outlaw

1:19

materials a typically conservative community may

1:21

object to. Today, we

1:24

are seeing a push to label more materials

1:26

as porn. My response to

1:28

that was we have certainly

1:30

have items in our collection that

1:32

have graphic content, but they have

1:35

literary merit and they've

1:37

been vetted by all the

1:39

journals that we follow and things.

1:42

In order for this to happen at

1:44

a public library, there'd likely be a

1:47

review board, maybe even court cases. But

1:50

rather than engaging with those

1:52

boring and bureaucratic steps, citizens

1:54

at Jason's library took matters

1:56

into their own hands. They

1:58

had an instance where somebody did check. out a bunch

2:00

of LGBTQ plus books and say to a staff

2:02

member, you know, this stuff shouldn't be on your

2:05

shelf. This stuff is disgusting. We're not returning it.

2:07

And then they left. Books

2:09

are mirrors in people's experiences. And when

2:11

you take away the mirror, you basically

2:14

silence them, right? And so young people

2:16

don't have the ability to see themselves

2:18

in something. And if they can see

2:20

themselves in a piece of literature, that

2:22

could work wonders for them into adulthood,

2:24

into the future for their entire lives.

2:34

Hey, everyone, I hope you're enjoying

2:36

this new season of missing pages. We've

2:39

been hard at work to bring this to you all and

2:41

wanted to let you know that there's a way you can

2:43

help support the show. You

2:45

can get this season and all previous

2:48

missing pages episodes ad free by heading

2:50

to the missing pages show page

2:52

on Apple podcasts right now. It's

2:54

just $2.99 a month. And it goes

2:57

towards helping us create more episodes of

2:59

the show and you can get a

3:01

free trial for your first week. Don't

3:04

worry. The show will be available to

3:06

everyone for free always. But if you'd

3:08

like a version without distractions, head

3:10

over to the missing pages show

3:12

page on Apple podcasts and begin

3:14

your free trial. Thanks

3:16

again for considering and hope you

3:18

enjoy this season of missing

3:21

pages. Welcome

3:27

back to missing pages. I'm your

3:29

host, writer and literary critic, Beth

3:31

Ann Patrick. This is the podcast

3:33

where we examine some of the most

3:36

surprising industry shaking controversies in

3:38

the literary world and try to make

3:40

sense of them. Today

3:42

is our second episode in our

3:44

two parter about book bands. Last

3:47

week, we put our current culture war

3:49

into a larger context and learned that

3:51

book band fights like the one we

3:53

are living through now have happened before.

3:56

At times, they've been worse. They've

3:58

become bloody. But that doesn't

4:01

mean what's happening all over America

4:03

today isn't serious. Librarians,

4:05

teachers, authors, parents,

4:07

and especially students,

4:10

are suffering. What is

4:12

it like for the people directly impacted?

4:14

How are they fighting back? That's

4:17

this episode of Missing Pages.

4:24

Chapter one, gender fear.

4:27

My name is Andrea. I have

4:29

two kids that live in Lake Barrington

4:31

with us. We moved here in 2012. When

4:35

you read the headlines, it can seem

4:37

like there's nothing but vitriol and bad

4:39

faith actors in this conversation. But

4:42

what's appropriate for children and at

4:44

what age is complicated? We

4:47

want to start with a story that

4:49

can represent the sort of reasonable discussions

4:52

parents sometimes have with their school board

4:54

regarding what's on the book list. In

4:57

2022, a middle school

4:59

teacher in Barrington, Illinois sent an

5:01

email out to parents offering

5:03

several recommended summer reading lists

5:05

for children. One of

5:08

those lists was the Lincoln Award

5:10

List, which is compiled every year

5:12

using student votes. When

5:14

the middle school teacher included the list

5:17

in an email, they specified that some

5:19

of the books in the Lincoln Award

5:21

List contain mature content that is not

5:23

appropriate for younger grades. One

5:26

of those books with mature content that has

5:29

gotten a lot of attention in Barrington and

5:32

nationally is genderqueer. So

5:35

my daughter now in fifth grade just

5:37

went through the first of, I believe

5:39

it's two of their sex

5:42

ed courses. They go into

5:44

reproduction and how a

5:47

baby's made and why this is happening to your body and

5:50

the changes you might see. So

5:52

they get a brief intro to

5:54

it, but to

5:56

go from that just got a sex. is

6:00

such a huge leap. I

6:02

mean, my kids still believe in Santa. They're

6:05

still children. Genderqueer

6:07

is a graphic novel memoir written

6:09

by Maya Cobabe. It details the coming

6:11

of age experience of

6:14

a non-binary teenager grappling

6:16

with sexuality while undergoing the

6:18

changes that come with puberty. Not

6:20

worried about them realizing how a family is made

6:23

or where babies come from. Fetish

6:25

stuff can come later. In

6:29

genderqueer, vibrators, harnesses, and

6:31

dildos are referenced throughout. Items

6:34

that could lead to conversations Andrea doesn't

6:36

think her kids are ready for.

6:39

I feel that children, because they don't know

6:41

what to do with it, now they think

6:43

that's their first exposure, and now

6:45

they feel, is this normal? And

6:48

because it's coming from a place of

6:50

a school that almost gives the, you

6:52

know, this is right, and this is the way

6:55

it's supposed to be, when

6:57

the images are that graphic, and

6:59

you take it into incest, I

7:01

have to draw the line. It's just, maybe

7:04

it's just me. Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but they're

7:07

my kids. There's a line

7:09

in the novel where the main character

7:11

fantasizes about a romantic connection between two

7:13

brothers in the show

7:15

Supernatural, and one image

7:17

depicts oral sex between two college students.

7:21

Suffice to say, genderqueer sparked a

7:23

fierce debate among parents at the

7:25

school. Many parents of sixth

7:28

graders found it inappropriate. My

7:30

opposition to these books has nothing to

7:33

do with their LGBTQ content, but

7:35

of their pornographic nature, they

7:38

discuss in detail how two men

7:40

can pleasure each other, how

7:42

to give a proper hand job, and

7:45

a comic book cartoon demonstrating

7:47

masturbation and oral sex between

7:49

men. And I would

7:51

be just as upset if these

7:53

books with these pornographic images

7:56

had heterosexual content as well. similarly,

8:00

my kids have

8:02

met my gay friends. They've met

8:04

their children. It's not

8:06

about that. It's about it.

8:10

And I taught them compassion as

8:12

much as I could. And that love is

8:14

love. That doesn't mean they need to know

8:17

what they do in the bedroom. So if

8:19

you have kids who just learned where

8:21

babies come from, who still believe in

8:23

Santa, I can understand the objection. I can

8:26

understand parents saying this book shouldn't

8:29

be on the list for their middle

8:31

schooler. But what age

8:33

is the right age? 11. No,

8:36

12. Probably not 13 or 14. 15.

8:38

Maybe based off the description

8:44

above, you don't think genderqueer is

8:46

appropriate for anyone under 18. I mean, pictures

8:50

of oral sex, sex toys. Why does

8:52

a high schooler need a book like

8:54

that in their library? The

8:56

point here is that there is no right answer.

8:59

And parents are all going to have

9:01

their own unique take on how this

9:03

idea should be applied to their children.

9:07

Well, here's what the author,

9:09

Maya Kobabe, says. I

9:11

don't think my book is for everyone. But I think

9:13

for the people who need it, it

9:16

could be a lifeline. The

9:18

book describes Kobabe's particularly

9:20

difficult journey of discovery. I

9:23

have come to have many identities throughout my life.

9:25

I identify as queer and bi and

9:27

nonbinary and us being on the ace

9:29

and aro spectrum. And this

9:31

book is partly about trying

9:34

to figure out where

9:36

does sort of my gender identity intersect

9:38

with bisexuality. And it's a tricky

9:40

question. The

9:42

oral sex scene, it's about

9:44

disappointment. The text in that

9:47

scene says, but I can't

9:49

feel anything. This was much hotter when

9:51

it was only in my imagination. So

9:54

imagine if you were a kid who

9:57

wasn't relating to your gender or sexuality

9:59

like nearly every other kid around

10:01

you. Imagine what reading

10:03

Cobabe's story would be like. There'd

10:06

be evidence that you're not alone,

10:08

that life will get less confusing

10:10

and lonely someday. But

10:12

I totally get where Andrea and other

10:15

parents were coming from. For Andrea,

10:17

it's not about shielding her kids from

10:19

topics, but rather about how

10:21

it's presented to them. Parts

10:24

of history are ugly and parts of history are

10:26

mean. Are we going

10:28

to show kids the

10:30

people getting decapitated by terrorists? Or

10:33

do we tell them about it? And there's a

10:35

reason the news doesn't even show the stuff to

10:37

adults watching it. It's

10:40

a bit much. Can we find it if

10:42

we want to? Yeah. But

10:44

there's reasons that there are filters. Cobabe

10:48

never suggested the book should be

10:50

on a reading list for middle schoolers. He

10:53

recommended the book for high school end

10:55

up. But I also understand

10:57

if some parents of a middle schooler

10:59

who was struggling with their identity wanted

11:02

their kid to have as many

11:04

lifelines as possible. So

11:06

of course, there are cases where

11:08

it's complicated, where there's reasonable people

11:10

on all sides and a compromise can

11:13

be found. For instance, stock

11:15

genderqueer only in the high school

11:18

library. And if a parent thinks

11:20

it's a good book for their middle schooler, let

11:22

them get it from the library or buy it,

11:25

ideally at a local store. But

11:28

of course, most efforts to ban

11:30

books aren't looking for compromises. We're

11:33

not going to teach our kids to

11:35

say that's okay and confuse them. They're

11:37

already confused in life. It's just super

11:39

simple. It's like two plus two. Man

11:42

and woman produces kids. We

11:45

don't need to teach my kid how

11:47

to hold his penis or

11:49

it's okay with another man

11:51

or two women. Everybody's laughing

11:53

because it's disgusting. After

11:56

the break, we talk with a parent

11:58

fighting both tooth and nail from and

12:00

she views as draconian. So

12:03

the Bible and the diary of Anne Frank were pulled from

12:05

shelves the day before school started. If

12:10

you're in the mood for a more literary podcast, you

12:12

should check out Other People with

12:14

Brad Listy. It's a weekly

12:16

lit show featuring in-depth interviews with

12:18

today's leading writers. The

12:21

show launched back in 2011, and

12:23

there are now more than 900

12:25

episodes and counting. Remarkable

12:27

conversations with some of our most

12:29

beloved and influential authors, including

12:32

Lori Moore, Ernan Diaz, Lauren

12:35

Graff, Dave Eggers, Karl-Ova

12:38

Knowsgaard, Samantha Irby,

12:41

Eon Lee, Roxanne Gay,

12:44

Louise Erdrich, Sheila Hetty,

12:46

and Moore. The Paris

12:48

Review calls Other People, an

12:51

excellent literary podcast, and

12:53

Buzzfeed calls it, the perfect

12:56

way to get the stories behind your stories.

12:59

Other People with Brad Listy is available

13:02

wherever you get your podcasts. Don't

13:04

forget to subscribe, an essential listening

13:07

experience for readers, writers, and people

13:09

who love books. Hi

13:13

there, it's Beth Ann. Whether you're a

13:16

loyal or new listener of missing pages,

13:18

I have a feeling that you probably

13:20

love digging into the history of your

13:23

favorite words, understanding complex grammar rules, or

13:25

learning about the craft of writing. If

13:27

that sounds like you, then you should

13:29

check out the podcast Grammar Girl. As

13:31

a five-time recipient of Best Education

13:34

Podcast at the Podcast Awards, Grammar

13:36

Girl is your pocket guide to

13:38

understanding grammar. For over 15 years,

13:41

Host and Podcasting Hall of

13:43

Fame inductee, Mignon Fogarty, has

13:45

been helping listeners remember tricky

13:48

grammar rules, like less

13:50

versus fewer, and

13:52

joy in weird language history,

13:54

like the surprising histories behind

13:57

the common words amok and

13:59

bimbo. My favorite part?

14:01

Her episodes are all short and sweet,

14:03

so you can fit them into your busy

14:06

schedule. So go ahead,

14:08

listen to Grammar Girl wherever you

14:10

get your podcasts, and tell

14:12

them I say you. Chapter

14:16

2. Keyword. Corruption.

14:20

My name is Laini Haas, and I

14:22

live in Fort Worth, Texas, and I'm

14:24

a mom to four public school children

14:26

here in Texas. Laini's family

14:29

moved from Buffalo a couple of

14:31

years ago, and she and her

14:33

husband specifically chose the area because of

14:35

the schools. I have children

14:37

at every grade level. We have been

14:39

so happy with the teachers who put

14:41

their heart and souls into teaching and

14:43

providing, you know, knowledge to our

14:45

children and preparing them to go out into

14:47

the world. Are they perfect? No, but they're

14:49

pretty darn close, right? And

14:52

then we slowly watched public

14:55

education and books become

14:58

the new political taking point. It decided

15:00

to become this boogeyman right of some

15:03

sort, where all of a sudden it

15:05

was getting people really, really riled up.

15:08

Laini first had book bands come on

15:10

her radar in the Virginia governor's race.

15:13

It seemed to her like it was

15:15

an issue that helped Republican Glenn Youngkin

15:18

win a 2021 governor's race. Then

15:20

it came closer to home. We got

15:22

an email from the school district that

15:25

told us that the district

15:27

was going to start pulling access

15:30

for our children for a bunch of

15:32

online library apps and a

15:34

bunch of other apps that

15:36

they had been using in classrooms with access

15:38

to books and stories and videos and movies,

15:41

because they were concerned about the content

15:43

in them. And I was

15:45

like, Oh, okay, well, that like actually seems

15:47

legitimate. But then I had an English teacher

15:49

friend of mine reach out to me and

15:51

say, Hey, Laini, it's really concerning that they're

15:54

pulling access to things like something called Newzella,

15:56

Sora. They're a bunch of different apps. And

15:59

she said, I'm really concerned. And I said, okay, well, I

16:01

am, I am too. Lady was the

16:03

type of parent the teachers turned to. As

16:06

a teacher, she wasn't comfortable pushing back because

16:08

she didn't want it to hurt her career,

16:10

right? Like teachers are already learning that if

16:13

they push back, they're getting targeted, they're getting

16:15

in trouble. So she called

16:17

the associate superintendent to figure out why

16:19

they were pulling these apps. And

16:22

she said, well, you know, some of these

16:24

apps that our students are using, we realized

16:26

don't have age range limits, right? So some of

16:29

our kids are getting access to kindergarten through high

16:31

school. And we want to make sure that first

16:33

and second graders don't have access to maybe some

16:35

of them. And I said, oh, oh, well, that

16:37

makes sense. That makes perfect sense to me. I

16:40

agree with that. You know, I don't need my

16:42

my kindergarten at the time to have access to

16:44

maybe like a sex ed class at a high

16:46

school. Or I have that I said, well, that I feel great

16:48

about that. Thank you so much. We'll stay in touch. And

16:51

then it just started to snowball from there.

16:54

In the fall of 2021, Laney State

16:57

Rep Matt Krause released a list of

16:59

around 850 books that quote might

17:02

make students feel discomfort, guilt, anguish

17:04

or any other form of psychological

17:06

distress because of their race or

17:08

sex. You might

17:10

be thinking nearly 1000 books.

17:12

How does someone even make

17:15

that list? Well, Deborah Caldwell,

17:17

director of the American Library

17:19

Association Office for Intellectual Freedom,

17:21

thinks they just searched keywords.

17:24

It's not like he was a voracious

17:26

reader and personally found these

17:28

books inappropriate after a thorough reading.

17:31

Anyway, regardless of how it was

17:33

made, the list has spread far

17:35

and wide. But Laney's town

17:38

was special. And he sent it

17:40

to all of these school districts all over Texas. And

17:42

he said, I just want to know if these books

17:44

are in your schools. A lot of people don't realize

17:46

it's actually the epicenter is North Texas. What

17:49

stuff is included in these books?

17:52

Anti-American sentiment books that were making kids

17:54

feel bad about being white or bad

17:56

about being American and then sexually explicit

17:58

content. Before we knew it,

18:01

we had people showing up at our school

18:03

board meetings with these books in hand about

18:05

books they found at our children's school libraries.

18:09

One book in particular was shouted

18:11

about. It all started actually with

18:13

genderqueer. And we know why they chose that

18:15

book, because that book is when you look

18:17

at images from that book out of context,

18:19

they can't be very shocking. And I will

18:22

admit that I don't believe any elementary schooler

18:24

should have access to a book like that,

18:26

right? This isn't a children's book. As

18:29

you heard above, the author agrees, and

18:32

at least in Laney's school district,

18:34

this wasn't a problem. Our

18:36

librarians would never put a young adult

18:38

title in an elementary school. This book

18:40

is coded as young adult. It's

18:43

not an elementary school. So that

18:45

wasn't an elementary school. It wasn't. It

18:47

simply was not there. Regardless, parents

18:49

started speaking out during PTA

18:51

meetings saying they want books

18:54

removed, which was something

18:56

the school district actually had a policy

18:58

for. So it hadn't ever

19:00

been enacted before. The history

19:03

of our school district, no book had ever

19:05

been officially challenged in this process.

19:07

And within a matter of months, we had

19:09

41 separate books that had been challenged that

19:11

had come from Chris's list, but also from a few

19:14

other lists, right? They were using all sorts of

19:16

websites and groups like Moms for Liberty, they were

19:18

getting access to, they were ultimately getting lists of

19:20

books and then go scouring our catalog for them.

19:22

So these were books that a child got brought

19:24

home and was concerned by. It was literally, let's

19:26

go see if this book exists somewhere in a

19:28

shelf and then let's throw a shit about it.

19:31

So the district enacted this previously

19:33

hypothetical process. When

19:35

you have a problem with a book and you

19:38

don't believe it should be able to be accessed

19:40

by any student, not just yours, because if you

19:42

don't want your kid to have a book, there

19:44

was a policy in place. You call

19:46

the district, you call your librarian, you make sure

19:48

your child's account says they cannot access this book

19:50

or these types of book, you know, you could

19:52

do that for your child. That

19:54

was always an option in our school district. But if you weren't

19:56

happy with that and you wanted to take it a step further

19:58

and say, I don't want. any kids have

20:01

access to these books, you could

20:03

challenge it. The district says, hey, we

20:05

have these book challenge committees and we need to

20:07

fill them. So this book challenge committee where every

20:09

single book was a different group of people, every

20:12

single challenge committee was composed

20:14

of community members and parents,

20:16

staff and administration, and some

20:18

librarians. Seven to ten

20:20

people need to get together, read one

20:22

of the books being challenged, and discuss

20:25

whether it should be pulled. They

20:27

needed to do that for all 41 books. Well,

20:30

a little less. Turns out

20:32

some of the books flagged weren't even

20:35

in the libraries. Regardless,

20:37

it's a lot of people, so they

20:39

made a Google form and any taxpayer

20:41

in the area could sign up. Naturally,

20:44

Laney signed up and was on

20:46

a committee for two books. I

20:49

was chosen two books. One of them was

20:51

the Diary of Anne Frank, the graphic novel

20:53

adaptation. And the other one

20:55

that I think was called One Fine Summer. It was

20:57

a graphic novel about a young girl who goes to

20:59

a lake house for the summer and some of her

21:01

experiences there. At the end, the

21:04

committee would vote if a book belonged in a

21:06

school library. The committee could outright

21:08

ban a book or they could decide to

21:10

only have it in the libraries for the

21:12

age range it was appropriate for. For

21:15

example, a book could be

21:17

deemed appropriate in the middle school and high

21:19

school libraries or just the high

21:21

school library. And while a

21:24

book was essentially on trial, the decision

21:26

didn't need to be unanimous. It

21:29

was majority rule. The committee

21:31

was instructed to focus on two

21:33

factors. One, is

21:35

the book pervasively vulgar, yes

21:37

or no? Two,

21:40

is the book educationally suitable,

21:42

yes or no? When

21:45

we did the Diary of Anne Frank, the graphic

21:47

novel adaptation, when we all got in that room,

21:49

all of us were just shocked that the book

21:51

had been challenged. The person who challenged the book

21:53

is welcome to attend and be a member of

21:55

the committee. For the Diary of Anne Frank, the

21:57

person who challenged it didn't show up. So we

21:59

all kind of sat there and were like,

22:01

what, what in the world? It was a really

22:03

quick committee meeting. We all discussed how beautiful the

22:05

book was. We actually discussed what maybe

22:07

someone could have had a problem with. The

22:10

version most people are familiar with

22:12

is actually a bridge. And in

22:14

this version, Anne Frank acknowledges that

22:16

she's going through puberty. There was

22:19

one point where she talks about her changing body,

22:21

right? And she actually talks about her own like,

22:23

like, I don't know what I look like between my legs. And

22:25

she talks about feeling and what it felt like, not

22:28

prurient, not overtly sexual. In

22:30

fact, concerning if someone found

22:32

that overtly sexual, because then you're wondering

22:35

what's wrong with them, right? And

22:37

she's clearly an adolescent young girl

22:40

who is stuck in captivity hiding

22:43

from people who want to

22:45

murder her while also experiencing

22:47

puberty and adolescence. They

22:49

reinstated the book, and they

22:51

did the same for the other graphic

22:53

novel, though they decided it wasn't appropriate

22:56

at the elementary school level. As

22:58

for the other books, the other committees

23:00

were looking into all of

23:02

the books that went to committee were

23:05

voted to go back on library shelves, every

23:07

single committee. Now,

23:09

some of them, there were even a few, I

23:11

think that voted to only go in high school.

23:14

I think there was even one that voted to

23:16

only have it accessible with parent

23:18

permission. All of those committees, every

23:20

single one said, we want this book back

23:23

on library shelves in some form or another and at

23:25

some level. There you

23:27

have it, a community comes

23:29

together, does research and forms

23:31

a consensus position through democracy.

23:34

If only we could end the

23:36

story there. They didn't trust the results,

23:40

because you know, these librarians who want

23:42

nothing more than to groom children for

23:44

whatever had said ultimately stack these

23:46

committees with woke liberals, they felt like it

23:48

was unfair and had been ultimately sabotaged. And

23:50

so that's ultimately what they use to run.

23:54

The books were reinstated, but in May,

23:56

the district held elections for seats on

23:58

their school board. And these committees

24:00

to keep these books on the shelves became

24:03

a rallying cry. At

24:05

first, we really did believe that this might be

24:07

organic, right? This might be true grassroots. No, it

24:09

wasn't. As in the people

24:11

complaining that the books should be banned

24:14

were local and came together on

24:16

their own naturally. It

24:18

was what we call astroturf,

24:20

fake grassroots. Turns out it

24:22

was well-coordinated and well-funded, right?

24:24

Which varied within the next few

24:26

months after we saw the 41 books get challenged

24:28

and then we saw hundreds of thousands of dollars

24:31

pour into our school board races. Seats

24:33

on a school board. It's not the

24:35

kind of election most people are engaged with

24:37

or the kind that normally raises big money,

24:40

but this time was different. Cash

24:42

flooded in. Specifically, Patriot

24:44

Mobile, which is a Christian

24:47

wireless cell phone provider that has

24:49

a side pack, again,

24:51

we didn't know, had coordinated and was

24:53

spending half a million dollars to overtake

24:55

four school boards in my community. Laney

24:58

might sound a little conspiratorial here,

25:01

but actually who was funding these

25:03

races without in the open? We

25:05

all started getting for this group of

25:07

people that said paid for by the

25:09

Patriot Mobile Action Pack. And

25:12

we were like, who's that? And

25:14

then we're looking it up. They're not in our community. And

25:17

then people were posting online and then we

25:19

were like, wait, the exact same flyer is

25:21

in South Lake for their school board, but

25:24

the pictures have been removed and it's their

25:26

candidate. And the exact same flyer is in

25:28

Grapevine, Texas. And the names have, the pictures

25:30

are just their candidates. Oh, wait, the exact

25:32

same flyer is in Mansfield ISD. And

25:35

so we all started finding each other online

25:37

and then we realized, oh my gosh, this

25:40

is coordinated. As

25:43

a missing pages listener, you've probably toyed with

25:45

the thought of writing a book yourself. Maybe

25:48

you have an idea for a twisty

25:50

thriller or a brilliant new theory

25:52

on naps and productivity, something

25:54

that feels poised for bestseller

25:56

status. But the journey to getting

25:58

your book on the best. sellers list is

26:01

full of twists and turns. That's

26:03

why I put together a Pocket

26:05

collection of podcast episodes, articles, and

26:07

even a video that will help

26:09

shine some light on how the

26:12

mysterious process works. It's especially

26:14

informative for working authors as well

26:16

as the aspiring writers among us. You

26:19

can find it on Pocket, a website

26:21

and app that finds the most thought-provoking

26:24

articles from trusted sources all around

26:26

the internet and puts them in

26:28

one place. With Pocket, you

26:30

can discover new stories to read, save

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even have your saved articles read aloud

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to you. So, ready

26:42

to uncover what really goes into the

26:44

making of a bestseller? Check

26:47

out getpocket.com/

26:49

missing pages to dive right into

26:51

my collection. In

26:54

need of a good read or just want

26:56

to keep up with the books everyone's talking

26:58

about? NPR's Book of the Day podcast gives

27:01

you today's very best writing in a pocket-sized

27:03

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27:05

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from them, we've got an author who'll speak

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minutes or less on the Book of the Day

27:14

podcast only from NPR. All

27:17

that money in a race with extremely

27:19

low turnout, it went far. That

27:22

first year, the Patriot Mobile candidates

27:24

won three seats. We

27:26

started finding pictures of them all

27:28

together, even on election night. They

27:30

had these giant celebrations where Patriot

27:32

Mobile's executive team traveled to

27:34

each election night celebration to take pictures with

27:36

all of the candidates that they had paid

27:38

to, you know, that they had funded their

27:41

campaigns. So, yeah, we have pictures of all

27:43

of our candidates here celebrating with all the

27:45

Patriot Mobile executives. You know, thank you so

27:47

much for what you've done. Thank you so

27:49

much for saving our schools from pornography in

27:51

our libraries. And unfortunately, that messaging

27:54

was very, very effective

27:56

with a very small portion of people that

27:58

showed up to vote. Laney

28:00

and those who shared her beliefs

28:02

couldn't compete with the money backing

28:04

Patriot Mobile. And when the

28:06

new regime came into power, the repercussions were

28:09

immediate. And the day before school

28:11

started, in that August of 2022, email went out

28:13

to every district librarian

28:15

and every teacher in the district and all

28:17

the principals and said, here's a list of

28:19

41 books that were voted, many

28:21

of them, to go back on library shelves. We're

28:23

asking you to now take them off of library

28:25

shelves again. The

28:27

new board established a new policy for

28:30

how to deal with books they took

28:32

issue with. Our school board that saw

28:34

quickly passed a rubric, they call it

28:36

their content guidelines rubric. I

28:38

call it the book banning rubric. The rubric

28:40

now includes things to consider like,

28:42

quote, tobacco use by a

28:45

minor, horror, sexual activities,

28:47

discussions or depictions of

28:49

gender fluidity, end quote. Then

28:52

depending on grade level, a certain amount

28:54

of those things is permissible, except

28:57

when it comes to three of the

28:59

criteria for three points on

29:01

the rubric. Any amount of these features

29:03

would lead to a book being removed.

29:06

One detail descriptions of sex

29:09

acts to sexual

29:11

activities. Not quite sure

29:14

how one and two are different, but

29:16

regardless. And three, any

29:18

discussion or depictions of gender fluidity.

29:22

So any sex scene, any character

29:25

using they then pronouns and the

29:27

book is to be pulled even

29:29

on the shelves of the high school

29:31

library. They no longer look at a

29:34

book based on a whole. They

29:36

look at a book according to a set

29:38

of rubric, a set of guidelines. And if

29:41

it has any certain thing in it, no

29:43

matter what context that is in, no matter

29:45

if it's one teeny section of a 400

29:47

page book, that book is then banned

29:50

from our school district. It

29:53

got worse and worse and worse from there when all of

29:55

those books were pulled. Once a

29:57

book is pulled, according to the new policy,

29:59

it can't be. reconsidered for a

30:01

decade, but Laney was able to

30:03

save two books. The Diary of

30:05

Anne Frank was on that list again, the graphic

30:07

novel adaptation, as was the Bible. So

30:10

the Bible and the Diary of Anne Frank were pulled

30:12

from shelves the day before school started, along with a

30:14

huge list of other books, which started

30:16

a giant uproar in the community. When

30:19

Laney saw that those books were on the list,

30:21

she did what was in her power. She

30:23

tweeted. And I said, the

30:25

Bible and the Diary of Anne Frank were just pulled

30:27

off a library shelves and tell her I see today.

30:29

And I tweeted that. And that tweet went semi

30:32

viral. And that's kind of when it

30:34

started, right? Some interviews, some conversations. The

30:37

Bible, the Diary of Anne Frank,

30:39

they went back on the shelves. But

30:42

what's that expression about a good

30:44

deed? And that's also when I

30:46

became the public figure for the

30:48

people who wanted to ban books

30:50

also hate, right? I became

30:53

the person that they can all say, here's

30:55

this mom of four kids, and she's trying

30:57

to push pornography on her children. Like the

30:59

number of times they're calling me a groomer,

31:01

they want to say, you know, like pedophilia,

31:03

it's trash. I have four children.

31:05

I have a teenage son. He's like, Mom, I don't

31:08

think these people know you. Like they say you want to get

31:10

pornography to kids. And my son's like, do they want to talk

31:12

to me? And like, what's up my phone about? You know what

31:14

I mean? Like, we

31:16

don't even know. I don't want children to have pornography. Like,

31:19

absolutely not. That's the clearance. I have

31:22

four children. I don't want them exposed

31:24

to pornography. But it

31:26

just, it all ramped up. In

31:29

the next election, big money poured in

31:31

again. Now six out of

31:33

seven of the board are Patriot Mobile

31:36

backed, but Laney has clipped up

31:38

the fight. So as a group

31:40

of us parents started a nonprofit here to support

31:42

public education, the fight against book bans, and to

31:44

also work really hard at educating the community on

31:46

school board elections and things like that. When we

31:48

started the nonprofit, we filed with the state of

31:50

Texas, obviously, and we don't have a lot of

31:52

money. So when we went to start this organization,

31:54

we had to come up with an address and

31:56

we talked about getting a P.O. box. a

32:00

lot of money. So I was like, let's just put the address at my house.

32:02

I don't, I don't care. Laney's

32:04

address was publicly available. You

32:07

can guess where this is going and your

32:09

guests will be right. The first

32:11

thing we did was for National

32:13

School Counselors Day, we bought $5

32:15

gift cards to Sonic for all the school

32:17

counselors in our school district. And we made a post

32:19

about it. And we shared and said, Hey, we support

32:22

public education. Thank you so much to our school counselors.

32:25

And when we posted that, the

32:27

political strategist that's paid a whole lot of

32:29

money by the local Republican party and Patriot

32:32

mobile and a lot of candidates in the

32:34

area decided to go look up our fire,

32:36

our, you know, the organization saw that it

32:39

was in my address, posted the link

32:41

to the deed to my home, my full

32:43

legal name, my husband's full legal name on

32:45

Twitter saying that I was an antifa anti-family

32:47

Satanist who was trying to destroy the community.

32:50

And he tweeted that and then a sitting

32:52

state legislator retweeted it. And

32:54

it just got a little bit dicey. In fact,

32:56

one woman in the community who really dislikes

32:59

me, her profile pictures, her holding an AR 15

33:01

and posted on Facebook

33:03

that she knew the layout to my home.

33:05

I filed a police report

33:07

for harassment and the police just did just basic

33:09

patrols around my home for a few weeks. Attorneys

33:13

told Laney to take down anything

33:15

outside her home that indicated she

33:17

had kids. Like our elementary schools

33:19

have these signs that your kids get for

33:21

awards, you know, like my child is a

33:23

character, whatever. We took all those things down

33:25

for a few weeks. So yeah, things like

33:27

that. A Facebook page harassing me has been

33:29

created. They make memes, they make videos. Yeah,

33:32

there's a lot. Luckily, I have a really

33:34

great support system and really, really thick

33:36

skin. Multiple times

33:39

Laney had to change all her

33:41

passwords because people were trying to get

33:43

into her accounts. I had to do

33:45

that a few times. It turns out that

33:47

when you decide to stand up for something like

33:49

this and it's well coordinated, there's a whole group

33:52

of people who are concerned, right, of what you're

33:54

doing. They think I'm connected to Antifa, which is

33:57

hysterical. I

34:00

don't know who Antifa is, right? I don't

34:02

have any specific contacts. So there's that. A

34:05

lot of them are convinced that I'm being funded by

34:07

some political movement like the Soros's

34:09

or Hillary Clinton I've been accused

34:11

of. I am none of that. In

34:14

fact, at this point, I've been accused of it so much, I

34:16

say, if somebody wants to send us money, we will take it.

34:19

They need money to spread their

34:21

message, to try to compete with

34:23

ambitious politicians and well-funded campaigns.

34:26

And while Laney doesn't have that, or

34:28

George Soros funding, authors

34:30

with platforms are speaking out, including

34:33

the one-time author of Wonder Woman, an

34:35

author with 40 million copies of her

34:38

books in print and six TV adaptations

34:40

in her credits. That's

34:43

next. Hi,

34:48

everyone. I'm Jenna Bushhaker from today with

34:50

Hoda and Jenna and the Reads with Jenna Book

34:52

Club. There's nothing I love more than sharing

34:54

my favorite reads with all of you, except

34:57

maybe talking to the exceptional authors

34:59

behind these tools. And that's

35:01

what I'll be doing each week on

35:03

my new podcast, Read with Jenna. I'll

35:05

be introducing you to some of my

35:08

favorite writers. These conversations will leave you

35:10

feeling inspired and entertained. New episodes of

35:12

Read with Jenna are released every Thursday.

35:14

Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts.

35:19

Chapter three, books can

35:22

save lives. Not

35:24

only have my books been banned in

35:26

multiple states and multiple titles of my

35:28

band. For example, last week

35:30

I heard about a school in Minnesota

35:33

where for years the book was taught

35:36

as part of one English teacher's

35:38

curriculum. And it was taught without incident.

35:41

And this year, the

35:43

seniors in the school took all the copies

35:45

of the book and threw them in a

35:48

dumpster because they said

35:50

it made them feel

35:52

guilty. And they

35:54

didn't feel that that should be part of their

35:56

education. That's Jodi Piccol, author

35:58

of 31. books and

36:00

counting, perennial best seller, and

36:03

apparently a threat to a

36:05

Minnesota-based senior class's psyche. And

36:08

it seems that Picot is not just

36:10

a danger in the Midwest. America's culture

36:12

war is being fought in the classroom,

36:14

and now there is a battle waging

36:17

over banned books. Yeah, last year, Florida

36:19

passed a new law to review reading

36:21

materials made available in classrooms. And this

36:23

month, Martin County, Florida announced the removal

36:25

of 92 books from

36:27

its schools. Twenty of those books were

36:29

written by best selling author Jodi Picot.

36:33

Florida is currently one of the most

36:35

active states with book ban legislation

36:37

going into effect. And Jodi

36:39

Picot is an author whose books have been

36:42

affected by that. One of them

36:44

was 19 Minutes. 19

36:47

Minutes, I wrote years ago, it is about a

36:49

school shooting. And it is

36:51

in particular about the effects of bullying and

36:53

how it takes the village not only to

36:55

raise a child, but also to sell a child. According

36:58

to Picot, it's been banned in school

37:00

districts across 24

37:02

states. One single page that

37:05

describes a date rape and uses

37:07

the anatomically correct words for genitals.

37:09

Now, it's not, again, gratuitous. It's part of

37:12

the plot, which is all the different ways

37:14

that people are bullied. I'm

37:16

thinking of the criteria in Laney's school

37:18

district. That instance of rape

37:20

would fall under sexual content. But

37:23

it's a great example of what I see

37:25

as the issue with the policy. The

37:28

book provides an opportunity to talk

37:30

about consent and the ramifications

37:32

of abuse. But when the book

37:34

is pulled, students, parents, teachers all

37:36

lose an entry point into a

37:38

conversation that should help young people

37:40

prepare themselves for the world. Or

37:43

as Picot puts it, you

37:45

can childproof your world, but you can't

37:48

world proof your child. According

37:52

to Picot, she's seen the

37:54

direct impacts her books can have

37:56

on preparing young people for our

37:58

complicated world. In fact,

38:00

she says her work has been an

38:02

intervention when it comes to some of

38:04

the most complicated and tragic aspects

38:06

of modern America. When

38:09

I was on tour for this book and I went

38:11

to tons of high schools and I was

38:13

in one in New Hampshire and they had decided again

38:15

talking about the way the world has changed. It was

38:17

a one book, one school read. So

38:19

thousands of kids all read 19

38:21

minutes. And so I gave my talk

38:24

and then I stood up and the principal's on stage with

38:26

me and he says, this isn't even have a

38:28

question. I want kid raises his hand,

38:30

he stands up and he goes, well, I don't really have

38:32

a question, but I just wanted to tell you that I

38:34

was going to bring a gun into school this October

38:36

and kill people. And then I read this

38:39

book because it was assigned to me and I realized

38:41

I'm not the only person who feels this way. So

38:43

the principal standing next to me and is white

38:45

as a sheet, right? And

38:48

you know, another kid raises their hand and I

38:50

call on her. It's a little girl who is

38:52

in a wheelchair and she says,

38:54

I don't really have a question either,

38:56

but I go through my life in

38:59

the school with everyone not seeing me.

39:01

Nobody notices me and

39:03

I was suicidal and I came home and

39:06

I was crying and my mom was upset

39:08

and she was trying to make me feel

39:10

better. And I just kept saying I

39:12

wanted to kill myself. And then

39:14

I actually read my English homework, which was

39:16

the first chapter of 19 minutes. And

39:19

that's the reason I'm still alive. Listener,

39:25

have you ever felt like a book saved your

39:27

life? Maybe that's

39:29

too dramatic. How about has

39:31

a book made you feel seen

39:34

or helped you understand yourself when

39:36

everything just seems so bad? Or

39:40

has a book made a group of

39:42

people whose circumstances are tougher than your

39:44

own more real, more three dimensional to

39:47

you? Have you read

39:49

something about people very different from

39:51

you and experienced a profound sense

39:53

of empathy? I

39:55

bet the answer for most of you is

39:57

yes to all of the above. I

40:00

know that's true for me. So

40:02

what are you, what are any of

40:05

us to do? Here's

40:08

Laney one last time. I

40:10

talked to people about how to save this, how to

40:12

combat book banning, where I said, vote in local elections.

40:14

I had one guy on Twitter who lived in Connecticut

40:17

comment in one of my feeds that was like, how

40:19

do you keep letting, how do you guys let keep

40:21

letting this happen? And

40:23

I commented to him and I said, did sir, did

40:26

you vote in your last school born election? And

40:28

he was like, well, no, but I live in

40:30

Connecticut. I don't have kids. So I don't have

40:33

to worry about it. And I would say, well,

40:35

that's how it happened is people all over my

40:37

community who don't think they have to worry about

40:39

it because I have this amazing school district with

40:41

high quality schools and whatever. They don't have to

40:44

worry about it. We got great school. They're just

40:46

not keying in to what's actually happening. So vote

40:48

in school board elections. If you want to save

40:50

books in public schools, that's, that's the real answer

40:52

or run, run for, run for school board. So

40:56

yeah, that's the answer. Next

41:05

week, tune in to hear the

41:07

full interview with bestselling author Jodi

41:09

Picot. Missing

41:13

pages is a pod glomerate original produced,

41:16

mixed and mastered by Chris

41:18

Boniello with additional production and

41:20

editing by Jordan Aaron. This

41:22

episode was produced by Claire McInerney. This

41:26

episode was written by Lauren Delisle,

41:28

additional production and writing by Grant

41:30

Irving, fact checking by

41:33

Douglas Reisman, marketing by

41:35

Joni Deutsch, Madison Richards, Morgan

41:37

Swift, Vanessa Almond and Annabella

41:40

Pena, art by Tom Grillo,

41:43

produced and hosted by me, Bethann

41:45

Patrick. Original music

41:47

composed and performed by Hasham

41:49

Asadulahi, additional music provided by

41:51

Epidemic Sound, executive

41:54

produced by Jeff Umbro and the

41:56

pod glomerate. Special thanks to

41:58

Dan Kistay, Matt Jack

42:00

Keely, Jody Pico, Jackie

42:02

Higgins-Daley, Andrea from

42:05

Barrington, Illinois, Jason Pinshower,

42:07

Laini Hawes, Deborah Caldwell-Stone,

42:09

Len Nehoff, Amanda Jones,

42:12

and Alexandra Stevenson. You

42:15

can learn more about Missing Pages

42:17

at thepodglomerate.com, on

42:19

Twitter at Miss Pages Pod, and

42:21

on Instagram at Missing Pages Pod.

42:24

Or you can email

42:26

us at missingpagesatthepodglomerate.com. If

42:29

you liked what you heard today, please let your

42:31

friends and family know and suggest

42:33

an episode for them to listen to. Settling

42:36

is not an option.

42:38

Everything

42:42

I desire is already mine. What if you can't have it all? Because

42:49

every day is for the girls. Hello,

42:52

hello. Welcome to For

42:54

the Girls podcast, hosted by Victoria Alario,

42:56

For the Girls Who Want More. Listening

42:59

to For the Girls will have you ready

43:01

to raise the bar, stop settling for the bare

43:04

minimum and start believing you can have it all,

43:06

and step into the 2.0 version of you.

43:09

You can catch a new episode of

43:12

For the Girls every Monday across all

43:14

podcast platforms. Until next time, girls.