Banned Camp: Banned Books, Comedy, and Free Speech vs. Censorship
Love banned books? Hate censorship?
Same. You’re our kind of people.
Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books and try to figure out why they were banned in the first place.
Each season, we tackle a new banned book, reading it chapter by chapter and asking: What made someone clutch their pearls and scream, "BAN IT!"? (Spoiler: It’s rarely what you’d expect.) One thing is clear—the people banning these books often haven’t read them. While we uncover some eyebrow-raising moments, nothing truly justifies censorship.
Join us—and our listeners, "The Scary Book People"—as we explore the strange, hilarious, and sometimes baffling world of banned books.
Past seasons have featured classics like To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz, Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, and 1984 by George Orwell.
This season, we’re diving into Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. It's a dystopia built on pleasure, not fear. People are engineered, drugged, and distracted into obedience, and they’re taught to love the system that controls them. It’s funny, creepy, and disturbingly familiar. And like all great banned books, it makes you question the world you're living in.
By reading these books, we ask big questions: Why are banned books important? What does “banned” mean? What does “challenged” mean? How do book bans affect students? Are book bans constitutional?
Come hang out with us and have some laughs while we dig into the drama behind banned books—you might even learn something cool along the way!
Banned Camp: Banned Books, Comedy, and Free Speech vs. Censorship
Brave New World | Ch. 1.2: Genetically Engineered to Love Capitalism
In this episode of Banned Camp, Jennifer and Dan finish Chapter 1 of Brave New World, where dystopia smells like formaldehyde and sounds like conveyor belts full of bottled babies. From mass-produced twins to racist ovary rankings and flaps of pig guts shooting up from the organ store, Huxley’s world is gross, precise, and disturbingly intentional. Dan wonders if Elon Musk would be into this. Jennifer starts asking if evolution even has a chance. And Robot? He’s just trying to figure out what to do with 15,000 siblings.
Things to Listen For:
- How pig belly flaps became standard lab gear in dystopian delivery rooms
- Jennifer wonders if genetic “oopsies” are part of the plan—for evolution
- Dan discovers you can assign job titles by messing with embryo oxygen levels
- The phrase: “we immunize the fish against the future man’s disease” (seriously, what?)
- Plus: a real PSA about ICE activity and the apps that fight back
Banworthy to Bingeworthy:
Shoutout to Good News for Lefties—Beowulf Rochlen joins us again with uplifting news about viral kindness and migrant day laborers. Also, check out Here’s The Scoop from NBC for sharp daily news in under 15 minutes.
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Disclaimer:
Banned Camp features readings and discussions of Brave New World by Aldous Huxley for the purpose of criticism, commentary, education, and entertainment, in accordance with fair use guidelines. Some sections may be lightly abridged for clarity and pacing. We encourage you to purchase a copy of the book here to experience it in full.
This podcast is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or officially connected to Aldous Huxley or his estate. Our mission is to foster literary appreciation and critical discussion within the fair use framework—because we all know what happens when people start letting governments or corporations decide what can and can’t be read.
Topics Covered:
Brave New World, genetic engineering, mass production, eugenics, class control, book bans, pig peritoneum, ICE alerts, censorship, dystopia, free speech