Banned Camp: Banned Books, Comedy, and Free Speech vs. Censorship

After the Salvaging, things are supposed to be back to normal. Then the handmaid walks to the corner to meet Ofglen, and Dan and Jennifer realize this walk is not like the others. By the end of Chapter 45, someone is waiting on the front steps, and she is holding something.

This episode includes AI-voiced content, including our trusty fact-checking robot, Robot.

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:

Dan and Jennifer finally tell the whole story. A Charlotte Airbnb with lights that flicker on their own and a bed that won’t stop shaking. Then a night in Miss Laura’s Cottage in Savannah, one of the most haunted rentals on Airbnb, with a pair of $15 dowsing rods. Beowulf joins live on Facebook to keep everyone honest.

This episode includes AI-voiced content, including our trusty fact-checking robot, Robot.

Heads up. This one was recorded live on Facebook, so the sound is a little rougher than our normal episodes. Grab some candy and roll with...

It’s a Halloween special, so there’s no chapter this time. Jennifer reads Margaret Atwood’s poem “Half-Hanged Mary,” about the real woman The Handmaid’s Tale is dedicated to. Mary Webster was accused of witchcraft in the 1680s, hanged by a mob, and somehow lived to tell it.

Join us live: Today, Thursday, October 29, at noon Pacific (3:00 PM Eastern) on Facebook at facebook.com/bannedcamppodcast. We’ll tell two true ghost stories from our road trip and read from Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. A bonus episode of the live show drops right here in this f...

In Chapter 43, the day on the lawn at the old university is not over yet. Dan and Jennifer try to work out what Gilead is asking of these women now, and why the chapter ends the way it does. It is a hard chapter, and they say so.

This episode includes AI-voiced content, including our trusty fact-checking robot, Robot.

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:

In Chapter 42, the handmaid goes to a Salvaging, and it is nothing like a rummage sale. Dan and Jennifer try to figure out what the word even means, what the crowd is really there to see, and why the people running Gilead decided to stop saying out loud what the condemned did. Jennifer calls it the scariest chapter so far, and Dan does not disagree.

This episode includes AI-voiced content, including our trusty fact-checking robot, Robot.

Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapter. We don’t read ahead, so...

In Chapter 41, the handmaid wishes her story were different, then tells us what she did next: she kept going back to Nick, on her own, without Serena Joy knowing. Dan and Jennifer try to work out whether the man over the garage is a lonely guy, a trap, or something else. The handmaid is risking a lot for a little safety, and the hosts are not sure she should be.

This episode includes AI-voiced content, including our trusty fact-checking robot, Robot.

Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapter...

At midnight, Serena Joy walks the handmaid out the kitchen door and sends her up the back stairs to Nick. The handmaid tells us what happened in that room. Then she tells us she made it up, and tells it again.

This episode includes AI-voiced content, including our trusty fact-checking robot, Robot.

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:

The Commander finally gets the Handmaid alone in a hotel room, and it’s the same hotel where she used to meet Luke. Hiding in the bathroom, she remembers the news Moira just gave her about her mother. Then she has to walk back out and face the man waiting on the bed.

This episode includes AI-voiced content, including our trusty fact-checking robot, Robot.

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 F...

Moira finishes the story of how she got out of the Red Center. She goes from a Quaker safe house to a mail sack to a truck full of carsick chickens, and she gets within sight of a boat to freedom. The escape plan runs into a problem, and what Moira chooses next tells you everything about where this story is headed.

This episode includes AI-voiced content, including our trusty fact-checking robot, Robot.

Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapter. We don't read ahead, so you're discovering the...

The Handmaid slips into the women's washroom of the hotel club, where an Aunt in a purple caftan and gold eyeshadow guards the door. Inside, behind the smoke and the pink walls, she finds Moira. Then Moira starts whispering the story of how she got out. This is the first half of the chapter, and it ends on a cliffhanger at a door.

This episode includes AI-voiced content, including our trusty fact-checking robot, Robot.

Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapter. We don't read ahead, so you're discovering...

The Commander walks the Handmaid into a secret club hidden inside the same hotel she used to visit with Luke. It's packed with powerful men and women in scavenged costumes, all the things Gilead publicly banned. Then, across the room, Offred spots someone she never expected to see again.

This episode includes AI-voiced content, including our trusty fact-checking robot, Robot.

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:

The Commander summons the Handmaid to his study for what starts as an awkward round of Scrabble and turns into something much stranger: a smuggled costume covered in feathers and sequins, a stolen cloak, and a car ride into the dark. By the end of the night she's wearing a purple wristband, and it's not a fashion statement. Jennifer and Dan react to one of the most quietly brutal images this season has produced, and find the real-world hypocrisy hiding underneath it.

This episode includes AI-voiced content, including our trusty fact-checking robot, Robot.

Banned Camp...

The Handmaid is stuck in her room with nothing but her own memories for company — falling in love, losing Luke, and the strange math of mourning someone who might still be alive. Then Serena Joy shows up with something Offred was never supposed to see again.

This episode includes AI-voiced content, including our trusty fact-checking robot, Robot.

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:

The handmaids file into the courtyard for a mass wedding of teenage brides, and the Commander takes the podium with a speech about how much Gilead has "given" women. Then the Bible gets quoted, the hymns get sung, and the Handmaid gets a warning from Ofglen that someone knows where she has been going at night. Jennifer and Dan read it, argue about it, and keep finding reasons to hate the seating chart.

This episode includes AI-voiced content, including our trusty fact-checking robot, Robot.

Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books...

The handmaids file into the courtyard for a mass wedding of teenage brides, and the Commander takes the podium with a speech about how much Gilead has "given" women. Then the Bible gets quoted, the hymns get sung, and the Handmaid gets a warning from Ofglen that someone knows where she has been going at night. Jennifer and Dan read it, argue about it, and keep finding reasons to hate the seating chart.

This episode includes AI-voiced content, including our trusty fact-checking robot, Robot.

Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books...

The Handmaid and Ofglen walk to a Prayvaganza past lawns stripped clean of dandelions, and Jennifer can't stop thinking about how something so many people call a weed is actually one of the happiest memories of being a kid. Once they arrive, a whispered phrase from Ofglen about another Handmaid's baby forces Jennifer and Dan to figure out exactly what Gilead does with a child the regime decides isn't good enough to keep.

This episode includes AI-voiced content, including our trusty fact-checking robot, Robot.

Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books...

The Handmaid and Ofglen walk to a Prayvaganza past lawns stripped clean of dandelions, and Jennifer can't stop thinking about how something so many people call a weed is actually one of the happiest memories of being a kid. Once they arrive, a whispered phrase from Ofglen about another Handmaid's baby forces Jennifer and Dan to figure out exactly what Gilead does with a child the regime decides isn't good enough to keep.

This episode includes AI-voiced content, including our trusty fact-checking robot, Robot.

Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books...

This is a bonus episode, not a chapter. Jennifer and Dan are launching something new called the Bookshelf Initiative: every quarter, Banned Camp is giving away a full set of every banned book they've ever covered on the show to one nominated high school librarian. Here's how it works and how to nominate someone before nominations close.

Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapter. We don't read ahead.

Things To Listen For:

This is a bonus episode, not a chapter. Jennifer and Dan are launching something new called the Bookshelf Initiative: every quarter, Banned Camp is giving away a full set of every banned book they've ever covered on the show to one nominated high school librarian. Here's how it works and how to nominate someone before nominations close.

Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapter. We don't read ahead.

Things To Listen For:

Rita's cutting radishes into little Aztec hearts and Offred just wants a match. That's it, that's the whole ask, and somehow it turns into the most loaded transaction in the house. This chapter gives us a stolen cigarette, a hidden plan, and a commander who wants credit for building the world he broke.

This episode includes AI-voiced content, including our trusty fact-checking robot, Robot.

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:

Rita's cutting radishes into little Aztec hearts and Offred just wants a match. That's it, that's the whole ask, and somehow it turns into the most loaded transaction in the house. This chapter gives us a stolen cigarette, a hidden plan, and a commander who wants credit for building the world he broke.

This episode includes AI-voiced content, including our trusty fact-checking robot, Robot.

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:

The Handmaid counts her days, walks the wall with Ofglen, and gets pulled aside by Serena Joy for a yarn-winding session that turns into something a lot more calculated. Dan and Jennifer dig into what's really going on with the Commander's Scrabble habit, a body on the wall marked with a mysterious "J," and an offer from Serena that could get everyone involved killed.

This episode includes AI-voiced content, including our trusty fact-checking robot, Robot.

Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapter — we don't read ahead, so you're di...

The Handmaid counts her days, walks the wall with Ofglen, and gets pulled aside by Serena Joy for a yarn-winding session that turns into something a lot more calculated. Dan and Jennifer dig into what's really going on with the Commander's Scrabble habit, a body on the wall marked with a mysterious "J," and an offer from Serena that could get everyone involved killed.

This episode includes AI-voiced content, including our trusty fact-checking robot, Robot.

Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapter — we don't read ahead, so you're di...

The Handmaid is one night away from fleeing the Republic of Gilead when Luke makes her a quiet, terrible promise about their cat — and by the time chapter 30 ends, she's questioning whether talking to God is any different from talking to a wall. Jennifer and Dan dig into betrayal, forced prayer, and the particular kind of grief you build before you let yourself feel it, while Robot ties one especially dark real-world case straight back to the page.

This episode includes AI-voiced content, including our trusty fact-checking robot, Robot.

Banned Camp is a comedy podcast wh...

The Handmaid and the Commander settle into an unsettling new nightly routine of forbidden magazines, banned novels, and word games in his private study. When she finally works up the nerve to ask him about four mysterious Latin words, his answer connects her to a woman who sat in that exact chair before her, and isn't sitting anywhere now.

This episode includes AI-voiced content, including our trusty fact-checking robot, Robot.

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.

One morning her debit card stops working. By that afternoon, armed soldiers have shut down her workplace and the government has frozen every woman's bank account in the country. In this chapter of The Handmaid's Tale, Jennifer and Dan watch an entire life get taken apart in the space of a single day — one bureaucratic switch at a time.

This episode includes AI-voiced content, including our trusty fact-checking robot, Robot.

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.

The Handmaid spends the hour picking at old wounds — her friendship with Moira, her guilt over Luke, and the day the government quietly stopped being a democracy. By the end of the chapter, the past and present collide in the worst possible way: a corner store, a declined card, and three words that change everything.

This episode includes AI-voiced content, including our trusty fact-checking robot, Robot.

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 List...

The Handmaid and Ofglen walk the summer streets past a franchise called Soul Scrolls, where machines print prayers to order so no human has to bother saying them. What starts as small talk about a prayer vending machine turns into the most dangerous conversation either woman has had in years, and Gilead reminds everyone exactly what's at stake before the chapter's out.

This episode includes AI-voiced content, including our trusty fact-checking robot, Robot.

Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapter — we don't read ahead, so you're discovering the st...

Chapter 26 finds Offred and the Commander drifting into something neither Dan nor Jennifer expected, which kicks off a debate about why Gilead does any of this the hard way when an obvious shortcut has existed since the 1970s.

This episode includes AI-voiced content, including our trusty fact-checking robot, Robot.

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:

The Handmaid fakes her way through a dropped breakfast tray, spends an afternoon watching Serena Joy take her frustrations out on the tulips, and settles into her strange, quiet arrangement with the Commander — Scrabble, small gifts, and a forbidden magazine he keeps just for the two of them.

This episode includes AI-voiced content, including our trusty fact-checking robot, Robot.

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:

The Handmaid plays Scrabble, gets asked for a kiss she doesn't mean, and then spends a sleepless night remembering a TV documentary about a woman who spent her whole life insisting the man she loved wasn't a monster. Dan and Jennifer end up somewhere they didn't expect: a real conversation about how anyone learns to live next door to something horrible without ever looking at it directly.

This episode includes AI-voiced content, including our trusty fact-checking robot, Robot.

Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapter — we don't read ah...

The Handmaid gets called into the one room in the house she's never been allowed to enter, and what's waiting for her isn't what anyone expects, her included. This episode, Dan and Jennifer read chapter 23 of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, and figure out why a board game turns out to be the most dangerous thing in Gilead.

This episode includes AI-voiced content, including our trusty fact-checking robot, Robot.

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.

...

The Handmaid comes home from the birth exhausted, lies down under the ceiling wreath, and tells herself a better story. It's the story of what happened to Moira, passed hand to hand through four different people before it reached her. What follows involves an overflowing toilet, a piece of plumbing hardware, and a woman walking straight out the front gate in someone else's clothes. Whether any of it actually happened is the argument Dan and Jennifer cannot settle.

This episode includes AI-voiced content, including our trusty fact-checking robot, Robot.

Banned Camp is a comedy podcast...

Chapter 21 is the birth chapter. Janine delivers at the Warren household in full Gilead ceremony — the wife on the birthing stool, the Handmaids chanting, the baby named Angela and handed away before Janine can hold her. Offred rides home leaking fake milk, holding a ghost baby in her lap. And then Margaret Atwood drops an ice pick of a closing line that reframes everything that just happened.

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...

Chapter 20 takes Offred to a birth ceremony at the home of another Commander — a ritualized, militarized event that reveals just how thoroughly Gilead has colonized every human experience, including childbirth. Then Aunt Lydia dims the lights and starts the film. What Offred sees on that screen will change everything she thought she understood about how she got here.

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:

The handmaid lies in bed and builds three impossible versions of what happened to Luke — all of them contradictory, all of them believed at the same time. Then a red siren pulls up to the house and everything shifts to Janine, who's about to give birth in a world where the women feeding her cookies will call her a whore the second she leaves the room.

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:

Chapter 16 finally takes us inside the Ceremony — the state-sanctioned act that gets this book banned more than anything else. It's not what you'd expect. Then Chapter 17 sends Offred wandering through the dark house with butter on her face and a stolen daffodil, straight into an encounter she didn't plan and isn't sure she can trust.

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:

The commander unlocks the only Bible in the house, reads the parts that serve him, and leads a ceremony nobody in the room wants to be part of. Meanwhile, the handmaid flashes back to her friend Moira's escape attempt from the Red Center, a plan involving faked scurvy, an ambulance ride, and consequences that will stick with you long after the chapter ends.

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:

The Handmaid kneels in a sitting room full of expensive objects, waiting for the Ceremony to begin. She's surrounded by velvet drapes, a china cupid, and dried flowers, and she realizes she's no different than any of them. Then the chapter takes a hard turn into a flashback nobody saw coming, and suddenly she's in a car with forged passports, hard-boiled eggs, and a drugged child heading for the Canadian border.

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.

...

The Handmaid describes the crushing boredom of life in the Commander's house, then flashes back to the Red Center where women are drugged, conditioned with ballet music during pelvic exercises, and forced to participate in something called "testifying" — where a girl named Janine is made to say her own gang rape was her fault. Moira arrives with a bruise and a bad attitude. And then the chapter ends with the worst dream Offred has ever had.

Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapter — we don't read ahead, so you're discovering the...