In a continuation of last week's episode, Christine and Jessica discuss THE 1619 PROJECT by Nikole Hannah-Jones, the New York Times Magazine, and others, especially "Democracy" (by Hannah-Jones), "The Creation of Race" (by Dorothy Roberts), and "Sugar" (by Kahlil Gibran Muhammad). They talk about why this book is controversial, what it means for it to be a "new origin story," and the power of fuller narratives being added to our national myths. This book is a rich text--you don't want to miss a minute of this episode!

Special thanks to the entire Brooklyn Public Library team for last week's incredible Freedom to Read Rally, but especially Nick Higgins, Robin Lester-Kenton, Eliana Miller, Damaris Olivo, Fritzi Bodenheimer, and Jamar Vailes.

"The Beautiful and Banned" is produced by Jessica Goudeau and Christine Renee Miller. Follow us on social media: @beautifulandbannedpod, @christinereneemiller, and @jessica_goudeau.

Read Jessica's latest book, which she talks about in this episode and which goes well with The 1619 Project, We Were Illegal: Uncovering a Texas Family's Mythmaking and Migration.

If you’d like to advertise with us, visit the "Contact Us" page on our website. If you liked our show, please rate and subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere you listen to podcasts. The best way to support a new podcast is to share it with your friends!

Our co-producer, Rob Heath, wrote and performed our theme music. Kalin Siegwalddesigned our logo. Steph Karpuek is our amazing podcast assistant. This is A Sisters By Different Misters Production.

Join us next week as Christine and Jessica finish discussing The 1619 Project!

*Episode 9 Corrections:

• Jessica says "the snap and pop" from Legally Blonde, when the move is correctly called "the bend and snap." :)
• Once when Jessica goes off on the history of racism in America, she says the American Revolution instead of the Civil War.

Episode 9 links:

• The 1619 Project, created by Nikole Hannah-Jones and the New York Times Magazine
• Nikole Hannah-Jones
• The 1619 Project podcast from the New York Times
• The 1619 Project documentary on Hulu
• The 1619 Project curriculum from The Pulitzer Center
• One of Jessica's favorite podcasts about slavery in America: "The History of American Slavery," by Jamelle Bouie and Rebecca Onion for Slate

We'd love to hear from you! Send us a text to suggest books, plays, films, or guests, or just share your thoughts!

In this mini-episode, Christine and Jessica have a live conversation at the Brooklyn Public Library's first ever Freedom to Read Rally at the Grand Army Plaza! On October 19, the BPL organized a nationwide rally with more than 200 libraries across the country celebrating our freedom to read. Jessica and Christine talk about The 1619 Project and the importance of allowing people to learn a more complex view of history. When they planned the discussion, they didn't realize that Nikole Hannah-Jones would be opening an exhibit on Tuesday, October 22, at the Brooklyn Public Library to show art from her latest book, The 1619 Project: A Visual Experience, which will be available till November 24, 2024: if you're in Brooklyn, you should go check it out!

"The Beautiful and Banned" is produced by Jessica Goudeau and Christine Renee Miller. Follow us on social media: @beautifulandbannedpod, @christinereneemiller, and @jessica_goudeau.

Read Jessica's latest book, which she mentions in this episode and which goes well with The 1619 Project, We Were Illegal: Uncovering a Texas Family's Mythmaking and Migration.

If you’d like to advertise with us, visit the "Contact Us" page on our website. If you liked our show, please rate and subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere you listen to podcasts. The best way to support a new podcast is to share it with your friends!

Our co-producer, Rob Heath, wrote and performed our theme music. Kalin Siegwalddesigned our logo. Steph Karpuek is our amazing podcast assistant. This is A Sisters By Different Misters Production.

Join us next week as Christine and Jessica discuss more of The 1619 Project!

Episode 8 links:

• More about the Freedom to Read Day of Action (support these libraries!)
• The 1619 Project, created by Nikole Hannah-Jones and the New York Times Magazine
• Nikole Hannah-Jones
• The 1619 Project: A Visual Experience (the book)
• The 1619 Project: A Visual Experience (the exhibition at the Brooklyn Public Library)

We'd love to hear from you! Send us a text to suggest books, plays, films, or guests, or just share your thoughts!

ON SATURDAY, OCT. 19, JOIN CHRISTINE AND JESSICA AT THE BROOKLYN PUBLIC LIBRARY! Stay tuned for the end of the episode for all the details about Saturday's "Freedom to Read Day of Action Rally," and see if one of the other 300 events that day throughout the country is happening near you!

This episode is a little different: inspired by last week's episode with Courtney Gore, Jessica tells Christine about "The Mind Polluters," a documentary that originally inspired Gore's path to joining the Granbury ISD school board, where she found that there was not, in fact, an insidious plot lurking in public schools threatening kids--and changed her mind. Taking the advice of friend of the pod, Maureen Corrigan, who talked this summer about the value of actually engaging with the things you might disagree with, Jessica learned so much about how we reached the point as a society where "Social and Emotional Learning" is viewed as a dirty word and librarians are being yelled at for being "groomers"--this discussion is a RIDE.

"The Beautiful and Banned" is produced by Jessica Goudeau and Christine Renee Miller. Follow us on social media: @beautifulandbannedpod, @christinereneemiller, and @jessica_goudeau.

If you’d like to advertise with us, visit the "Contact Us" page on our website. If you liked our show, please rate and subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere you listen to podcasts. The best way to support a new podcast is to share it with your friends!

Our co-producer, Rob Heath, wrote and performed our theme music. Kalin Siegwalddesigned our logo. Steph Karpuek is our amazing podcast assistant. This is A Sisters By Different Misters Production.

Join us next week as Christine and Jessica read The 1619 Project!

Episode 7 links:

• "The Mind Polluters," by Mark and Amber Archer of Fearless Features (we are not suggesting you watch it, but it's there if you want to see for yourself for $4.99!)
• Mark Archer's IMDB page
• The actual history of Social and Emotional Learning
• The Leader in Me by Stephen Covey (featured in the film)
• Information about Alfred Kinsey (featured in the film)
• Further reading about sowing distrust in public schools from ProPublica

We'd love to hear from you! Send us a text to suggest books, plays, films, or guests, or just share your thoughts!

THIS EPISODE, y'all. Christine and Jessica have an absolutely fascinating conversation with Courtney Gore, a school board member from Granbury ISD. Courtney ran on a campaign to change what was happening in public schools because she'd heard that there were groups actively trying to sexualize children, particularly through the "Social and Emotional Learning" (or SEL) curriculum. When she was elected, she asked to see all of the curriculum for the schools in her district and read it all. And then--she changed her mind. She realized the goal of the books and class lessons was to teach kids to be kinder, more welcoming people. She decided to share the good news publicly with her community that the agenda she'd been told was targeting kids did not exist in the Granbury schools--only to receive death threats. What happened next, and what she learned about WHY books are being banned and schools are being targeted, is just stunning. You won't want to miss a minute of this one!

"The Beautiful and Banned" is produced by Jessica Goudeau and Christine Renee Miller. Follow us on social media: @beautifulandbannedpod, @christinereneemiller, and @jessica_goudeau.

If you’d like to advertise with us, visit the "Contact Us" page on our website. If you liked our show, please rate and subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere you listen to podcasts. The best way to support a new podcast is to share it with your friends!

Our co-producer, Rob Heath, wrote and performed our theme music. Kalin Siegwalddesigned our logo. Steph Karpuek is our amazing podcast assistant. This is A Sisters By Different Misters Production.

Join us next week as Christine and Jessica dig into many of the things they learned in this conversation, including watching The Mind Polluters--the documentary that drove Courtney's campaign (and the work of many other people) in the first place.

Episode 6 Links:

• More about Courtney Gore
• In late 2021/early 2022, Granbury administrators pulled more than 100 library books off the shelves; the superintendent told librarians that knew many of the books did not talk about sex but did have LGBTQ themes.
• The May 2024 ProPublica feature about Gore: "She Campaigned for a Texas School Board Seat as a GOP Hard-Liner. Now She’s Rejecting Her Party’s Extremism."

We'd love to hear from you! Send us a text to suggest books, plays, films, or guests, or just share your thoughts!

Christine tells Jessica about Fahrenheit 451 the Musical...oh, wait, no, that's just what she invented on the spot. This is about the 1953 novel by Ray Bradbury, a staple of high school and college classrooms that eerily predicts our own ban-happy, screen-happy times. Come for the discussion of one of a canonical banned book, stay for Christine's extemporaneous show tunes--the musical idea is actually pretty great!

And special thanks to friend of the podcast, Keenya, for our first listener question! You can join the conversation for free on Patreon, or support our work for just $3 a month. In addition to joining the Banned Geeks Book Club, your $3 helps us stay the course by highlighting banned works and bringing you these conversations each week. Thank you for your support! The success of this podcast depends on you!

"The Beautiful and Banned" is produced by Jessica Goudeau and Christine Renee Miller. Follow us on social media: @beautifulandbannedpod, @christinereneemiller, and @jessica_goudeau.

If you’d like to advertise with us, visit the "Contact Us" page on our website. If you liked our show, please rate and subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere you listen to podcasts. The best way to support a new podcast is to share it with your friends!

Our co-producer, Rob Heath, wrote and performed our theme music. Kalin Siegwald designed our logo. Steph Karpuek is our amazing podcast assistant. This is A Sisters By Different Misters Production.

Join us next week as Christine and Jessica have a fascinating discussion with Courtney Gore from Granbury ISD--here's a sneak peek in the ProPublica feature about her, "She Campaigned for a Texas School Board Seat as a GOP Hard-Liner. Now She’s Rejecting Her Party’s Extremism."

Episode 5 Links:

• More about Ray Bradbury
• More about Fahrenheit 451
• More about the Bal-Hi edition
• Buy a copy of the novel about the Book People from...BookPeople.

We'd love to hear from you! Send us a text to suggest books, plays, films, or guests, or just share your thoughts!

Jessica interviews Charley Rejsek, the CEO of BookPeople, the largest independent bookstore in Texas (and Jessica's hometown bookstore in Austin). This incredible conversation sheds light on what is happening in Texas, which is, in many ways, the epicenter of the fight for the freedom to read. Recent legislation in Texas demands that bookstores--already operating on razor thin margins--do the work of identifying books that politicians deem 'problematic' for schools. If this legislation is allowed to stand in Texas (and many other places where similar legislation is pending or planned), it could be the end of bookstores as we know it. Which is where Charley and others like her come in--through a courageous lawsuit that has paused the law for now, Charley and others are standing in the gap fighting for the freedom to read. Especially during National Banned Books week, this is a conversation you don't want to miss!

"The Beautiful and Banned" is produced by Jessica Goudeau and Christine Renee Miller. Follow us on social media: @beautifulandbannedpod, @christinereneemiller, and @jessica_goudeau.

If you haven’t yet become a Patreon subscriber, you can join now for just $3 a month. In addition to joining the Banned Geeks Book Club, your $3 helps us stay the course by highlighting banned works and bringing you these conversations each week. Thank you for your support! The success of this podcast depends on you!

If you’d like to advertise with us, visit the "Contact Us" page on our website. If you liked our show, please rate and subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere you listen to podcasts. The best way to support a new podcast is to share it with your friends!

Our co-producer, Rob Heath, wrote and performed our theme music. Kalin Siegwald designed our logo. Steph Karpuek is our amazing podcast assistant. This is A Sisters By Different Misters Production.

Join us next week as Christine tells Jessica about Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury!

Episode 4 Links:

• Buy a banned book from BookPeople
• The history of BookPeople
• More about HB 900 in Texas
• BookPeople's HB 900 information page

We'd love to hear from you! Send us a text to suggest books, plays, films, or guests, or just share your thoughts!

In Episode 3, Jessica tells Christine about Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo. This fast-paced book--which shows "what life might have been like for a queer Asian American girl who dreamed of rocket ships, growing up in the 1950s"--is a coming-of-age narrative with a love story. However, it's also a deeply poignant book that tells a story that is all too familiar: how a queer young person has to find hope in the midst of a complicated relationship with her family. Christine and Jessica have a poignant discussion about love, culture, families, and hope in the future for young people who might not always feel hope today.

(Special note: if you need support or to connect with resources, please reach out to us via the "Contact Us" page on our website or @beautifulandbannedpod DM, and we will try to connect you to the right people. If your life is in danger, please speak to trustworthy adults in your life or call 911 immediately.)

"The Beautiful and Banned" is produced by Jessica Goudeau and Christine Renee Miller. Follow us on social media: @beautifulandbannedpod, @christinereneemiller, and @jessica_goudeau.

If you haven’t yet become a Patreon subscriber, you can join now for just $3 a month. In addition to joining the Banned Geeks Book Club, your $3 helps us stay the course by highlighting banned works and bringing you these conversations each week. Thank you for your support! The success of this podcast depends on you!

If you’d like to advertise with us, visit the "Contact Us" page on our website. If you liked our show, please rate and subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere you listen to podcasts. The best way to support a new podcast is to share it with your friends!

Our co-producer, Rob Heath, wrote and performed our theme music. Kalin Siegwald designed our logo. Steph Karpuek is our amazing podcast assistant. This is A Sisters By Different Misters Production.

Join us next week as Jessica interviews Charley Rejsek, the CEO of BookPeople, in an incredible, inspirational interview for National Banned Books Week!

Episode 3 Links:

• Malinda Lo's website
• An excellent interview with Lo for Lambda Literary
• Britannica on McCarthyism
• Time on the Lavender Scare
• Jessica's knowledge about the history of immigration comes from her research for her first book, After the Last Border: Two Families and the Story of Refuge in America

We'd love to hear from you! Send us a text to suggest books, plays, films, or guests, or just share your thoughts!

Christine is joined by special guest, actor Kelly AuCoin, who plays "Dollar" Bill Sterns on Billions and Pastor Tim on The Americans (among many other roles!). They discuss "Life of Brian," the 1979 Monty Python sensation that was banned instantly for its irreverence and satire. This dark comedy still speaks incredibly well to our own particular age, and Christine and Kelly analyze the legacy of the film then and now--and do a lot of British impressions.

If you haven’t yet become a Patreon subscriber, you can join now for just $3 a month. In addition to joining the Banned Geeks Book Club, your $3 helps us stay the course by highlighting banned works and bringing you these conversations each week. Thank you for your support! The success of this podcast depends on you!

"The Beautiful and Banned" is produced by Jessica Goudeau and Christine Renee Miller. Follow us on social media: @beautifulandbannedpod, @christinereneemiller, and @jessica_goudeau.

If you’d like to advertise with us, visit the "Contact Us" page on our website. If you liked our show, please rate and subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere you listen to podcasts. The best way to support a new podcast is to share it with your friends!

Our co-producer, Rob Heath, wrote and performed our theme music. Kalin Siegwald designed our logo. Steph Karpuek is our amazing podcast assistant. This is A Sisters By Different Misters Production.

Join us next week as Christine and Jessica discuss Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo! Make sure you watch our Instagram account for more updates!

Links for Episode 2:

• Kelly Aucoin's website
• Find out more about the incredible nonprofit, KultureCity, that Kelly's on the board of
• Info on Monty Python's "Life of Brian"
• Mary Whitehouse's background info
• A great behind-the-scenes documentary, "The Secret Life of Brian"

We'd love to hear from you! Send us a text to suggest books, plays, films, or guests, or just share your thoughts!