Stop Banning Books: Jonathan Friedman

Published: Sept. 29, 2022, noon

b'

Thursday, September 29th, 2022

\\xa0

Jonathan Friedman is the director of free expression and education programs at PEN America. He oversees research, advocacy, and education related to academic freedom, educational gag orders, book bans, and general free expression in schools, colleges, and universities. We discuss the driving forces behind campaigns to ban books and silence teachers.

\\xa0

Education has always been political and a part of the culture war. We\\u2019re currently experiencing an eruption of citizen anger against schools, books, school librarians, and teachers for allegedly engaging in something dangerous. For example, anything about diversity and inclusion is labeled as critical race theory. Libraries were actually put inside schools to encourage literacy and development, civic engagement, and exploration that is very healthy for a society. Politicians are increasingly trying to label whatever they don\'t like in schools as something that should be censored, and there are efforts to defund or close public libraries.\\xa0

\\xa0

Follow Jonathan on Twitter:\\xa0

https://twitter.com/jonfreadom\\xa0

\\xa0

Follow Mila on Twitter:\\xa0

https://twitter.com/milaatmos\\xa0

\\xa0

Follow Future Hindsight on Instagram:\\xa0

https://www.instagram.com/futurehindsightpod/

\\xa0

Love Future Hindsight? Take our Listener Survey!\\xa0

http://survey.podtrac.com/start-survey.aspx?pubid=6tI0Zi1e78vq&ver=standard\\xa0

\\xa0

Sponsor

Thanks to Shopify for supporting the show! Go to shopify.com/hopeful for a FREE fourteen-day trial and get full access to Shopify\\u2019s entire suite of features. Start selling on Shopify today.

\\xa0

Want to support the show and get it early?\\xa0

https://patreon.com/futurehindsight\\xa0

\\xa0

Check out the Future Hindsight website!\\xa0

www.futurehindsight.com

\\xa0

\\xa0

Credits:

\\xa0

Host: Mila Atmos\\xa0

Guest: Jonathan Friedman

Executive Producer: Mila Atmos

Producers: Zack Travis and Sara Burningham

'