Today’s episode is something different — an essay written and narrated by Jennifer. It’s about growing up believing America was the good guy, watching that belief crack, and trying to hold on to hope anyway. If you’ve ever looked at someone you love and wondered how they became a stranger, this one’s for you. We’ll be back next week with the usual literary troublemaking and dystopian nonsense.

In this chapter of Brave New World, everything falls apart for Bernard. The Savage refuses to attend his party, Lenina wrestles with rejection, and the façade of happiness starts to crack. Meanwhile, Mustapha Mond quietly decides which ideas are too dangerous for the public to read. 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: Bernard’s big party turns into public humiliation ...

Death gets candy, love gets awkward, and everyone gets soma. In Chapter 11, Lenina tries to connect with John after a night of “feelies,” while Bernard basks in borrowed fame and Robot fact-checks everything from chocolate-cream conditioning to Clarence Thomas’s butter-dish rumors. Banned Camp is the 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 “Death conditioning” for toddlers and what it sa...

Linda returns to “civilization,” but comfort comes at a cost. While Bernard basks in sudden popularity, Linda disappears into her drug-induced haze...and her son John the Savage starts to see what happiness looks like when it’s manufactured. 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 comparing Huxley’s Soma addiction to modern-day painkillers (and Rush Limbaugh).The bleak ...

It’s our third annual Halloween special, and this year we invited librarian, author, and cosbrarian extraordinaire Liz Gotauco to read two classics from Alvin Schwartz’s notorious collection. Liz gives “The Hook” a modern twist, then serves up “Just Delicious,” a grim little tale with perfect spooky-season karma. Banned Camp is a comedy podcast where we read banned books chapter by chapter… and sometimes, on holidays, banned kids’ books that scared whole generations. Things To Listen Fo...

The Director plans to humiliate Bernard in front of thousands of workers… until his own secret explodes in public. Meanwhile, Linda makes her shocking return, John calls someone “father” in a world where that word doesn’t exist, and the whole society short-circuits from embarrassment. 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 Director’s moral meltdown in front of 4,000 e...

Lenina crashes on a Soma holiday while Bernard hatches a plan... and John breaks into her room in a lovesick spiral that’s equal parts Shakespearean and creepy. Robot fact-checks the chaos, Jennifer calls out Huxley’s lazy racism, and Dan coins “the shark rule” for slur warnings. 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 Bernard pulls bureaucratic strings to bring John ...

In this emotional finale to Chapter 8, Jennifer and Dan follow John the Savage through the painful moment that defines him. Rejected by his tribe for being different, stoned and bleeding under the moonlight, John realizes he belongs nowhere — not in the World State, not in the Reservation. When Bernard finally offers him and Linda a chance to go “home,” the stage is set for the book’s biggest collision: idealism meets reality. Things to Listen For The Kiva ceremony and John’s brutal exc...

In this episode of Banned Camp, Jennifer and Dan continue Chapter 8 of Brave New World, where John discovers a tattered copy of The Complete Works of Shakespeare — and it changes his life forever. Things to Listen For The scene where he tries to stab Pope — and what it reveals about Huxley’s view of violence and emotion.Jennifer arguing that reading is what makes us dangerous and human.The transition from blood to pottery — creation as redemption.Banworthy to Bingeworthy After a chapter...

hey scary book people — happy sunday. our hosting provider glitched last week, and a bunch of you didn’t get the full episode (or it cut out halfway through). so we pulled together a quick ten-minute highlight to get you caught up before tuesday’s new chapter. this mini-episode hits the key moments from last week’s brave new world — the chaos, the heartbreak, and yes, the weird singing part that didn’t make much sense anyway. thanks for hanging with us and keeping the banned-book spirit alive...

In this episode of Banned Camp, Jennifer and Dan unpack Chapter 8 of Brave New World, where John the Savage’s backstory finally comes to light. Raised by his mother Linda in the Savage Reservation, John grows up between two worlds — neither accepted by the locals nor able to forget the stories his mother tells about the “civilized” one she came from. Things to Listen For John’s childhood memories and his uneasy bond with Linda.Linda’s shame, addiction, and the brutality of motherhood i...

In this episode of Banned Camp, Jennifer and Dan tackle Chapter 7.3 of Brave New World, where Bernard and Lenina finally meet Linda — the woman who vanished years ago from the Director’s life. What they find isn’t a romantic reunion story but a tragedy wrapped in tequila, dust, and lost teeth. Things To Listen For Linda’s shocking reappearance — the missing teeth, the booze, the heartbreak.Lenina’s horror at everything “unclean” — including empathy itself.Robot’s clarification that peyotl isn...

In this episode of Banned Camp, Jennifer and Dan finish Chapter 7 of Brave New World—and things get weird fast. The reservation’s drums, dances, and whips turn into a full-blown spectacle of blood, snakes, and sacrifice. Lenina, off her Soma for the first time, spirals into panic, while Bernard watches with equal parts horror and fascination. Things To Listen For Lenina’s first true breakdown without Soma.The drums, dancing, and ritual whipping that horrify both readers and listeners.Jennifer...

In this episode of Banned Camp, Jennifer and Dan reach Chapter 7 of Brave New World, where Bernard and Lenina finally arrive at the Savage Reservation — and instantly regret it. Lenina hates the smells, the dust, and the people; Bernard tries to stay philosophical, and Robot ends up the only one keeping his composure. The two witness poverty, age, motherhood, and death — everything their sanitized society has erased. Jennifer defends the locals’ dignity while Dan compares Lenina to a modern i...

In Chapter 6.4 of Brave New World, Bernard and Lenina finally make their way toward the Savage Reservation. Along the way, they meet a blockheaded warden obsessed with random facts, fences, and electrified borders, while Bernard just worries about leaving his cologne tap running. Jennifer and Dan debate whether the Reservation is really a museum, a prison, or both — while Robot loses patience with the whole argument. Things To Listen For: Bernard worrying more about cologne bills than dystopi...

In Chapter 6.3 of Brave New World, Bernard gets more than he bargained for when the Director turns a routine permit request into a meltdown about secrets, suspicion, and society’s disapproval. Jennifer wonders who’s really in charge of this dystopia, while Dan imagines what would happen if he mouthed off in the Director’s office (spoiler: it wouldn’t end well). Along the way, they debate Fordism, religion, alpha egos, and what it means to stand out in a world that demands conformity. Things T...

In Chapter 6.2 of Brave New World, Lenina insists she’s “awfully pneumatic,” Bernard tries to explain what passion means, and the Director reveals a secret past involving a lost lover and a thunderstorm in New Mexico. Dan and Jennifer riff on everything from propaganda slogans to Fox News logic, before taking a detour into rapture prophecies that (spoiler) never came true. What should have been a quick permit signature turns into one of the book’s strangest cliffhangers. Things To Listen For:...

This isn’t a normal Banned Camp episode. Instead of banned book chaos, Dan steps up to the mic with a personal essay: How to Survive Fascists (Without Going Crazy). What starts with a memory of reading 1984 and realizing “we’re living this book right now” turns into a survival guide for anyone trying to keep their sanity in an era of censorship, conspiracy theories, and Uncle Franks at the dinner table. From book-burning “heroes” in Fahrenheit 451, to Atticus Finch teaching us why facts don’t...

In this episode of Banned Camp, Jennifer and Dan read Chapter 6.1 of Brave New World, where Lenina weighs a holiday with Bernard against the North Pole with Benito Hoover, and Bernard proves that being “odd” means wanting walks and conversations instead of electromagnetic golf. Their helicopter date over the English Channel spirals into an argument: Bernard craves freedom from conditioning, Lenina just wants Soma and distraction. Things To Listen For: Why Lenina almost ditched Bernard f...

In this episode of Banned Camp, Jennifer and Dan dive into Chapter 5.1 of Brave New World, where Bernard attends his dreaded Solidarity Service. Twelve strangers gather around a table, chant hymns to Ford, pass around Soma ice cream, and end the night with a full-blown “Orgy-Porgy.” Jennifer zeroes in on Huxley’s satire of ritual and religion, Dan gets hung up on Morgana Rothschild’s unibrow, and Robot fact-checks the Ford-as-Christ swap with his usual deadpan precision. Things To Liste...