The episode of Just In Case We Die is the first installment in an experiment of sorts. This experiment was prompted by a discussion I had with a regular listener. This listener had very kind things to say about the content of our programming. They made a recommendation for a book that we should read and discuss, a novel by a beloved American writer that appears nowhere in the original list. This listener also said that they enjoy our program so much that they wish we could drop episodes more frequently.
That got us thinking: Is there a logical reason that we couldn’t do two episodes per month instead of just one? We obviously can’t discuss two books per month– ain’t nobody got time for that— but we could devote airtime to book-related content. There is truly no shortage of ideas for material: we could discuss the works of writers that do not appear on the list, discuss the movie adaptations of books we really enjoyed or read for our program, respond to listener emails, discuss books suggested by our audience, etc. There are also things that we would like to discuss that we don’t necessarily have time for without making our regular episode become a two-and-a-half hour time commitment for fans.
For example . . . The American Library Association has designated the week of October 1 through October 7, 2023 as Banned Books Week. Both Rodney and I are in passionate and adamant opposition of book censorship in any form. We both also have many books that have meant a great deal to us over the years that have somehow managed to find themselves on the overgrowing list of novels that have been challenged or censored. We wanted to take some time to have a conversation about these works of literature, about the nature of banning in general, and whether, in some cases, the complaints about some of these books are warranted. We recorded this special episode with the intention of dropping it during Banned Books Week.
Unfortunately for people who came here today to download our discussion of Solitude by Victor Català, Banned Books Week fell during the week of the month that we normally post new discussions. To drop a discussion of banned books when it wasn’t actually Banned Books Week anymore seemed a pointless undertaking, so we agreed that this month was an excellent time to begin the experiment.
Our first bonus episode, in which we discuss a listener email, make a personal ranking of the books we’ve read so far, and each offer and recommend five novels that have been banned or challenged can be accessed by pushing “Play” on the audio player below. Our discussion of Solitude, which features our friend, Ilsa– our inaugural guest!– will drop two weeks from today.
We do thank all of you for listening to our podcast. We especially thank those of you who have engaged us with us through our various social media outlets. We started this podcast for us, and it means a lot that it actually means something to others as well.
Don’t ban books.
Just In Case We Die 