Stop Banning Books: Jonathan Friedman

Thursday, September 29th, 2022   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.   Education has always been political and a part of the culture war. We’re 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.    Follow Jonathan on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/jonfreadom    Follow Mila on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/milaatmos    Follow Future Hindsight on Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/futurehindsightpod/   Love Future Hindsight? Take our Listener Survey!  http://survey.podtrac.com/start-survey.aspx?pubid=6tI0Zi1e78vq&ver=standard    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’s entire suite of features. Start selling on Shopify today.   Want to support the show and get it early?  https://patreon.com/futurehindsight    Check out the Future Hindsight website!  www.futurehindsight.com     Credits:   Host: Mila Atmos  Guest: Jonathan Friedman Executive Producer: Mila Atmos Producers: Zack Travis and Sara Burningham