Borrowed and Returned is a new podcast series that examines what our reading public borrowed in the past, and what we’re all reading now. In conversations with library workers, authors and readers across the country, we’ll return to the books that changed us, and changed America, too.
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Episode Transcript
Virginia Marshall Recently, there’s been a lot of controversy over books. Which books to read. Which books to teach. Which books to share with our children.
Newscaster 1 It’s a trend you’ve no doubt read about, the growing list of books banned in our nation’s classrooms and libraries.
Newscaster 2 Librarians are finding themselves under intense scrutiny.
Adwoa Adusei These fights over the freedom to read make it clearer than ever that books have power.
Virginia Marshall They have the power to comfort and entertain. They can change the conversation on things like incarceration, representation, and the environment. Books have even changed legislation … and changed our minds, too.
Adwoa Adusei We sent out a survey to writers, readers, and library workers. We asked them: what books changed you?
Virginia Marshall The responses we got were incredible. We heard stories about books that entered people’s lives at just the right moment.
Reginald Dwayne Betts When I got into prison and I was looking for solace, I realized that I had been getting solace from books for a very, very long time.
Adwoa Adusei Books that allowed readers to see themselves there on the page.
Deborah Pope It wasn't just that this book was about a child of color. It was also about class.
Virginia Marshall Books that helped readers navigate natural disaster.
Sylvie Andrews Many of us talk now after the fire about that moment and when it came for us, and I think it came a lot earlier for me because I had read these books.
Virginia Marshall We want to bring all these stories to you, to show you that books have always had power, and this uproar about books … It's nothing new.
Adwoa Adusei Over the next several weeks, we’ll tell the stories of these books from the time that they were published …
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz The other faculty, they thought it was too radical … and they hadn't even read it.
Adwoa Adusei To the moment they entered readers' hearts and minds.
N.K. Jemisin When I began to read her books and began to realize this is a Black woman, like me, she's been published, it can be done … it opened up a whole vista of possibilities.
Virginia Marshall Following up on our award-winning series Borrowed and Banned about America’s war with its bookshelves… this is Borrowed and Returned, revisiting the books that changed us, and changed America, too.
Adwoa Adusei Our first episode drops on July 8 … subscribe wherever you find podcasts.