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Connections: Celebrating Banned Books Week

The freedom to read is one of the most powerful ideas in human history: it enables us to consider new ideas and information. But that has always made some people in power uncomfortable. Banning books is a tradition that goes back hundreds of years in this country, and it's a practice that still very much alive today.

This is Banned Books Week, and this hour, we look at trends in book banning. Who is doing the banning? Which groups are calling for the bans? What trends have emerged in recent years -- in other words, what kids of themes in books are more likely to be banned? Plus, we want to hear your thoughts on the process of banning books and its effects. Our guests:

  • Joe Flaherty, founding director of Writers & Books
  • Mari Tsuchiya, senior library assistant at the River Campus Libraries at the University of Rochester
  • Ryan Prendergast, associate professor of Spanish in the Department of Modern Languages and Cultures at the University of Rochester
Megan Mack is the executive producer of "Connections with Evan Dawson" and live/televised engagement programming.
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