Hello, welcome to Halo with Amrata. If you're a regular listener, welcome back. Hello, guys.

And for those of you who are just joining us for the first time every Tuesday and Thursday,

we put out new episodes of Halo with Amrata. On Tuesdays, I do a feature length interview

with relevant guests that I like. On Thursdays, we do Amrata Ask, which is the episode you're

listening to right now. That's where I do kind of a deep dive on a different topic or question

or idea that's been on my mind. Sometimes it's about what's going on in the news. Other times,

it's just something that's come into my personal life and I'm thinking about or something that we

pulled from an interview or conversation we had on the Tuesday episode and we explore. Every

Thursday, we also drop an exclusive subscriber, only talk back episode. That's where I take your

voice notes and questions and respond to them. And yeah, I recommend that episode. I think it

really builds community. You can hear from other listeners. It just like opens up the conversation

in a way that's really nice. So go to the free trial feature on Apple Podcasts to check it out if

you want to see what it's like and see if you're into it. And also please submit your thoughts

on high-low.fm. Okay, so we're talking about banned books today and I was lucky enough to attend

the Penn Gala with my lit agent a month or so ago and they were having a lot of conversations

about banned books and what's happening right now in the US. Penn America is a non-profit

organization that works to defend and celebrate free expression in the US and worldwide through

the advancement of literature and human rights. I just want to be clear this episode is going to focus

on United States. Obviously, banned books in other countries and places are also a huge issue

and the repercussions are tenfold and really scary and have to do with like human rights and freedom.

And so we are just focusing on the US today but I just wanted to note that this is happening

all around the world and has historically happened all around the world. It's been in the news

...