Judy, so I am so happy to be talking to you. You are an old friend of mine and a very close friend of my mothers, and I'm always happy to have an excuse to have a conversation with you.

Oh, thank you.

And we are talking today a day before election day in November 24. How are you feeling, my friend?

I am high anxiety, Meg. Hi anxiety, but I'm so happy that I get to talk to you because maybe for a half an hour or so,

you know, I won't be thinking about it.

I know, I know.

That is, it's the greatest distraction.

Although I will say we're going to be talking about something that's a, you know,

a painful, difficult and really important topic, which is book banning. And your books have been banned for decades, and you are a huge advocate

against book banning. But have you been surprised by the surge of book banning in our country?

I think what's surprising is that it's coming from government. You know, it's state legislators. I can never

say the plural of that word correctly. Those just statures that are doing it. I live in a state.

We like to pretend that Key West, of course, it's not part of Florida.

Right.

I live in Key West.

But the reality is, it is part of Florida.

And we have the same government.

And we have the same governor.

And we have had so much book banning in this state that Pan America opened an office in Miami, Pan America, Florida,

to try to deal with all the book banning.

And what kind of results have they had with this office?

That's a very good question.

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