Hi, MS NBC's Ali Velshi here and I've got great news.

We're launching a new podcast called Velshi Banned Book Club.

By now I'm sure you've heard all about the book The Velshi Band Book Club transcends news coverage of the bands themselves to focus

on the literature and the authors who've been targeted.

Stay right here to listen to the first episode featuring my conversation with two crucial authors, David

Levithan on his bestseller Two Boys Kissing, and Garrett Connley on his award winning book,

Boy Erased. You can also search for Velshe Band Book Club wherever

you're listening right now and follow the series. In the weeks ahead we'll dive into even more

important literature and conversations with authors, but for now here's episode one.

Thanks for listening. Welcome to the first meeting of the Valshi Band Book Club. I'm Ali Valshi.

Pick a school district in any state, red or blue, and more likely

than not, the teachers, librarians, parents, and administration there have been embroiled

in a furious debate over a book during a Tuesday night

school board meeting. This is not good material. This is this is

pornographic. This is indoctrination. It's sickening. I'm sure we've got hundreds of people out there that would like to see those books before we burn them.

They're sexually explicit. They're pornographic. They're disgusting. I'm disgusted just looking at them. I want you to start

focusing on education and not public health. What exactly do you think our kids are learning from this book?

The vitriol is not letting up. The fight over free and fair access to books is

only intensifying and the stakes are getting higher.

Our friends at Pan America, a non-profit advocating for free expression, recorded nearly

1500 instances of books banned in the 2022 to 2023 school year, the highest since Penn began

tracking book banning more than two decades ago. Overwhelmingly the books that are targeted are those by and about minorities and LGBTQ-plus individuals.

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