Gabfest Reads | The Unlikely Rise of Judy Blume
Political Gabfest
Slate Podcasts
4.4 • 8.5K Ratings
🗓️ 18 April 2026
⏱️ 40 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Emily Bazelon talks with journalist Mark Oppenheimer about his new book
Judy Blume: A Life. Oppenheimer, who spent years with Blume’s papers at
Yale and conducted extensive interviews with the author herself, traces
how a restless housewife in New Jersey became one of the most
beloved—and most banned—writers in American history.
They discuss what made Blume’s frank, funny voice so revolutionary for
young readers in the 1970s, the surprisingly progressive household that
shaped her, and the genius of Forever, her landmark novel in which
teenage sex is depicted as pleasurable rather than catastrophic. They
also dig into the scandalous adult novel Wifey, Blume’s dogged
persistence through rejection, and her tireless championing of other
writers’ right to be read.
Tweet us your questions @SlateGabfest or email us at gabfest@slate.com.
(Messages could be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates
otherwise.)
Podcast production by Nina Porzucki.
Need to set up your Slate Plus feed? If you subscribed through Slate.com, check out our FAQ at slate.com/podcastfaqs for easy instructions. Members subscribed via Apple Podcasts get automatic access—no setup required.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to GabFest Reeds for the month of April 26. |
| 0:12.8 | I'm Emily Bazelan, one of the hosts of Slate's Political GabFest. |
| 0:16.4 | I am so pleased to be here today with Mark Oppenheimer, who is the author of several books and teaches at the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Wash U. |
| 0:26.7 | And we are here to talk about his new book, which I'm a big fan of. |
| 0:30.6 | It's called Judy Blume A Life, and it's a biography of the iconic author, Judy Blum. |
| 0:36.8 | Of course, the author of Are You There, God, |
| 0:39.5 | it's me, Margaret, and everything else under the sun that we read as teenagers, Deanie, and |
| 0:46.1 | starring Sally J. Freeman as herself. And then again, maybe I won't and superfudge and a million |
| 0:51.6 | other things. Judy Blum changed the face of literature for kids |
| 0:56.7 | and young teenagers. She's one of the most successful authors, I think, of the 20th century, ever, |
| 1:04.2 | ever. She sold about 90 million books. I think she's the, she's certainly one of the top five |
| 1:09.3 | selling women authors ever and maybe the most successful Jewish woman author ever. I mean, she's certainly one of the top five selling women authors ever and maybe the |
| 1:11.4 | most successful Jewish woman author ever. I mean, there's all sorts of superlatives. 90 million books. |
| 1:16.3 | It's just a lot of books, Emily. Really? I don't think I've sold 90 million books. |
| 1:20.7 | That's more than me and you put together. Oh my God. So much more. We're not even in the universe. |
| 1:26.7 | So many extra zeros. Exactly. So why? So why Judy |
| 1:31.0 | Bloom? There were a lot of people in the moment she started in 1970 who were starting to write |
| 1:37.1 | what you call realistic novels for young, for like tweens, right? You're kind of distinguishing her from what we now |
| 1:47.7 | think of as why a young adult um so anyway that's a lot of detail for me to be giving but why why was |
| 1:53.9 | she the person who generated so much love and controversy and so many book sales. Judy is the one who says that it's not |
| 2:02.6 | YA. She always draws that distinction. So I honor her. There wasn't such a category. No one talked |
| 2:06.9 | about YA. There was no category in the bookstore in 1970 for YA. And also, her books really are, |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Slate Podcasts, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Slate Podcasts and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.