S9E15: The Power of Story
Love Letters
The Boston Globe
4.6 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 9 July 2024
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In the final episode of a season all about help, Meredith sits down with students from the writing and publishing organization 826 Boston, which just released a new book — called “What if the World Needs You?”— that’s full of advice and life lessons for young people. Also, Meredith’s producers surprise her with a collection of stories from her friends and loved ones about times she has helped them in ways large and small. Email us at [email protected]. You can also send relationship questions to Meredith and sign up for Love Letters updates by texting 617-744-7007.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | From the Boston Globe and PRX, this is Love Letters. |
| 0:05.0 | I'm Meredith Goldstein. So, Books can be dangerous to certain kinds of people. |
| 0:29.4 | They're dangerous to people who certain kinds of people. They're dangerous to people who are |
| 0:34.2 | scared of having their assumptions challenged. Dangerous to people fearful of |
| 0:38.6 | new ideas and new voices. Dangerous to people who are so committed to their own way of being that they can't |
| 0:45.2 | possibly contemplate any other. |
| 0:48.1 | It's this false sense of danger that has sparked book bans in more than 40 states over the past few years. |
| 0:54.6 | The organization Penn America documented more than 4,300 instances of books being banned |
| 1:00.8 | in public school classrooms and libraries during the second half of |
| 1:04.7 | 2023. |
| 1:05.7 | Around the country, efforts to ban specific books or even whole categories of books are on the |
| 1:11.6 | rise. Well, we want to turn now to the sharp rise in book bands in America's schools and libraries. |
| 1:17.3 | A recent study found hundreds of books mostly focused on LGBTQ themes or racial issues have now been forbidden across the country. |
| 1:26.5 | As a journalist and author, I find all of this very dismaying. |
| 1:30.0 | Especially because so many of these acts of censorship seek to quash books from voices that historically have been shut out of the public dialogue. |
| 1:38.0 | Notably, Penn America found that the authors most frequently targeted are women, people of color, LGBTQ plus or some |
| 1:45.7 | combination. This isn't just theoretical to me either. Two people who have been on |
| 1:50.6 | this podcast have had books banned. One is my friend Sarah Farazan |
| 1:54.8 | who appeared on season two of love letters. She's the one who played wingwoman |
| 1:58.4 | as we took single errand to a bar. Her young adult books have been banned. So have YA books by my friend |
| 2:04.8 | Katie Katugno, who was also on season two. Both Sarah and Katie have written stories |
| 2:09.7 | packed with wonderful lessons and new ways to see the world. It's horrible to think |
... |
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