Velshi Banned Book Club

Introducing “Clock It,” a new podcast at the intersection of culture and politics from Symone Sanders Townsend and Eugene Daniels.

Transcribed - Published: 5 February 2026

Rachel Maddow’s new podcast “Burn Order” is out now! Listen to a special preview.

Transcribed - Published: 1 December 2025

Featuring “Brown Girl Dreaming” by Jacqueline Woodson

Transcribed - Published: 24 October 2024

Featuring “Bridge to Terabithia” by Katherine Paterson and “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky

Transcribed - Published: 17 October 2024

Featuring "Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare and "All the Rivers" by Dorit Rabinyan

Transcribed - Published: 10 October 2024

Featuring "Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body" by Roxane Gay and "The Glass Castle: A Memoir" by Jeannette Walls

Transcribed - Published: 3 October 2024

Featuring “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien

Transcribed - Published: 26 September 2024

Featuring “How the García Girls Lost Their Accents” by Julia Alvarez and “American Street” by Ibi Zoboi

Transcribed - Published: 19 September 2024

Featuring "Small Acts of Courage" by Ali Velshi

Transcribed - Published: 12 September 2024

Featuring "The Giver" by Lois Lowry and "1984" by George Orwell

Transcribed - Published: 12 September 2024

MSNBC's Ali Velshi brings you a second season of the “Velshi Banned Book Club.” Book banning is happening more and more. Removing literature from library shelves, school syllabi, and summer reading lists isn’t just blatant censorship; it is the tip of the sword that threatens American democracy itself. Featuring critically acclaimed and culturally impactful literature – including work by Tim O’Brien, Roxane Gay, Lois Lowry, and Stephen Chbosky – the second season of the “Velshi Banned Book Club” puts the booking banning epidemic into necessary context. Read along with Ali Velshi and follow now to listen to the first two episodes on Thursday, September 12th . Subscribe to MSNBC Premium on Apple Podcasts for early access to every episode the week before it drops, ad-free listening, and bonus content.

Transcribed - Published: 5 September 2024

Featuring the U.S. Constitution

Transcribed - Published: 12 October 2023

Featuring "Beloved" by Toni Morrison and "Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Zora Neale Hurston

Transcribed - Published: 5 October 2023

Introducing “How to Win 2024,” a new MSNBC podcast hosted by Claire McCaskill and Jennifer Palmieri.

Transcribed - Published: 29 September 2023

Featuring "Ready or Not" by Meg Cabot and "Speak" by Laurie Halse Anderson

Transcribed - Published: 28 September 2023

Featuring “Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe” by Benjamin Alire Sáenz and “Out of Darkness” by Ashley Hope Pérez

Transcribed - Published: 21 September 2023

Featuring "The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story" by Nikole Hannah-Jones

Transcribed - Published: 14 September 2023

Featuring "Nineteen Minutes" by Jodi Picoult and "Give a Boy a Gun" by Todd Strasser

Transcribed - Published: 7 September 2023

Featuring "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood, "The Tempest" by William Shakespeare, and "Hagseed" by Margaret Atwood

Transcribed - Published: 31 August 2023

Featuring "All American Boys" by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely and "Dear Martin" by Nic Stone

Transcribed - Published: 24 August 2023

Featuring "Two Boys Kissing" by David Levithan and "Boy Erased" by Garrard Conley

Transcribed - Published: 24 August 2023

MSNBC’s Ali Velshi brings you the “Velshi Banned Book Club,” an act of resistance against the epidemic of book banning. In each episode, a different author of a banned book joins Ali—including Margaret Atwood, Nikole Hannah-Jones, Laurie Halse Anderson, George M. Johnson and more—to talk about why their work is being targeted and about the literature itself. “Velshi Banned Book Club” is a series rooted in literary and cultural analysis and in the notion of reading as resistance. Read along with Ali and follow now to listen to the first two episodes on August 24th.

Transcribed - Published: 15 August 2023