Last week, The Journal, a Wall Street Journal podcast, hosted a very special guest: our very own Skip Dye! On the episode titled, “Inside One Publisher’s Fight Against Book Bans,” Skip spoke about leading efforts to fight book bans nationwide at Penguin Random House and why it’s more important than ever to protect the right to read. On the February 26 broadcasted episode, Skip explained, “This is now hampering employees who we have in over 40 states in different ways. It’s impacting how they do their jobs. It’s impacting our authors, how they live their lives.”
The episode also featured commentary by Hailie Bonz, a plaintiff brought in on the lawsuit Penguin Random House and the Iowa State Education Association filed against the state of Iowa, challenging its Senate File 496. Hailie said, “I was by far not the only one frustrated by this. And it’s really sad to see that our government doesn’t have the same trust that we as students do in our teachers and librarians… I remember back in early 2023, my friend was taking an advanced women’s writers class and she told me that they had just finished reading The Color Purple and The Handmaid’s Tale. And at the time I was in advanced literature, so we weren’t reading the same books, but I was remembering, “Oh, I need to go read those books.” And then, I went to the teacher to go get those and she was like, “Well, you should read them while you can,” and it was heartbreaking.”
To listen to the full episode, click here. To read more about our fight against book banning, explore the articles here.
Posted: March 6, 2024
