Arts

Velshi Banned Book Club

by MS NOW

Share this ranking Claiming needs an RSS feed. Contact us.

Listen on Apple Podcasts

Chart positions today · Australia

Not on the Australia charts we track today.

If you like Velshi Banned Book Club, try…

Jeselnik Book Club

Latest episodes

MS NOW Presents: Clock It with Symone and Eugene

February 5, 2026 · 2 min

Symone Sanders Townsend and Eugene Daniels were once at odds as White House staffer and White House reporter. Now they’re friends and colleagues—each co-hosting their own shows at MS NOW. But their off-air conversations are where the real…
Preview of “Rachel Maddow Presents: Burn Order”

December 1, 2025 · 10 min

Rachel Maddow’s new series lays bare one of the most shocking decisions in American history. It’s story that reveals how an executive order authorizing the mass roundup of innocent Japanese Americans came to be, the powerful players who…
The Power of Poetry

October 24, 2024 · 42 min

This episode of the Velshi Banned Book Club will confront the barrier to entry that surrounds poetry and tear it down by closely examining a masterclass in poetic storytelling: “Brown Girl Dreaming” by Jacqueline Woodson. "Brown Girl…
Reading Rites of Passage

October 17, 2024 · 37 min

There is one thing that connects the disparate generations of Americans: books. This episode of the Velshi Banned Book Club will look at two novels that don’t just capture the spirit of growing up but punctuate chapters in an American…
Star-Crossed Lovers

October 10, 2024 · 42 min

At first glance, the two books that make-up this episode of the Velshi Banned Book Club have very little similarities. Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” is a critical keystone to both the English language and the art of storytelling…

Show 7 more episodesShow fewer episodes

Memoir as a Medium

October 3, 2024 · 33 min

What is braver than sharing your own story with the world? Nothing. This episode of the Velshi Banned Book Club will examine two true stories: “Hunger” by Roxane Gay and “The Glass Castle” by Jeannette Walls. While these two memoirs are…
War in Literature

September 26, 2024 · 37 min

Heralded as one of the most enduring and salient novels in American history, “The Things They Carried”, written by Tim O’Brien, is a fictionalized account of O’Brien’s very real time as an infantry soldier in the Vietnam War. While, at its…
Coming to America

September 19, 2024 · 38 min

The story of this country is told through the eyes of immigrants. This episode of the Velshi Banned Book Club will explore two critically acclaimed additions to the American immigration literary canon: “How the García Girls Lost Their…
A Legacy of Advocacy

September 12, 2024 · 38 min

We are starting Season 2 of the "Velshi Banned Book Club" with a very special featured book: Ali Velshi’s own “Small Acts of Courage: A Legacy of Endurance and the Fight for Democracy.” Exploring more than a century of his family's…
The Power of Dystopian Literature

September 12, 2024 · 45 min

Good dystopian literature forces its readers to confront ideas of government, culture, community, and identity. This episode of the "Velshi Banned Book Club" will examine two of the most celebrated works of dystopian literature of all…
Introducing: Season 2 of “Velshi Banned Book Club”

September 5, 2024 · 2 min

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…
LGBTQ+ Coming of Age Stories

August 24, 2023 · 37 min

Books that tell LGBTQ+ stories are banned at a disproportionately high rate. The first episode of Velshi Banned Book Club features two equally powerful and poignant novels that grapple with what it means to discover who you are and who you…

Full episode archive on Apple Podcasts →

About the show

Ali Velshi brings you “Velshi Banned Book Club,” an act of resistance against the book banning and censorship epidemic sweeping the nation. In each episode, a different author joins Ali to discuss why their work is being targeted and what is so crucial about the literature itself. “Velshi Banned Book Club” is a series rooted in literary and cultural analysis, in the notion that reading is resistance. Read along with Ali.