In this episode, we speak with John Chrastka, the founder and Executive Director of EveryLibrary. He explains the recent increase in the number of book challenges and bans in America. We explore the rationality and motivations behind book bans, and discuss various ways to protect libraries and intellectual thought for future generations.

EveryLibrary helps public schools and college libraries win funding at the ballot box and seeks to ensure stable funding and access to libraries for generations to come. They also support grassroot efforts across the country to defend and support local libraries against book banning, illicit political interference, and threats of closure. Please visit their website (https://www.everylibrary.org/) to learn more.

Dr. Patrick Hunnicutt and Dr. Geoffrey Henderson discuss their research that air pollution reduces the level of political participation in the United States. As they explain, this could have serious negative consequences for the future of American democracy — as air pollution increases, democracy will suffer. Despite their findings, Drs. Hunnicutt and Henderson offer clear policy solutions and suggestions to reverse this negative trend.

We speak with Eve Schaub, an internationally published author and humorist. She is the author of Year of No Sugar and Year of No Clutter, and her work has been featured on the Dr. Oz Show, Fox & Friends, USA Today, and The Huffington Post among others. We discuss Eve’s latest book, Year of No Garbage, in which she describes her attempt to live an entire year without creating any trash at all! Eve explains the ubiquity of plastics which she characterizes as the 'Darth Vader’ of the environment, provides insight on why our modern recycling system is broken, and argues that it may actually be better not to recycle.