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When Banned Things Happen To Good People is a podcast about censorship and the arts. Hosts Todd Sullivan and Peter Aman examine books, films, and more that have been banned or challenged in the past.
Episodes
7 days ago
7 days ago
56 min
Todd and Peter wrap up their look at The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank with this live episode, discussing the challenges the book faced on its way to publication, the different versions of the book that were published over the years, and the controversies around its inclusion in school libraries and curriculums. It is perhaps because of the power of the story that it has seen as much controversy as it has, because, as our hosts agree, it's a story that's as valuable today as ever, if not even moreso.
Email: bannedthingshappen@gmail.com
Facebook: https://facebook.com/bannedthingshappen
Web: https://blahblahblahmedia.com
Patreon: https://patreon.com/blahblahblahmedia
Sep 7, 2026
Sep 7, 2026
1 hr 30 min
Todd and Peter dig into the final 100 pages of The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank, and ultimately the final weeks and months of her life. Hope still lingers in these pages, even as we know what is waiting for them at the end.
Email: bannedthingshappen@gmail.com
Facebook: https://facebook.com/bannedthingshappen
Web: https://blahblahblahmedia.com
Patreon: https://patreon.com/blahblahblahmedia
Jul 11, 2026
Jul 11, 2026
1 hr 8 min
We enter the second year of living in the Annex with Anne and her family as World War II continues around them. Hope is diminished but not gone and Anne struggles with complicated adolescent feelings -- whether frustration with the elders around her or budding feelings of love for Peter -- in this difficult and confined space. These entries cover a period from mid‑1943 to early‑1944.
Email: bannedthingshappen@gmail.com
Facebook: https://facebook.com/bannedthingshappen
Web: https://blahblahblahmedia.com
Patreon: https://patreon.com/blahblahblahmedia
May 25, 2026
May 25, 2026
1 hr 11 min
After a few weeks of scheduling difficulties, Todd and Peter have managed to get back to the microphones to start their look at The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank, a true story of a young girl and her family's attempt to avoid detection from the Nazis during World War II.
Email: bannedthingshappen@gmail.com
Facebook: https://facebook.com/bannedthingshappen
Web: https://blahblahblahmedia.com
Patreon: https://patreon.com/blahblahblahmedia
Mar 21, 2026
Mar 21, 2026
1 hr 14 min
Todd and Peter dig into some literal shit this episode with a look at Pier Paolo Pasolini's controversial Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom a film that is both graphically and thematically grotesque. Telling the story of four best friends living their best life in the Italian countryside, torturing, raping, and eventually murdering a number of local teenagers in the fascist Republic of Salò.
Email: bannedthingshappen@gmail.com
Facebook: https://facebook.com/bannedthingshappen
Web: https://blahblahblahmedia.com
Patreon: https://patreon.com/blahblahblahmedia
Feb 2, 2026
Feb 2, 2026
1 hr 1 min
If you missed our recent live episode, worry not because we made a copy of it for you so you could check it out to hear our final thoughts on Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower, a book that takes a pretty intimate look at some of the best and worst sides of high school. We also talk briefly about the film adaptation, which was written and directed by Chbosky.
Email: bannedthingshappen@gmail.com
Facebook: https://facebook.com/bannedthingshappen
Web: https://blahblahblahmedia.com
Patreon: https://patreon.com/blahblahblahmedia
Jan 10, 2026
Jan 10, 2026
1 hr 15 min
Charlie continues to struggle with his high school experience in the latter half of Stephen Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Todd and Pete take the journey with him and come out the other side, a little bit wiser, a little bit more emotional, and yes, a little bit more messedup.
Email: bannedthingshappen@gmail.com
Facebook: https://facebook.com/bannedthingshappen
Web: https://blahblahblahmedia.com
Patreon: https://patreon.com/blahblahblahmedia
Dec 22, 2025
Dec 22, 2025
1 hr 9 min
It's been a crazy few weeks for us here at Banned Things, and we haven't had the chance to get together to record a new episode, so here's one from our bank that we recorded earlier in 2025 dedicated to Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead. Todd and Pete break down this classic of sloppy gore, slapstick comedy, and books of the dead, while considering its rightful place in horror history.
Email: bannedthingshappen@gmail.com
Facebook: https://facebook.com/bannedthingshappen
Web: https://blahblahblahmedia.com
Patreon: https://patreon.com/blahblahblahmedia
Nov 24, 2025
Nov 24, 2025
1 hr 9 min
It's back to school time (or at least it was when we started reading this), and Todd and Pete are pulling The Perks of Being a Wallflower out of the school library to read over Christmas vacation, or however long it takes for all these episodes to come out. Here's part one of our look at the fourth most banned book of 2024.
Email: bannedthingshappen@gmail.com
Facebook: https://facebook.com/bannedthingshappen
Web: https://blahblahblahmedia.com
Patreon: https://patreon.com/blahblahblahmedia
Oct 7, 2025
Oct 7, 2025
1 hr 36 min
We're adjacent to 1984 this episode as Todd and Peter take a look at the Terry Gilliam film Brazil, which also features a dystopian society, fascistic government bodies, and a doomed love story, but with noticeably more laughs. Though Gilliam did eventually get his version of the film to audiences, it didn't come without a fight, which you'll learn a bit about here.
Email: bannedthingshappen@gmail.com
Facebook: https://facebook.com/bannedthingshappen
Web: https://blahblahblahmedia.com
Patreon: https://patreon.com/blahblahblahmedia