Jul 10, 202543 minS0
<p>In today’s episode, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah sits down with Freedom Reads Founder & CEO Reginald Dwayne Betts and Steven Parkhurst, Communications Manager at Freedom Reads. Adjei-Brenyah reads from his novel...
arts
The Freedom Takes
Hosted by Freedom Reads · arts · EN
About this Podcast:
The Freedom Takes is a podcast from the Freedom Reads, produced for listeners in prison and out, that explores the relationship between literature and freedom.Freedom Reads was founded in the knowledge that in a world with prison cells, freedom can begin with a book. And in a country with two million people incarcerated, the offer of a million books to provide solace, affirm dignity, enable imaginative escape and bridge human differences is a duty. So we are sending tens of thousands of books into prisons and juvenile detention centers across this country. On the show, poet, lawyer, and founder of Freedom Reads, Reginald Dwayne Betts talks to some of the authors of these books about their lives as writers and as readers, and about what it means to them to be free.
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Contact path
Verified email
Booking probability
34%
Guest openness
Selective
80/100
Required Score
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What is The Freedom Takes about?
The Freedom Takes is a podcast from the Freedom Reads, produced for listeners in prison and out, that explores the relationship between literature and freedom. Freedom Reads was founded in the knowledge that in a world with prison cells, freedom can begin with a book.
Who hosts The Freedom Takes?
The Freedom Takes is hosted by Freedom Reads. The show has published 15 episodes to date.
What has The Freedom Takes covered recently?
Recent episodes include "Inside Literary Prize 2025: Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah" (10 July 2025, 43 minutes), "Inside Literary Prize 2025: Paul Harding" (9 July 2025, 49 minutes), and "Inside Literary Prize 2025: Astrid Roemer" (8 July 2025, 41 minutes).
How often does The Freedom Takes publish?
The Freedom Takes publishes roughly monthly, with episodes averaging 41 minutes across 15 episodes.
How hard is it to get booked on The Freedom Takes?
Booking probability for The Freedom Takes is 34%, and the host is rated Selective on guests. The Freedom Takes requires a Pod Score of 80 or higher. The Freedom Takes's contact route on record: verified email.
Who should pitch The Freedom Takes?
The strongest fits for The Freedom Takes are Artists, Writers & Performers. The Freedom Takes has an arts audience.
About the host
Freedom Reads hosts The Freedom Takes, an arts podcast with 15 episodes published.
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Recent episodes
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Episode #15
Inside Literary Prize 2025: Paul Harding
Jul 9, 202549 minS0<p>In today’s episode, author Paul Harding sits down with Freedom Reads Founder & CEO Reginald Dwayne Betts and Allie Salazar Gonzales, Development Manager at Freedom Reads. Harding reads from his novel This Other Eden...
Episode #14
Inside Literary Prize 2025: Astrid Roemer
Jul 8, 202541 minS0<p>In today’s episode, Astrid Roemer sits down with Allie Salazar Gonzalez, Development Manager at Freedom Reads, and Dempsey, Resident Creative Writer at Freedom Reads. Following a reading from her novel On a Woman’s...
Episode #12
Inside Literary Prize 2025: Justin Torres
Jul 7, 202549 minS0<p>In today’s episode, Justin Torres sits down with Freedom Reads Founder & CEO Reginald Dwayne Betts and David Perez DeHoyos, Library Coordination Manager at Freedom Reads. Torres reads from his novel Blackouts which...
Episode #11
The Past's Presence: Jesmyn Ward
Jul 26, 202139 minS0<p>In today’s episode, Jesmyn Ward reads from her third novel, Sing, Unburied, Sing, which is at once a bildungsroman, a ghost story, an epic, and a road novel. In portraying the suck of Parchman Prison on the...
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Episode #10
As True As I Can Write It: Erika Sánchez
Jun 23, 202134 minS0<p>Our guest, Erika Sánchez, reads from her masterful debut young adult novel, I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter. Sánchez's writing is unflinching in its reckoning with teenage pain, while also somehow making you...
- Apr 30, 202157 minS0
Today's bonus episode of The Freedom Takes is a collaboration with the National Book Foundation. Over the last three years, the foundation's Literature for Justice committees have curated thought-provoking reading lists...
Episode #8
Reclaiming Voice & Self: Randall Horton
Apr 23, 202143 minS0<p>Author Bio:<br />Randall Horton is the author of the poetry collections#289-128, Dark Anarchy, The Definition of Place, andThe Lingua Franca of Ninth Street. His memoir,Hook, was the winner of the Great Lakes College...
Episode #7
Shooting Baskets in Verse: Natalie Diaz
Apr 2, 202146 minS0<p>Author Bio</p><p>Natalie Diaz was born and raised on the Fort Mojave Indian Village in Needles, California. She is Mojave and an enrolled member of the Gila River Indian Tribe. Her first poetry collection, When My...
- Mar 11, 202142 minS0
<p>Author Bio:</p><p>Deesha Philyaw is an author, columnist, essayist, and public speaker.The Secret Lives of Church Ladies won the Story Prize (2020/2021), was a finalist for the 2020 National Book Award for Fiction...
- Feb 24, 202140 minS0
Celebrated author, musician, and screenwriter James McBride, speaks directly to our primary audience -- people in prison -- about moving past regret in life, finding freedom in books, claiming power in knowledge. He...
- Feb 10, 202128 minS0
<p>When a poetry anthology was slid under young Betts' cell door 23 years ago is when the Million Book Project -- an endeavor to slide thousands of world-opening books to readers in prisons across the country -- really...
Episode #3
To Leave or Stay & Fight: Miriam Toews
Jan 27, 202139 minS0Miriam Toews is the best-selling and award-winning author of eight books, including her most recent work, Women Talking -- the heartbreaking, philosophical, and funny account of female crime victims defining justice for...
- Jan 13, 202132 minS0
Rion Amilcar Scott is an award-winning writer who turns a short story into deep glimpses inside the souls of Black folks. Over two collections of stories, Insurrections and The World Does Not Require You, Scott has...
Episode #1
No Boring Books: Jason Reynolds
Dec 7, 202031 minS0<p>Our host Reginald Dwayne Betts chops it up with Jason Reynolds, a beloved author of young adult fiction and poetry. Jason has won all the prizes that dope writers get, including the Kirkus Prize and the Coretta Scott...
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