A large study of library circulation found that attempts to ban books often make them more popular. The researchers examined monthly borrowing records across 38 US states from January 2021 to June 2022, comparing banned books with similar titles that were not challenged. On average, circulation rose by 12 percent in the six months after a ban. The boost was concentrated among lesser-known authors, and each additional school district removing a book added roughly 2 percent more circulation. Even states without the ban saw circulation rise by about 11 percent. The effect is known as the Streisand effect, named after Barbra Streisand's failed 2003 attempt to remove aerial photos of her home from the internet. The timing matches the recent news cycle around Macklemore being dropped from Ed Sheeran's tour.

In 1909 D. W. Griffith made a 14-minute film about a speculator who corners the wheat market and doubles the price of bread. A farmer sows his field while a 'Wheat King' gambles in the Chicago wheat pit; bakers raise the loaf from five cents to ten and the poor line up for bread. Griffith cut back and forth between the farm, the feast and the breadline, a technique called parallel editing, so audiences saw both ends of the economy at once. The film drew on Frank Norris's stories and on a real scheme: months earlier Chicago financier James Patten had cornered wheat, sent bread prices up and made about $5 million, roughly $185 million today.