Mormon.ish

On this episode of Mormonish, Rebecca and Landon delve into an interesting mystery involving a $2,000,000 donation given by the LDS church to the First Americans Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The donation was to be used to build a Family History Center in the museum. We recently learned that the Family History Center was never built and we put our sleuthing skills to the test as we try to fin...

On this episode of Mormonish Podcast, Rebecca and Landon give another update on both the Cody, WY and Heber Valley Temple situations with up to the minute news Both cities have active citizens' groups who are going through proper legal channels to try to change the proposed temple sites to locations more in line with zoning regulations and the look and feel of the town.  The legislative proce...

Did you know that a groundbreaking play about Joseph Smith's treasure digging and folk magic was produced at BYU in the 80s, well before Michael Quinn's book was published? Playwright and post Mormon Rob Lauer discusses his time at BYU during the era of intellectual revolution, his groundbreaking play "Digger," working with sci fi writer Orson Scott Card, his years as The Hill Cumorah Pageant dire...

On today's episode of Mormonish Podcast, we dive into the history of LDS church relations in Thailand. On Sunday, October 22nd, the Bangkok Thailand LDS temple is being dedicated and there is a long an complicated relationship with the LDS church and Thailand that few know about. Our guest on this episode has spent decades in Thailand, first as a missionary and then working and raising a family in...

On this episode of Mormonish Podcast we bring you Part 2 with Laura Robinson, PhD, the author of several excellent articles on Operation Underground Railroad and Tim Ballard. Laura received her doctorate degree from Duke University and works in the public sector in Indiana, and is an affiliate researcher at Virginia Tech. Laura began looking into OUR because of the strong evangelical support for t...

Is Tim Ballard Joseph Smith 2.0? On this episode of Mormonish Podcast, Rebecca and Landon explore the growing observation that Tim Ballard is a reincarnation of Joseph Smith himself. Many people can't help notice that several of the grooming and manipulation tactics that the female victims are alleging have a familiar ring to them. From using scripture to convince women to do things they wouldn't...

In this late breaking episode of Mormonish Podcast, Rebecca and Landon read through the lawsuit filed yesterday by five women against Tim Ballard and the OUR organization. The lawsuit contains many new details and allegations we haven’t heard before, and a big picture starts to develop that we could only imagine. There’s so much more to try and understand about this situation, but the newly filed...

In another comically insightful episode of Mormonish Podcast, Rebecca and Landon continue our conversation with the talented and hilarious Ben Brown, known as Fresh King Benjamin. Ben grew up on a Mormon polygamist compound and started operating his family’s business, a bakery, at age 14. Ben gets serious as we discuss this darker aspect of growing up and provides some important and emotional insi...

On this episode of Mormonish Podcast we talk with Laura Robinson, PhD, the author of several excellent articles on Operation Underground Railroad and Tim Ballard. Laura received her doctorate degree from Duke University and currently serves as the campus minister for Ferrum College in Virginia. Laura began looking into OUR because of the strong evangelical support for the organization, eventually...

Mormon. We recently learned Monique has a connection to Operation Underground Railroad, where she worked as a volunteer for a number of years around 2016. Monique's experiences reveal quite a lot about the environment and practices of OUR from the very beginning. Monique is in a position to understand what best practices should look like in an organization that fights against sex trafficking. She...

On this episode of Mormonish Podcast, Rebecca and Landon give updates on both the Cody, WY and Heber Valley Temple situations as they continue to play out! Both cities have active citizens' groups who are going through proper legal channels to try to change the proposed temple sites to locations more in line with zoning regulations and the look and feel of the town. It's very interesting to look a...

On this informative episode of Mormonish Podcast, Rebecca and Landon delve deeper into what is known as Tim Ballard's "Whiteboard Meeting." In this 2019 meeting, Tim Ballard gathered his elite team of associates and investors to outline his plans and goals for the future. Each person had to sign an NDA to even be in the room. The plan was outlined on a whiteboard, also known as a dry erase board,...

On this episode of Mormonish Podcast, Rebecca and Landon are joined by James Hofheins, a former 12 Step Addiction Program facilitator for the LDS church. James discusses how facilitators are chosen and rarely have any kind of experience or training. He tells us more about how the 12 Step Programs work and how people who are referred to these programs often slip deeper into shame and guilt. James h...

On this episode of Mormonish Podcast, Rebecca and Landon continue to dissect  the events of the past week involving Tim Ballard and the LDS Church. In the most recent VICE article, we delve into the use of psychic, Janet Russon, who is channeling information from dead Book of Mormon prophet Nephi, to guide the rescue missions of OUR. Did donors know that the operations wer...

On this episode of Mormonish Podcast, Rebecca and Landon unravel the events of the past week involving Tim Ballard and the LDS Church. In a statement in Vice Magazine, an LDS church spokesman publicly denounced Tim Ballard, founder of Our Underground Railroad and claimed he had very limited involvement with Apostle M. Russell Ballard, who Tim Ballard claims is a strong supporter of his organizatio...

In Episode 4 of Mormonish Podcast’s series with Dr. John Lundwall, Dr. Lundwall examines the "Caractors Document" with symbols allegedly written from the gold plates, as well as other examples of glyphs from both the Book of Mormon and Book of Abraham. Lundwall recounts the testimony of Charles Anthon and compares the writing from the gold plates to magical seals from the Western esoteric traditio...

Have you read D. Michael Quinn's "Early Mormonism and the Magic World View?" On this episode of Mormonish, Landon and Rebecca present a discussion of Quinn's ground breaking book on early Mormonism and folk magic. This was a revolutionary concept when the first edition of the book was published in 1987. Very few members knew anything about the prevalence of folk magic and the occult in the early d...

On this episode of Mormonish, we sit down with our two new friends from a concerned citizen's group in Heber, UT, to find out more about their goal, to have the new LDS temple relocated to a more appropriate site. As you watch the episode, you certainly won't miss the parallels to the situation with the Cody, WY Temple. As background info, a new temple for Heber Valley, UT was announced at General...

Were you shocked at the parallels between Mormonism and the "Shiny Happy People" documentary on Amazon? If you watched the documentary like we did, the similarities were impossible to ignore. On this episode of Mormonish Podcast, Rebecca and Landon have a fascinating discussion with Lindsey Williams and Chad Harris, both survivors of the IBLP religious organization started by Bill Gothard. We high...

On this PSA short episode of Mormonish Podcast, we are so excited to talk with the amazing Carah Burrell, aka NuanceHoe, about the launch of her new non-profit, "The Nuance Hug Foundation" and it's accompanying podcast "The Mormon History HoeDown!" This is exciting news in the post Mormon space as Carah lends her unique voice and perspective, and her hilarious point of view to create great content...

On another collaborative episode in The Gospel Topics Essays Series with The Backyard Professor, Rebecca and Landon dive into the Gospel Topics Essay, "Book of Mormon Translation." Most of us learned a narrative growing up in the church with a very specific story of how Joseph Smith learned about the golden plates, retrieved the plates, and translated the plates. In recent years, this narrative ha...

Wondering what the new changes and updates to the BYU church school honor code are? On this episode of Mormonish we dive into the recent changes to the BYU honor code, dress and grooming standards, and the updated ecclesiastical endorsement questions at all BYU schools. The changes at the BYU schools are indicative of attitudes, views, and culture shifts seen in the church itself, which makes thes...

Can our cell phones give us a clue as to whether LDS memberships numbers are declining? As Dr. Simon Southerton tells us, one of the most closely guarded secrets of the Mormon church is the numbers of people sitting in Mormon chapels each week. Church leaders know what the attendance figures are, but the leaders don't like sharing bad news. The truth is that attendance is lower than everyone expec...

What is it like to search for community as a young post Mormon? Mormonish has a very special guest on today's episode, Landon's son Jarin! Jarin is a post Mormon navigating the world of relationships, friendships, changing faith, and more in a predominantly LDS environment. Many of us have children, grandchildren, or friends who are in a similar situation. This interesting discussion delves into s...

Cody Wyoming temple update! there’s still a lot going on with the Cody temple situation and Mormonish was able to talk to our friends on the Preserve Our Cody Neighborhood committee to get an update on the latest information! If you haven’t watched our full episode on the Cody Wyoming temple story, check out the link below! And if you’d like to help support the Cody neighborhood group, you send go...