Glass Box Podcast

It's that time of year! 195th Semi-annual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We see what slipped through the cracks!   Saturday Morning talks:   Gary A. Stevenson Q12 – Be peacemakers no matter what   Tracy Y. Browning SC PGP – Primary songs are the key to cult mind-control   Ronald Barcellos Q70 – Morals of David v. Eliab   Brik V. Eyre Q70 – Comfort then Conve...

We invite back Chris Shelton MSc from his YouTube channel by the same name to talk all about cults. He's here to share his model of human behavior, the REM (Reason/Rationalization, Emotion, Morality) and we get lost deep into the weeds discussing it and related cult topics. After that, we wrap up the Givens with the final installment of The Christ Who Heals. We go through the entire part 2 of the...

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints released 3 new Gospel Topics Essays in July. We go through each of them, discuss the information that's missing, chat about the propaganda woven into every line, and speculate as to the impetus behind the new essays. For ease of listening, the Book of Mormon Translation starts at 13:31, the Plural Marriage starts at 1:01:24, and Joseph Smith's Charac...

Are Mormons Christian? According to most Christians, no. According to them, Jesus Christ is literally in the name of the church! We dig into the bedrock on this issue to see what does or does not qualify as "Christian". After that, we dive into the final of the Givens trilogy, The Christ Who Heals. It's more or less a 130-page missionary discussion with a few dribbles of ancient theologian writing...

You asked for it and you got it! We interviewed Belle Holsinger who we talked about last episode in our Sunstone recap. She gave us the absolutely riveting information from her presentation at Sunstone titled "Bearing witness: The castration and murder of Henry Jones and his mother, Hannah Jones Gailey Hatch."   Following our time with Belle, we watched The Godfather because what OTHER movie is as...

We went to Sunstone Symposium in SLC, like we try to do every year! It was fantastic and a great place to meet good folks, visit old friends, and learn new things along the way. We discuss some of our favorite sessions and experiences from this year's Mormon conference.   Check out Sunstone and consider attending next year! https://sunstone.org/   Other appearances : Chris Shelton interviewed us i...

Your two favorite long winded podcasters are talking about word vomit and verbosity today, which is particularly fitting since today's Sword of Laman segment covers the last part of the 2nd Givens book, The Crucible of Doubt . We then cleanse your palette with some good news out of Illinois. Enjoy!    Sword of Laman :  https://freshairarchive.org/segments/richard-dawkins-argument-atheism   Happy N...

The Church History Library of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints just dropped a revelatory bomb on the Mormon history community and we're gunna talk about it. John Taylor (prophet 1880-1887) wrote a revelation saying that the new and everlasting covenant is actually "everlasting" and cannot be revoked or abrogated. However, the prophet after Taylor, Wilford Woodruff, wrote the First M...

Let's talk leaders. What qualities does a great leader have? What's the difference between a good and great leader? And we talk about three leaders in history. In our Sword of Laman segment, we cover the next few chapters of the Givens' book. And to clear your palette, we share a news article about a charitable move Bill Gates is making. Enjoy!    Show Notes :  What is Ethical Leadership and Why i...

Not only is it Pride month but it's also been almost 10 years since the Mormon church issued their policy against the children of LGBTQIA+ parents. We take a look at the effects that policy had, the increasingly draconian measures the government is taking, and we read between the lines of Mormon church policies. We also look at the measures people are taking to improve the lives of LGBTQIA+. For M...

We're talking about the bane of the Q15's existence! Doubts of the members. We discuss the terrible way they are dealt with which leads into the second installment of the Givens' trilogy — The Crucible of Doubt — Reflections on the Quest for Faith . Following that we have some good news out of El Paso where the Consulate General of Mexico gave out free measles vaccines to children and adults in El...

Fasting! In all its forms and purposes. We take a wander through world religions to see how fasting plays a part in almost all of them. Mormon fasting is far less peculiar than we thought. Then a few episodes of South Park that provide wonderful commentary on fasting, the economy, and witch hunts. We round out with happy news about land being returned to Indigenous people and burn through listener...

We're finishing The God Who Weeps by Terryl Givens and Fiona Givens. This is the first book in a trilogy of Mormon theology and we want to leave room in the year to get through it all. What does today hold for us? We start with a long discussion on the pre-mortal existence, transitioning into existence, then ascending to perfection thanks to Mormon beliefs. We didn't realize until pretty late in t...

April 2025 General Conference Sunday Afternoon session. Patrons of the show get the appendix of Saturday Evening session at the end of the record.   Ulisses Soares – Reverence; Moses and the burning bush; you-damn-kids talk; pray for guidance from the Holy Ghost for AI, don't weaken your connection to God with AI!!!   Michael Strong Q70 – Killed a kid on a bike during his mission, was really sad t...

April 2025 General Conference Sunday Morning session.   David A Bednar – Joseph Smith totally restored the one true church; and other sundry sacrament meeting talking points   Steven Shumway Q70 – Do your callings, no matter how demanding they may be   Tamara Runia FC YW GP – Cry for repentance; Jesus is excited every time he sees us on our knees   Gerald Causse PB – Dude who controls the church's...

April 2025 General Conference Saturday Afternoon session.   Niel Anderson – Heinous abortion is evil diatribe, the church is extreme Conservative   Steven Lund YM GP – Priesthood is awesome, men run everything in the church   S Mark Palmer Q70 – Willow tree, cut up the fallen ones   Sandino Roman Q70 – Drowning story   Dale Renlund – A dumb 6-year-old thought the second coming was real   Hans T Bo...

April 2025 General Conference Saturday Morning session.   Jeffrey R. Holland – Little boy bites a little girl, better teach her to forgive!   Camille Johnson RS GP – Waiting to be healed filling spiritual holes   Ronald Rasband – Church is DOING GREAT! Don't check our numbers…   Quentin L. Cook – Handcart companies and tragedy   Ricardo Gemenez Q70 – Checklist Mormonism   Henry Eyring – Zombie Jes...

It's time to examine Joseph-Smith-polygamy skepticism. After the recent Journal of Mormon Polygamy conference, we decided to seriously consider the evidences used by this cohort of Mormon studies, leading us to understand that polygamy was a creation of Brigham Young and the Utah Mormon movement. After that we discuss O Brother, Where Art Thou? An Oddessy movie interweaving many storytelling arche...

We have a guest for our main segment this time. Chris Shelton is a cult expert content creator who eats, breathes, and sleeps high-demand, coercive groups. We discuss everything from what makes a group a cult, how to identify them, is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints a cult, and proper ways to approach conversations about high-demand groups. Be sure to check out our series collabora...

It's time for part 2 of our Death Penalty series! Since this is a Mormon podcast, we first look into the history of Mormons and the death penalty. Joseph Smith and Brigham Young both ordered assassinations and fostered environments where random acts of violence became inevitable. The State of Deseret, Utah, has a comparatively bloody, theocratic history. Then we take a broader view of religion and...

We begin our next series, this time on Capital Punishment. We start with the history of crimes throughout written history that justified the death penalty. Then we get into colonial history and how the death penalty was built into the foundations of racist America. Multiple Supreme Court rulings have shifted the landscape. We end with the recent EO attempting to expand the powers of the death pena...

3 lawsuits against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We discuss the class action suit, Judson et al v. LDS, the recently tossed case of Huntsman v. LDS, and the civil RICO suit Gaddy v. LDS. Where do they stand? How likely are they to prevail? What are the next steps? We go over them and discuss the implications and steps forward. Then we chat about the 2015 movie Spotlight about th...

It's time to start a new year and new book for our long-form deep dive reviews of terrible Mormon books. And this one is… not terrible? The Givens present a form of Mormon theology which tries to "make sense of life" and we're here for any Mormon theology that doesn't include discrimination, sexism, and anything holding it over from its past. We dive into the introduction and first chapter of the...

BYU and SLC anti-vice. We discuss the history of Charles A. Callis, his career in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and politics, and his final assignment before death, creating a sexual purity surveillance and counseling/therapy program for Mormons in the 40s. After his death, Spencer W. Kimball took the reins and vastly expanded the reach and purposes of the program, resulting in T...

You know the time of year!    Next Live Show: Monday 12/30/24 https://www.youtube.com/@bryceblankenagel7707   Show Notes :  Starship Troopers : https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120201/?ref_=tttrv   Movie:  Book: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starship_Troopers#   Robert A Heinlein: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_A._Heinlein#Politics   District 9 :  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_9   The...