Mormon.ish

On another collaborative episode of Mormonish Podcast, Rebecca and Landon join The Backyard Professor and very special guest, Margaret Toscano, as we dive into the Gospel Topics Essay titled, "Joseph Smith’s Teachings about Priesthood, Temple, and Women." In September 1993, six scholars were disciplined by LDS Church leaders because of scholarly works they published that pushed back on the church....

On our first premiere episode of Mormonish Podcast, Rebecca and Landon are joined by two incredible guests, Dr. Randy Bell and Radio Free Mormon, to discuss the difference between ethical magic and unethical magic and its use in manipulating people either for entertainment, or far more sinister purposes. Randy Bell is the owner of the world's largest collection of Houdini artifacts and uses these...

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 episode of Mormonish Podcast, Rebecca and Landon discuss their experience going to see the movie, "The Oath," which opened in theaters nationwide on Friday, December 8th. According to Rotten Tomatoes the movie is described as follows. "400 A.D., in a forgotten time of Ancient America, a lone Hebraic fugitive must preserve the history of his fallen nation while being hunted by a ruthless ty...

In this episode of Mormonish podcast, Rebecca and Landon are joined by accounting professor, Dr. Spencer Anderson as we explore the truth behind the LDS Giving Machine’s that are popping up in cities all over the United States! On the surface Giving Machines seem to be a fun and festive way to donate to people in need. However, questions have arisen over the use of these machines to generate publi...

In this episode of Mormonish podcast, Rebecca and Landon are joined by the wonderful Dr. Margaret Toscano to talk about recent events involving women, equality, and who gets to sit on the stand in the LDS church. Social media is buzzing with the news that a decade old tradition of having women in leadership sit on the stand during LDS sacrament meeting in the Bay Area, came to an end abruptly with...

On this episode of Mormonish Podcast, Rebecca and Landon have a wonderful converstion with "No Nonesense Spirituality's" Britt Hartley. We discuss the concept that spirituality is a human need and is connected to the myths that join us together. Once we truly are able to connect to ourselves we can not only find purpose and meaning in life, we can also face difficulties along the way. Britt shares...

Mormonish is so excited to have reached our 100th episode! And this is probably one of the most unique, wonderful, and emotional episodes of Mormonish Podcast we have ever taped. A few months ago Landon and Rebecca interviewed the wonderful playwright Rob Lauer, who told us about his experiences as a theater major at BYU in the early 1980s. The late 1970s and 1980s were a difficult time for LGBT s...

In this special Thanksgiving episode of Mormonish Podcast, Rebecca and Landon eat pumpkin pie and take a look at the Pilgrims and the Puritans in their historical context. Much has been made of the idea that the story of the Pilgrims has a deep connection to the Restoration. Many books and videos have been produced on this topic and Mormonish wanted to understand exactly what that connection was....

On this episode of Mormonish Podcast, Rebecca and Landon are joined by Dr. Randy Bell and Sophronia to discuss the recent allegations that the LDS church may have provided tithing information on high net worth members to Tim Ballard and OUR in order to solicit donations. We also discuss the Prop 8 era when wealthier LDS members were called upon to give money to a third party political entity to in...

On this episode of Mormonish Podcast, Rebecca and Landon joined by Dr. Matthew Harris as we delve into the world of Mormon nationalism and the legacy of Ezra Taft Benson. This topic is more relevant than ever as we seem to see a growing faction of Mormonism embracing white Christian nationalism. In the mid-twentieth century, Ezra Taft Benson was a deeply controversial figure who served not only as...

In this episode of Mormonish Podcast, Rebecca and Landon celebrate our 1 year birthday! Mormonish Podcast aired it's first episode on November 17, 2022 and it seems like just yesterday. Join us as we take a look back at all our wonderful and amazing guests, the scholarly topics we covered, the late breaking news, and more! Thank you everyone, we couldn't have done it without all of you! How to Don...

On another collaborative episode in The Gospel Topics Essays Series with The Backyard Professor, Rebecca and Landon dive into the Gospel Topics Essay, "First Vision Accounts." The First Vision account we all grew up with was the quintessential telling of the story and we never considered there might be other versions. And that was by design. In this revelatory episode we discuss how each of the Fi...

On this episode of Mormonish Podcast, Rebecca and Landon are joined by the wonderful Kolby Reddish as we dive in to the importance of epistemology as a method to determine truthfulness. There is a growing concept in the LDS church that the more something appears to not be true, that only proves it's truth more strongly. And of course, faith strengthens this idea. Kolby shares his thoughts and expe...

On this breaking news episode of Mormonish Podcast, Rebecca and Landon explore two news articles about Elder M. Russell Ballard's relationship to Tim Ballard, that were released in local and national media and then suddenly taken down. In an effort to determine why the article would have been pulled so quickly, we fact check the article itself and other related statements from the Church. We also...

On this episode of Mormonish Podcast, Rebecca joins host, Dives on his weekly news program, Mormon News Round Up, to discuss the latest news of the week. Our episode here focuses on the segment about Elder Ballard, allegedly leaked tithing records, and the amended claim details. Rebecca cohosts with Dives every first Sunday of the month, and Landon often joins MNR too, so look for more collaborati...

On this episode of Mormonish Podcast, Rebecca and Landon sit down with Autumn (not her real name) as she tells us a disturbing story of spiritual grooming and manipulation in her marriage to a faithful Mormon. As a convert to the church and a young wife, Autumn experienced the kind of grooming we have heard about recently in the Tim Ballard lawsuit. When you give up your power to a person in autho...

On this episode of Mormonish Podcast, we sit down with the wonderful Randy Bell, the Master of Disaster, to talk about the recent Faith Matters: Restore conference held in Utah. Restore was an opportunity for faithful Latter Day Saints to spend a weekend restoring their faith with music, talks, community and more. It was attended by over 3500 people and had the look and feel of an Evangelical gath...

On a special Halloween episode of Mormonish Podcast, Rebecca and Landon delve into the world of Near Death Experiences, also known as NDEs. Near Death Experiences have taken center stage recently as we have learned more about the many people who claim to have had NDEs and those who have been influenced by them. Julie Row, Thom Harrison and the book, "Visions of Glory," Chad Daybell, the new Angel...

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...