Pop Culture on the Apricot Tree

You might have guessed from the title, but we loved Stranger Things season 4. Not only did we get a nearly perfect representation of the reality of a large LDS family, but the show gave us some things to think about. Not that it was perfect: we talk about how many Latter-day Saints were hesitant to watch with the increased horror level, and the morality of horror as a genre in general. It's one of...

Carl and I will be taking a summer break for the month of July to spend some time traveling with our families. So we won’t be appearing in your podcast feed for the next few weeks, but we will be back soon!

Surprisingly few movies exist about the revolutionary period of American history, but a huge exception is the musical phenomenon known as Hamilton. We discuss the various receptions of the musical, both in the Obama era when it premiered and in 2020 when the Disney+ recording was released. We also look at the significance of the constitutional era of American history for Latter-day Saints and how...

We promise that this is more than just an hour of Mormons complaining about the bad representation in Under the Banner of Heaven , though there is a good deal of that. We discuss the problems caused by picking the true crime genre to tell this story and how we would have rewritten the story. (Too bad no one consulted us!) Bad history is debunked and real problems with church culture are discussed....

A faith crisis can be a difficult experience to talk about with your family or friends, especially if they haven't experienced one. Using Chris Wei's essay from Mormonism and the Movies, we use popular movies to describe three approaches to resolving a faith crisis and weigh the positive and negative aspects of each. We're biased, but this may be our best episode yet!   Show notes: https://ww...

We use the unexpectedly delightful movie Free Guy as a jumping off point to discuss all things video games. How do video games differ from other media and how can we make moral choices in the games we choose to play? We also hit some good points in LDS theology like the idea of life as a test and living in a fallen world.   Check out the show notes on our website: https://www.popcultureaprico...

We discuss the most recent season of Paramount+'s new Star Trek flagship show, Discovery. Though several of us have fond memories of watching Star Trek with our families growing up, this new show doesn't quite reach those same heights. Even if an improvement over the first seasons, the show still struggles with balancing all of its characters and seems to lack diversity of thought among its crew....

We dive into Martin Scorsese's 2016 film Silence, an adaptation of the novel by Shusaku Endo. The story explores the story of Jesuit missionaries in Japan which resonates with the LDS mission experience. Joining us is special guest Van Gessel, a retired BYU professor who translated Endo's works into English and was a consultant on the film. We talk about his experience working on the film and the...

Pixar's 2022 coming-of-age film Turning Red has proved controversial, to say the least. It's a step away from the studio's usual all-ages content, but is it appropriate for your LDS family? We examine what the film says about parenting teenagers and how to have a good relationship with kids, along with the movie's questionable attempts to be sex-positive.   Our Ratings: Content: Telestial Art...

Did rock monsters really help Noah build the ark? How about Methuselah wielding the flaming sword? We discuss the 2014 film Noah, the many extra Biblical sources it draws upon, and whether the movie is a failure of scriptural storytelling or an interesting interpretation that makes us think. (Spoilers: a little bit of both.) Apologies to Ivan, whose video was somehow corrupted and gummed up the ed...

In this episode, we discuss the first season of Amazon's Wheel of Time series, including some narrative missteps in the show, the thread of pacifism versus fighting evil, and how the series treats the religious beliefs of its characters. We also talk about how some LDS viewers may be turned off by the nudity, casual relationships, and homosexuality in the series and how we grapple with this conten...

We open our podcast with an episode on Disney's 2021 family musical, Encanto.  And we actually mostly don't talk about Bruno. Listen for our thoughts about the portrayal of families in film, psychology and trauma, and whether this film has too much expressive individualism. Our Ratings: Content: Celestial Artistic Merit: 4 Popcorn Balls Gospel Connections: 4 Apricots   Best Books: Liz -...