The Latter Day Lens

Send us Fan Mail Mailbag: One listener writes “Military conscription has been shown to build a shared national identity, boost loyalty to the polity, and instill patriotism… But here’s the tradeoff: Men from conscripted generations show less trust in democratic institutions than those exempted from the draft…[and] weakens the relationship between the citizen and the state. Hard to say really - I t...

Send us Fan Mail  One listener writes, Hey I wonder if you guys have heard of Gypsy-Rose Blanchard . She was recently released from prison for her role in the killing of her mother . Now she has over 7 million followers on Instagram and she is likely going to be a millionaire because of the fame she is getting from her story. What is the morally appropriate reaction someone should have to a person...

Send us Fan Mail 2023 US politics . It may be hard to believe, but at this time in 2022, Donald Trump had not been indicted on a single criminal charge. As of today, Donald Trump has been indicted in four states on 91 different criminal charges. In addition, A jury found Donald Trump liable in May for sexually abusing advice columnist E. Jean Carroll in 1996, awarding her $5 million and he recentl...

Send us Fan Mail Most people don’t know that Kyiv is the birthplace of Christianity in the Slavic world. Ukrainians are used to having foreigners try to control the way that they worship. Despite the hundreds of years of Mongol control in the 13th century and the decades of communist control in the 20th century, Ukrainians have always found a way to put Christ at the center of their Christmas fest...

Send us Fan Mail The Thought Provoker Matt is up first. Recently, Rudy Giuliani was ordered to pay over $148 million to two Georgia election workers for defamation. This all stems from lies he told about the 2020 election being stolen in Georgia. As a lifelong Republican, I see Rudy Giuliani as a metaphor for what has happened to the GOP. In 2001, Giuliani was America’s Mayor—beloved for his respo...

Send us Fan Mail The Thought Provoker Sam. All right, so here's my question. So I have friends that listen to our show and friends that are in the Chicagoland and in the Michigan area, Detroit, and other areas in the upper Midwest, and we've often talked about crime rates in those areas and some of the challenges that face people politically, economically in those areas. And I was joking...

Send us Fan Mail Discussion of the Devate Thought Provoker: Since 2008, there has been a remarkable evolution in Russia's approach to propaganda. Described in this article , they focus on high numbers of channels using rapid, continuous, and repetitive messages that lack commitment to consistency. Like using a rapid fire shotgun as opposed to a precise sniper rifle. It uses text, photo, video...

Send us Fan Mail Mailbag: Your idea for a coffee substitute cafe in Provo has already been tried. Latter Day Cafe opened in Provo south of BYU in 2021 making drinks out of the Copomo seed, which they promoted as better than coffee. You could caffeinate your drink on a scale of 1 to 4. 1 was equivalent to Mountain Dew, 2 coffee cup, 3 five hour energy, and 4 Bang.   Thought Provoker: In an intervie...

Send us Fan Mail The Thought Provoker: Sam is first. Quote from Quentin L Cook’s devotional last night: “Youth and young adults are not less active or leaving the Church in higher numbers than in the past, as has been widely circulated.…The percentage of church participation for the rising generation shows a continuous upward trend.” - Quentin L. Cook How has the Church reversed a declining trend...

Send us Fan Mail The Thought Provoker: Matt is first this week: This week The US House voted to censure Rep. Rashida Tlaib over her Israel-Hamas rhetoric in a stunning rebuke for using this phrase . A censure is the strongest action the House can take against one of its members other than removing them from office. In the 1860s members were censured for Making statements in support of the Confeder...

Send us Fan Mail Mailbag: “Sam, If adversity is so great for immigrants, why not save some for the rich people? Why rob wealthy people of the chance to work their way up from the bottom? 100% inheritance tax. Who’s with me?”  The Thought Provoker: Sam is first up this week, Are kids medically treated too quickly with medications for aniexty vs teaching them coping/problem solving skills earlier on...

Send us Fan Mail The Thought Provoker: Shawn is first. I hope that he will choose something about how underwhelming Boston was. How he had high hopes given all the history there, but it was just another dirty crime-ridden town run by liberals 😊   Next up, Matt: “UCLA’s Center for Scholars & Storytellers , or CSS, found that teens — plus the 18- to 24-year-old demographic that advertisers typi...

Send us Fan Mail Thought Provoker: First up, Sam. “participation trophies vs meritocracy”  Next up, Matt.” Martin Scorsese’s newly released film “Killers of the Flower Moon” is based on actual events that happened in Oklahoma in the 1920s . You can follow the link to read the full history, but the short version is that US government policy toward native Americans (specifically the Osage Tribe) in...

Send us Fan Mail Thought Provoker: First up, Sam: Should members of the LDS Church support banning or censoring social media platforms like Tik Tok? https://www.msnbc.com/the-reidout/reidout-blog/utah-tiktok-lawsuit-social-media-rcna119995   Utah Gov. Spencer Cox and state Attorney General Sean Reyes announced the lawsuit during a press conference. https://www.nationalreview.com/news/utah-sues-tik...

Send us Fan Mail The Thought Provoker:  Shawn: President Nelson and President Oaks both preached clear and direct doctrine about what salvation is and what exaltation is. I am a little surprised at how new this concept was to many. The Scriptures teach it abundantly. Two questions: Question 1: Why do you think this was the primary message from General Conference from the Prophets? Question 2: Why...

Send us Fan Mail Mailbag: One listener wrote: I come from Seattle but I finally moved out of the state after the crime became too much to ignore.  Property crime ranks amongst the highest in the city and its suburbs in the US https://www.safehome.org/resources/crime-statistics-by-state/   If you live there you can almost expect your car to be at risk of burglary and/or theft. My car got broken int...

Send us Fan Mail Matt: The mayor of Dallas recently announced that he is switching parties from Democrat to Republican. In his announcement , he argues that “American cities need Republicans. The future of America’s great urban centers depends on the willingness of the nation’s mayors to champion law and order and practice fiscal conservatism.“ It is true, Dallas is a success story, most people th...

Send us Fan Mail Mailbag: I wanted to say that I love the podcast that you, Sam, and Shawn have created! Latter Day Lens is what the world needs right now. People need to know that it is okay to disagree. That people can still be friends and love each other, and have differing opinions. Anyway, I love what you guys are doing. We are toe coolest.. aren’t we?  The Thought Provoker: Russell Brand has...

Send us Fan Mail The Thought Provoker: The previous discussion leads into Sam’s topic for the week. Is healthcare a right or a privilege? I found an interesting link in this story that shows that US healthcare system is not the envy of the world. In 2007, the US spent $7,290 per capita on health care but ranks last among seven countries. The Netherlands, which spent $3,837 per capita on health car...

Send us Fan Mail Two interesting thoughts from the mailbag.  One listener writes, “In response to the #exmormon topic… personally if find exmo’s some of the most annoying people to listen to and I’m sorry if that sounds harsh but that’s because ultimately i don’t believe their intentions are genuine. I believe those people are more interested in convincing themselves that the choice they made to l...

Send us Fan Mail We gotta start with Prigozhin. Sam, last week you suggested that he was the biggest threat to Putin, now he is no more . US officials say that a bomb is likely the cause of explosion that downed Wagner leader Prigozhin's plane, His death may help Ukraine in the short-term, but it removes Putin’s greatest internal threat. Besides the United States, who could stop Putin? The Th...

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Send us Fan Mail let’s start with our new segment which I have renamed “The Thought Provoker”. This segment will explore the ideas and concepts that someone has to say. We focus on learning new things and challenging our own viewpoints. After each story, we will decide if someone had an interesting or unique take on something, and whether they were able to persuade others to see things their way. ...

Send us Fan Mail This week we are introducing a new segment called The Argumentative Edge. Each of us will introduce a topic and after we discuss the topic we will determine the winner based on how well the individual provoked new ideas or motivated us to consider a new perspective.   First up, Shawn: The church’s published membership numbers show a boom in growth in the 80s, 90s and early 2000’s...

Send us Fan Mail News: UFO whistleblower tells Congress the US has likely been aware of 'non-human' activity since 1930s. Is there enough evidence to persuade you that extraterrestrials have visited planet earth? Do church teachings help to sort out the mystery of UFOs? One family pocketed $7.6 million by taking cans and bottles from Arizona and recycling them in California. That's...