Glass Box Podcast

BYU recently released a report on racism and discrimination at the university campus including 26 recommendations to increase diversity. We read through the entire report so you don’t have to! We discuss their findings, the data presented, and what changes we can realistically expect to see as a result of the report. After that we discuss the 2005 George Clooney movie Good Night, and Good Luck. We wrap with some happy news about electric cars because if Shannon gets to share her passion for movies every two weeks then I get to bring another of my passions onto the show once in a while too!   BYU report links: https://news.byu.edu/announcements/report-race-equity-belonging https://race.byu.edu/byu-committee-on-race-equity-belonging-instagram-story https://www.thechurchnews.com/members/2020-07-22/byu-committee-race-equity-belonging-connecting-community-189483   MOGP: Good Night, and Good Luck    IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0433383/?ref_=ttqt_qt_tt    Edward Murrow: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwar

We start today’s episode with a brief deep-dive into a rumored race riot of 1965 that never happened in Salt Lake City. It reveals troubling trends we’ve seen play out over the past year. Be sure to follow the link to read the article for yourself. Then we do our next installment of The Naked Communist with an eye looking to the future of the Communist takeover of America. Once again, it reveals trends which cannot be escaped when seen through a glass box. Then we round out with a happy story about Dolly Parton! Show Links:    The 1965 Race Riot that Never Happened by Christopher Blythehttps://publicsquaremag.org/editorials/the-1965-salt-lake-city-race-riot-that-never-happened/   45 Communist Goals: chrome-extension://oemmndcbldboiebfnladdacbdfmadadm/https://cultureshield.com/PDF/45_Goals.pdf    Socialism vs Communism, though they do get personal vs private property wrong: https://www.economicshelp.org/blog/glossary/socialism-vs-communism/    American Security Council: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americ

Boundaries Part 2! In this episode we give you some listener feedback from social media discussions on the Boundaries Part 1 episode. We talk to two very interesting people —  Andrew Torrez and Kimberly Anderson — who give us various tools to help us make and keep our boundaries and we leave you feeling like your world is a little more under your control and safe.  Show Links:    Andrew:  Parenting Beyond Belief: On Raising Ethical, Caring Kids Without Religion, Dale McGowan: https://www.amazon.com/Parenting-Beyond-Belief-Raising-Religion/dp/0814437419/ref=pd_bxgy_2/135-4281688-4905455  Companion volume — Raising Freethinkers: A Practical Guide for Parenting Beyond Belief, by Dale McGowan: https://www.amazon.com/Raising-Freethinkers-Practical-Parenting-Beyond/dp/0814410960/ref=pd_bxgy_img_2/135-4281688-4905455    Protect Every Child: https://protecteverychild.com   Proper Channels PLDSC Documentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zXcUQfuPaA&t=832s   Opening Arguments podcast: https://openargs.com/ 

Special episode this week! Let’s talk about Boundaries: How the church and our TBM family and friends cross them and what we can do about it. We’ll introduce the topic then hear from a therapist and a listener about their interactions with the church and boundaries. We’ll jump into some of our survey data and round out the show with some of our own experiences. Finally, a big thank you to Braden for cohosting the podcast! You will be missed and cherished in all our hearts.   Show Links:    Protect Every Child: https://protecteverychild.com   Proper Channels PLDSC Documentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zXcUQfuPaA&t=832s   Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/GlassBoxPod/posts   Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/glassboxpodcast   Twitter: https://twitter.com/GlassBoxPod    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/glassboxpodcast/  Merch store: https://groundgnomes.launchcart.store/shop

Braden’s taking the week off so Shannon and Bryce spend a LONG episode going through a recent document dump by WikiLeaks concerning the Mormon church. After that we get into our next installment of the Naked Communist by Cleon Skousen. Shannon teaches us about Kruschev and Castro through the 1950s-60s. Then we wrap with happy news about the Georgia Senate runoff election. PLEASE TAKE OUR SURVEY ABOUT BOUNDARIES FOR THE NEXT EPISODE!!!   Show Links:    Boundaries survey: https://forms.gle/Q53MpYqqdfBQQZ1b6    WikiLeaks dump: https://www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/comments/knvvuw/wikileaks_just_dumped_lds_files_pr_bombshell/   Hungarian Revolution of 1956: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_Revolution_of_1956    Nikita Khrushchev: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikita_Khrushchev    Patrice Lumumba: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrice_Lumumba    Remembering King and Lumumba: Two Martyrs of Our Time: https://www.theperspective.org/2005/jan/king_lumumba.html    Cuban Revolution: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

End-of-the-shit-year-of-2020 fun episode! We want to end the year on a high note and what better way to do that than to spend the entire episode talking about fun things! And what might those be, you ask? Some favorite movies and books, of course!    Survey about BOUNDARIES!: https://forms.gle/bHUugqgdtiRxU9nw7    Bryce: Movie: Parasite: https://www.imdb.comhttps://www.imdb.com/title/tt6751668/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0/title/tt6751668/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0  Book: Outbreak: A Crisis of Faith:  How Religion Ruined Our Global Pandemic   Braden: Movie: Happiest Season: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8522006/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0  Movie: Jojo Rabbit: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2584384/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0    Shannon: Movie: The Truman Show: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120382/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0  Book: Double Whammy, by Carl Hiaasen   Show links:  Why Do We Go to the Movies?: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2001/sep/05/artsfeatures.arts    Neil Gaiman on Why We Read and What Books Do for the Human Experience: https://www.

We do a brief deep-dive into Book of Mormon archaeology, but probably not a story you’ve heard before. Thomas Stuart Ferguson was hired by BYU and the Mormon church to study Mesoamerica for ties to ancient Book of Mormon cities and artifacts. His findings will SHOCK you! Then we dive into the next installment of The Naked Communist with more background on post WWII history and the rise of fear and loathing of Communism in America. Finally we wrap with a feel-good story about a remote village in Canada supplementing their reliance on fossil fuels with tons of solar power!   Links:   Thomas Stuart Fergusonhttps://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/01/how-mormon-lawyer-transformed-archaeology-mexico-and-ended-losing-his-faith http://www.ancientamerica.org/library/media/HTML/1bvanve9/30.%20IN%20HONOR%20OF%20THOMAS%20STUART%20FERGUSON.htm?n=0 https://www.fairmormon.org/answers/Book_of_Mormon/Archaeology/Thomas_Stuart_Ferguson   NWAFhttps://byuorg.lib.byu.edu/index.php/New_World_Archaeological_Foundation#Assets_and_Adm

The Mormon Moses, Russel M. Nelson, recently released a video to all the social medias about a new ad campaign the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is running. We discuss the video, the campaign as a whole, and some of our takeaways watching the campaign play out over the past week. Then, Braden tells us about “Yes, God, Yes!,” a coming of age story of a woman raised in a sexually repressive religion streaming now on Netflix. Then we round out the show with some happy news about the coming COVID-19 vaccine.   Happy news: https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirus-vaccines-pfizer/pfizer-ends-covid-19-trial-with-95-efficacy-to-seek-emergency-use-authorization-idUKKBN27Y1HK?utm_source=reddit.com Show Links:Website http://www.glassboxpodcast.com/index.html Find us on Facebook and Twitter @Glass Box Podcast

In light of a recent Twitter op-ed, we invite Dr. Cristina Rosetti onto the show to discuss a polygamist group in Utah (the Kingston Group) who’ve recently contributed to political campaigns, shot rifles with POTUS’s son, and opposed the decriminalization of polygamy which recently passed the Utah legislature. Rosetti helps us navigate the tumultuous waters of Mormon polygamy and discusses the recently-passed bill. Then we jump into our next installment of The Naked Communist before wrapping with some happy news about the recent Presidential Election.   Links mentioned in the interview: https://cherishfamilies.org/?fbclid=IwAR1P2QDwOaqIonSZUAgpepQwrJ3CH1N5AU9_jIHXUBrdQs7s5OfFXs5GiQw https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostolic_United_Brethren?fbclid=IwAR0Hgna6chGnE7HbnBKPsVkXCwBBTRGNcYuaNw5b7MfWMhMFODarx7Ei_A4 https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2020/11/06/utah-attorney-general/?fbclid=IwAR0r7qQVu_WARC1bGwdDQWCSrszYpZ25eXAhBLmR8GvrNI853FgveH4cx2M https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_Creek_raid?fbclid=IwAR18g9F

You heard it right, Justice Dallin H. Oaks said “Black lives matter”! Buuuuuuut, he said ‘but’ after it. We go top to bottom on Oaks’ recent BYU speech titled “Racism and Other Challenges” to see what slipped through the cracks and talk generally about masks, voting, protests, statues, and the works. Then we talk about “The Social Dilemma,” a new doc on Netflix about the problems of social media and how it has fueled and shaped modern politics. Then Shannon tells us about the Duwamish river in Seattle healing after 2 decades of environmental conservation efforts. Hey everybody, get out and vote!   Links: James Randi Educational Foundationhttps://web.randi.org/   Justice Dallin Oaks “Racism and Other Challenges” https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/president-oaks-byu-devotional-october-2020-talk https://www.deseret.com/faith/2020/10/27/21536493/black-lives-matter-dallin-h-oaks-byu-devotional-first-presidency-latter-day-saints-mormon-lds?fbclid=IwAR0CAz_O_gyvg1-hybL4nVx-Z3XUpO_b1LP1fxhmRJxrQSc1mpZ

A whole episode about Ezra Taft Benson and Cleon Skousen! We invite Dr. Matt Harris, author of the recent “Watchman on the Tower; Ezra Taft Benson and the Making of the Mormon Right” along with friend of the show, Joseph Geisner, to discuss the life and influences of Mormon Prophet, Ezra Benson. A product of the red scare and McCarthyism, Benson rose to prominence as Dwight Eisenhower’s Secretary of Agriculture and continued to gain status as a radical right-wing conspiracy theorist general authority, eventually becoming prophet of the church in 1985. Arguably, no other individual has had more influence making Mormonism a conservative religion than Benson himself. Please pick up a copy of Matt’s book from Benchmark Books here: https://www.benchmarkbooks.com/ or ring them up and have them send you a copy at 801-486-3111. After that, we do our next installment of Cleon Skousen’s “The Naked Communist” with added context from the interview. Then we round out the show with some happy news about high early-voter tu

I mean, the title is pretty self-explanatory. Yeah, it’s that long because boiling down 10 hours of brainwashing stupefaction takes a while. But, we discuss what slipped through the cracks and why it matters for us to analyze every nook and cranny of each #GenCON.   Show Links:Website http://www.glassboxpodcast.com/index.html Find us on Facebook and Twitter @Glass Box Podcast

We take this week’s episode as a time to reflect on the incredible life and legacy of one of the nation’s brightest minds. SCOTUS lost a paragon of civil rights and gender equality in a contentious election year. We discuss the life and accomplishments of RBG, what her death in September 2020 means, and what we can expect moving forward. After that, Braden phones in to tell us about Pride, a movie about a GLB rights group protesting for miner’s rights in Magaret Thatcher’s U.K. Then we discuss the recent endorsement by Scientific American of Joe Biden, the first in the 175 years of the journal’s history.   Voting resourceshttps://vote.gov/https://www.vote411.org/   RBG resourceshttps://www.npr.org/2016/07/14/486080234/listen-justice-ginsburg-expands-on-decision-to-apologize-for-trump-remarks https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/18/us/ruth-bader-ginsburg-dead.html?fbclid=IwAR30TLvfPs2wnPJHtPHoCfIvgm0WEnsln7NQ3FS4g83-oZmfj-mjWKxvseU https://www.npr.org/2020/09/18/100306972/justice-ruth-bader-ginsburg-champion-of-ge

Shannon Grover joins us again for the next installment of The Naked Communist, why don’t we just make it official? Welcome to our new permanent co-host!! We start the show with a quick rundown of a recent talk given by Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of Apostles about the current wave of civil rights protests we see across the nation. We transition seamlessly into The Naked Communist and it’s remarkable how similar the arguments are with 70 years separating them. Then we discussed an ad campaign by reddit to try and increase voter turnout this November.   Quentin L. Cook BYU talk https://www.deseret.com/faith/2020/8/24/21398349/elder-cook-to-byu-faculty-focus-on-building-faith-in-christ-church-brigham-young-provo-racial-unity?fbclid=IwAR3d20OGp68n-9MuLE-MFt8Yq6_67bPlP7cX6DuP1cxvJ8pM9saO_i4cazg   Happy news https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/ikxsst/this_reddit_billboard_advertisement_for_their/   Voting resourceshttps://vote.gov/https://www.vote411.org/   Show Links: Website http://www.glassbo

We’re joined by Brian Simper for an interview about Mormon membership statistics. Brian gave a presentation at the recent Sunstone Symposium and was kind enough to join me for a deep dive into his methodology and findings. After that we discuss The Invention of Lying and a brief rundown of Steve Bannon’s arrest on wire fraud charges.   Happy news: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/08/steve-bannon-fraud-trump/615523/   Show Links:Website http://www.glassboxpodcast.com/index.html Find us on Facebook and Twitter @Glass Box Podcast

Our resident General Authority, Shannon Grover, at long last joins us for an entire episode. We begin with hearing her story growing up in the church, her early life, mission, marriage, and finally apostasy. She’s had quite the incredible journey and we’re lucky to have her share so much. After that, we get through the next chapter of The Naked Communist by Cleon Skousen and wrap up with some happy news about a miner in Tanzania!   Happy news https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-53642490

A lot of people have debated this question for decades. We sit down with some work from Steven Hassan, Margaret Singer, and other cult experts to discuss what makes a cult a cult. Short answer, yes. Longer answer, yes and it's complicated. Longest answer, yes and listen to the show. Now that I have your attention, reader, here’s a fun activity: send a Facebook message to Braden Hamm and ask him “if the players were required to be drunk, what would be the funniest sport to watch?” But don’t tell him why! I want to know who reads these show notes. If you do, send me a direct message to nakedmormonism@gmail.com with your physical address. After that we talk about The Life of Brian and some happy news about New York building up its electric automotive infrastructure.   Cult resources: BITE model https://freedomofmind.com/bite-model/ Steven Hassan on LDS Church https://freedomofmind.com/the-church-of-jesus-christ-of-latter-day-saints/ The Cult of Trump https://freedomofmind.com/the-cult-of-trump-media-page/ Ethi

This episode begins with a panel discussion with Marie D’Elephant and Marissa McCool about navigating ethical non-monogamy. Open relationships/marriages can be a taboo topic and uncomfortable for some; Marie and Riss help us by giving a 101 discussion to introduce us to the subject, uncover some common pitfalls, and provide resources for further reading should non-monogamy be a topic which interests you. After that Braden and I debrief from the interview before jumping into part 1 of reading through The Naked Communist by W. Cleon Skousen. We wrap with some good news about black-owned businesses experiencing a spike amid the current protests and a little bit of listener mail.   Marie D’Elephant https://www.facebook.com/mariedelephant/ https://mariedelephant.com/https://everyonesautonomous.com/   Marissa McCool (The Purple Amazon)https://www.facebook.com/RisMcCool https://centerforinquiry.org/speakers/mccool_marissa/ https://www.amazon.com/Marissa-Alexa-McCool/e/B075NQV56B%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share http

Lots of interlocking stories to discuss this week. We jump right in with a discussion about the most recent headlines sparked by the protests following George Floyd’s death. A lot of legislation has been crafted in response to the protests, including an executive order from President Donald Trump. We examine the organizations he listed during the signing to determine the intent of the order, followed by looking at the text of the order itself. Once created, tools can be used for good and evil. Then we discuss CHOP, the occupation movement in Capitol Hill, Washington. The Seattle City Council crafted resolutions in response to the leverage held by the CHOP protestors joined by protests across the nation. Seattle chose to ban the use of chokeholds, riot control weapons, and officers covering their badge numbers. We weigh in on #DefundPolice and how useful it can be in sparking a conversation, but why does the “defunding” stop at police? Then we finally tackle the Mormon angle by examining the recent rulings in

Racial tensions and police brutality in America have caused protests, riots, and citizens becoming the victims of war crimes committed by our military-police force. How did we get here? Where do we go? How can we effectively reform policing in America? It’s a complicated issue and a couple of white guys are going to do their best to introduce you to the topic and form a basic foundation on which to build a base of knowledge about these subjects. We also take a look at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints angle of race, as this is a Mormon-centric podcast. We encourage you to use the resources and further reading below. We wrap the episode with the final installment of Case for the Book of Mormon, a tool of genocide and racial supremacy which shaped American history. Links: First Presidency statement https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/president-nelson-shares-social-post-encouraging-understanding-and-civility Church’s social media post: https://twitter.com/Ch_JesusChrist/status/126823