Why is Mormon Stories pink all of the sudden?

As promised, I have committed to dedicate the next 5 episodes of Mormon Stories Podcast to LDS Women’s issues.

However, I need your help. I cannot do this alone.  Specifically:

  • What stuff should I read before conducting the interviews?
  • Should I team up with a woman to conduct the interviews? Better yet, should I ask a woman (or women) to conduct the interviews without my participation? If so, who?
  • What should the 5+ episodes entail?
  • Who should I interview for each episode?
  • What should be covered in each episode?

Please don’t answer any of these questions here. I will create a blog post dedicated to each of these questions. In the mean time, I have created a wiki page for collaboration on these topics. Please check it out here, and feel free to help me enhance/augment. You can do so by registering, or anonymously.

I very much look forward to working with you all to knock this series out of the park. This may be the most important thing I do with Mormon Stories.

13 Comments

  1. Deacon Collar May 10, 2007 at 12:27 pm

    Do the interview yourself unless you can find a woman interviewer with more experience than yourself. You’re getting better as you go, John. You have a ways to go before you’re a Terry Gross, but you’re doing alright.

  2. Square Peg May 10, 2007 at 4:49 pm

    I really like the idea of bringing in a woman “co-interviewer.” That way, you could sort of maintain the established structure and feel of Mormon Stories–and still get the critical insights and perspectives a woman interviewer would provide. I can think of four or five women in the ‘nacle who would do a superb job–some of whom I’ve heard on various Mormon-themed podcasts.

    Plus, if you start to get out of line, your co-host and guest could mercilessly gang up on you. :)

  3. Square Peg May 10, 2007 at 4:51 pm

    Oh and call me color blind, but for some reason on my browser (Safari), the Mormon Stories Web site still appears to be a manly shade of blue…

  4. Mayan Elephant May 10, 2007 at 5:38 pm

    i would love to hear a woman interviewer? would ms mormonstories do it? I loved her questions and find her very engaging.

    I can think of a few others that may be interested, but i suspect you have a short list.

  5. Paula May 10, 2007 at 7:20 pm

    Square peg, try refreshing the browser. It was still blue for me till I did that. However, the pink’s a rather intense pink, so you might just want to stick with blue. :)

  6. Hueffenhardt May 10, 2007 at 9:55 pm

    I checked out your wiki page on the ten women all Mormons should know. It looks like you only have five so far. I’d like to suggest two more. I do not see a thread for making those suggestions, yet, so I will put them here.

    Clare Middlemiss – President David O. McKay’s secretary. The following is from D. Michael Quinn’s Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power, pages 157-158.

    “After World War II the administrative power of the secretaries (male and female) increased dramatically…For example, McKay’s secretary Clare Middlemiss “drafted suggested answers to letters for the Prophet’s consideration before he had even read the correspondence.”

    Middlemiss also decided who saw her employer and who did not…She gave instant access to McKay for her favorite general authorities and department heads but put off the less favored, including members of the Twelve. Being on good terms with Middlemiss was necessary to achieve success with McKay…

    In 1966 general authorities informed Utah’s senator that “one of the problems we have is that Miss Middlemiss runs the office of President McKay and often calls in his name to order things done.” …In other words, she rivaled the authority of the Presidency counselors, and this created “problems” between Middlemiss and Counselor Hugh B. Brown”.

    Fawn Brodie – niece of David O. McKay and author of “No Man Knows My History,” the seminal biography of Joseph Smith. I know she is a controversial character, but she made history among Mormons.

  7. Tom Grover May 10, 2007 at 10:26 pm

    John,

    When you have a free minute call me and I’ll make arrangements to schedule the KVNU studios to record and produce this series.

  8. Tom Grover May 11, 2007 at 11:39 am

    I like the idea of a woman cohost, however, I think you should do it yourself as you have always done. Tandem teams in radio tend to need time to develop a rapport, cadence and rythm together. Also, a tandem interview team can overwhelm a single subject, and if the team is not on the same page one might interrupt the other before a line of questioning is finished. John, you have a natural ability to get people to open up and your interviewing skills have only grown. Frankly, they are phenomenal and I look to you as an example to follow. I want to have these women tell their stories. I know that if you do the interviews, that will happen.

    It’s a cool thought to have a woman cohost or substitute, but I think the final product would be better if you just did it yourself.

  9. Tom Grover May 11, 2007 at 11:40 am

    I like the idea of a woman cohost, however, I think you should do it yourself as you have always done. Tandem teams in radio tend to need time to develop a rapport, cadence and rythm together. Also, a tandem interview team can overwhelm a single subject, and if the team is not on the same page one might interrupt the other before a line of questioning is finished. John, you have a natural ability to get people to open up and your interviewing skills have only grown. Frankly, they are phenomenal and I look to you as an example to follow. I want to have these women tell their stories. I know that if you do the interviews, that will happen.

    It’s a cool thought to have a woman cohost or substitute, but I think the final product would be better if you just did it yourself

  10. Russell May 11, 2007 at 12:44 pm

    Tom-
    I agree with you. John should do it.

  11. Paula May 11, 2007 at 12:47 pm

    John I think you should just do it too, but maybe your wiki thing is confusing people. Why not just have comments in the five areas here?

  12. Tatiana May 11, 2007 at 7:48 pm

    To anyone who is confused: To add comments or suggestions to the wiki, just click on the “edit” tab at the top of the page. Then when you’ve added your text, click “save page” below the editing window.

    I agree that John should do the interviews himself. Why not ask the interviewees what they would like you to read before interviewing them? The topics covered would definitely depend on who you select for interviewing, but I just want to hear women’s stories. I love the podcasts in which people tell about their lives in the church, both spiritual and social lives.

    Given that, here are some topics I’m particularly interested in.

    -The experiences of single sisters in the church.
    -Should more women serve missions? Should it become an expected thing rather than an exception?
    -Should sister missionaries serve for two years rather than only 18 months?
    -Should Relief Society be organized from the top down rather than serving directly under the priesthood at each local ward and branch?
    -Potential projects the RS could be doing worldwide such as teaching ESL classes, along with information on building strong and healthy families, nutritional information, home-medical information, food safety, disaster preparedness, conflict resolution, disease prevention, craft skills, home and business finances, entrepreneurial skills, etc.
    -Should the RS begin microfinance activities directed toward women worldwide?
    -Should the RS become involved in clean water initiatives, vaccination programs, and projects building other infrastructure in the developing world with the aim being to strengthen families?
    -Should the RS become more involved in disaster relief programs worldwide?
    -If more girls served missions, would more PEF funds be available for helping girls educate themselves worldwide? Should we allocate more PEF funds (or other funds) for educating women worldwide, regardless of RM status? (Dollar for dollar, educating women is the most cost effective way to spend funds on development that there is. Educated mothers raise educated families, families who get better nutrition, better preventive medicine and first line medical care, etc.)
    -How can we get more decisionmaking power in the church into the hands of women?
    -Has Heavenly Mother been waiting to reveal herself until we demonstrate as a society much more respect for and acknowledgement of females?
    -Does celestial polyandry follow logically from the concept of celestial polygyny? Is heaven fair?

    That’s all I can come up with on short notice. I will post more suggestions as I think of them.

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