The Plain and Precious Pod

Hey everyone. We finally got together to make plans for the pod this year. Thanks for listening and we’ll be …

We're a few weeks into the new year, and already some notable things have occurred within the church, namely the passing of the President Monson and a new church curriculum. Listen in and hear some of our opinions on these recent goings-on.

With the end of the year comes the end of the world....? As you maybe able to infer, this week we discuss some of the theories we've heard concerning the signs of the end of times. We apologize in advance to those who may not be familiar with some of the more Mormon-specific theories we posit, but as you'll see, we're not quite familiar with them ourselves.

Since we're in the midst of the holiday season, it's only fitting that we discuss some of our Christmas traditions. Follow along as we share some of our Christmastime memories and talk about some of the things we've noticed occur within Mormon culture.

As has become custom on this podcast, we welcome this week's guest, Sam, to discuss a really big life-defining experience he had. Without spoiling anything, let's just say that there are many foibles to be had as a youth, some of which lead us to learn more about ourselves than we would ever expect.

Those familiar with the church know that LDS youth (ages 12-17) are asked to live up to certain standards . These standards are detailed in a pamphlet called "For the Strength of Youth". Listen in on what is probably the first part of our ongoing discussion of this pamphlet, the role it's played in our lives growing up, and how we view it today as adults.

Marriage is a fairly large topic, especially within the realm of Mormon culture, so this week we're focusing on just one of its aspects. It is commonplace in the USA for church members to get married and "sealed" simultaneously in one of the church's many temples, however such is not the case for most church members outside this country. Hear our thoughts, and then share some of yours!

If you can't tell by the title, this week's episode is about sister missionary experiences. Back by popular demand, the girls from episode 7 rejoin us to share their experiences from serving full-time missions, and the differences start from as early as entering the MTC.

On today's episode, we interview a guest on a relatively heavy topic: divorce. We welcome on a recently divorced young man and father, who was kind enough to share with us some insights he's gained through his experience, as well as his perspective on what it's like to be kind of a YSA (young single adult), but also kind of not.

The LDS church is a big proponent of family history research, and this week we welcome a guest to the pod to discuss his family's ties to the pioneers of the church. We also discuss family history in general and our experiences with it growing up in/outside of Utah.

Bust out your PJs, make yourself a heart breakfast, and hunker down with your warmest blanket, because this week we're talking about general conference. After a brief description of what this event is, we talk about traditions, time zones, favorite speakers, and more. In other words, we're all over the place.

This week we bring you part two of our discussion on gays in the church, and this time we are joined by Jena Peterson, active church member and LGBT advocate. Similar to our first episode, we sit down with Jena to ask about her perspective and experiences as a gay woman in a mixed-orientation marriage, as a mother, and as a life coach who works on many projects in hopes of bettering the lives of other LGBT church members.

This week, we discuss our understanding of the Word of Wisdom. For anyone who has ever wondered why Mormons don't drink, smoke, dance, etc., well, we only talk about two of those three things. Sadly, we recorded this early in the week, before BYU's caffeinated drink announcement.

Who doesn't love listening to a good mission story? Pretty much anyone  who's been to fast and testimony meeting in a college singles ward. This week, we share some thoughts and experiences from our respective missions. Expect more episodes like this one in the future, they're the easiest to record when we don't plan well.

Since our first episode, one of the most frequent comments we've received is that the podcast lacks a female's voice and perspective, and so today we've brought you three! That's right, this is our first guest episode! The topic of discussion is on what women think happens in Priesthood meetings and what men think happens in Relief Society meetings...or at least that's what it was supposed to be. This being our first episode with guest speakers and sharing microphones, there are quite a few dips in volume throughout the recording. As we have more guests join us, we'll work on improving our audio quality.

This week we take on the--much needed--lighter topic of some of the slang and jargon used within the Mormon culture. You might notice that we eventually stray towards a more niche area of the topic, but it all comes full circle in the end. Let us know what other terms and phrases we missed in our discussion!

This week is the first of a two-part discussion on a relatively heavy topic: gays in the church. We have a Q&A with a mystery speaker who was kind enough to share some of his experiences and perspective as an active member of the church who also identifies as gay.

This week, we have a rather roundabout discussion on what it means to observe the Sabbath Day. We're not entirely sure we actually got anywhere...what do you think?

Before you start listening to this episode, we would like to thank everyone for this opportunity to share our thoughts and experiences on this podcast. When we first considered making a podcast, we weren't sure if we were right for the part. However, Webster's dictionary defines a podcast as: "a program  (as of music or talk) made available in digital format for automatic download over the Internet." So after doing a considerable amount of research, we thought, "You know, maybe this is something that we should do." So then we made this podcast.

This week we're talking about Mormon decor! Listen in on our discussion of common objects we find in Mormon homes: "Live Laugh Love", family photos, mission plaques, and more!