The Good Book Club Podcast: Recent Episodes
The Good Book Club
A podcast series for Post and Nuanced Mormons from The Good Book Club including discussions on the monthly book and discussions from The Lazy Learner series where guests address specific topics of interest to post and nuanced mormons.
Laurie Lee Hall grew up knowing something about herself didn’t match how others saw her. Though born male, she deeply felt she was a girl. With no way to express this, she chose to live as a man and built a respected life in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—as a temple architect and church leader.
In a faith where gender is seen as eternal and unchanging, her true identity remained hidden for years. But eventually, Laurie had a powerful spiritual experience that confirmed what she had always known: she was transgender. Choosing to live openly as herself meant risking her role, her faith community, and the life she had built.
Her story is a powerful reminder of the strength it takes to live authentically—and the peace that comes with self-acceptance.
This Q&A was originally a The Good Book Club meeting held on Sunday, September 14, 2025.
We Have No Idea: A Guide to the Unknown Universe by Jorge Cham and Daniel Whiteson is a fun, accessible exploration of the biggest mysteries in modern physics. Blending humor with clear explanations, the book dives into what scientists don’t know about the universe—from dark matter and dark energy to the nature of space, time, and fundamental particles. Rather than offering definitive answers, the authors celebrate curiosity and the vast unknowns that drive scientific discovery. Through engaging illustrations and witty commentary, We Have No Idea encourages readers to embrace the excitement of not knowing and to see science as an ongoing adventure of exploration.
This The Good Book Club Meeting was originally held on Sunday, August 10th, 2025.
***How to DONATE to The Good Book Club Podcast:
If you would like to help financially support our podcast, you can DONATE here through Mormonish Podcast/Bibliotech Media, Inc. We are a 501(c) (3) so your donation is tax deductible.
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Doubt: A History: The Great Doubters and Their Legacy of Innovation from Socrates and Jesus to Thomas Jefferson and Emily Dickinson
Doubt: A History by Jennifer Michael Hecht is a sweeping intellectual history that explores the role of religious doubt, atheism, and skepticism throughout human civilization. Spanning from ancient times to the modern era, Hecht examines how doubt has been a crucial and persistent force in shaping philosophy, science, religion, and culture. The book highlights key figures and movements—from early Greek philosophers and Eastern thinkers to Enlightenment skeptics and contemporary secularists—demonstrating that questioning religious and spiritual beliefs has been an essential part of human thought. Rather than presenting doubt as purely negative or destructive, Hecht argues that it has played a vital role in progress, freedom, and intellectual development.
This The Good Book Club Meeting was held on July 13th, 2025
***How to DONATE to The Good Book Club Podcast:
If you would like to help financially support our podcast, you can DONATE here through Mormonish Podcast/Bibliotech Media, Inc. We are a 501(c) (3) so your donation is tax deductible.
https://donorbox.org/mormonish-podcast
In our meeting this month we discussed the book, "Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End" by Atul Gawande. In this very important book, the author, a surgeon, explores modern mortality, aging, and end-of-life care, examining how medical advances have changed our relationship with death and what makes life meaningful until the end. This was a very powerful discussion and a very important one. This book changed all of us. This Good Book Club meeting was originally held on Sunday, June 22nd, 2025.
***How to DONATE to The Good Book Club Podcast:
If you would like to help financially support our podcast, you can DONATE here through Mormonish Podcast/Bibliotech Media, Inc. We are a 501(c) (3) so your donation is tax deductible.
https://donorbox.org/mormonish-podcast
Welcome to The Good Book Club Podcast where we make all our bookclub meetings available for viewers and listeners to enjoy. In our May bookclub meeting we discussed the book “The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity” by David Graeber and David Wengrow.
This book offers a dramatically new understanding of human history, challenging our most fundamental assumptions about social evolution―from the development of agriculture and cities to the origins of the state, democracy, and inequality―and revealing new possibilities for human emancipation.
For generations, our remote ancestors have been cast as primitive and childlike. The authors show how such theories first emerged in the eighteenth century and are far from the truth of our neolithic ancestors.
We found this discussion incredibly interesting and we know you will too. This The Good Book Club meeting was originally held on Sunday, May 18th, 2025.
***How to DONATE to The Good Book Club Podcast:
If you would like to help financially support our podcast, you can DONATE here through Mormonish Podcast/Bibliotech Media, Inc. We are a 501(c) (3) so your donation is tax deductible.
https://donorbox.org/mormonish-podcast
Welcome to The Good Book Club Podcast where we make all our book club meetings available for you to enjoy. This month we discussed the book "Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow" by Yuval Noah Harari.
Yuval Noah Harari, author of the critically-acclaimed New York Times bestseller and international phenomenon Sapiens, returns with an equally original, compelling, and provocative book, turning his focus toward humanity’s future, and our quest to upgrade humans into gods.
What then will replace famine, plague, and war at the top of the human agenda? As the self-made gods of planet earth, what destinies will we set ourselves, and which quests will we undertake? Homo Deus explores the projects, dreams and nightmares that will shape the twenty-first century—from overcoming death to creating artificial life. It asks the fundamental questions: Where do we go from here?
This The Good Book Club Meeting was orginally held on Sunday, April 13th, 2025.
Welcome to The Good Book Club podcast where we make all our bookclub meetings available for viewers and listeners to enjoy. Our book this month was “Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism”by linguist Amanda Montell
Through juicy storytelling and cutting original research, Montell exposes the verbal elements that make a wide spectrum of communities “cultish,” revealing how they affect followers of groups as notorious as Heaven’s Gate, but also how they pervade our modern start-ups, Peloton leaderboards, and Instagram feeds.
Incisive and darkly funny, this enrapturing take on the curious social science of power and belief will make you hear the fanatical language of “cultish” everywhere.
We found this book fascinating and we know you will too. This The Good Book Club Meeting was originally held on March 9th, 2025
Welcome to The Good Book Club Podcast, where we make all our book club meetings available for viewers and listeners to enjoy. In this book club meeting we discussed the book, "The Art of Living a Meaningless Existence: Ideas from Philosophy That Change the Way You Think" by Robert Pantano. In this book, the author attempts to provide the value of motivation and personal development through unwavering philosophical honesty. Studying and pulling from ideas in Stoicism, Existentialism, Nihilism, Absurdism, Buddhism, Taoism, and more, he combines his own thoughts with concepts from philosophy to create accessible, thought-provoking, and beautiful takeaways that will change the way you think about yourself, existence, and how to appreciate the absurdity of it all. This The Good Book Club meeting was originally held on Sunday, February 9th, 2025.
A panel discussion with author Matt Harris
The Good Book Club meeting with author Matt Harris to discuss his groundbreaking book, “Second Class Saints: Black Mormons and the Struggle for Racial Equality.” This was recorded as a Mormonish episode.
Members of the book club have the chance to ask Matt anything and everything they’ve ever wanted to know about the lifting of the Priesthood ban, Matt’s research, and more!
This is such an important discussion and Matt is just fantastic! you won’t want to miss this episode!
The Good Book Club
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Welcome to The Good Book Club Podcast where we make all our bookclub meetings available for viewers and listeners to enjoy. This month we read and discussed the book, "Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of my Hasidic Roots" by Deborah Feldman. As a member of the strictly religious Satmar sect of Hasidic Judaism, Deborah Feldman grew up under a code of relentlessly enforced customs governing everything from what she could wear and to whom she could speak to what she was allowed to read. Yet in spite of her repressive upbringing, Deborah grew into an independent-minded young woman who eventually reclaimed her life outside of her faith tradition and forged a new path for herself and her son. This The Good Book Club Meeting was orginally held on Sunday, December 8th, 2024.
In this Bookclub meeting, we discussed the book. “No Nonsense Spirituality: All the Tools No Belief Required” by Brittney Hartley. Britt was able to join us for most of the meeting and answer questions our Bookclub members had about the book. I know you’ll find this discussion absolutely fascinating and enlightening. This book club meeting was originally held on Sunday, December 10, 2024.
Welcome to The Good Book Club podcast where we make all our bookclub meetings available for viewers and listeners to enjoy. This month the book club discussed “Armageddon: What the Bible Really Says About the End” by Bart Ehrman. You’ll find nearly everything the Bible says about the end in the Book of Revelation: a mystifying prophecy filled with bizarre symbolism, violent imagery, mangled syntax, confounding contradictions, and very firm ideas about the horrors that await us all. But no matter what you think Revelation reveals—whether you read it as a literal description of what will soon come to pass, interpret it as a metaphorical expression of hope for those suffering now, or only recognize its highlights from pop culture—you’re almost certainly wrong. This The Good Book Club Meeting was originally held on October 13th 2024.
The book discussed at this meeting is “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life” by Mark Manson. In this entertaining and hard hitting self-help guide, the author cuts through the crap to show us how to stop trying to be "positive" all the time so that we can truly become better, happier people. In other words, there are only so many things we can give a f*k about so we need to figure out which ones really matter. We found this book to be really eye opening and we think you will too! This The Good Book Club Meeting was originally held on September 8th, 2024.
Welcome to The Good Book Club podcast where we make all our book club meetings available for viewers and listeners to enjoy. Today's episode features our discussion of the book, "Heavens on Earth: The Scientific Search for the Afterlife, Immortality, and Utopia" by Michael Shermer. In this very interesting discussion, Shermer sets out to discover what drives humans’ belief in life after death, focusing on recent scientific attempts to achieve immortality along with utopian attempts to create heaven on earth. The author Michael Shermer joins us for the second half of the presentation. This The Good Book Club Meeting was originally held on August 11th 2024.
Welcome to The Good Book Club Podcast where we make all our bookclub meetings available for viewers and listeners to enjoy. Our bookclub discussion this month was centered on the book, "The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values" by Sam Harris.
In this highly controversial book, Sam Harris seeks to link morality to the rest of human knowledge. Defining morality in terms of human and animal well-being, Harris argues that science can do more than tell how we are; it can, in principle, tell us how we ought to be. In his view, moral relativism is simply false—and comes at an increasing cost to humanity.
We found this book and the concepts presented, absolutely fascinating and we think you will too, This bookclub meeting was originally held on Sunday, July 14th.
Delving into the latest research of psychologists and neuroscientists, HOW MINDS CHANGE explores the limits of reasoning, the power of groupthink, and the effects of deep canvassing. The book ultimately challenges us to question our own motives and beliefs. In an age of dangerous conspiratorial thinking, can we rise to the occasion with empathy?
We really learned a lot from this book and we know you'll find this discussion fascinating.
This bookclub meeting was originally held on June 9th, 2024
Welcome to The Good Book Club Podcast where we make all our bookclub meetings and bonus events available for listeners to enjoy. In this episode we discuss the ground breaking book, "The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World " by Max Fisher
We all have a vague sense that social media is bad for our minds, for our children, and for our democracies. But the truth is that its reach and impact run far deeper than we have understood. Building on years of international reporting, Max Fisher tells the gripping and galling inside story of how Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other social network preyed on psychological frailties to create the algorithms that drive everyday users to extreme opinions and, increasingly, extreme actions.
We found this book to be equally interesting and terrifying and we are definitely rethinking our social media use. This book club meeting was originally recorded on Sunday, May 19th, 2024
Welcome to The Good Book Club podcast where we make all our book club meetings and bonus events available for listeners to enjoy. This episode features our bookclub discussion of "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared Diamond. In this groundbreaking book, the author convincingly argues that geographical and environmental factors shaped the modern world. Societies that had had a head start in food production advanced beyond the hunter-gatherer stage, and then developed religion --as well as nasty germs and potent weapons of war --and adventured on sea and land to conquer and decimate preliterate cultures. You won't look at the world in the same way after reading this book. Our bookclub meeting was originally held on Sunday, April 14th, 2024.
Welcome to The Good Book Club Podcast where we make all our bookclub meetings and bonus events availble for listeners and viewers to enjoy. On today's epiosde we discuss the book "Devil's Gate: Brigham Young and the Great Mormon Handcart Tragedy" by David Roberts. The book recounts the tragedy of the Willey and Martin handcart companies. In 1856, 220 Mormon pioneers traveling west to Utah, pushing and pulling their belongings in handcarts, died of malnutrition and hypothermia. Roberts draws on contemporary letters and diaries to re-create the drama and suffering, as well as delving into the church's LDS church's role in the events.This was very heartbreaking to read, but also very important to understand in it's scope within a broader context of the LDS church. This bookclub meeting was orginally held on Sunday, March 10th, 2024
Welcome to The Good Book Club Podcast where we make all our book club meetings and bonus events available for listeners to enjoy. In this episode, we discuss the book “Sex at Dawn: How We Mate, Why We Stray, and What It Means for Modern Relationships by Christopher Ryan (Author), and Cacilda Jetha .
“Sex at Dawn challenges conventional wisdom about sex in a big way. By examining the prehistoric origins of human sexual behavior the authors are able to expose the fallacies and weaknesses of standard theories proposed by most experts. This is a provocative, entertaining, and pioneering book and we all learned so much from it!
This book club meeting was originally held on Sunday, February 11th, 2024.
Welcome to The Good Book Club Podcast, where all our bookclub meetings and bonus events are made available for listeners to enjoy. On this episode we discuss "The God Virus: How Religion Infects Our Lives and Culture" by Dr. Darrel Ray.
"The God Virus" uses the analogy of religion as a virus to explain the psychology behind it. Dr. Darrel Ray, uses his background in psychology and his knowledge of religion to explain the hold that religion has on our culture. The book is a lot of fun to read and the author does a wonderful job of educating us while never losing focus of his clever yet appropriate analogy.
Dr. Ray joins us for the second half of the meeting and as always, it's an absolute pleasure to have him talk to the group. We know you'll think so too!
This Good Book Club meeting was originally held on Sunday, January 14, 2024.
Welcome to the Good Book Club Podcast where we make all our book club meetings and bonus events available for listeners to enjoy. This book club episode is a discussion of Johnathon Haight's "The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom."
"The Happiness Hypothesis" is a book about ten Great Ideas. Each chapter is an attempt to savor one idea that has been discovered by several of the world's civilizations—to question it in light of what we now know from scientific research, and to extract from it the lessons that still apply to our modern lives and illuminate the causes of human flourishing.
We absolutely loved this book and learned so much from it, and we know you'll really enjoy it too. Discussion leader Joel did an excellent job presenting the book. This bookclub meeting was originally held on Sunday, December 10th 2023.
The Earth teems with sights and textures, sounds and vibrations, smells and tastes, electric and magnetic fields. But every kind of animal, including humans, is enclosed within its own unique sensory bubble, perceiving but a tiny sliver of our immense world. In An Immense World, Ed Yong coaxes us beyond the confines of our own senses, allowing us to perceive the skeins of scent, waves of electromagnetism, and pulses of pressure that surround us.
We learned so much from this book and we know you'll really enjoy it too. Discussion leader Louanne did an excellent job presenting the book. This book club meeting was originally held on Sunday, November 12th 2023.
Welcome to The Good Book Club Podcast where we make all our bookclub meetings and bonus events available for listeners to enjoy. On this episode we feature our regular The Good Book Club meeting and discussion of Carl Sagan's wonderful book, "The Demon Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark."
How can we make intelligent decisions about our increasingly technology-driven lives if we don’t understand the difference between the myths of pseudoscience and the testable hypotheses of science? Discussion leader Lynette tells us more about Pulitzer Prize-winning author and distinguished astronomer Carl Sagan who argues that scientific thinking is critical not only to the pursuit of truth but to the very well-being of our democratic institutions. This is an absolutely pivitol book and our discussion was fascinating as we shared a variety of insights and perspectives. This book club meeting was originally recorded on Sunday, October 8th.
Welcome to The Good Book Club Podcast where we make all our book club meetings and bonus events available for listeners to enjoy. Today’s book club meeting featured a variety of books written on the topic of the Mountain Meadows Massacre. Prior to our bookclub meeting, a group of bookclub members spent the weekend at the actual site of the Mountain Meadows Massacre and learned a lot about the events from our guide, co author of “Vengence is Mine: The Mountain Meadows Massacre and Its Aftermath,” the wonderful Barbara Brown.
These insights from the site, and other impressions gained from reading a variety of materials on the Mountain Meadows Massacre, made this a fascinating and important discussion that I’m sure our listeners will find as meaningful as we all did. This The Good Book Club meeting was originally recorded on Sunday, September 10th, 2023.
Welcome to The Good Book Club podcast where we all our Bookclub meetings and bonus events available for listeners to enjoy. This episode features our The Good Book Club discussion of “The Unfolding of Language: An Evolutionary Tour of Mankind's Greatest Invention” by Guy Duetscher. This groundbreaking book looks at the origin of language in a new and innovative way. Perhaps the most remarkable conclusion is that even the most elaborate languages are the product not of a single brilliant inventor, but of thousands of ordinary people, creating—almost by accident—one of the most profound and beautiful structures humanity has created. This The Good Book Club meeting was originally held on Sunday, August 13th at 11 am MT.
On this bonus episode of The Good Book Club, we collaborate with Mormon Book Reviews to bring you a discussion with author Chris Thomas about his wonderful book, "Unexpected: The Backstory of Finding Elizabeth Smart and Growing Up in the Culture of an American Religion." Chris was thrust into the spotlight as the family media spokesman for the Smart family during their 91/2 month ordeal as they searched for their kidnapped daughter Elizabeth. Chris discusses the whirlwind of press and police, volunteers, negotiations and more as everyone worked to bring Elizabeth home again. His insider's look is something most of us can't even imagine. This was an excellent book and a riviting discussion. This bonue event was originally recorded on Tuesday, July 11th, 2023.
Welcome to The Good Book Club Podcast where we make all our episodes and bonus events availalble for listeners to enjoy. This podcast is our The Good Book Club discussion of The Woman They Could Not Silence: One Woman, Her Incredible Fight for Freedom, and the Men Who Tried to Make Her Disappear by Kate Moore, with the discussion led by book club member, Cindy.
In this riveting true story, civil war era housewife and mother Elizabeth Packard is placed in a mental institution by her husband because of her intellect, independence, and unwillingness to stifle her own thoughts. As she navigates her new traumatic existence, she meets others in the same situation and realizes that no one is willing to fight for their freedom and they cannot possibly fight for themselves. She then becomes a woman on a mission in this incredible tale of human resilience and overcoming great trials against all odds, to rise triumphant. We learned so much from Elizabeth's story and we know you will too .This book club meeting was originally recorded on Sunday, July 9th, 2023.
Welcome to The Good Book Club podcast where we make all our book club meetings and bonus events available for listeners to enjoy. In this discussion we dive into Brene Brown’s “Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone.” Brene tells us that “True belonging doesn’t require us to change who we are. It requires us to be who we are.” And in her book we discuss cultivating true belonging in our communities, organizations, and culture, and also the effect the high demand, high control aspects of the LDS have had on our ability to find community and self acceptance. This was a really interesting discussion with many personal experiences and stories shared. We know you’ll find it as wonderful as we did. This book club discussion was originally held on Sunday, June 11th, 2023.
Welcome to the Good Book Club Podcast where we make all our book club discussions and bonus events available for listeners to enjoy. Today's episode features our book club discussion of "Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World" by Jack Weatherford. Some think of Genghis Khan as a relentless, bloodthirsty barbarian on horseback, leading a ruthless band of nomadic warriors in the looting of the civilized world. Others consider him a visionary leader who triggered an unprecedented explosion of technologies, trade, and ideas. We delve into all of these possiilties in this fascinating discussion led by Bruce Christiansen. This book club meeting was orginally recorded on May 21st 2023.
Welcome to The Good Book Club Podcast where we make all our book club meetings and Bonus Events available for listeners to enjoy. In this Bonus Event episode we have a fascinating discussion with the wonderful, multiple award winning author, Lorelei Kay about her book, “From Mormon to Mermaid: One Woman’s Voyage from Oppression to Freedom!” Lorelei shares stories from her life, discusses her faith journey and even reads a passage from her book. We absolutely loved getting to know Lorelei better and know you will too. She’s a bright, vivacious, energetic person who is full of life; a true mermaid! This bonus event was held on Tuesday, May 2nd, 2023.
This podcast features our regular book club meeting discussion of “Recovering Agency: Lifting the Veil of Mormon Mind Control” by Luna Corbden. The author joined us for this meeting and we were absolutely thrilled to have Luna with us. "Recovering Agency" presents years of research into social psychology and the science of cult dynamics, to describe 31 mind control techniques, alongside examples of their use in Mormon scripture, lessons, and from the pulpit. This was a phenomenal discussion presented by discussion leader Sean Peterson and originally recorded on Sunday, April 16th, 2023.
Welcome to the Good Book Club Podcast where we make all our book club meetings and bonus events available for listeners to enjoy. This episode features a Lazy Learner event with Dr. John Knight Lundwall of the Utah Cultural Astronomy Project. His presentation was titled “Cultural Astronomy of the Ancient Fremont” and we delved into the mysterious rock art of the Fremont people and it’s relationship to the sun and solstice. There is so much more meaning in this rock art when you understand how it relates to the sun and seasons. Dr Lundwall’s research is expansive and fascinating and we only scratched the surface of what there is to learn about the mysterious Fremont rock art. We’ll definitely be having Dr. Lundwall back again for more exploration. We hope you enjoy learning more about this fascinating topic. This Lazy Learner episode was taped on Tuesday, April 11th at 7 pm MT
Welcome to The Good Book Club podcast, where we make all our book club meetings and bonus events available for listeners to enjoy. This bonus event is a presentation and Q & A with Mountain Meadows Massacre archeologist, Everett Bassett. The book club read “Blood of the Prophets” by Will Bagley, a book we highly recommend, and visited the site of this tragic event in early Mormon history. At the site we met Everett Bassett who was researching the burial sites or mass graves of the Arkansas pioneers who were slaughtered by the early Mormon settlers. Everett agreed to talk to the book club about his findings and tell us more about the history of the event that is revealed through archeological forensics on the site. This is an extremely troubling event in the history of Utah and the early Mormon pioneers, but truth seekers like Everett Bassett make sure that the facts are made clear through scholarship and archeoological research. This bookclub bonus event was originally held on November 30th, 2021.
This episode features our regular book club meeting discussion of Steven Pinker's wonderful book Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress.
In Enlightenment Now psychologist Steven Pinker dispels the thought that the world is only getting worse and argues that things are actually getting better by every measure.
Pinker provides statistics on such factors as health, wealth, equality, human rights, happiness, peace and freedom to show that all of these things have improved over time, all around the world and he says the driving forces of this progress are reason, science and humanism- values that are driven by the European Enlightenment.
This was an excellent discussion led by book club member Kevin Neilsen. We hope you find it as fascinating as we did. This book club meeting was originally recorded on Sunday March 12, 2023.
Welcome to The Good Book Club Podcast, where we make all our book club meetings and bonus events available for listeners to enjoy. In this special bonus event, we are joined by the wonderful Dr. Randy Bell to discuss his new book, Post Traumatic Thriving: The Art, Science & Stories of Resilience. Dr. Bell is a sociologist and economist who specializes in disaster recovery projects and has consulted on hundreds of high profile cases all around the world for decades. If something is in the news, Dr. Bell was there. So much so that he is known as The Master of Disaster. In his work he has observed the trauma cycle very closely over and over with the victims he gets to know and help. In his new book, Dr. Bell outlines a path to not only get through trauma but to reach your highest potential going forward.
We absolutely loved our discussion with Dr. Bell, and we highly recommend his new book, Post-Traumatic Thriving: The Art, Science & Stories of Resilience and also his podcast of the same name. This The Good Book Club Bonus Event was recorded on February 28th, 2023.
Todays the Good Book Club discussion features Sapiens A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari. This was the second book the Good Book Club read and the most frequently recommended by Good Book Club members. This ground breaking book is that the context and narrative of the creation and evolution of humanity from the beginning. If you want to begin to understand who we are and how we got here Sapiens is a must read! We hope you find this discussion as amazing and literally mind blowing as we did. This Good Book Club Discussion was held on October 20, 2020.
This special episode features a Question and Answer from a film screening sponsored by The Good Book Club in Salt Lake City, Utah on February 13, 2023. The film is titled The Return of Elder Pingree: Memoir of a Departed Mormon by Emmy award winning documentary film maker Geoff Pingree. The film follows Geoff as he returns to his mission field in Guatemala decades later to reconnect with the people he loved and taught and process his faith deconstruction. This film won multiple awards and Geoff Pingree joined us for the screening. The podcast is the recorded pre-show and Q&A with Geoff Pingree at the screening. This wonderful film can be rented on Amazon for only $2.99. We can't recommend this film enough and encourage everyone to rent it and watch it and then listen to this Q&A with director Geoff Pingree.
This podcast features our The Good Book Club discussion of The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel Van Der Kolk, M.D. Doctor Van Der Kolk is a leading expert on trauma and in his book The Body Keeps the Score he uses recent scientific advancements to show how trauma literally reshapes our body and brain which can often keep us from experiencing pleasure, engagement, self control and trust. The book explores innovative treatments from neuro-feedback and meditation to sports, drama and yoga that offer new paths to recovery by activating the brain's natural healing powers. We learned so much from this book and our discussion was at times difficult but also healing and wonderful. We are sure that you will find something that resonates with you in this discussion too. This Good Book Club meeting was originally held on February 12th, 2023.
This podcast features our The Good Book Club meeting and discussion of Who Wrote the Bible by Richard Friedman. This was one of The Good Book Clubs very first discussions and what a book to begin with! Richard Friedman's book is a fascinating, intellectual yet highly readable analysis and investigation into the authorship of the Old Testament. It delves deeply into the history of the Bible in an easily accessible way that we could all understand. We hope you find this discussion as thought provoking and interesting as we did. This Book Club meeting was originally held on November 8th, 2020.
This podcast features our The Good Book Club Lazy Learner Series where we discuss Tattoos for Dummy's; Everything You Ever Wanted to Know But Were Afraid to Ask About Getting a Tattoo! We really learned a lot from the amazingly talented tattoo artist Robin McQueen and encourage you all to check out her work @marrowinthebones on Instagram. This book club meeting was originally held on January 21, 2023.
A presentation on the practice of meditation by Nathan Smith from Mind Makes This World Podcast. Nathan gives us an insightful overview of the concept of meditation and different meditation methods. He also leads us through a brief meditation exercise. Whether meditation is already a part of your life or you've always wanted to learn more, you'll find something valuable in this presentation. This book club bonus event was originally held on January 17th, 2022.
Nathans Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@mindmakesthisworld/videos
Meditation in theory and practice (according to the not unquestionable view of Nathan Smith)
Science
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Yi-Yuan Tang, The Science of Mindfulness Meditation
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Richard J. Davidson, Daniel Goleman, Altered Traits
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Andrew Newberg, Eugene d'Aquili, The Mystical Mind
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Andrew Newberg, Neurotheology
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Jonathan Haidt, The Happiness Hypothesis
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Daniel Siegel, Aware
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Daniel Siegel, Mindsight
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Peter Wayne, The Harvard Medical School Guide to Tai Chi
Therapy
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Hayao Kawai, Buddhism and the Art of Psychotherapy
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Stuart Sovatsky, Words from the Soul
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Rachael Wooten, Tara
Buddhism
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Tibetan & Bon
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Robert Thurman, The Tibetan Book of the Dead
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Chogyam Trungpa, The Tibetan Book of the Dead
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Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, In Love with the World
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Alejandro Chaoul, Tibetan Yoga
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Nyima Dakpa, Khyung Mar: The Red Garuda
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Stephen Hayes, Heart of Light, Blade of Thunder
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Theravada
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Ajahn Sumedho, Don’t Take Your Life Personally
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Ajahn Sumedho, Teachings of a Buddhist Monk
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Chan
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Sheng Yen, The Method of No Method
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David Hinton, China Root
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Zen
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Meido Moore, The Rinzai Zen Way
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Meido Moore, Hidden Zen
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Diana St. Ruth, Experience Beyond Thinking
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Henry Shukman, One Blade of Grass
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Alan Watts, What Is Zen?
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Shinshu Roberts, Being-Time
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Shin
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D.T. Suzuki, The Buddha of Infinite Light
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Takamaro Shigaraki, The Heart of the Shin Buddhist Path
Hinduism and Yoga
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Leila Worby, Ancient Yoga for Modern Practitioners
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Swami Adiswarananda, Meditation & Its Practices
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Swami Prabhavananda, The Sermon on the Mount According to Vedanta
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Om Swami, A Million Thoughts
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Swami Satyananda Saraswati, Yoga Nidra
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Jay Shetty, Think Like a Monk
Tantra
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Christopher Wallis, Tantra Illuminated
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Christopher Wallis, The Recognition Sutras
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Lee Lyon, The 112 Meditations from the Book of Divine Wisdom
Taoism
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Chen Kaiguo, Zheng Shunchao, Opening the Dragon Gate
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Wang Mu, Foundations of Internal Alchemy
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Eva Wong, Cultivating Stillness
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Alan Watts, What Is Tao?
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Benjamin Hoff, The Tao of Pooh
Christianity
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Kallistos Ware, The Jesus Prayer
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A Monk of Mount Athos, The Watchful Mind: Teachings on the Prayer of the Heart
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Robin Amis, Holy Hesychia: The Stillness That Knows God
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William Johnston, The Cloud of Unknowing: and The Book of Privy Counseling
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Thomas Merton, Contemplative Prayer
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Rocco Errico, Setting a Trap for God
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John Main, Way of Unknowing
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John Main, Word into Silence
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Christopher Pramuk, Sophia: The Hidden Christ of Thomas Merton
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Neil Douglas-Klotz, The Hidden Gospel
Judaism
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Brian Schachter, Kabbalah for Beginners
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Elie Wiesel, Somewhere a Master
Islam
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Kabir Edmund Helminski, Living Presence
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Javad Nurbakhsh, The Psychology of Sufism
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Javad Nurbakhsh, Jesus in the Eyes of the Sufis
Secular
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Eric Harrison, Brain Training with Buddha
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K. Ramakrishna Rao, Anand C. Paranjpe, Psychology in the Indian Tradition
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Jonardon Ganeri, Attention, Not Self
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Iain McGilchrist, Ways of Attending
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Dan Harris, 10% Happier
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Sam Harris, Waking Up
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Robert Wright, Why Buddhism Is True
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Douglas Harding, On Having No Head
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Hereward Tilton, The Path of the Serpent
Welcome to The Good Book Club podcast where we make all of our book club meetings and bonus events available for listeners to enjoy. This podcast will feature our The Good Book Club bonus event, a discussion with Nan Osborne of the Hulu docuseries "Mormon No More". Nan shares more of her story, her faith journey, gives us insight into hre family and talks about her experieince on the program. She also answers questions from several of our bookclub members. It was absolutely wonderful to have Nan talk to us. And we're sure you'll enjoy this discussion as much as we did. The bookclub bonus was originally held on July 13, 2022.
In this episode The Good Book Club discusses Neil DeGrasse Tyson's book Astrophysics for People in a Hurry. The Universe is mysterious and expansive and that is what makes it so fascinating. The book this month, delves into black holes, dark energy, how the Universe was formed, colliding galaxies, and more. We really enjoyed reading and discussing this book and learned so much that we didn't understand before. We hope you will too. This Book Club meeting was originally held on January 8, 2023.
Author Kathleen Kimball Melonakos joins the Good Book Club to answer questions regarding her book Secret Combinations; Evidence of Early Mormon Counterfeiting 1800-1847. The Good Book Club discussion then focuses on the charges of counterfeiting in the early Mormon church which seem to be pervasive and follow the leaders of the church where ever they go. Kathleen follows several different threads and develops many different ideas to delve into this world of Mormonism and counterfeiting. We hope you find this book as interesting as we did. This discussion was originally held on August 13, 2022.
This book club discussion on Michael Schur's book How to Be Perfect; The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question was held on December 11, 2022. This discussion delves into the hard philosophical questions in a very accessible and entertaining way. If you never thought you would be able to understand and discuss the big philosophical questions of the ages this book will prove you wrong. We absolutely loved reading and talking about this book and we hope you find this book and discussion as entertaining as we did! Michael Schur is the writer and producer of the TV Series The Good Place and this book demonstrates you do not have to have a religion to have morals but you can make decisions for yourself on how you will live your life.
This podcast features The Good Book Club discussion of "Early Mormonism and the Magic Worldview" by D. Michael Quinn. Our discussion focuses on the formation of the Mormon church in the early 1800's and the heavy influence of folk magic traditions. We also touch on magic traditions in early Christianity as well as the background of our author D. Michael Quinn. this is an absolutely fascinating deep dive into folk magic traditions and we hope you enjoy it.
Martylin Nielsen guides the November 2022 Book Club discussion on A Hunter Gathers Guide to the 21st Century; Evolution and the Challenges of Modern Life by Heather Heying and Bret Weinstein.
Liz Phillips, granddaughter of murdered Apostolic United Brethren (AUB) prophet Rulon Allred, describes what it was like growing up in a polygamist family. She describes her journey out of the AUB and into mainstream Mormonism and her meeting with an LDS apostle before she could join the mainstream church. Liz tells the story of her raising her family in the church and then her struggle with doubt in her new faith and her eventual journey out of organized religion. This is a fascinating story presented by Liz herself to The Good Book Club during the September 23rd, 2022 Lazy Learner series.