PODCAST · religion
MormonTalk
by Dave & Mike
Critical, accusatory, but lightened with occasional irreverent humor, MormonTalk is a journey with Mike, Dave, and Mitch as they explore issues with the truth claims of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (aka, the Mormon church). As former Mormons who indulged in apologetics at times, the podcast hosts get personal as they address the struggle members of the Church face when they attempt to deal with some of the initially-attractive, sometimes-shocking, ever-evolving truth claims of the religion. Not intended for active adherents to the faith, MormonTalk is aimed at people ranging from those who've already left, to those who are in the process of leaving, to those who have just begun questioning. If nothing else, it is "an exploration for those who question".
Episodes
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090 - From the Hip, A Layer of Shiny Coins
Another episode “from the hip”, as we discuss a variety of (somewhat) recent church news, focusing the bulk of our conversation on the issues tied to Huntsman’s law suit against the church for misrepresenting its use of tithing funds.
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089 - From the Hip, Rusty's Easter Message
In our first “From the Hip” episode, we talk about the church news that we stumbled upon while surfing the web during the April, 2021 church conference. One of the gems we found was Rusty’s Easter Message.
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088 - Green Jell-O With Carrots
Over the years, a unique culture developed within and around Mormonism and its adherents, from unique foods (like green Jell-o with carrot shavings) to peculiar behaviors and figures of speech. We take some time in this episode to address some of our favorite “Mormonisms”, while simultaneously...
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087 - Our Lord and Savior Joseph Smith
The leaders of the LDS church – and thus, most of the members – claim their savior is Jesus. However, a little low-effort, surface digging (like Joseph’s treasure hunting) reveals that that sneaky little Joseph Smith secured a bit of glory for himself before he passed on. He just may have a bit...
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086 - The Church That Saves
We’ve all heard the arguments, usually from evangelical Christian churches, that the Mormon church isn’t “Christian”. As former members, we pressed back heavily on such claims, thinking of them as ridiculous. “After all, look at the fetchin’ NAME OF THE CHURCH! Gosh!”, we’d say, along with other...
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The Threesomes 07 - "Cindy"
After a VERY long publishing delay (read: COVID-19 experiences and other fun stuff), we’re back at it adding episodes. Here’s another Threesomes segment, this time with Dave’s friend, Cindy. Join us as we talk through Cindy’s journey, which ended with her making the decision to leave the church –...
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085 - Power of Voodoo
Before his death, one of the gifts Joseph Smith Jr. left behind is the mysterious role of “patriarch” in the church. Evidently, these men are able to channel god’s personal crystal ball(s) and disseminate his will to recipients under their divinely guided hands, providing details about their...
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084 - How to Train Your Mormon
Borrowing from the movie titled How to Train Your Dragon, in this episode we pay homage to beloved Pavlovian techniques as we discuss the methods used in Mormonism to “train” people to be good, obedient members. Ring that bell!
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083 - Not Anti-Anti-Mormon
One of the dreaded labels for a discerning member of the LDS church to wield against a malcontent is the term “anti-Mormon”. But what does that really mean? Is something anti-Mormon because it contradicts the doctrine or history of the church, or does it perhaps have something more to do with…
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082 - Apologizing for the Lord
Over the decades, the church has employed different styles of apologetics in their efforts to “defend” their truth claims. We give the history of apologetics a quick review in this episode, ending with a discussion about how it’s evolved and where we sit today.
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081 - Plop Plop Fizz Fizz, Part 2
This is our (much delayed) response to the second part of Rusty Nel’s effervescent offering. That piece, of course, was his surgeon-sponsored prescription to pray. Do you feel relieved of gaseous build-up?
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080 - Plop Plop Fizz Fizz, Part 1
In case you missed it, Rusty Nel gave an earth-shaking, glorious, revelatory message to the world back in November. In this two-part episode, we address the two core messages of his presentation — gratitude and prayer — and how they’re about as unique and helpful for solving problems at a…
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079 - Burnin' For You
We admit the title of this episode is an insensitive play on words, but we address the infamous Branch Davidians sect, led by David Koresh, and some of the similarities between Koresh and Lil’ Joe. A few of the parallels between the Davidian and Mormon cult leaders may surprise you!
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078 - Suffer Buffer, Part 2
Part 2 of our exploration around how the concept of suffering is addressed by LDS church teachings.
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077 - Suffer Buffer, Part 1
The LDS church teaches that suffering is an integral part of our existence on earth and necessary for several reasons, including honing our character, proving our obedience, and strengthening our faith. We address this harmful teaching in a two-part conversation.
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076 - The Factses on Taxes
In the United States, there are five key qualifications that a religious organization has to meet in order to be given tax exempt status. In this episode, we take a peek at those 5 qualifications and do our best to judge whether or not the LDS church meets the criteria.
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075 - Promises, Promises
The church makes many promises to its members. Of course, no promises are as well-known as the infamous promise from Moroni in the Book of Mormon. Check in as we chat about that promise and the philosophy of the church in general about promises based on the behaviors and obedience of its members.
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074 - Poltergeist Heist
We take a break from our recent string of Threesomes episodes to publish a previously recorded conclusion to our "First Principles and Ordinances of the Gospel" theme. We couldn't wrap things up without discussing the fourth and final piece of that celestial pie -- the Gift of the Holy Ghost.…
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073 - Baptism Sophism
Moving on through our discussion of the "first principles and ordinances" of the Mormon faith brings us to the ordinance of baptism. Where did this practice come from, and what does the church teach about it? Is the Mormon church's version of baptism similar to other churches, or are there...
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072 - Pseudologia Fantastica
It may sound like a spell from the Harry Potter movies, but it's just a fancy way of saying "pathological lying". We take a side-step for a moment from discussing the next "principle and ordinance of the gospel" (baptism) to chat a little about how Joe Jr. was a mythomaniac (another word for...
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071 - Shame Sham
Moving on to discussing the 2nd "principle and ordinance of the gospel", we address the LDS concept of repentance. Of course, we can't talk about repentance in Mormonism without including its cousin, worthiness. The church has used these twin weapons as task master whip and battering ram to shame...
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070 - Germinating Termination
The 4th Article of Faith in the Mormon church begins, "We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ..." In this episode, we talk about some of the problems and contradictions inherent in the church's teachings about faith, and how...
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069 - Left-foot Lehi and the False Start Band
We all know that the Book of Mormon is full of anachronisms (we poked fun at the story of the Jaredites in a prior episode), but you don't have to read that far to discover the shenanigans. In this episode we have some fun talking about some of the stories readers experience in the early pages of...
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068 - Anchors and Parkay, Part 2
We conclude our 2-part episode on the church's teachings about how to find "objective reality" in the world. Is the church's suggestion the best method, or is there a balance to be found between reasoning and emotion?
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067 - Anchors and Parkay
If you're old like us, you'll remember a series of commercials on TV about Parkay margarine. The premise was that it tasted like butter and had the texture of butter, but it was actually something quite different. Likewise, the church claims it has "real butter" with regard to the greatest...
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066 - Scarlet Fever
Starting at a very young age, the Mormon church instills its members with the notion that sex is "carnal", evil, and filthy. Rather than a natural, normal, healthy phase of human development, sexual exploration and expression - especially outside of marriage - is taught as something to restrain…
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065 - Just Scripture Twistin'
If there's one thing Joseph enjoyed doing, it was twisting scriptures! Whether it was expressing the epitome of humility by retroactively adding himself to past prophesies, or just creating scriptures from nothingness, good ol' Addendum Boy couldn't seem to help himself. His three-year project to...
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064 - Planting Idol-a-Trees
One of the things the leaders of the LDS church and its members are very proud of proclaiming is that - unlike the rest of the world - their religion teaches not to "idolize" anything or anyone other than God himself (and perhaps his son, Jesus Christ). Besides the blatant visual or physical...
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063 - Trust Busters
The LDS church requires its members to extend significant trust to its leaders. "The Brethren" at the top are sustained as "prophets, seers, and revelators" who literally speak for God. Local leaders, while not looked upon as prophets, are still trusted as being led by the "spirit", having highly...
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062 - Not-so-Special Witnesses of Christ
When the church was very young, Joe and Ollie called 12 apostles, hearkening back to the good ol' days of Jesus and his traveling band. Ollie told the 12 that they had the obligation to see the face of God, one reason of which was to be able to testify to the members of the church and to the…
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061 - Dead Men's Bones
The church claims to be "the only true and living church on the face of the earth". What makes a church true? Beyond that - what makes it "living"? Join us as we take a look at this conundrum. Along the way, we consider the pertinent message from a famous pirate, "It's not gettin' in to the Land…
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060 - What's the Point?
Did you ever hear of the "17 Points of the True Church"? It all stemmed from a talk given by a guy named Floyd Weston. "Back in the day" (especially from the late 70's to early 80's), it became a sort of cultural phenomenon in the church that a lot of members used to help "prove" the church was...
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059 - Keystoned
You've probably heard the Book of Mormon called the "keystone" of the LDS religion. Join us in a small "stoning session" as we throw rocks at some of the truth claims and anachronisms in "the most correct book on earth", coupled with some important messages from The Brethren. We've included a...
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058 - Look to the Source, of Course!
According to Jeff "Jowls" Holland, if you don't believe the Book of Mormon is true without accounting for its origin, you've been "deceived". Well then, let's look to the source, shall we?
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057 - Sieg Heil, Pukedork!
Join Dave and Mike in a comic-filled review of one of the talks given during this recent General Conference.
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056 - The Dream Within a Dream
You're probably familiar with the account of Lehi's dream in the Book of Mormon. Since the Book of Mormon could be described as something that was "dreamed up" by Joseph Smith (sprinkled heavily with ripped-off content from other contemporary sources), we might aptly call Lehi's dream, "the dream...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Critical, accusatory, but lightened with occasional irreverent humor, MormonTalk is a journey with Mike, Dave, and Mitch as they explore issues with the truth claims of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (aka, the Mormon church). As former Mormons who indulged in apologetics at times, the podcast hosts get personal as they address the struggle members of the Church face when they attempt to deal with some of the initially-attractive, sometimes-shocking, ever-evolving truth claims of the religion. Not intended for active adherents to the faith, MormonTalk is aimed at people ranging from those who've already left, to those who are in the process of leaving, to those who have just begun questioning. If nothing else, it is "an exploration for those who question".
HOSTED BY
Dave & Mike
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does MormonTalk have?
MormonTalk currently has 36 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is MormonTalk about?
Critical, accusatory, but lightened with occasional irreverent humor, MormonTalk is a journey with Mike, Dave, and Mitch as they explore issues with the truth claims of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (aka, the Mormon church). As former Mormons who indulged in apologetics at times,...
How often does MormonTalk release new episodes?
MormonTalk has 36 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to MormonTalk?
You can listen to MormonTalk on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts MormonTalk?
MormonTalk is created and hosted by Dave & Mike.
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