The Center's Studio Podcast

This episode features an interview with the editors Richard Benjamin Crosby and Isaac James Richards about their new book, Latter-day Eloquence: Two Centuries of Mormon Oratory. They discuss why public speaking is central to Latter-day Saint life, how touchstone speeches from the 19th century to the present tell the story of the LDS people, and why they remain essential reading and relevant today.For a 30% discount for the book, use the code: S26UIP at the publisher’s website: https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=p089329 Music: "Please Only Tell Me Good News” by Stephen Anderson; used with permission.Liked this episode? Send us a text.

Part 1. Why We Make Art - We celebrate our 100th monthly episode with a survey of special moments from our history. This first of four episodes, Why We Make Art, is a sampler of a few stories of artists and why they create or in some way a description of trying to see the big picture. These stories come from painters Brian Kershisnik and Fidalis Buehler, scholars Mason Kamana Allred and Amanda Beardsley, dancer/choreographer Lisa Hess Jones, and artist/animator Annie Poon. I wanted to share some performances of artists, too. Included, too, are short clips of Lance Larsen reading a newly published poem and Stephen Anderson talking about and playing music inspired by the Dominican Republic. Music: "Please Only Tell Me Good News” by Stephen Anderson; used with permission.Liked this episode? Send us a text.

Part 2. Moments of Faith - This second celebratory episode of our 100th podcast includes six conversations with artists and includes intimate stories with a spiritual touch: Historian Richard Bushman in New York, then choreographer Vanessa Cook in Switzerland. James Faulconer tells a miraculous story from Brazil, we hear about a treasured but divided heirloom from Salt Lake City, Utah and the miracle of its reunion. We listen to religious music from Texas, and hear from a political prisoner and painter in Angola. Music: "Please Only Tell Me Good News” by Stephen Anderson; used with permission.Liked this episode? Send us a text.

Part 3: Unexpected Insights - In this third of our Audio Exhibition to celebrate The Center’s Studio Podcast’s 100th episode, 7 clips were collected from podcasts where artists inform us about the world. These artists become the most engaging and delightful teachers you can imagine on a variety of topics: Barrett Burgin talks about horror films, Jeremy Grimshaw speaks about music and traditions in Bali, Jihea Hong-Park muses about classical music and Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage, Kate Monson gives some surprising statistics about Utah and dance, Gonzalo and Susana Silva bring their Argentinian art and ideas to New York, Steven L. Peck talks about the ways that scientific truths can be even truer in a novel, and Trevor Reed provides illuminating thoughts on Native American objects and music and their repatriation to the tribes from which they sprang. Music: "Please Only Tell Me Good News” by Stephen Anderson; used with permission.Liked this episode? Send us a text.

Part 4: Emotional Moments -- In the finale of our celebration, we revisit clips from guests: Jamie Erekson, Samuel Evensen, Laura Allred Hurtado, Mauli Bonner, and Valerie Atkisson. These moving discussions become teary and include family tragedy, real-time stories happening during Covid, the highs and lows of careers, and complex social challenges. Finally, Glen Nelson summarizes some of the lessons he's learned from 100 episodes spread out over nine years.Music: "Please Only Tell Me Good News” by Stephen Anderson; used with permission.Liked this episode? Send us a text.

Take a listen to the innovative, forthcoming Art Lab by the Center for Latter Day Saint Arts. It focuses on how art enhances family and group and experiences through interaction. Join four volunteers--Lauren and Nick Bazzarone and Emily and Jamie Erekson--as we preview a lesson from Art Lab about music, and jump into the experience with us.Music performed by Scott Holden, The Unknown Galaxy: A Century of Classical Mormon Music, part of the Center's Art Festival.Liked this episode? Send us a text.

Choreographer Vanessa Cook discusses her newest work, A Brief Collection of Moments, premiering at the Utah Metropolitan Ballet. Cook explores how dance combines with music, text, and visual art into this ambitious new piece, winner of the 2025 Ariel Bybee Endowment Prize. The conversation ranges from philosophy and choreography to the power of a single voice, echoing Bybee's own, growing into something much larger.What begins with a single voice becomes a duet, then a group, then something larger than any one artist. In this episode, choreographer Vanessa Cook takes us inside the making of a new work blending dance, with LDS collaborators in music, text, and visual art. Along the way, she reflects on curiosity, creative processes, and why movement can sometimes say what words cannot.Music: "Please Only Tell Me Good News” by Stephen Anderson; used with permission.Liked this episode? Send us a text.

Explore the fascinating profession of scenic art with Tessa Jorgensen, a professional artist working on Broadway, opera, ballet, tv, film, advertising, and immersive experiences. Learn about her unique skills painting 50-foot murals, backdrops, cycloramas, and theatrical set pieces for some of the country's biggest theatrical productions.Music: "Please Only Tell Me Good News” by Stephen Anderson; used with permission.Liked this episode? Send us a text.

In this episode of The Center's Studio Podcast, Glen Nelson interviews Mauli Bonner, a multifaceted artist and filmmaker. They discuss Bonner's diverse career, including his work on the Elijah Abel project, which combines dramatization and documentary to explore sensitive aspects of Black history within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Bonner reflects on his previous film, His Name Is Green Flake, and shares insights on navigating difficult questions about race and faith. He emphasizes the importance of mental health, finding joy in challenges, and empowering the next generation through his nonprofit, Lift Up Voices Foundation. The conversation highlights the significance of storytelling in bridging communities and addressing real questions with honesty and hope.Music: "Please Only Tell Me Good News” by Stephen Anderson; used with permission.Liked this episode? Send us a text.

In this episode, Sylvie Scowcroft, a certified financial planner specializing in assisting artists, discusses their unique financial challenges. Artists face unpredictable income, healthcare access, and the societal pressures that often devalue their work. She also points out that many artists have advantages regarding tax deductions, for example, of which they are unaware. The episode touches on the broader implications of the arts on society, the need for government support, and the potential threats posed by economic changes and technological advancements like AI. Sylvie concludes with empowering advice for artists, encouraging them to take control of their financial futures while remaining resilient in the face of a fast-changing professional landscape.Sylvie Scowcroft can be contacted at https://www.financialgrove.com/Music: "Please Only Tell Me Good News” by Stephen Anderson; used with permission.Liked this episode? Send us a text.

In this engaging episode about Christian painting, artist Rose Datoc Dall, explores her artistic journey, the curation of the book Expressions of Jesus, and the importance of cultural representation in art about Jesus Christ. The new book of hundreds of images includes over 100 artists throughout history and from around the world. It raises important questions: How should a contemporary artist represent the Savior right now? Should the image reflect the artist's heritage, give a nod to the historical Jesus, or follow an existing cultural tradition? Rose Datoc Dall is a thought-leader in LDS culture regarding this powerful and complex topic.Music: "Please Only Tell Me Good News” by Stephen Anderson; used with permission.Liked this episode? Send us a text.

What does it take to get a new musical staged on Broadway? In this episode, composer and lyricist Kyle Fackrell describes the journey of his new Off-Broadway musical, The Art Tour, that opens on 42nd Street next week. More than a recounting of the challenges and triumphs of producing an original work for the theater, Kyle details how the two-character show represents all of us in our decisions to be bold. It asks questions about love, art, and purpose. The interview is also a behind-the-scenes look about the process of collaborating, creating a business, and simply taking the big, risky leap.Music: "Please Only Tell Me Good News” by Stephen Anderson; used with permission.Excerpt from: The Art Tour, music and lyrics by Kyle Fackrell; used with permission.View the video podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MF53Udt6IX4Liked this episode? Send us a text.

The Last Caravan is a tabletop roleplaying game created by Ted Bushman, set in a post-apocalyptic America that's been devastated by an alien invasion. Unlike many roleplaying games where players take on their personas of superheroes and intergalactic warriors, this game is about regular people--teachers, truck drivers, librarians, mechanics, moms, even dogs--who band together to survive wild situations. In this interview with the 2025 ENnie-award nominated game for Best Game and Product of the Year, published by Mythworks, Ted talks about how this game is played and how it came to be created.Music: "Please Only Tell Me Good News” by Stephen Anderson; used with permission.https://tedbushman.itch.io/Liked this episode? Send us a text.

The Artists Residency at the Center concludes its 2025 cohort and asks the artists--Alexandra Mackenzie Johns (UK/Utah, literature & drama), David Jones (Oregon, music composition), Thayer Jonutz (Michigan, choreography), Zinta Jaunitis (United Kingdom, visual art), Jackie Leishman (California, visual art) and Daniel Martinez (Uruguay, visual art)--three questions. They are: what books they're currently reading, how Covid affected them and their art, and when they began to think of themselves as artists.Music: "Please Only Tell Me Good News” by Stephen Anderson; used with permission.Photo credit: Kah Poon PhotographyLiked this episode? Send us a text.

Most people are unaware of the symbiotic relationship between artists and the gallerists who represent them. How does a gallery support, encourage, and market an artist's work? And how does an artist rely on the expertise of a gallerist when they are starting out, in mid-career, and when they want to defy expectation with something new? This interview brings visual artist Justin Wheatley and David Ericson, the owner of David Ericson Fine Art in Salt Lake City, Utah, together to uncover surprising ties of trust between creativity and commerce. Music: "Please Only Tell Me Good News” by Stephen Anderson; used with permission.Liked this episode? Send us a text.

Winners of the Ariel Bybee Endowment Prize, Gonzalo and Susana Silva speak about their new exhibition, Instrumentos de silencio (Instruments of Silence). The 15-piece show at Sargent's Daughters gallery in New York (and later traveling to the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California) plays with ideas of musical instruments and history, but also the ways that invading Europeans subjugated and tandemized Andean populations with outside culture, including music. Music: "Please Only Tell Me Good News” by Stephen Anderson; used with permission.Liked this episode? Send us a text.

His paintings are in nearly every Latter-day Saint meetinghouse and in many temples in the world. The beloved artist Walter Rane discusses in this podcast his life as a painter, insights he has discovered about himself through the freedom of creating, and why he loves painting now more than ever.Music: "Please Only Tell Me Good News” by Stephen Anderson; used with permission.Liked this episode? Send us a text.

It’s like a true crime podcast, but it’s about art. An heirloom masterpiece is created, mutilated, inherited, then lost--one of the most important objects in a rich culture’s history. Over a century later, a frantic search ensues, not unlike a manhunt, with a deadline fast approaching and a forthcoming, major exhibition hanging in the balance. Can it be recovered in time?Scholars Heather Belnap, Ashlee Whitaker Evans, and Brontë Hebdon detail the extraordinary tale of a pre-Civil War album quilt cut in half, lost, and then found. The work itself is one of the most significant objects in all of LDS culture.Music: "Please Only Tell Me Good News” by Stephen Anderson; used with permission.Liked this episode? Send us a text.

Taiwanese Australian filmmaker Daniel Yen Tu tells about a new book project and screenplay, '93 Castrol which is the fast-paced story of siblings, a stolen race car, and a search for redemption from self-described low-lifery. The discussion of this limited edition artists book contains something even bigger--an emerging artist discovering identity, voice, and a newfound sense of authenticity. Music: "Please Only Tell Me Good News” by Stephen Anderson; used with permission.Liked this episode? Send us a text.

Lisa Hess moved to New York at the age of 16 and a year later was asked to join the company of the New York City Ballet. That began an adventure with some of the great choreographers and dancers of the century, in a golden age of dance in America. Hess worked with the legendary George Balanchine in his final decade of life, frequently with Jerome Robbins, and others. In this extended oral history episode, Lisa Hess Jones captures a vivid era--a girl from Amarillo, Texas who finds herself with superstars Nureyev, Baryshnikov, Farrell, and a host of luminaries as she charts her course as a female, LDS artist, before embarking on a second career as a teacher, choreographer, and mother of two boys.Music: "Please Only Tell Me Good News” by Stephen Anderson; used with permission.Liked this episode? Send us a text.

After an emerging-artist blitz of 26 New York exhibitions in just 7 years, the award-winning visual artist Valerie Atkisson de Moura hit a wall. Adrift and depressed in a new home, she received a medical diagnosis of an incurable disease and discovered that her mother had the same disease but had kept it secret from the family. Then, in a horrible year, her mother died, Valerie was hit by a car and suffered head trauma that changed the way she lives and works. Throughout everything, the artist's focus of creating art based on family history sustains her and propels her forward.Music: "Please Only Tell Me Good News” by Stephen Anderson; used with permission.Liked this episode? Send us a text.

Potter Ben Behunin has created a body of work that includes message-driven ceramics exhibited in museums and galleries. He is also an author, and the subject of this interview is his field guide, “How to Seduce a Sasquatch,” which includes tips to jumpstart creativity and related theories. Liked this episode? Send us a text.

Dancer, choreographer, and teacher Kate Monson describes her work at Brigham Young University, where approximately 5,000 students each semester take dance classes. She describes the dance-friendly LDS culture, how all of us are dancers, and how, as a dancer's career progresses, it is impacted by ageism. Finally, Monson draws connections between her spirituality and physical movement.Liked this episode? Send us a text.

This interview with visual artist Jackie Leishman and poet Steven L. Peck unwinds the process of creative minds meeting, finding common passions, and then making inter-disciplinary art together. The podcast celebrates the artists' latest published work, a chine-collé print, Sound of a broken wing.Liked this episode? Send us a text.

In this episode, Mia Meredith describes her work as a graphic designer for the very popular, monthly pull-out section of The New York Times created exclusively for kids. The graduate of Brigham Young University's design program talks about her career path in New York that landed her in her dream job, its challenges, rewards, and purpose, which is to help kids understand the world.Liked this episode? Send us a text.

The exhibition The Delicate Ties That Bind explores the precariousness of post-pandemic existence and assesses the complex and often fragile relationships that shape our lives now. Curated by Megan Knobloch Geilman, these threads make up the nature of our reality and serve as metaphors for both a tattered society and the essential connections between us. In this interview, the curator describes the process of putting together this exhibition on the campus of Claremont Graduate University with participating artists: Andrew Ballsteaedt, Richard Gate, Megan Knobloch Geilman, Kyla Hansen, Jackie Leishman, Alice Marie Perreault, and Samantha Zauscher. Liked this episode? Send us a text.

A landmark exhibition spanning the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints marks a milestone in the culture's artistic output and appreciation. The 121-work exhibition, Work and Wonder: 200 Years of Latter-day Saint Art, is curated by Heather Belnap, Ashlee Whitaker Evans, and Brontë Hebdon. They join in this wide-ranging conversation about the show's five years of development and the four themes that emerged from their extensive, global research: Memory and Archive, Individual and Church, Sacred Spaces, and Identity. The curators provide fascinating stories about the works in the show, which is at the Church History Museum from the end of September 2024 through the beginning March 2025, organized by the museum and the Center for Latter-day Saint Arts.Liked this episode? Send us a text.

The publication of Latter-day Saint Art: A Critical Reader is a landmark event, the first comprehensive critical examination of Mormon Art. In this interview, co-editors Mason Kamana Allred and Amanda Beardsley introduce the chapters with insights into the reasons why each is indispensable. Then, the authors of this 664-page book from Oxford University Press submitted questions for the podcast about the making of the book and what lies ahead in art and objects by LDS people. Part 1 of 2 historic interviews.Liked this episode? Send us a text.

The publication of Latter-day Saint Art: A Critical Reader is a landmark event, the first comprehensive critical examination of Mormon Art. In this interview, co-editors Mason Kamana Allred and Amanda Beardsley introduce the chapters with insights into the reasons why each is indispensable. Then, the authors of this 664-page book from Oxford University Press submitted questions for the podcast about the making of the book and what lies ahead in art and objects by LDS people. Part 2 of 2 historic interviews.Liked this episode? Send us a text.

The young nonprofit organization, Inspired Arts League, is the focus of this interview with its founder Brittany Scott and executive producer Ellen Wheeler. It’s a fascinating model: invite global artists who are already accomplished to be members and give them as a group, through workshops and collaboration, tools to more effectively tell stories and inspire hope in the world through art. Scott and Wheeler announce their inaugural exhibition October 14-25, 2024 at the venerable Salmagundi Club in New York City.Liked this episode? Send us a text.

In this interview with Rachel Helps, Wikipedian-in-Residence at the BYU Library, researcher and author Helps explains her work refining, creating, correcting, and researching Wikipedia pages that relate to the unrivaled collection of Mormon Studies volumes at the Harold B Lee Library at Brigham Young University. The conversation includes interesting finds and experiences covering eight years of work and hundreds of articles. Helps also mentions her interactive fiction projects.Liked this episode? Send us a text.

Brett Peterson is Director, Exhibition Media and Interactives at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, which is at the forefront of engaging audiences and making exhibitions memorable by the creation of accompanying original, responsive digital media. In this episode Peterson describes the shifting expectation of visitors regarding technology. He tries  to find new ways to evoke emotions and heighten works on display, including magical digital and physical pairings. He asks, "How can I add meaningfully to what people already love about museums?" and "How can you make the visitor feel like it is for them?" The interview ends with Peterson's predictions how fine art museums and other related public institutions will embrace interactivity for richer and more personalized experiences. Liked this episode? Send us a text.

Artist Collin Bradford makes video, sound, photography, sculpture, and other media. In this interview, the incoming art department chair at Brigham Young University discusses his work, how art speaks directly to the brain through the senses, and his work as a reflection of concerns about the future. His video installation, A Burning Hope (2021) is part of the museum exhibition, Materializing Mormonism: Trajectories in Contemporary Latter-day Saint Art, organized by the Center for Latter-day Saint Arts, which is at the Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum, and the artist describes the making of the video and potential interpretations of it.  Finally, Bradford discusses the future and how students embody a new sensibility of sincerity and intensity in their art making.Liked this episode? Send us a text.

This episode with composer S. Andrew Lloyd celebrates the world premiere of his song cycle, Amaranthine, which was written for and performed by international opera star Rachel Willis-Sørensen at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall, April 9, 2024. The composer discusses how he came to write the prize-winning work and his emotional response to hearing it for the first time. Amaranthine is the first composition to appear from The Ariel Bybee Endowment at the Center for Latter-day Saint Arts, a prize Lloyd won in 2022.Musical excerpt performed by S. Andrew LloydLiked this episode? Send us a text.

The winner of the 2024 Prize of The Ariel Bybee Endowment at the Center for Latter-day Saint Arts is Mia Black. In this interview, Black introduces herself and her winning project, which will be a collection of American Folk Music aimed at elementary school-age classrooms. The breakthrough idea here is Black's plan to organize the collection using waves of immigrants and their songs to tell the story of what people brought with them, including their music, to their new homes in the United States.Music for this episode is "Old Joe Clark," from the Library of Congress, American Jukebox, recorded at the Reed family home, Glen Lyn, Giles County, Virginia, August 27, 1966.Liked this episode? Send us a text.

Brad Pelo, President and Executive Producer of The Chosen discusses the series' global ambition to provide all episodes in 600 languages. The vast challenges of dubbing and subtitling the series about Jesus while maintaining the writer's unique contemporary dialogue and tone are discussed in this interview alongside the powerful experiences Pelo has witnessed riding the wave of this one-of-a-kind tv series.Music for this episode: Ave Maria (Bach-Gounod) sung by Jamie PetersonLiked this episode? Send us a text.

Many arts audiences go to performances and exhibitions without thinking much about the institutional leadership that makes these events possible. In this episode, Richard Bushman, chairman of the board of the Center for Latter-day Saint Arts and Mykal Urbina, the Center's executive director, announce a chairman-elect, Stanley Hainsworth. The trio talk about their favorite art forms and programs of the Center they love, and they invite people to become friends by participating in its activities.Liked this episode? Send us a text.

In preparation for the 2024 Prize of The Ariel Bybee Endowment at the Center for Latter-day Saint Arts that will sponsor a new music program, singer and music education Jamie Peterson and intellectual property attorney Patrick Perkins discuss with passion the urgency for more music education in public schools. With the deadline for submissions fast approaching for submissions of new music ideas for the classroom (January 15, 2024), the pair talk about their own experiences with music in school and highlight extraordinary programs of music education in the U.S. today.Music for this episode, "Rejoice Greatly," sung by Jamie PetersonLiked this episode? Send us a text.

This show-and-tell episode features Erin Eastmond and Glen Nelson discussing holiday gift ideas by LDS creatives that are featured in the Center's Christmas Gift Guide. They include children's books, music, art, religious books, scholarly works, food, poetry, family activities, and a few items offered as benefit art works for the Center. Erin and Glen read excepts from the books and talk about how these items might be the perfect packages under your Christmas tree.Liked this episode? Send us a text.

In this episode, the Center celebrates with composer Steven L. Ricks the upcoming premiere of his multimedia chamber opera, Baucis and Philemon (BAH-sis and Phi-LEE-mon), which was commissioned by the Center for Latter-day Saint Arts in 2019. The story comes from Ovid's Metamorphosis. It is a fable about a couple who ask the gods to be turned into trees at the bank of a lake after their death. Ricks discusses how the opera came to be written and the team behind it all.Musical rehearsal excerpts are by Steven L. Ricks (music) and Stephen Tuttle (libretto).Liked this episode? Send us a text.

Robert Raleigh and Andrew Hall, the two editors of the book, The Path and the Gate: Mormon Short Fiction, gather to talk about the process of creating a new collection of fiction in this panel discussion that also includes Jennifer Quist, one of the book's authors and the fiction editor of Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. The chat includes observations about the evolution of the Mormon literary landscape, the role of editors as gatekeepers, and readings of three excerpts. The collection of 23 stories is to be published by Signature Books October 16, 2023. Music for the episode is by Robert Cundick, Recessional.Liked this episode? Send us a text.

Three authors from the new collection, The Path and the Gate: Mormon Short Fiction, gather to talk about their stories, lives, and works in this lively panel discussion. The authors are Todd Robert Peterson, Ryan McIlvain, and Heidi Naylor. All three authors are also university teachers, and a question about responses to each other's stories turns into an impromptu literary critics' circle--full of admiration, insight, and reactions to reading each other's works. The collection of 23 stories is to be published by Signature Books October 16, 2023. Finally, the trio talk about the value of many voices representing a community.Music for the episode is by Robert Cundick, Recessional.Liked this episode? Send us a text.

Emerging painter Madeline Rupard discusses her paintings of the American landscape that include truck stops, gas stations, fast food, and stores that connect the suburban and the sublime. In atmospheric works that recall the stylistic approach of the Ashcan painters Henri, Sloan, Glackens, and Shinn of the turn of the 20th century, Rupard finds kinship with them and additional resonance of paintings inside Latter-day Saint church buildings, particularly the mix of religious paintings amid mundane decor. Liked this episode? Send us a text.

Historian and author Claudia Lauper Bushman discusses in this episode the writing of her autobiography in progress, I, Claudia, and the value of keeping records. In her frequent letters to family, Wellesley College newsletters, and her own daily journaling, she celebrates written communications, the foundation of civilization. She is joined in the discussion about undertaking projects grand and modest by guest co-host Frances LaBianca, a student of Communications and Public Relations at the University of Arizona, who is also Claudia's granddaughter.Music for the episode is sung by Claudia Lauper Bushman.Liked this episode? Send us a text.

The Dominican Jazz Project is a group of elite Caribbean musical artists whose band leader is Stephen Anderson, Professor of Composition and Jazz Studies at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. In this interview, Anderson reminisces about his tender relationship with the musicians of the Dominican Republic, Cuba, and Puerto Rico, their much decorated recordings and performances, and the joy in creating an interplay of traditional rhythms and modern jazz. Musical excerpts for the interview are from The Dominican Jazz Project's latest CD, Desde Lejos (2021), used with permission.Liked this episode? Send us a text.

It was a dark and stormy night.... Barrett Burgin discusses his first feature film, Cryo, and then makes compelling connections between LDS lore, history, and belief within the context of the genre of horror films and fiction. Mormon Horror is a trending thing--LDS artists are increasingly drawn to explore elements of horror in their work. Liked this episode? Send us a text.

Pianist, BYU associate professor, scholar, and social advocate Jihea Hong-Park speaks about her experience as a Korean American female pianist of faith and how anti-racism efforts extend into the world of classical music. Music for the episode is by Steven Ricks, including an excerpt from the premiere performance of Overlapping Voices with Jihea Hong Park at the piano.Liked this episode? Send us a text.

In this episode, The Center for Latter-day Saint Arts announces an inaugural program, The Artists Residency at the Center. It will bring 6-8 LDS artists to New York City to reside together and work for a week in October 2023. The Residency is hosted by Stanley Hainsworth, who joins us on this podcast and discusses his own journey from a fledgling actor in New York through global creative designer roles at Lego and Starbucks before founding his own firm, Tether. With each of his corporate positions, he has led "Design Camp," an off-site retreat, which tees up, conceptually, The Artists Residency at the Center.Music for the episode: guitar and vocals by Stanley Hainsworth.Liked this episode? Send us a text.

Director/screenwriter Aaron Toronto and screenwriter/actress Nha Uyen Ly Nguyen discuss their film, The Brilliant Darkness!, which won the highest award, The Golden Kite (the Vietnamese equivalent of an  Oscar) this year, for best film, best screenplay, and best actress. The dramatic film is about a family imploding, precipitated by the death of a wealthy grandfather and his son's gambling debts that imperil his life and his family's future. The main theme of the film and the topic of the podcast interview are the abusive relationships of families over multiple generations that are tacitly condoned in Vietnamese culture and their toll on its populations' physical and mental health. Recent studies show that 2/3 of Vietnamese children suffer physical abuse by family members. This is something that is autobiographical for Nha Uyen. The rapturous reception of the film--its appearance tragically coincided with the deaths of three different family's young children as victims of abuse at the hands of their parents--has started an important, national conversation and prompted the enactment of new protective laws, as well as a more open discussion on mental health (interview in English and Vietnamese).Music for the episode includes excerpts from the film's soundtrack.Liked this episode? Send us a text.

Young LDS filmmaker Luis Fernando Puente discusses the premiere of his short film, I Have No Tears, and I Must Cry, at the  Sundance Film Festival 2023. It is a personal film based on his own experience as an immigrant to the U.S. from Mexico.Music for the episode is taken from the short film score, composed by Jorge Murcia.Liked this episode? Send us a text.